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Pastor Marty Tuesday, January 12, 2021 at 1:00PM Mark 14:66-72. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 10, 2021.
In Matthew 10:32-33, Jesus says, “Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” Jesus puts confessing him and denying him in opposite positions, and declares that our present actions toward him will affect his future action towards us.
It is a sobering thought that we will all stand before the Lord, Jesus Christ, and through him give account to God the Father for our lives. In that day, all the things of this earth will be absent, and it will only matter what our Creator thinks. It will only matter what I did with Jesus in this life. Did I deny him, or did I confess him?
Even though God will hold us accountable, He is gracious and merciful. Our passage today involves the Peter, the disciple of Jesus, denying Jesus three times. In doing so, he helps us to see the mercy of God to those who are worthy of punishment, but have repented of their sins, picked up their cross, and have followed Jesus. Praise God that we are not shackled to our worst moments in this life. Through Jesus, our greatest failures can be forgiven.
Now, let’s look at our passage.
No doubt, Peter would describe this as the worst day of his life. Everything that he had been doing for three and a half years was now going up in smoke, and he was powerless to do anything about it. The worst part of it will be that he was unable to stand by the Lord in his darkest hour.
So, we have Peter in the courtyard of the high priest’s compound warming himself by a fire along with servants and soldiers of the high priest. The interrogation and trial of Jesus appears to be on a balcony of some sorts. They cannot hear and see all of the proceedings, but Peter is able to keep tabs on what is happening to Jesus.
In this situation, Peter is confronted by a servant girl and then later by several other servants. There is a contrast here of the strength of Jesus and the weakness of his disciples.
Jesus is confronted by the strong “bulls” of Israel. They are the ones who have great power within Israel, even with being dominated by Rome. However, Peter is confronted by a servant girl, and other servants of the high priest. I do not mean to diminish his situation, but rather to point out the contrast. Peter was not ready for such a confrontation with the big boys, but neither was he ready for this chance to cut his teeth on taking a stand for Jesus. Our Lord is ready and able for all that our enemy can throw at him, but we are weak and in need of strength, and spiritual growth. How wonderful it is that our gracious Lord sticks with us and enables us to grow stronger by his Holy Spirit and through our failures.
We are told in the other gospels that this servant girl was the one who was in charge of the door. Having seen Peter fairly well at the door, she recognizes him as one of the followers of Jesus. Peter is confronted several times by her on his relationship to Jesus. The first confrontation is, “You also were with Jesus of Nazareth.” The second is actually spoken to the group of servants, “This is one of them.” The third confrontation comes from the group and clearly involves multiple accusation from “those who stood by.” Mark records one of them recognizing his accent, “Surely, you are one of them for you are a Galilean and your speech shows it.” It was no secret that the followers of Jesus were Galilean- Judas seems to be the only exception to this. In John 18:26, we are told that one of the servants happened to be a relative of the man, Malchus, whose ear Peter had cut off with a sword. “Did I not see you in the garden with him?”
After each of these three confrontations, Peter denies Jesus instead of confessing his relationship with him. To deny is to reject the claim of something that is stated, and in this case, thereby rejecting Jesus himself. He disowns Jesus as his acquaintance, friend, or teacher, and thereby, he becomes guilty of the actions Jesus had warned them of earlier in Matthew 10. Peter should have confessed Christ. To confess is to speak the same as, or agree with someone or something. The statements that Peter is confronted with are true, but he refuses to agree with them (speak the same thing as). However, because they are statements of relationship, Peter refuses to confess Christ as his Lord and Teacher.
Clearly the servant girl is not physically intimidating, but she can notify the larger group and get Peter arrested too. It is amazing how people who have very little natural power in this life can suddenly have great power over our choices because of the situation. Peter’s fear is the true source of her power over him.
We don’t know what is going through Peter’s mind fully. Perhaps, he intends only to nip it in the bud at the first denial. Perhaps, he justified it because he was finding out what would happen to Jesus. Regardless of his justification, there can be no justification for refusing to stand with Christ and denying a relationship with him. “I do not know this man of whom you speak!”
As if this wasn’t bad enough, Peter even invokes a curse and swears that he is not lying. The KJV and the NKJV say that “he began to curse and swear.” Cursing and swearing here is not cussing with vulgarities and profanities. He is actually using a curse formula to back up the truth of his statements. This is similar to our childhood years when we might say to someone regarding our veracity, “Cross my heart, hope to die, poke a needle in my eye.” Clearly, we were being hyperbolic when we said that- I know of no one who had a needle poked in their eye when it was found out that they lied.
