What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 5

Matthew 20:24-28.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 13, 2022.

What does God really want from Me?  That is the question we are continuing to look at.  The third purpose that God has for us is to serve.  He wants us to serve selflessly through the natural and spiritual gifts that He has given us.

Serving should not be seen as a level that we achieve, or cannot start until we finish growing to be like Jesus.  In truth, serving is part of our spiritual growth.  Yet, it is a part of our spiritual growth that is worthy of its own focus because serving others moves the emphasis from me to others.

Yes, I need to grow, but everything that I do cannot be only focused on whether or not I get something out of it.  Spiritual growth is not some sort of competition or point of comparison that we can brag about.  I used the word focus because this is a key issue.  Spiritual growth cannot become stuck in the quagmire of self-improvement.  Learning to serve like Jesus did is the only thing that can save us from this elitist’s box canyon.  Our focus is first and foremost on the will of Jesus Christ, and then he focuses us on the need of others around us.  This is part of our spiritual growth.

Of course, you will get something out of service.  You will become more like Jesus, and that is all we should ever need.  However, once our flesh realizes that we are serious about spiritual growth, it will quickly move to make that spiritual growth all about you.

Thus, we are using the adverb “selflessly.”  Of course, I am using my self to serve you, but I need to serve without my own desires and needs getting in the way of what God is wanting to do.  Serving others is part of our spiritual sacrifices.  Just like the Israelites under the Law of Moses could have used those bulls and goats for their own purposes, we also could use our time, money, and gifts for ourselves.  Yet, we help others as a free-will offering to Jesus.  In so doing, service becomes a true act of worship that shows God that He is worthy enough for me to sacrifice myself for the sake of the others to which He points me.

Lastly, we all have natural and spiritual gifts that come from God.  There are strong people and there are weak people.  We have trouble processing why “God made me weak.”  However, God in His wisdom is teaching us that we need others.  None of us can “do it” alone.  Some are strong to help the weak, and yet in so doing the strong learn something from the weak that they could never learn without them, and vice versa.  James 1:17 tells us that “Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”  Remind yourself often that you have gifts because God gave them to you for a purpose, and that purpose is to serve others.

Let’s look at our passage.

The human desire to be great

For the sake of time, I have jumped into the middle of this story.  The 10 disciples are the others besides James and John.  They are greatly displeased, or riled up, because they found out that the mother of James and John had brought them to Jesus and asked him to let them sit on his right and on his left when he rules in his kingdom.

Their anger is most likely not coming from a true sense of what is moral.  All of them were spending lots of time arguing about who was the greatest among them.  This is what was at the root of asking for the sons to sit on the right and left of Jesus.  Whether it was the mom’s idea or the sons thought it would be more appropriate coming from her, they are asking for the top two spots in the coming administration of King Jesus.  Of course, we can debate about whether or not those two positions are to be given to the greatest.

They all wanted the greatest spot for themselves, and they are probably angry that James and John beat them to the punch out of pure audacity.

Now, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be great and to do something great, especially to be and to do so for God.  However, the fly in this ointment is that our definition of greatness generally involves me being greater than others.  We find it practically impossible to separate the idea of greatness from being an indirect reference to others.  What if everything that every person ever did was intended by God to be great?  Could it be possible that the Great Creator God of every human being intends for each of us to be great in our own unique way?  Wouldn’t it be greater if we learned to dovetail perfectly together in honor of our great Lord, Jesus?

Yet, sinfulness often pushes us to want to stick out as better, or more important among our peers.  Ask yourself this.  What makes a mom or dad great?  Is it to be defined by those who get the “Mom of the Year” award?  Is it defined from society’s perspective, the child’s perspective, God’s?  How many moms and dads do a great service to their kids, and for society, by training their kids to follow Jesus?  Let us always remember this.  It is generally our desire to be great in all the wrong ways that gets in the way of doing the truly great things.

So, the key is in separating a desire for greatness from being attached to others around you, and then recognizing that we are lousy at knowing what is truly great.  We need Jesus to teach us.  Humility is saying, “Jesus, I know nothing of greatness.  Please teach me!”

