42 18.01

INTRODUCTION

In our passage tonight from Matthew 18, Jesus says that we must change. Change. It’s not a four letter word, but maybe it should be. I think it’s normal that we don’t like change. For the most part we like things to stay the way they are.

However, change is inevitable. Change comes to all of us whether we want it or not. Our lives are in a constant state of transition. Life is always moving forward; nothing ever remains the same. To move forward, you have to leave the past behind. There is no standing still because time is moving forward. To a greater or lesser degree, we are continually being changed – whether suddenly or gradually – into the new, the different, the unexpected, or the untried. Everything in this world is liable to change. It’s the law of life. If you don't change your life your life will change you. The only constant in life is change.

If you don’t believe it think of the aging process. No matter how hard you try, or what anti-wrinkling creams you use, you will not look the same, at 60-years-old, as you did at the age of twenty.

Health may give place to sickness

Pleasure gives place to pain

Strength gives place to weakness

And life may give place to death

The process never ends until we die. We are always changing.

Paul wrote to the

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

SERMON

We are in Matthew 18 this evening and our video will begin with verse 1.

Who said this? I’ll give you several quotes and see if you can guess who said them.

SLIDE 1 I'm the greatest thing that ever lived! I'm the king of the world! I'm a bad man. I'm the prettiest thing that ever lived.

SLIDE 2 It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am.

SLIDE 3 I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.

SLIDE 4 My only fault is that I don't realize how great I really am.

SLIDE 5 It's not bragging if you can back it up.

Muhammad Ali said them all. We don’t usually talk like that even if we think it.

SLIDE 6 In our passage tonight, the disciples come to Jesus with this question. Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Here is the answer Jesus gives.

Video

SLIDE 1 Imagine what it must have been like to have walked with Jesus as one of the twelve. There were others who were following Jesus. At the end of the first chapter of Acts, when the apostles are trying to decide who will replace Judas from among the followers of Jesus the one prerequisite was that he had followed Jesus since his baptism. Two men met that qualification: Justus and Matthias. You have to wonder how many others there were that hadn’t been with Jesus from the beginning. So among those who followed Jesus there were the twelve, the chosen chosen apostles. They had times with Jesus the others didn’t have.

Then, even among the twelve we remember there were three – Peter, James, and John – who had an even closer relationship with Jesus than the twelve. Jesus took them some places even the other nine weren’t invited to attend, such as the transfiguration.

But even if you weren’t a part of the three or even of the twelve, it must have been a great privilege and an awesome experience to have walked with the Lord Jesus Christ during the three and a half years he carried out his public ministry two thousand years ago. Imagine if you can, hearing Jesus preach and teach with such great command of the scriptures. Imagine the boldness, the urgency, and the passion with which he must have spoken. How wonderful it must have been to have seen him raise the dead, heal the sick, give sight to the blind, make the lame to walk, calm the raging storm, or multiply the fishes and loaves. Can you imagine the awe that must have overcome the twelve as they witnessed Jesus walking on the water, or for the three that witnessed him during the transfiguration? We can only wonder at the amazing things those men saw and heard that were never recorded.

It is no wonder that as the disciples and the multitudes at large followed Jesus and listened to his teachings about the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God, that they fully expected him to establish that kingdom at any time. In their minds Jesus was the King who was about to set up his kingdom right here on earth, and even better – they were his right hand men who were going to run this kingdom. In fact, Jesus had just told them that he was giving to them the keys to the kingdom and that they would have his authority to conduct kingdom business. They just knew that Jesus was grooming them to run his kingdom when he threw off the shackles of governmental and religious oppression. He had been slowly turning over to them the responsibility of teaching and preaching and they were even performing the same miracles as Jesus.

The disciples must have been greatly enamored with their own greatness and importance. As time went on they began arguing over who was going to be the greatest in his kingdom. Who was the most important? Who was the greatest?

That kind of talk wasn’t new and it continues even today. Today we talk about who’s the greatest basketball player, baseball player, golfer, quarterback, pitcher, and the list goes on. Unlike Ali, we may not think we’re the greatest, but we talk about who is the greatest.