Swearing is similar. We might say, “I swear on my mother’s grave!” In Israel, it was common to swear on the altar or the temple, etc. It was a way of making a kind of informal affidavit that others could hold you to.
We are never told to use a curse formula to back up our statements, and Jesus warned us not to swear by anything either. Rather, he tells us that we are to let our yes be yes and our no be no. What a different world this would be if we would operate in such a fashion. Truthfulness is passé. Only people who are prone to lying feel the need to swear and invoke curses on themselves in order to get others to believe them. Of course, Peter is lying now.
By his own words and by his own judgment, Peter is condemning himself eternally. How could he stand before God with such evidence against him? These are the kinds of things that would stand against us before God on that day, not to mention that even our thoughts and the schemes of our heart can be brought against us as evidence.
Mark tells us that the rooster crowed for the second time at this point. Luke tells us that, even as Peter was swearing that he was telling the truth, the rooster crowed the second time. The gravity of the moment sinks in to Peter as he hears the rooster crow, and then, as Luke records, he looks up to see Jesus looking at him. Jesus who is in his darkest hour and is even then being accused by others looks over and locks eyes with Peter for a moment.
The crowing of the rooster and the look of Jesus stirs up Peter’s memory. What seemed like an eternity ago in the upper room, Jesus had told him that he would do this. He had vehemently denied that he would leave Jesus, and here he was just as vehemently denying Jesus. Peter is broken emotionally, leaves the area, and weeps bitterly.
It is difficult to come face to face with the weakness of our flesh, especially when we are insistent on seeing ourselves stronger than we are. However, there is a contrast here between Peter and Judas. Both are weak in the flesh and fail to stand with Jesus. However, Peter truly desired to stand with Jesus, and is being tripped up by his flesh. He has not fallen so as to be beyond recovery. Judas, on the other hand, did not desire to stand with Jesus, and his flesh leads him to destruction. God knows our hearts and aids those who are weak and yet still desire Him.
It would be good for us to pay attention to Peter’s mistakes because they are our mistakes too.
Peter kept his distance from Jesus out of fear instead of courageously choosing to remain by him. He let his fear of arrest, and the subsequent bodily harm, separate him from Jesus. He still believes in Jesus, but he can no longer follow Jesus where he is going. This is also symbolic of a spiritual issue that we must all face. Just hours before, Jesus had led Peter to a place of prayer and asked him to pray with him. Notice that Jesus did not ask them to pray for him. His intention all along was that they would pray for themselves and the coming trial. Peter’s failure to pray in the garden is directly connected to his failure to confess Jesus in the courtyard. His failure in private led to his failure in public. His spirit was willing, but his flesh was weak.
Christ is calling us into the Word of God, and into a relationship of prayer. This is a place where we can wrestle with our flesh and fears before the One who loves us. When we neglect to shorten the distance between us and Jesus through the communion of reading his word and prayer, we are then at the mercy of our flesh and its inability to follow Jesus. It is not enough to be a Christian superficially. We must draw near to Christ in our hearts privately before we will ever be able to stand with him publicly.
A second mistake is that he ends up in the wrong company. The separation from Jesus puts Peter in a group that will not help him grow spiritually. They do not believe in Jesus. Now, it is one thing to be surrounded by unbelievers when you are with Jesus, or surrounded by the enemies of Christ when he is with you. It is quite another to be on our own. To stick with Jesus was to incur suffering, but to stick with the crowd was to be pulled into sin. Hanging with the wrong crowd will always corrupt good morals and good decisions. This connects to his third mistake.
Peter had shrunk back from suffering, but even worse, he was willing to say, or do, anything in order to avoid it. This is where we all are in our flesh. We do not want to suffer in this life. It was important for Peter and the other disciples- and us- to come face to face with the reality that they were incredibly weak in the face of physical suffering. This is precisely why Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is not a guarantee that our flesh will never get the better of us. Rather, He is a guarantee that God is with us. He also convicts us of the right course of action, and then empowers us to follow through. The empowering of the Holy Spirit is not as we would like in our flesh. In many video games, a person may gain an item that strengthens them. Typically, there is a sound or obvious action that lets them know that they are now powered up, or invincible. The Holy Spirit does not empower in such a way. Rather, He empowers us as we listen and step out in faith. Like Peter stepping out of the boat, it may seem foolish, but if God directs us then we can trust Him to support us.
Peter made many mistakes and he sinned grievously. We can surely relate. Let us remember the love of Jesus for Peter that later found him fishing on the sea of Galilee. Peter was forgiven of his sins, even denying Jesus, because he was repentant and turned towards Jesus, not away. Let us be thankful that the warning of denying Jesus before men is not about an unpardonable sin, but about something that can be repented of, that can be washed away, and can be forgiven.
