Who Is the Greatest?
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
Beloved, there is a story of a young woman who wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she read the question on the application blank that asked,
“Are you a leader?”
Being both honest and conscientious, she wrote,
“No,” and returned the application, expecting the worst.
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To her surprise, she received this letter from the college:
“Dear Applicant:
A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders.
We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one follower.”
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Beloved, so many people want to be leaders...
They want to be influencers and have many followers...
Just look at social media.
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But, what does really mean to lead?
What does it look like to be a leader?
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More importantly, what does really mean to lead biblically?
What does it look like to be a leader by Christ’s standard?
This Lord’s Day we will answer those questions and more.
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So, please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.
We will conduct our study in Chapter 22 and focus on verses 24 through 30.
Our message this morning is titled “Who Is the Greatest?”
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As you are turning to our passage today, please keep in mind this fact:
The event that we will cover today happens right after Jesus said He would be betrayed...
Yet, instead of showing sympathy to the Lord, His disciples again got lost in human pride and ambition...
Considering that this was the night before the cross, this may have been one of their most humiliating and disappointing moments...
And that is saying something compared to all the times they put their foot in their mouths up to this point.
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So, this morning we will cover three main points:
1) The Dispute
2) The Servant Leader
And...
3) The Kingdom of God
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Heavenly Father...
Who is like You?
Who has created all things seen and unseen?
Who is sovereign over every molecule and atom?
Who is like our God?
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Oh precious Heavenly Father, we thank You for everything You have allowed to transpire...
We thank You for all that You give...
And we thank You for all that You take away...
For Your wisdom and knowledge is beyond our human minds...
Your ways and prefect decrees are well above our finite understanding...
You are good and are the very definition of good.
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I implore You to forgive us of our sinful ways...
Forgive our sinful desires...
Forgive our wicked tendencies.
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Search us...
Search every single one of us...
And bring to the forefront our sin and impurity...
And make us clean...
Help us to cut out all our shortcomings mold us to be more like Your Son.
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And it is in Jesus’ name we pray all these things...
Amen.
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Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
24 A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.
25 And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors.
26 But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves.
27 For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.
28 “You are those who have stayed with me in my trials,
29 and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom,
30 that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) The Dispute
1) The Dispute
Verse 24: A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.
Beloved, let us start with some context...
First let us address the historical mindset of Jesus’s disciples.
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As with much of the Jews in that day, the disciples had specific messianic expectations...
They where thinking of a political liberator...
Someone who would overthrow the Roman Empire...
They likely had the Maccabean revolt of 166–160 BC in their minds and believed Jesus would lead a greater and successful revolt...
Do to this thinking the disciples dreamed of their status in this earthly kingdom...
They dreamed of honor...
They dreamed of power...
They dreamed of prestige...
They dreamed of high positions...
They where thinking of their political freedom instead of the freedom from sin that Jesus’s earthly ministry was actually focused on.
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Furthermore, this subject about greatness among the disciples was a recurring pattern...
Earlier in our study we even covered this in Luke 9:46-48:
46 An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest.
47 But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side
48 and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.”
Almost exactly two years ago on July 28, 2024 we dove deep and exposited this passage...
Look for that message on our YouTube channel for a refresher on what we covered.
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In short, God looks at greatness in a very different way than the world...
But the disciples did not learn their lesson...
In Mark 10:35–45 it says:
35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”
37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
39 And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized,
40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.
42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,
44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.
45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
James and John, with the help of their mom tried to seek positions to be above the rest our their fellow disciples...
And this lead to another time that Jesus would rebuke His disciples on seeking greatness in an earthly way.
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So, now that we looked at the mentality of the disciples...
Now that we saw that these disciples on multiple previous occasions where rebuked by Jesus for seeking wordly greatness...
We can look at the context of our passage within our study of the Gospel of Luke.
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Previously, in our study we covered Luke 22:14-23, which says:
14 And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him.
15 And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
16 For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
17 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves.
