Upside Down Leadership

Introduction

Luke 22:24–30 NIV

24 A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. 25 Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. 26 But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. 27 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? But I am among you as one who serves. 28 You are those who have stood by me in my trials. 29 And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, 30 so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Have you ever had a time when you were working with someone (Maybe on a school project or a sports team) and they were the leader of the group but they did not want to do any of the work. They would rather use their authority as the leader to boss everyone else around and get them to do the work. Doesn’t this suck?

Context - Right before this passage we see Jesus and the disciples at the last supper. Jesus talks about the coming of the kingdom of God and then he talks about how someone at the table will betray him.

Transition - So then something happens. The disciples start to argue about who is the greatest.

Body

The Human Mentality

Luke 22:24 NIV

24 A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest.

We see here that the disciples are completely caught up in their self. They are only worried about who is the greatest.

They aren’t even worried about who is most gifted if someone had to replace lead instead of Jesus they are just worried about looks. We can see this in the way that it says considered to be. (Luke: Verse by Verse)

“Despite Jesus’ clear words about his impending suffering and death they still had aspirations that he would bring in his kingdom soon. Thinking of themselves as courtiers, even nobility, they vied with one another like schoolboys for position and possible power (22:24).” (RtB Lu)

But this is simply the human condition. We naturally want to be in power and want other people to look at us as better than most.

We want people to serve us because we are naturally selfish with our human nature.

Transition - This human condition of selfishness and wanting to be served can only get worse when we rise to leadership or places of status unless we do something about it.

People who become famous or wealthy become very evil people because this is what was in them all along.

Why do think humans naturally look to be served before we look to serve?

Leadership of The World

Luke 22:25 NIV

25 Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors.

The leaders of the world use their power for self gratification and self serving.

As people in the world step into higher positions of power it ends up being that they can be served more and more.

With a worldly mindset this is the reason to desire more power and leadership. Because it allows us to be served more.

Example - “They bestowed the title on themselves. So in reality “benefactor” described a system that promoted injustice and unfairness. It was a system of “I will scratch your back if you will scratch mine.” It was a system of wealth limited to the few, and poverty shared by the masses. It was a system of a few gifts and an immense amount of oppression. It was a system where the oppressed had to praise the oppressor for any small favor. It was a system without freedom, without opportunity, and without love and care.” (HNTC LK)

That promotion allows us to get more money and get more people to tell what to do.

Transition - See but this idea of leadership and serving of the self is not the way leadership in the kingdom of God works.

Do you think it can be easy to lead like the world leads?

Godly Leadership in The Kingdom of God

Luke 22:26–30 NIV

26 But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. 27 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? But I am among you as one who serves. 28 You are those who have stood by me in my trials. 29 And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, 30 so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

So, if the way that we see the world doing leadership is not the way to do leadership in the kingdom of God, how do we know how we need to lead? Well we have to look at Jesus of course.

Jesus exclaims that they are not to be like the Gentile leaders. That they are not to exercise their authority to lord over people or to be served.

We see here that Jesus is demanding that the disciples completely turn the way that they think about leadership on its head.

In their society they would never long to be the youngest or to be the server instead of the one at the table. But this is what true leadership looks like in the kingdom of God.

Mark 9:33–35 “33 And they came to Capernaum. And after he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 34 But they were silent, because they had argued with one another on the way about who was greatest. 35 And he sat down and called the twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he will be last of all and servant of all.””

Jesus is also challenging us to have this same mentality when it comes to leadership and our daily lives.

Leadership in the kingdom of God does not call us to be served but it calls us to serve others just as Christ served us.

Now Jesus is challenging us but one good thing is that he has already set the example for us.

Jesus is the one who deserved the most service. He shouldn’t have to serve anyone because no one deserves his service. But he did. Jesus served people over and over again.

Application

Now we have to apply this principle of servant leadership to our lives .

This is a key characteristic of anyone who is in the kingdom of God.

As we lead and as we live we have to be actively be looking at ways to serve others rather than be served just like Christ did.

Why do you think it was hard for the disciples to understand the way leadership works in the kingdom of God? Is it hard for you to understand this at times? Why or why not?

What are some ways that you can be a servant leader just like Jesus was?