Email Article | Print Article | Share Article | tagged Confession, Curse, Denial, Failure, Relationship, Suffering, Swear, Weakness Pastor Marty Tuesday, December 8, 2020 at 2:47PM Mark 14:32-42. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 6, 2020.
We are often focused on our needs that we want God to satisfy. It is not nearly as often that we may be reminded that God needs or desires some things from us.
Today, we will see the need that Jesus had of companionship during the time leading up to his arrest. However, this reflects something that is about more than just that day. In Jesus, we see the difficulty that God has in dealing with the sin of the world and the heavens. It is not difficult in the sense of power, but as an emotional and heavy weight upon His being. Jesus represents the heart of the Father to forbear, to forgive, to redeem, and yet ultimately to judge. We will never be able to explain it perfectly, but it is clear that, though we could say that God doesn’t need humans to a degree, He refuses to go forward without making redemption available to all. And, He does this at great expense and suffering to Himself.
In these last days, the Spirit of God is looking for people who will stand in the heat with Him, much like the three Hebrew Boys did in the book of Daniel. When we stand with God, He stands with us.
In our flesh, we fall short, but let us not stay there. Let us hear the Spirit calling, “Will you not watch with me? On that evening so many years ago, the Lord Jesus shows us the key to following him. Yes, we pick up our cross and follow him, but just as important is this. Take time to wrestle with God in prayer, until you are yielded to His will, whatever it may be.
Let’s look at our passage.
Jesus and his disciples had been inside of Jerusalem and, at some point that night, Judas had left them in order to betray Jesus. Having said what he needed to say to his disciples, Jesus leads the eleven outside of Jerusalem so that he can spend time praying before his arrest.
They towards the Mt. of Olives on the east side of Jerusalem into a garden in the area of Gethsemane. Such a garden likely would have had a rock wall around it with some kind of entrance. Now, Gethsemane means “olive press.” This is significant since the suffering and death of Jesus would supply the oil of the Holy Spirit to God’s people. Some homework to do on this would be to read Zechariah 4 and its image of two olive trees supplying oil into a lamp that is lit. This same image is connected to the two witnesses of Revelation 11. Their ministry during the Great Tribulation will supply oil for the spiritual lights of those who reject the beast and his kingdom. Jesus was going into a metaphorical olive press that would supply the oil of the Spirit to the whole world that the light of God might be seen.
Jesus tells them that he is exceedingly sorrowful and he wants to spend time in prayer. The scene is that he leaves 8 of the disciples in one area- probably at the entrance to the garden. He then takes Peter, James, and John a little further away from the group. They had become those who were closest to Jesus from The Twelve.
We should be careful in reading too much into the sorrow of Jesus. God wants us to understand that He does agonize over all that He does in helping to redeem mankind. However, God’s agony is not the same as ours, nor for the same purposes. Think of a Being who suffers the assault of every sin on earth and in the heavenlies that occurs, both external sins and internal ones. We are only aware of a small amount of the evil and wickedness that occurs, but God experiences and sees it all. No one knows sorrow like the Creator of the Universe does. In those moments when we are exceedingly sorrowful, we are only getting a taste of what God feels. In fact, those times are His invitation for you to join Him in His sorrow. It is a time of communion with Him where we can know Him at a deeper level, to bond with Him. Thus, Jesus asks The Three to stay near him and watch.
In the New Testament, watching is often connected to praying. It involves a vigilance over one’s spiritual condition and external circumstances through prayer. If we are not a praying people then we are not a vigilant people, and the enemy will trip us up in many ways.
In verses 35-36, we get an intimate glimpse into the heart of Jesus. However, at the same time, he is letting us know that he can see into our hearts. We are not alone. God knows just how difficult it is to do what He asks of us because He has already gone on before us.
It may seem unlikely that Jesus would agree to take on a human nature, and then balk at the cross. However, we must understand that he truly had a human nature, additional though it was. He completely understands the sorrow over injustice, and the fear of futility in doing the right thing (as God defines it). Sometimes, we can be resistant to God’s will, thinking that what He asks is impossible. However, the truth is that we must crucify ourselves internally before we can do the difficult things that He has called us to do.
Jesus describes what lies ahead as “an hour.” It is the hour of trial and testing, and it is the hour of saving mankind. It is also described as a “cup.” We can see it as a cup of suffering that the Father is asking Jesus to drink, but this falls short. It is a cup of the wrath of God for the sins of mankind. To drink that cup, is to experience and suffer the wrath of God.
The greatest horror of the cross for Jesus is not so much the physical suffering, but the experiencing of wrath from the One whom he has eternally existed in a bond of supreme love. So, Jesus asks that the hour, or the cup, might pass from him.