18 For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
21 But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table.
22 For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!”
23 And they began to question one another, which of them it could be who was going to do this.
Thus, the disciples’ argument about who is the greatest emerges from their puzzlement over who might betray Jesus...
So, here is Jesus telling His disciples that one of them would betray Him...
They are shocked...
Question themselves...
And then start talking about their own greatness!
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That is wild!
On top of that, Jesus just modeled for them what servant leadership looked like when He washed their feet as it says in John 13:1–17:
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God,
4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.
5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”
10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”
11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you?
13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.
14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
So, even after all this, their pride and ambition comes up...
On the eve of Christ’s crucifixion the disciples are arguing about who of them is the greatest!
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So, how did Jesus respond to this?
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Let us take a look at our next point for the answer.
2) The Servant Leader
2) The Servant Leader
Verses 25-27: And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.
Beloved, Let us start this next section by looking at the title of “Benefactors” or as some translation use “friends of the people.”
This title was used by the heathen rulers of both Egypt and Syria, though it was rarely a fitting description.
The intent was that these rulers wanted to portray themselves as champions of their people...
However, in reality, it had a very condescending ring to it...
You see, many who used the title of “benefactor” were actually ruthless tyrants...
They were no friend of the people at all.
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Thus, Jesus is saying that we as His followers are not to be like these hypocritical rulers...
We are not to be tyrants and abuse any power or authority that we are given.
Jesus says this is not to be so with us.
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Furthermore, Jesus says:
“Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves.”
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It is important to note that the “Greatest among you” or “The one who rules” is a term for an officer in the church...
In fact, the Greek word for “serves” is diakonōn, from which the word deacon actually comes from.
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Now, Jesus is not denying that there are leaders of the church...
The two offices of the church are:
1) Pastor/Elder/Overseer/Bishop/Shepherd
2) Deacon
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That is biblical and the qualification of those offices are explicitly laid out in Scripture.
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But what Jesus is saying is that those officers of the church are not to lord over their positions over others...
They are not to boast in their status...
In fact, the leader of the church are to be like those who have no claim or office in the church.
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So, Jesus is describing how such leaders are to lead faithfully...
The Elder...
The Deacon...
Is to be ready and willing to serve at a moments notice...
They are to without complaint do the job nobody else wants to do...
They are never to see themselves as better or above the people they are serving...
They are to be like Christ.
We must serve as Jesus served.
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The Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament on Luke says:
“Church leadership is in view, though it is initially the apostles who are addressed; the point made ultimately applies to the full range of church leaders.
The commitment is not to power, but service.
The commitment is not to separate from those who are ruled, but to identify with them.
Elitism is not the Twelve’s call, but service and community among equals.
The contrast to the world’s definition of leadership could not be greater.”
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You see, Beloved, although Jesus is clearly “greater” than the disciples, His behavior during His earthly ministry was one of serving them.
Therefore church leaders who genuinely follow Jesus also should be servant of all...
And truly, any follower of Christ should be servant of all.
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Remember, as we discussed...
At the Passover meal Jesus displays His readiness to perform the lowliest of service by washing the disciples feet...
This was one of the most humiliating tasks of a slave that none of the disciples would lower themselves to do...
Yet, Jesus...
God in the flesh...
The Creator of all things seen and unseen...
He laid aside His outer garments...
He take a towel...
He tied it around his waist...
He poured water into a basin...
And He began to wash the disciples’ filthy feet...
He wiped them with the towel that was wrapped around Him...
And He did it without a single complaint.
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If this is what our precious Lord and Savior does...
Are we not to follow in His footsteps?
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Beloved, serve others with a joyful heart...
Stop complaining and realize that gift God is giving you...
You get the opportunity to serve others like Christ.
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Remember, at on time, each and every one of us was a rebel against God...
Each and every one of us deserved Hellfire...
Yet, God adopted us into Him royal family...
And He allows us to serve Him by serving others...
So, be grateful...
Be joyful...
Be the hands and feet of Christ!
As Philippians 2:4–8 says:
4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
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Beloved, do you think much of the interest of others?