In verse 25, Jesus takes them all aside and uses this moment to teach them (to teach us) about greatness.  He uses the fact that Israel has been under the thumb of Gentile empires for centuries.  Their desire for Messiah to come was heavily influenced by their desire to be out from under this “boot in the face” that they had endured for a long time.

Jesus warns them that those in the top spots among the Gentiles lord it over those under them.  He says the same thing twice, but uses two synonyms for this concept of lording over others.  The first word is a combination of the words down and lord, and means to lord down on others, or to force others down under your lordship.  The second word does the same thing with the words down and authority.  It would mean to exercise authority down on others, or to force others down under your authority.  Notice the emphasis is that the Gentile way of being a lord and having authority is to emphasize that they are higher and you are lower.

Now, Jesus could have easily pointed out that the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Herod all suffered from this same world view, but instead he focuses it on the Gentiles.  You see, the problem with Israel’s leadership was not Rome, but that they had become too much like Rome.  Really, it started for them under the Greeks before Rome came to power.  The Persians had allowed them to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild, but under the Greeks, the leaders had begun to adopt the Greek ways of thinking and doing many things including leadership.

Nothing has changed so much.  Even today, our world is focused on who is on top and who is on the bottom.  Pastors and Bishops can be overly concerned with this vertical challenge that actually comes from an unbiblical world view.

Christians are not to copy this

Jesus basically says that this kind of thinking and action is not to happen among them.  He doesn’t deny that it can happen, or will happen, but that it is not supposed to happen.  His command is that none of us ever do this.  Of course, we have tragically failed in this matter throughout much of the history of the Church.  So then, what form should authority take among the followers of Christ?

In verse 26, Jesus speaks to those who wanted to be great in his kingdom, which again was not a bad thing.  He instructs them on what they should do.  Whoever wants to be great should become the servant of the others.  Notice that there is still a vertical aspect here, but that the great one should lower themselves to serve the others.  Isn’t that exactly what is wrong with many of our political and spiritual leaders today, that they refuse to lower themselves in order to serve?

Now Jesus uses the nice Greek word for servant here.  Its focus is on performing a service, but that service can be done by the king’s right-hand man, or by the helper of a village blacksmith. We could say that it is the respectable term for a servant that does not focus on how high the position is.  It is where we get the word for deacon in English.  Thus, serving is not a position that is about being above others, even though some servants may have servants that are under them.

Jesus is refocusing their concept of greatness from lording over others to humbling themselves in order to serve others.

In verse 27, Jesus basically says the same thing, but he changes a couple of the words.  Here are the two statements back-to-back.

You who want to be great should become the servants of the others.

You who want to be first should become the slaves of the others.

Being first is about being the greatest of the greats.  Jesus then uses a term for serving that is not the nice term, and is why most translations bring it over as slave.  So, it repeats the same concept, but calls for one to get even lower, to become a slave who has no rights and no self-purpose, only the master’s purpose.  This is what it means to have the first place in Christ’s kingdom.  The highest position is reserved for those who would take the lowest place among them.

Wow, that is sobering.  This is why the Apostle Paul would call himself a slave of Christ Jesus, and a slave of God.  He understood that he was the Lord of no one.  Jesus is the Lord!  Paul was simply serving God’s people on His behalf, even becoming a slave among God’s people.  Notice that God’s slaves don’t peel His grapes and fan Him.  Rather, they serve His purposes among His people.  Thus, Paul served believers, but they don’t get to boss him around because he is their slave.  He is following God’s orders.  However, no task is too menial for someone who is a slave.  Slaves do the dirtiest of jobs without complaint.

If spiritual growth is all about becoming like Jesus, then serving others is not enough.  I must learn to serve others like Jesus did, and in the way that he wants me to do.

In verse 28, Jesus points them to the example that he was living out.  Jesus was the fulfillment of all the promises of God, not just to Israel, but also to the nations.  He was the Messiah.  He was destined to rule from the throne of David over Israel and the nations.  Yet, he didn’t come to be served by others.  Of course, he was served by others.  People gave money so that he could travel and preach.  Others gave places to stay and food (often for 13 of them).  Later, certain ones would serve him by taking care of his body and placing it in the tomb.  These very disciples would serve him by taking the Gospel to the nations.