The disciples want to know who will be the greatest in his kingdom. They weren’t sure when Jesus would start his kingdom, but they were sure it would be soon and they wanted to play an important role. They wanted to be the greatest.

When we read Matthew’s account we may not be sure if they are talking about themselves – “Which of us is going to be the greatest” – or if their talking in general and mentioning names like Abraham, Moses, and Elijah. The gospel of Luke makes it clear though, that they were talking about themselves. SLIDE 2

An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. (Luke 9:46)

They were concerned about making themselves look good. Who would sit closest to Jesus? Who was going to be sitting at the head table? Jesus keeps trying to tell them he’s about to die and all they can do is jockey for position in some physical kingdom that isn’t even going to exist during their lifetime. Their thirst and quest to be the greatest blinded them to the things Jesus had been trying to tell them for months.

SLIDE 3 How does Jesus respond to their question? I guess he could have pointed out those great heroes of the faith and even to John the Baptist. He even could have pointed to himself. “If you want to know what greatness looks like, look no further.” But instead Jesus points to a small child.

I think it’s interesting how people have tried to figure out just who the child was. Over the years some have speculated that it was a child of Peter’s since they were probably in Peter’s house at the time. Some have said that it was Ignatius, who was a leader in the church years later. In the writings we have Ignatius he never claimed that though. The truth is we don’t know because we’re not told. We’re not given a name, an age, or even a gender. There’s no reason to think it couldn’t have been a girl. Jesus simply calls the child to come to him and uses the child as an example.

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said, “unless you change. . . .” (Matthew 18:3a)

The King James translates this verse as: “unless you are converted.” That’s sounds like Jesus is saying they aren’t saved. That’s not the point. The word really means to turn. The meaning is similar to the word repent. The word repent, and part of what we’re told we need to do to be saved is to repent of our sins, the word repent means to change your mind. The word Jesus uses here means to change your direction. Turn around. The disciples needed to change their direction because Jesus says if they didn’t turn around, if they didn’t change and become like this small child, they would not enter the kingdom of heaven. They would need to worry about being the greatest then would they? Change and become like this child or you will not be a part of the kingdom you so desperately want to be considered great in. And of course we know that Judas didn’t enter the kingdom.

So who will be great in the kingdom? It will be those who take lowly positions like that of a child that will be called great.

What we need to know is that in Aramaic, the language of the Jews at that time and the language Jesus would have spoken, the word for servant was the same as the word for child. The only way to know the difference was the context. That doesn’t mean that children weren’t loved, but gives you an idea of how highly they thought of children. Children didn’t have the position in society they hold today. It was definitely a lime when children were to be seen and not heard and preferably not even seen.

SLIDE 4 What was it that the disciples needed to turn from? What did they need to change? They needed to change their attitude about themselves and others. They needed to have they attitude of Jesus that Paul described in his letter to the Ephesians.

5In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:5-8)

Some translations say Jesus didn’t consider equality with God something to be grasped. We know what that means. To grasp something is to hold onto it. Jesus, being God, did not hold onto the advantages that could have brought him. He didn’t insist on being served and worshiped even though he could have. He didn’t insist on the bast seat at the table and being served first even though he could have. He didn’t insist on having the best life had to offer even though he could have. What did he do? He became a servant obeying the father even to the point of dying on a cross.

Jesus says that we must change our way of thinking and become like a child: humble, not self-seeking, trusting, and dependent. Those are the kinds of people who will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.