He then says that all things are possible for the Father. Yes, the Father could change the plan at the last moment. By the way, this does not mean that God can do illogical things (like make a round square, or create a rock so big that He can’t lift it, etc.) Neither does it mean that he can do things that are contrary to His nature. He cannot lie or do evil. Rather, “all things are possible” means that, in matters of power and authority, there are none that He answers to. He is the supreme authority and has the power to back up His decisions.
In the end, Jesus yields to the will of the Father. “Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.” I do not believe that Jesus is merely play acting for our sakes. I believe that Jesus truly agonized over going through with the cross. However, we see his yielding to what He knew the Father desired. Can I get to a point in prayer where I know that God has heard my heart, that I know He loves me, and yet this difficult thing before me is necessary?
Too often, we see difficulty as proof that God does not love us. The reality is that it is often proof that He does. We shield little children from the difficulties of life, but as they mature, we teach them to face and shoulder more and more of the duties and responsibilities of life, out of love for God and others. Some believers have almost ridiculed such a yielding prayer, as if it lacks faith. There is no greater prayer than the prayer of surrender. This is what I want, Father, but nevertheless, Your will be done and not mine!
Jesus did not need the disciples to watch in order to keep him from being arrested. He needed them to watch in order to keep themselves from being spiritually taken out by the enemy. O, how our flesh fights against the needs of our spirit. You will never be sleepier than when you decide to try and pray.
Jesus comes back from praying to find The Three sleeping. “Could you not watch one hour?” Notice that Jesus connects watching to praying in verse 38. Here, Jesus gives a command and a statement.
The command is to watch and pray so that they don’t fall to the temptations ahead. If we are having trouble fighting sin and experiencing spiritual failure in our life, it can usually be traced back to prayerlessness, which itself is a symptom of weak faith and reliance upon Jesus.
The statement is this. “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” This is exactly what we need to understand today. It is not enough to have great spiritual desires and to love God with all of your heart. Peter vehemently declared his devotion to Jesus. His spirit wanted to do what was right, and even excel at it above all of the other disciples. However, he is headed into a trial for which he is not yet spiritually ready. His flesh was weak, and not just in falling asleep. Their physical sleep is an external symptom of an internal problem. The good news is what we talked about last week. If it wasn’t for Jesus praying for us, none of us would make it. Jesus makes all the difference.
In prayer, we wrestle with our flesh before the Lord, and come to a place of surrender ahead of the trial so that we can do the will of God in the difficult hour. The problem is not only that your flesh is weak, but also that you haven’t done anything to strengthen yourself against the weakness of the flesh.
We are told that Jesus comes back and finds them sleeping three different times. Their inability to stay awake is connected to their perception of safety. Of course, they don’t know that Judas is even now headed out of the city with a detachment of soldiers having betrayed Jesus. Yet, this is all of life. We think we are safe, physically or even spiritually, but our greatest trial may be just around the corner.
Can you imagine them complaining in their hearts, “But Lord, we have been up so long and we are tired… can’t we pray tomorrow after breakfast?” It seems too hard. Yet, even this is a lie from our flesh. What if they had woken up to find a large spider on their chest, or perhaps, a coiled serpent? How quickly would they have come alive in that moment (and so would we). We are lulled to sleep by the spirit of this world through entertainments and gadgets so that the spiritual serpent can slip up and capture our souls. Yet, Jesus is faithful to come along from time to time and shake us awake. Wake up and watch over your soul before it is too late!
And so, the moment of betrayal had come. There was no more time for praying alone with God. Now, there will only be praying in the midst of a pack of jackals. More than likely, Jesus leads the three back to where the eight are no doubt sleeping as well. Here, they will be met by Judas, but we leave that for next week.
Let me close with this. I do not know what things you will face in the future. There are trials in our personal life, trials among our family and friends, trials in business, nations, and even global trials. However, we can be rest assured that those trials will come. Hear the Spirit calling you to prepare yourself and come into communion with the Lord of Glory, who was a suffering servant. Perhaps our hour of betrayal has come in this nation, or perhaps it will tarry a few more years. Ultimately, this world has rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ and will double down on the path of self-will. Yet, there are many poor souls out there who do not know their right hand from their left. They are lost and wounded. May God wake us up spiritually so that we can help those who sleep, and some who are even spiritually dead. Even now, the Lord tells us that the fields are white for harvest!
Email Article | Print Article | Share Article | tagged Betrayal, Prayer, Spiritual Condition, Suffering, Watch, Wrath Pastor Marty Sunday, March 22, 2020 at 4:39PM 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.
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 2nd 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.
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.
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