However, Jesus himself was not focused on what others should be doing for him.  Instead of making us serve him, he first served us in the role, not just of a servant, but of the lowest slave of all mankind.  The one who would take all the sins of the world upon himself and carry them away, if we would just believe on him.

Can we get real for a second?  No one deserves first place, but Jesus because no one can take a lower place than the one Jesus took.  Even to speak of who then is second place behind him is to actually diminish the perfection of our lord.  When Jesus is first place, no other place matters.  He became the ransom in the place of the many who would believe upon him.  They would live because he would die for their sins in their place.  These are the many who would believe on this lowest slave, and ask the Father to forgive them for such heinous sins, and such heinous lack of faith in Him.  These are the many who would be enabled to have eternal life because he laid down his eternal life for them.

This is our example.  The God of heaven humbled Himself and took on the nature of a human.  He then humbled Himself further by becoming the lowest slave to all humanity. 

It seems impossible that religious leaders throughout history have seemingly not understood what Jesus is saying here.  Yet, that is how sophisticated we can get.  We can rely upon a system of thinking and operating that blinds us to what our Lord is saying.  It doesn’t matter what tradition says.  What ultimately matters is what our Lord says, and he is asking you, “How great do you really want to be?”  Maybe even more pointed, “Do you really want to be like me?”  God forgive us for being selfish in the face of His amazing unselfishness!

Serve Part 5

Greatness is in Serving

Mark 10:35-45.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, March 22, 2020.

It is easy in our country to give lip service to the issue of being a leader who serves the people.  Our Christian foundations have affected the ways that we talk about such things, and even the words used by some politicians to manipulate people into voting for them.

In the last sentence of the Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln challenged the nation with these words.  “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”  Our human tendency, in its immaturity, is to look for leaders who will tell us what to do and to save us from threatening conditions.  However, our country was built upon the premise of a government that is made up of the people who are governing themselves for the sake of the whole nation.  The ability of the group to govern lives or dies upon the ability of individuals to govern themselves.

The founding fathers were working off of a biblical foundation and world view.  God’s word challenges believers to walk in freedom, but not a freedom to do whatever you want.  In our passage today, Jesus teaches us how leadership should work in the Church, and it is the opposite of how this world tends to do it, regardless of what words they use.

The request of James and John

Our passage begins with a request that comes from the two disciples, James & John.  They are brothers who had been fishermen on the Sea of Galilee just like Peter and Andrew.  It is worth noting that Matthew 20:20-28 tells us that this request was actually made through their mother.  Since this is not in our passage today, I will only make a passing comment.  No doubt, James and John knew that this request was in bad taste and bad form.  They attempted to moderate its ambitious nature by having their mom ask.  However, Jesus addresses them and not their mother.  That coupled with its absence in Mark’s account tells us that everyone knew James and John were ultimately behind the request.

Their request is this.  “Grant us that we may sit, one on your right hand and the other on your left, in your glory.”  It has two parts.  First, they want to have the highest place next to him.  And, second, the time frame that they are talking about is “in his glory.”  This is directly referring to the time when he would be ruling over Israel as the promised Messianic King in what is generally called the Kingdom of God.  We would call this the Millennial Kingdom, which they thought would begin shortly.

Now, to give them some credit, Jesus had already told his disciples in Matthew 19:28 that “in the regeneration [the resurrection], when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”  So, he had already promised them a high position in his coming kingdom.  They are not content with that apparently, and desire to ask for the two top spots.

What we are going to see in this passage is that the problem is not that we might desire great positions or even to do greatly in those positions.  The real problem is that our desires are riddled with impure motives and misunderstandings of just what true greatness is.  They want the highest positions to be given to them outright before they have done anything to deserve it.  Instead of seeking to promote ourselves further in this life, we should focus on serving well in the position that we are in right now.  If God promotes us beyond that position then that is His prerogative, and if He doesn’t then we should not take it as a slight.  It really doesn’t matter what our placement in the age to come is going to be.  What really matters is our service for the Lord today.  How is my service?

