True Greatness

How do you measure greatness?

Do you measure greatness by someones performance in something?

Do you measure greatness by someones title or position?

Do you measure greatness by what others think of someone?

Or, do you measure greatness by what God’s word says about greatness?

Oxford dictionary: (N) the quality of being great, distinguished, or eminent.

Wikipedia says: Greatness is a concept of a state of superiority affecting a person or object in a particular place or area. Greatness can also be attributed to individuals who possess a natural ability to be better than all others

(Transition) These are definitions that we see the world gives, now may we look at what Jesus says about true greatness in our passage this morning.

True Greatness exampled, the passage

Luke 9:46–47 NASB95

46 An argument started among them as to which of them might be the greatest. 47 But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart, took a child and stood him by His side,

Luke 9:48–49 NASB95

48 and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me; for the one who is least among all of you, this is the one who is great.” 49 John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name; and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow along with us.”

Luke 9:50–51 NASB95

50 But Jesus said to him, “Do not hinder him; for he who is not against you is for you.” 51 When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem;

Luke 9:52–53 NASB95

52 and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem.

Luke 9:54–56 NASB95

54 When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” And they went on to another village.

Does anything stick out to you in this passage?

Why is there an argument going on among the apostles (v.46)?

Which of them might be the greatest

What did Jesus know (v.47)?

What they were thinking in their heart.

How does Jesus illustrate greatness (v.48)?

By receiving a child

Described as the one who is least among all of you is the one who is great!

That does not line up with the worlds definition does it?

In responding to John’s comment to Jesus (v.49) what does Jesus have to say, and why (v.50)?

Do not hinder him

He who is not against you, is for you.

Let me ask a question, does this mean that we “must” accept all believers regardless of their beliefs?

Believers yes, their beliefs no!

How about pulling facts from (vv.51-52)?

Date of His ascension was coming, which means his death, burial, resurrection were coming soon.

He was determined to go to Jerusalem. He set his face as flint in some versions.

He sent messengers to go make arrangements for Him.

They did not receive a warm reception, what did James and John want to do (vv.53-54)?

Command fire from heaven to consume them.

Why did the Son of Man come according to (v.56)?

Not to destroy lives, but to save them.

True Greatness: being like a child.

There is an assumption with the apostles, they think one of them is going to be the greatest.

There was a division already going on, Peter, James, and John had recently come down from the mountain where Jesus transfigured.

Jesus knew their hearts. He could point to Himself, yet he chose a child to demonstrate the greatest in character.

In a culture where children had little or no value, were not threatening to anyone, did not care about what others thought (social status), not jaded by success or ambition.

“The principle being established by Jesus was that in the kingdom of God there is a reversal of values involved. The last will be first; the least will be the greatest.” (Pate)

Jesus uses the child to illustrate, to be a representation, a reflection of Himself, and that Jesus was a reflection of His Father who is in heaven.

Jesus had no concern about His status

Jesus had no concern to be the center of attention

Jesus did not have an intimidating presence

“Since the nature of Jesus is like one of these little children, how we treat those who are humble like children shows what we think of the nature of Jesus.” (Guzik)

As you can see from this passage the challenge to the apostles and to us today is to be the least.

Jesus wants followers to embrace being least as a choice, allowing others to be preferred.

In reality we know many people think that this is a weakness in Christians, when it is really strength!

True Greatness: is not cliquish

Being a follower of Jesus is not cliquish.

God can use many people, many ways to accomplish His will, even people that do not follow like you do.

Again there was division there were people able to do what they were not just recently not able to do. Others were casting out demons.

The division brought about a call for destruction and that is not what Jesus was about when it came to lives.

“There are many ways that are wrong in some aspect of their presentation or teaching, yet they still set forth Jesus in some manner. Let God deal with them. Those who are not against a Biblical Jesus are still on our side, at least in some way.”

True Greatness is marked by determination

Luke 9:51–52 NASB95

51 When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; 52 and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him.

Luke 9:53 NASB95

53 But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem.

Jesus demonstrated steadfast determination.

Steadfast determination in fact He set His face

Steadfast to go to fulfill His task in Jerusalem, knowing what was coming and willing to endure it.

We can learn from this to keep focus too, even in the hard times, knowing what we have in Christ!

Jesus had focus and courage, He saw the cross on the horizon, yet set His face like flint to go.

Jesus knew He would be forsaken, yet went to the cross. Took on the penalty that was due to man.

Jesus sent messengers before Him to prepare for Him in village of Samaritans.

“Angels, literally; but this proves that the word angel signifies a messenger of any kind, whether Divine or human. The messengers in this case were probably James and John.” (Clarke)

Conflict between Jews, Samaritans and they would not receive them for they were going to Jerusalem. Origin goes back to the mixed people, intermarrying people (2Kng17:24) mixed people of Jews-Gentiles, no longer a pure race. They developed their own scripture (Samaritan Pentateuch); built their own temple of worship on Mt. Gerizim (see Jn4:20) and celebrated their own Passover (partial quote by Barclay)

True greatness: Marked by mercy

Luke 9:54–55 NASB95

54 When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of;

Luke 9:56 NASB95

56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” And they went on to another village.

Jesus teaches about mercy vs. judgment in this passage.

John, James wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy, but Jesus came not to destroy, but to save lives.

Can you see the confidence in them, they thought they could do this, even after the apostles could not cast out demon from boy recently.

Jesus had set His face like flint, was focused and was about salvation right now and would not bring judgment. It was about love, not anger or destruction.

Jesus came to seek and save the lost (Lk19:10) and the Samaritans were lost and wanted them saved too, not to burn them up.

Jesus rebuked them! Why?

They did not know themselves: they thought they had the power to call down the fire, and the power and the authority came from the Father through Him. It was not their power, it was His, they did not understand, or know themselves in this.

They did not know Jesus and His mission.

Jesus was about saving not destroying

Jesus calls for mercy and being merciful to others, we have seen that with the others not following, and here with the village people..

“The disciples of that Christ who died for his enemies should never think of avenging themselves on their persecutors.” (Clarke)

True greatness is shown in sacrifice

Luke 9:57–58 NASB95

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

Luke 9:59–60 NASB95

59 And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” 60 But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”

Many want to follow, be a part of the movement, but not many are willing to sacrifice for it as we see in this passage.

Any excuse is putting something, someone else above God.

Jesus did not tell people they could not follow Him, He told them what to do to follow Him.

Has that changed today? - - - - - - NO!

Jesus told people the truth, just as we should, there is a cost of being a disciple of Jesus.

True Greatness: follow wholeheartedly, without delay

Luke 9:61–62 NASB95

61 Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” 62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

True greatness is being “all in,” and follows Jesus with no delay be it long (like previous verse) or short (like this verse).

Jesus stressed the commitment necessary to follow Him, and used an illustration they would be familiar with, a farmer, a field, a plow.

A plowman would set his focus on something before him and not be distracted so to plow a straight row.

A plowman once he set to plow held on, he kept moving forward toward that he set his focus on.

“Ploughmen are not usually learned persons, nor are they often poets in disguise. But there is one virtue they possess pre-eminently, and that is the virtue of quietly holding to it.” (Morrison)

Conclusion on greatness

True greatness is child like

True greatness is not cliquish

True greatness is steadfast determination

True greatness is marked by mercy

True greatness is shown in sacrifice

True greatness follows Jesus wholeheartedly, without delay

(Prayer) (Close)