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If you don’t then you should...
God tells us, our own interests aren’t the only interests we should be interested in.
God tells us that we should be interested in our neighbors interests as well.
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Our motivation is not about fairness...
Our motivation is not about our status...
Our motivation is not about our pride.
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Our motivation is to be humble like Christ...
Our motivation is to be obedient like Christ...
Our motivation is to be selfless like Christ.
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As 2 Corinthians 8:9 says:
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
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Next, let us see what Jesus has to say in our passage as we progress in our study...
And that takes us to our third and final point.
3) The Kingdom of God
3) The Kingdom of God
Verses 28-30: “You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Beloved, we really see the patience and love Jesus had with His disciples here...
Although they were arguing yet again about how was the greatest...
Although they were doing this the day before He was about to be crucified...
Jesus lovingly rebukes them as we saw in our previous point and now lay out some promises that they can look forward to.
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First Jesus acknowledges that the Twelve joined Jesus at an earlier point in time in His earthly ministry, and from then until the present they have stood with Him even when many of those who claimed to follow Him left.
You see, Beloved, Jesus is about to gave the disciples some promises to hold on to...
But first, He commended them for being those who had stood by Him in His trials.
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Despite their pride...
Despite their indifference ambition...
And despite their failure to capitalize on their opportunities...
The disciples (with the exception of Judas) had remained faithful to Him.
In fact, Judas was later replaced by Matthias in Acts 1:26, which says:
26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
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As the MacArthur New Testament Commentary on Luke says:
“At the culmination of redemptive history, the apostles (including Matthias) will be rewarded.
They will be the most honored and noble guests, seated at Christ’s own table in His earthly kingdom, and granted rule over the twelve tribes of Israel.
Although in a few hours they all would abandon Christ and flee in panic, and Peter would verbally deny Him multiple times, they all would be restored.
It would then be their privilege and honor to proclaim the gospel, beginning the proclamation of the good news of salvation to the ends of the earth.”
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Next, Jesus says, “I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom.”
The term “assign” or “confer” as some translations render it can also mean make a covenant with...
And thus it brings to mind the new “covenant” of Luke 22:20, which says:
20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
The new covenant established with the apostles ultimately involves the promise of sharing in the future consummation of the kingdom when the Son of Man returns to reign.
As Jesus continues and says, “That you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
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Beloved, the twelve disciples would sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes...
As Matthew 19:28 says:
28 Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
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Thus, that the disciples should serve rather than seek greatness does not mean they will go unnoticed.
Jesus makes clear that He knows how they have stood with Him and that there will be a place for them in His Kingdom.
They are promised a wonderful future that includes judging the tribes of Israel.
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In fact, because all believers are united by God’s grace to Christ our Lord and King, they will rule with Him as it says in Revelation 5:10:
10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”
And all believers who are united by God’s grace to Christ the king will judge even angels as it says in 1 Corinthians 6:3:
3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
So, as this message comes to a close...
I would like you to consider this:
Ray Pritchard once said:
“We don’t have a leadership crisis.
What we have is a servanthood crisis.
We have too many people who want to be first, who want to lead the parade, who want to be on top of the heap, who want the big office, the title, the power, the perks and the prestige.
We don’t have enough people who are willing to work behind the scenes.
We don’t have enough people who really want to wash dirty feet.”
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Beloved, ask yourself...
How can I wash the feet of my neighbor?
How can I serve like Christ?
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
Let’s pray...
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Heavenly Father...
If anyone hearing this message right now does not know You in a saving way:
Allow them to see with brand new eyes...
Allow them to hear with brand new ears...
Allow them to understand with brand new mind...
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I appeal to Your Name’s sake!
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For those hearing this message who already know You:
Give us greater opportunities to serve You...
Give us the words to speak faithfully with others...
Give us the boldness required to share Your Good News with this wicked world...
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Again, I appeal to Your Name’s sake!
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It is in Jesus’ name we pray all these things...
To God be all the glory.
Amen.