Jesus prefaces his response to James and John with the statement that they don’t realize what they are asking.  When we ask for promotion, we generally only see the “good” things connected to being the boss.  Yes, we see power, authority, freedom to do what you want, people looking up to you, and a great reputation.  It is like looking at a virtuoso who plays their instrument so well and wanting to do what they do.  It only takes a week of practicing (and sometimes less) to realize that 99.9999% of us really do not want to be a virtuoso.  We tend to want the good stuff of being a virtuoso without the grueling and unrelenting practice, a.k.a. price, that goes with it.

So, Jesus gives them two metaphors to help us understand the hard part of getting those two top spots.  The first metaphor is that of a cup that one has to drink.  It is clear that he is talking about his upcoming sufferings.  In the garden on the night he was betrayed, Jesus asks the Father to take this cup away from him.  He ends by saying, “Nevertheless, your will be done.”  The picture is of a cup that is filled with suffering and you are being asked to drink it.  Most people would take a sip and cast the cup aside.  We are typically unwilling to drain it to its dregs.  However, Jesus did drink the cup to its dregs, and he asked his disciples to pick up their cross and follow him.

The second metaphor is that of something into which they need to be baptized (immersed).  This is a full body immersion into a particular pain and difficulty that goes along with doing the hard work that God has called him and us to do.  Both metaphors work together to show us the internal and external suffering that goes along with doing God’s will.

Our future kingdom rewards in the Millennium are directly related to the hardships and sufferings that we have gone through in this life in order to accomplish God’s will.  The suffering itself is not what we seek.  It is not suffering in general that gives us reward.  It is the particular suffering that comes from doing the will and purpose of God.  As we do God’s will, certain hardships and sufferings will arise up and threaten to turn us back.  Christ will reward those who press through the sufferings in order to serve his purposes.

In response to the challenge that Jesus gives to them, James and John both declare that they are able to drink this cup and be baptized with this baptism.  It is not clear just what they think this means, but even if they understood that it involved suffering, they would be inclined to think that this suffering would be very quick and the glory would come soon.  Jesus then agrees that they are right.  They will drink this cup of suffering and be baptized in this pool of suffering in following him.  Acts 12:2 tells us that Herod Agrippa had James executed and then seized Peter to do the same.  Peter escapes by the help of an angel from God.  Why didn’t James have an angelic escape?  It has nothing to do with which of them was a better disciple or had more faith.  It had to do with the purposes of God in their life.  The apostle James became the first of the 12 to be put to death for Christ.  On the other hand, the apostle John is the last of the 12 to die.  The Bible does not record his death, but we have several stories from the 2^nd century that say that there were attempts to kill John that did not work.  They poisoned him, but he still lived.  They threw him in boiling oil and survived.  Then he was exiled on the island of Patmos where he wrote the Revelation, the last book of the Bible.  His suffering was a long slow burn that was different then his brother.

Jesus ends this point about suffering by telling them that it is not up to him who gets these positions.  The positions are for those “for whom they have been prepared.”  The emphasis is not on the fact that Jesus has no say, but rather on his ability to give the positions in the way James and John are asking, as a favor.  Jesus cannot just give them out to family members or favorite disciples.  The emphasis is on how they are to be handed out.  Isaiah 11:3-4 tells us that the Messiah would not judge by what he sees or hears, but rather in righteousness.  In other words, he won’t judge like we do.  His judgments will be perfect and just right.  Thus, Jesus would not agree to favoring James and John.  Instead, they would receive what they deserved in the Kingdom.

Make no mistake.  God will reward us for our faithfulness in the face of difficulty and suffering, but let’s trust Him to make the measurement of our service and determine what it deserves.  Self-ambition can side-track the true work that must be done in our hearts in order to save people who are lost.

Jesus teaches on greatness

This sets up a situation for Jesus to remind his disciples about leadership in God’s Kingdom, whether now or in the age to come, in verses 41-45.  God does not see leadership like we do.  Our flesh gets mixed up in how we approach it.

