Kingdom Greatness

Introduction

Last week we saw a boy be healed but in the end we saw that it was all about faith. Faith is what brings us to salvation it it is what the Christian is to live their life by. In this passage we saw the importance of prayer in growing our faith, asking Jesus to help our unbelief. In that passage we ended with seeing Jesus tell the disciples about his coming death once again. After they left there and started traveling to Capernaum ,which is where a lot of the beginning of the book took place, on their Journey there is an argument. Tonight we are going to look at the root of this argument and how Jesus talks about this issue.

Before we get to deep though let me ask you a question, who here wants to be great? I’m talking searching out true greatness like the power of the Roman Empire or the boat carrying mentality of Goggins. I’m sure to some extent we all want this, it might look different for everyone but it is there. I want to be a great preacher and race car driver. How do you attain greatness? How do you attain greatness in the kingdom of God? The argument that Jesus addresses is that of greatness. Lets read the passage then we will see what is going on and break it down. While I read think about what it says in regards to greatness. Lets read Mark 9.33-41

Mark 9:33–41 ESV

And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

So on their journey there was a discussion that Jesus over heard, it was probably more of an argument, and he ask them about it. They were to embarrassed to tell him what it was about because they were discussing who was greatest. Jesus didn’t need them to tell him though because he knew. Jesus then instructs them that greatness is found in putting others first and being a servant over being served. He then takes it even deeper by saying that they need to embrace even the least of society. This was a complete counter cultural thought in this day and in ours. There is then a question asked by John about someone else that was doing things in Jesus’s name and Jesus says that he is for them and let him be for him because it is good is anyone does even a small task in his name.

This is something that is completely against what the world goes by today. The world says that to be great you have to focus on yourself, you have to put others aside and be ruthless in whatever you do. The Bible says something different from this.

It is also common in our world to not be unified. This passage also shows us how we must be unified around the mission of the gospel. As a pastor I should not be upset when other pastors are successful but I should be joyful over their success even though it is not from me.

So to be first you should be last and when you see other people succeed for the sake of the gospel you should rejoice. These are not easy things to do but we need to work towards them, lets look tonight at why we need these things and how we can practically do them in our own lives. Lets pray then we can start with the search for greatness.

pray

The Search for Greatness

Mark 9:35–37 ESV

And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

So we have established that we would all like to attain some form of greatness. This passage just teaches us something a little bit different about it than we typically think. Greatness is not found in attaining a high status but rather it is found in lowering yourself and putting others first.

This is something that is so contrary to the way that we think but we can see that when we do it there is something special about it. When Jesus washes the feet of the disciples he is being a servant, when he dies on the cross he is putting all of humanity over himself. He was a perfect example of this.

This is not some concept that is new to the Bible but rather is one that has been there from the very beginning. It is the way that God desires us to act and we see that it is something that brings us joy. When we put others ahead of ourselves we can know that we are doing good. We also can know that no matter what area of life we are talking about the most true joy is found in God’s design and living selflessly is part of that.

I’m not big on teaching morals because I think that is useless until you have Jesus and once you truly have him and are devoted to him you will work to know right and wrong and will strive to do right. That is why I am not up here teaching lessons like “why lying is sin” you know that without me, you should still know why biblically but it doesn’t matter without Jesus. Well here is a moral lesson that I want to bring out in tonight's lesson because it is not always clear and I think that it can bring clarity to your life to know what kind of life that you are living. Here it is; greatness in God’s eyes is found by putting others first not yourself. So how do we do this?

This will look different for all of us but I want to try to illustrate this to you a bit. This might be helping someone that society looks down on when they need it, knowing you will not get anything in return or even recognition. It might be doing things behind the scenes a bit, my grandpa for years without anyone knowing took care or a lot of the things at the church I grew up in. He would change water filters, change air vent filters, change light-bulbs, and so on. Nobody knew he did this until he had a surgery and was layed up for a while and couldn’t do it. That’s when people started noticing that it wasn’t getting done and they started telling the pastor that he was slacking which confused him because he never did it. That is when he asked me when I was visiting him if I could run up and check on that stuff to which I did and told the pastor who had been doing it for years.

This is an image of what being a servant to all looks like, this is what it looks like to put others ahead of yourself. Think about what this might look like in your own life. Think about what it might look like in things that you are already involved in, sports, band, home life, friend groups. Think of some things that would be good for you to start doing to live out more of your life like this. Think specifically about this in your own personal life. I can tell you the big application but you need to find out how it specifically applies to you. I would encourage you to talk about some of these things that you are going to do in your small groups after this.

Remember that greatness is found in being a servant to all, even the least of society.

Our View of Others

Mark 9:38–41 ESV

John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

Often our view of others is not always the best, but for those of us that are in Christ how do we view others that are in Christ. Maybe it is a different church or maybe it is another Christian. I would say that this is something that is easy to fall into trouble with, especially for me as a minister. We see someone else following what the Bible says and they are having great success in the ministry while maybe you are not and you start looking for reasons that they should not even be doing that thing in the first place. That is basically what happens here in this story, this man is doing things in the name of Jesus and the apostles are trying to get him to stop since he is not one of them but Jesus says why would you stop him, he is on our side.

We need to know that success for the sake of the gospel is success no matter who it is through. This is with the exception of false teachers of course. There are many pastors that have had massive moral failures but that doesn’t mean that the people that came to faith in Jesus through their ministry are any less of Christians.

When other Christians have success advancing the gospel it is a reason to rejoice.

Conclusion

In all of this we need to ask where our motives are, are they for God’s glory or ours? When we put others first we are glorifying God, when we are a servant to all we are glorifying God, when we rejoice in the success of others we are glorifying God. Where do you want the glory to be?

In the end the biggest way that we can put others in front of ourselves is by sharing the gospel with them. We are often scared to do this because we are worried about what they might think of us or that we might mess up. Those excuses are just holding you back from the type of greatness that God desires. What you need to share with them is that they are sinners in need of a savior just like you and that Jesus came to be that savior, all you need to do to receive him is put your faith in him and turn away from your sins. This is the gospel and it is the message that everyone needs to hear.

Maybe tonight you heard me say it and you realized that you have never accepted it, do that tonight! We would love to rejoice with you in that. Maybe tonight you have realized you have been chasing worldly greatness and you need to shift to chasing the type of greatness that God is looking for.