Sermon Tone Analysis

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message.

The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

I’m going to begin this morning by asking you a question:

Do you want to be great?

My guess is that for most of you, you secretly want to say yes, but you’re afraid that if you do that, it will sound selfish, and since we’re in the midst of a sermon series titled “Selfless”, the obvious answer must be “no”.

Tension

But what if I were to tell you that Jesus wants us to be great.

It’s just that His definition of greatness is much different than that of the world.

We live in a world where greatness is measured by things like power, prestige, position and possessions.

It is determined based on what kind of degree you have or by all the initials after your name.

So if you were to take a poll and ask people who the greatest people are in America, they are likely to name athletes, actors, singers, the CEO’s of large companies or those on the list of the wealthiest people in the country.

We’ve even coined a term to describe these people - G.O.A.T. [show photo of a goat].

No, not that kind of goat - the acronym “G.O.A.T.” which stands for the “greatest of all time”.

[G.O.A.T. picture] If you’re not familiar with that term, it’s actually a fairly recently coined term that wasn’t added to the dictionary until 2018.

But in God’s kingdom, the greatest are determined in a completely different way and today, we’ll let Jesus show us how greatness is determined in His world.

Truth

As is almost often the case, context is important for our understanding of today’s passage, which is found in Mark chapter 10.

Chapters 8-10 of Mark’s gospel form a cohesive unit.

Jesus is traveling from place to place with His disciples on His way to Jerusalem, where He will be crucified.

He uses the encounters that take place along the way as opportunities to teach His disciples.

There are three main themes that are embodied in that teaching:

The kingdom of God

His upcoming death and resurrection

The idea of the first becoming last and the last becoming first.

This is the theme that is particularly relevant to the passage we will look at today.

It’s important to note that Jesus had frequently spoken of this idea prior to the event that we’ll study today, so this shouldn’t be anything new for His disciples.

I’ve always figured that if Jesus needed to teach His disciples the same thing over and over before they got it, then it’s probably wise for me to do the same thing when I teach.

So don’t be offended if you think I’m beating a point to death, because even though you may get it the first time, not everyone else will.

With that in mind, follow along as I read today’s passage:

The main idea here is very clear:

In God’s kingdom, the way to greatness is servanthood and slavery

Matthew’s account of this event reveals that it wasn’t just James and John that approached Jesus.

Their mother also came along with them and made the same request.

Apparently she was what we would call a “helicopter mom” today.

My first reaction to that is to say to her two sons, “Man up guys!” “Do you really need your mom to ask Jesus for what you want?”

But we need to understand who their mother was.

If you put together the four gospel accounts you will discover that their mom is Salome, the sister of Mary, Jesus’ mother.

So she is Jesus’ aunt.

She is in essence asking for a family favor.

But she doesn’t ask anything for herself.

Perhaps she is seeking to live vicariously through the achievement of her children, somewhat like the parents today who spend countless hours and financial resources in hopes that their kid will become the next Olympic star, professional athlete, or a famous actor or singer.

Or maybe the parent with this bumper sticker.

[Proud parent of an honor roll student].

Personally kind of like this one.

[Proud parent of a child whose self esteem doesn’t depend on minor scholastic achievements being displayed on a car bumper].

Salome and her two sons are very bold.

They come to Jesus and ask if He will grant them whatever they ask.

That seems pretty brash to us, but in reality that’s how a lot of people treat Jesus - like some genie who is there to grant their wishes.

I’m reminded of the elderly man who was cleaning out his attic and found an old lamp.

When he rubbed it with a cloth to clean it off, a genie appeared, and as genies always do, offered to grant him three wishes.

Of course, the first wish the man made was to be wealthy.

“Granted”, said the genie, “I just deposited 5 million dollars in your bank account”.

The man thought for a while and then asked for his second wish - to be young again.

Poof, he was immediately 25 years old.

He though again for a few more minutes before deciding on his third wish.

‘I want to be irresistible to women”.

The genie turned him into a box of chocolates.

What James and John asked of Jesus was far more outrageous than those requests.

They asked for Jesus to place them at His right and left hand when His kingdom was inaugurated.

That would have made them the second and third most powerful people in that kingdom, behind only Jesus.

But perhaps that request wasn’t quite as far fetched as it sounds to us.

After all, not long before this, Jesus made this promise to His disciples:

But for James and John, it wasn’t just enough to be one of the twelve, they wanted to make sure they got the best thrones, the ones with the most influence and power.

As part of Jesus’ inner circle that also included Peter, they probably felt entitled to that position.

And they also seemed to think if they asked first, it would give them a leg up on the others.

James and John seem to have forgotten that they had done absolutely nothing to earn their way into Jesus’ inner circle.

They weren’t well educated or wealthy or influential.

They were in that position only because Jesus had chosen them and thus they weren’t really entitled to anything.

That is not altogether different that the entitlement culture we live in today, where people believe that they are owed something even though they have done nothing to earn or deserve it.

And they have no problem finding plenty of politicians who will promise to give them those things in return for keeping them in office.

I’m going to come back to Jesus’ response in a moment, but before I do that I want to skip ahead to verse 41 and see how the other ten apostles responded.

They were indignant at James and John, but not for the right reason.

They weren’t upset because the request they made was inappropriate or disrespectful of Jesus.

Based on Jesus’ response, it seems most likely they were just mad they hadn’t thought to ask first.

And the idea that James and John thought they were superior to the others didn’t set well with them either.

What is really interesting here is that Jesus doesn’t directly condemn either group.

It is particularly important to note that He doesn’t tell them that their desire to be great is wrong.

But He does make it clear that greatness in His kingdom is not measured by who sits in a place of prominence.

As we said earlier...

In God’s kingdom, the way to greatness is servanthood and slavery

So let’s look at how Jesus responded to James and John and to the other 10 apostles and see what we can learn about...

Application

HOW TO DEVELOP THE HEART OF A SERVANT

Look to the example of Jesus

I’ll begin with the principle we see in the last verse of this passage.

If there is anyone who deserved a place of honor and prominence, it was Jesus.

Many of you are familiar with Philippians chapter 2. I have to wonder if Paul didn’t write that chapter based on what Jesus says here.

I’m not going to read that right now because of time limitations, but I am going to encourage you to read it again this week.

In fact, I’m going to make that part of your homework assignment.

Jesus carried out the greatest act of servanthood ever when He left the glory of heaven, came here to earth and put on the body of a man so that He could serve all of mankind, even those who He knew beforehand would reject Him.

He died on the cross, not because He deserved it, but because He loves us so much.

And because He did not desire the kind of things that would have made Him great in the eyes of the world, God exalted Him and one day every knee will bow and confess that He is Lord.

Check my motives

I expect that that those in this world are going to be motivated by things like wealth, fame, power and entitlement.

But I am deeply saddened when I see the same thing happen with the body of Christ.

Let me be really clear that I am completely incapable of judging the motivations of another person.

Only God can do that.