However, let’s deal first with how the other disciples respond to this request of James and John.  They are angered, and greatly displeased.  We should stop and ask why they are angry.  If the Messiah, Jesus, only judges based upon righteousness and doesn’t play favorites then what do they have to fear?  I believe that they are angry because they desired the same thing and were afraid that the audacity of James and John just might secure the positions for them.  Their own sinful flesh is annoyed at the thought that those two might get ahead of them.  They knew that it wasn’t right to ask for such things, but in their hearts, they still desired it.

We need to stop such nonsense.  Promotion is not all that it is cracked up to be.  The more people you are called to lead the harder the burden is upon your shoulders.  We should neither shrink back from promotion out of fear or laziness, nor should we grasp at it out of selfish ambition.  Let’s simply trust God to direct our lives into the positions that he has for us, both in this life and in the next.  He is just and does all things well.  We should not wrestle against one another like these disciples were doing.

In verse 42, Jesus then points out how the Gentile leaders act.  Yes, they exercise authority over their people, but the operative phrase is, “Lord it over them.”  It is the idea of dominating and bringing those under your authority into subjection.  It is a heavy-handed leadership.  This tends to be the case among the nations because they didn’t have the teachings of God’s Word and such leadership tends to be very productive and focused.  It often gets results in this life.

This is not the kind of leadership that God wants among His people, both in this life and the life to come.  In fact, let’s remember that God Himself is not nearly as heavy-handed in His leadership as people often like to accuse Him of being.  He gives us room to repent and choose how we will live our life.  He wants us to choose love and service to Him freely, rather than to be subjugated into such roles.  Sadly, many leaders of the Church today and throughout history have failed in this respect.  Many of the great leaders throughout history are not great in God’s eyes.  They failed miserably to demonstrate the image of God to those they were tasked with leading.  We must not look to the greats of this world to determine how we should lead the Church of Jesus.  We must look to the greatest leader, Jesus.

Jesus counters the Gentile-way with how it should be among the Church.  Those who want to be great must become a servant.  Jesus had already told them this back in Mark 9:35 when he brought a little kid in their midst.  They had been arguing that day about which of them was the greatest, that is deserved the number one spot next to Jesus.  In our passage today, they have not learned their lesson, clearly.

Those who want to be great in the Kingdom of Jesus, both now and in the Millennium, must become a servant to everyone else.  Instead of using your position to build your reputation and personal kingdom, you must always recognize that you are not a god to the people you lead, but rather you are to represent “The God of Heaven” to those you lead.  You are to be a servant, not just to God by doing His purposes, but also to individuals by meeting the needs in their life that God sends you to meet.

The phrase that has been connected to this teaching is “Servant-Leadership.”  Among Christ’s Church, this is the only leadership that is acceptable to him because it is the only leadership that truly reflects him to believers and the world.  Christ has made you free, now use your freedom to serve your fellow man in regards to God’s purposes in their life.  Whatever level of leadership you have, parents with children all the way up to denominational leaders to their churches, we must learn to reflect Christ in our leadership.  The children and the people are not yours to do with what you want.  They belong to God and you will be rewarded or not for how you led them to walk in their own freedom before God.

In case this point hasn’t hit home, Jesus uses himself as an example.  Everyone agrees that he should get the first place, but how did he get first place?  How did he lead.  The Father didn’t just give it to him because he was his favorite son.  Jesus earned first place by coming down, humbling himself, taking on the nature of a man, and becoming a ransom for you and me.  Some people have rejected this notion of Jesus being our ransom because they think it sounds barbaric and uncouth.  Why can’t God just decree that we are all saved?  Such a question goes to the heart of the issue and why we tend towards totalitarianism instead of freedom.  Humans are always looking for techniques and tools to bring the world around them under their desires, but God simply serves people with the things that they actually need, and not to manipulate them.  Instead, He is willing to suffer in order that we might be free to choose life or death.  Choose life this morning and not death.  Put your faith in the one who has paid the ransom to free you from sin and judgment.  Become a follower of Jesus today if you aren’t already, and learn from him what it means to be great in God’s eyes.

Greatness is in Serving audio