Did the disciples learn their lesson that day? Unfortunately not. In a few weeks we’ll see how they argue again over who is the greatest. And then, in the upper room, just hours before he would be arrested and crucified, we read how they argued again over who was the greatest. After again telling them that the greatest is the one the world considers the least Jesus asks: SLIDE 5

For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? (Luke 22:27a)

Really that’s a pretty silly question. We all know the answer. The greatest is the one who sits at the table. The greatest is the one being served. The master sits at the table when the servant brings him his meal. It is never the other way around. Then Jesus adds: SLIDE 6

But I am among you as one who serves. (Luke 22:27b)

The disciples are trying to figure out who is the greatest among them while Jesus is trying to serve. And then he got up from the table and taking the role of the lowest of servants, he washed the disciples feet. Afterward he said: SLIDE 7

15I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. SLIDE 8 16Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. SLIDE 9 17Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. (John 13:15-17)

The example Jesus gave is not of washing feet, but of serving even in the most humble of ways. At that time the most humble ways to serve was to wash feet. Because of the shoes they wore and the roads they walked it was one of the worst assignment given to servants. Yet Jesus willingly took up the towel and basin and served. He showed greatness by serving the disciples. And what were the disciples doing? They were arguing about which of them might be considered greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Do we still do that? Do we still concern ourselves with who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? We certainly don’t do it like the disciples did. Probably because we don’t have any pretense to believing it might be us. There have been too many followers of Jesus that have done much greater things and served in much greater ways than we ever could. So we don’t concern ourselves too much with that question. And that’s good.

SLIDE 10 But do we have the attitude of Jesus? Are we looking to the small child Jesus called to him as an example we are to follow? Again from his letter to the Philippians, Paul wrote:

1Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2:1-4)

Jesus is of course the perfect example of this. Another person I think of is David. David had his faults and the Bible is doesn’t try to hide them. However, the Bible also shows his humility as he trusted in God. Think back about his story and how he became king. SLIDE 11

David had been promised the kingdom of Israel. Samuel had come out to his home and anointed him to be the next king. It would be easy for such a thing to go to your head, but it didn’t seem to affect David. He is anointed king one day and the next day he’s back taking care of his father’s sheep – the lowest job in the household.

After his battle with Goliath things changed for him, but not necessarily for the better. Saul then tried to kill him forcing him to run for his life and hide in the wilderness. Twice during that time David had an opportunity to kill Saul. With Saul dead it would have been easy for him to become king – which is what God had promised. Both times those who were with David encouraged him to kill Saul. They assured David that is was God’s will, that it was God who had given David the opportunity to take Saul’s life. But both times David refused. He knew God wanted him king, but he didn’t push the issue. David never worried about promoting himself or making himself king, instead he patiently waited for God’s timing.

A few decades ago someone noticed what they thought was a problem and our culture has been trying to solve that problem ever since. The problem is low self-esteem.

It’s said that low self-esteem exists when someone has a general feeling of insignificance or a lack of importance. The problem with low self-esteem is not that someone is thinking too little of themselves, but that they are thinking too much about themselves. When our thoughts and concerns are outwards we have little time to worry about ourselves, what others think, or how we might have been slighted. What we need instead is what we might call the “Theology of Humility.” Humility is is not thinking too highly of oneself, but it also isn’t thinking low of oneself either. Instead, it’s not thinking about oneself at all. This was the attitude of Jesus and the attitude that he taught his disciples when he said: SLIDE 12

The first will be last (Matthew 19:30; 20:8, 16, 27)

The greatest will be a servant (Matthew 20:26; 23:11)

Humble yourself before God and he will exalt you (Matthew 23:12)

Jesus is telling us not to worry about promoting ourselves. We should even think about ourselves. Instead, we should think about how we can help others. Jesus saw the incredible value of people. All people are precious to God: religious and irreligious; saints and sinners. When we truly understand that it will make it easier to serve as Jesus did. We understand how God loves us, but we may have a harder time understanding how God might love my miserable neighbor.

SLIDE 13 God expects us to surrender our sinful human nature to him. He wants us to allow ourselves to be changed so that we willingly give our lives away in grateful service to him. We don’t do this to be saved or to earn our salvation, but we put others first and serve others because this is the example Jesus gave us and because this is what we have received from Jesus. Jesus put us first and died on the cross in our place. Now, out of thanks for all he has done for us we seek to serve others and show them that same love. Because those who are considered greatest in the kingdom of heaven are those who have humbled themselves to serve others.