True Greatness

Reasons for Living Final Message

True Greatness

Matthew 20:20-28

Theme: Jesus teaches the pathway to true greatness.

Welcome to Mountain View Baptist Church. Being in church each week is a great decision for you and your family. If you are a first-time guest, we would love to connect with you. Please stop by the welcome center and drop off your connection card. We would love to get to know you better and pray for you.

We have been in a current series entitled: The Reason for Living. Sometimes people will ask why am I here? What is my reason for living? We have looked at God’s guidebook the Bible to answer those questions. In week 1, God shows us we are to glorify Him, week 2, we are to make a difference, week 3 we are to Occupy till I Come, and today: True Greatness as seen in this passage. The scope of the series will circle back to the beginning.

In the passage we just read, Jesus was just a few days from going to Jerusalem to die. This was the third time He announced His arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection. This time He tells them of the cross and resurrection but it did not resonate in their heart. Salome and her two sons came to Jesus about who will be honored for the being the greatest in the kingdom. Perhaps they had become so familiar with the Roman Empire and the kings sitting on the throne surrounded by his political powers. So in their minds they pictured Jesus as being the king sitting on the throne in His kingdom surrounded by His great servants.

When Jesus spoke of the cross, they were only interested in a crown. They wanted reserved seats on special thrones. Perhaps Salome wanted to promote her sons. Sitting in a chair or gaining a position does not make one great.

The question was down to what is True Greatness? If I am to live the Christian life, what does that look like practically? How does a great Christian life His life? Jesus explains what is true greatness.

Path 1 . . .

Focus on Godly character

While living in the Roman Empire world, power and position was exalted. The key to true greatness is not found in position or power but in character. The throne and reward come through praying with our lives and not with our lips. We focus on the things God wants in our lives.

Character is what we are really are and Jesus is calling the disciples to be servant leaders.

This means we identify with Jesus in His service and suffering. It begins when we accept Jesus as our Savior. If you have never accepted Him, today would be the perfect day to turn to Christ. He is the only way to heaven. Romans 10:13.

Our Godly character is chiseled in our prayer closet spending time with Him.

To improve our character through prayer, we must improve our service. If we are serving Him and others, then we will not be praying selfishly. If we like Samuel say, “Speak Lord, for Thy servants heareth.” Then He will say to us, “Spek servant, for thy Lord heareth.” Prayer will develop our Christian character in a tremendous way.

Our prayers should make us easier to live with. The two disciples prayed selfishly and threw the fellowship into an uproar. Our prayers should mold us to be more like Christ. If our prayers do not mold us and bring us closer to God, then we are praying out of God’s will.

The disciples and his mother were asking for privilege, status and power. The right and left side positions alongside Jesus suggest positions of prestige and power in His earthly kingdom.

Their focus was on the external, their image. God is teaching our focus needs to be on Godly character.

This is not a New Testament phenomenon, it is a human phenomenon. We are live in a proud and egotistical generation. People push and promote themselves in ways that would have been abhorrent and totally unacceptable only a generation ago. Yet in a great part of the modern culture, pride and high self-esteem have come to be redefined not only as virtues but as the supreme virtues. The promotion of self-esteem, self-fulfillment, and self-glory has become major industry that ranges from exercise programs to motivation for executive success. Tragically, the cult of selfism has found its way into the churches. Books, seminars, conferences, magazines, and organizations that promote self under the guise of personal spiritual development abound.

It seems the church has become self-indulgent, self-satisfied, and self-reliant, claiming numerical and financial growth as evidence of spiritual blessing. It has replaced sacrifice with success, suffering with self-satisfaction, and godly obedience with fleshly indulgence.

The focus on Godly character seems to be missing today and Jesus is teaching us here the importance of focusing on character.

Path 2 . . .

Being willing to suffer

The disciples and their mother did not realize that the cross must precede the crown. To share the crown means you must share in the suffering. The pathway of greatness is self-denial and suffering when call upon by God.

The great servants in Scripture were men who would suffer when called upon. They knew the way to true greatness meant they were to suffer. Noah suffered rejection as he built the ark, Joseph suffered in jail, Moses suffered in the desert, Joshua suffered in the battles in Canaan, Elijah suffered a death threat, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah suffered fiery furnace, Daniel the lion’s den, Paul suffered many things during his lifetime, John the Baptist humbling said “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:” (Matthew 3:11).

Peter’s first hint of true greatness came when he said

“When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Luke 5:8)

When he was ready to die

“Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.” (2 Peter 1:14)

“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:18)

The apostle Paul learned that the way to great glory is through great affliction for Christ’s sake. Although he suffered extreme hardship, persecution, and suffering, he considered those things insignificant.

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:17–18)

To drink the cup meant to drink the full measure, leaving nothing. It was a common expression that meant to stay with something to the end, endure the limits, and the cost. The cup that Jesus was about to drink was worse than the physical agony of the cross, it was bearing the sin of mankind on the cross which separated Him from God.

Path 3. . .

Be willing to serve others

Jesus is teaching the opposite of what the world says. His teachings were counter cultural and they were difficult to understand. The world’s greatness is not found in how many people serve you. In the Biblical world it is how many you serve. The world thinks greatness is found in how many you Lord over as mentioned here-the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over-virtually every government of that day was a form of dictatorship.

William Barclay “The world may assess a man’s greatness by the number of people he controls and who are at his beck and call; or by his intellectual standing and his academic eminence; or by the number of committees of which he is a member; or by the size of his bank balance and the material possessions he has amassed: but in the assessment of Jesus Christ these things are irrelevant.”

Jesus was speaking of true greatness that comes from genuine humility. A servant is a diakonia which we get the word deacon from. The word means a person who does menial labor such as house cleaning or serving tables. This was not mentioned to dishonor but simply describe the heart and spirit of humility and service. If a man aspires to true greatness it will come with a heart to serve and help others.

The cost of true greatness is humble, selfless, sacrificial service. The Christian who desires to be great and first in the kingdom is the one who is willing to serve in the hard place, the uncomfortable place, the lonely place, the demanding place, the place where he is not appreciated and may even be persecuted. Knowing that time is short and eternity long, he is willing to spend and be spent. He is willing to work for excellence without becoming proud, to withstand criticism without becoming bitter, to be misjudged without becoming defensive, and to withstand suffering without succumbing to self-pity.[1]

This kind of greatness is pleasing to God because it is humble and self-giving rather than proud and self-serving. The way to the world’s greatness is through pleasing and being served by men; the way to God’s greatness is through pleasing Him and serving others in His name.

Path 4 . . .

Be willing to direct our lives upward

They were concerned about her and God reminds us to think on heavenly things. Jesus came to die on the cross so that they can go to heaven? Do you know Him today?

Give us a heart like David

“Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.” (1 Chronicles 29:11–12)

Jesus is the example of true greatness. We are not to look to the world but look the Savior for true greatness. Christian: Will you aspire today to True Greatness?

[1] John F. MacArthur Jr., Matthew, vol. 3, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1985), 243.