The Great and Successful Cross

Get all setup, that takes an hour, settle in and play, that takes a few more hours. We all like Risk, this is good fun. We are here to have fun together.

We also enjoy the competitive aspect, play to win, world domination, alliances and treaties, all that. You missed a card on your turn, nope too late next turn started. You misrolled the dice… no you can’t re-roll just the low one.

Dude, you didn’t have 10 armies there, I counted, I left the room. You are a cheater face. Treaty over, backstab, how do you like that?

No, your win doesn’t count, you’re a cheater, I hate you, I’m going home!

Good times. World domination, greatness, success… but did we actually do what we set out to do?

Greatness

When “greatness” is the goal, an end in itself, it can be called “greatness-ism”… an obsession or pursuit of “greatness.”

So… let’s use a better word. Great is what they will call me if I am successful!

Success

Of course we want to be successful! Anyone set out to be a failure or to fail at things? No, that’s ridiculous.

That isn’t a bad thing. You think I’m about to pull a switch-eroo on you, but aiming for success at worthy endeavors isn’t a bad thing.

What are your goals? What do you strive for?

Look, we aren’t trying to be “successful at taking over the world.”

Well… I see Arabelle over there, so I’ll speak for myself. I’m not trying to be successful at taking over the world.

I want good things, great things for my family and my church… to be successful at Fatherhood, Husbanding, at work, at church.

These are good “life” things.

We want our church to be successful, to grow in numbers, to grow in discipleship, our ministries to be “successful” in what they set out to accomplish.

These are good “church” or “God” things.

I remember doing this Advisory Board years ago, what is success and how are we going to measure it so that we know it’s been successful?

There’s a potential trap there, one we were usually trying to be aware of.

How you define “greatness” or “success” is critically important.

What happens when success or greatness becomes the goal?

An end in itself.

This is a sneaky thing. You identify some good goals, and then strive to achieve them, do anything to achieve them…

… you very quickly find yourself with an idol, an imitation god.

Jesus’ Temptation

Matthew 4:1–3 ESV

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

Now I’ve been hungry, and I’ve fasted… but not 40 days. That’s miraculous. I’ve never been that hungry.

And I’m going to assume it was one of those Hawaiian rolls… or the ones from Texas Roadhouse, hot, fresh fresh pad of butter.

Satan tempts Jesus with the solution to his problems… and Jesus responds:

Matthew 4:4 ESV

But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

Jesus resists the physical temptation.

Jesus knew that life was more than physical life.

Matthew 4:5–6 ESV

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”

Location is important. Here we are at the temple, the seat of ministry. Here to prove that he is the Son of God, where better than before all the worshippers at the temple? This is how I would write the story: the Son of God revealed before all the faithful worshippers as he floats down from the temple peak supported by radiant angels!

Greatness! Success! Religious success, validation as the Son of God!

No cross necessary.

Matthew 4:7 ESV

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

So the devil tries again.

Matthew 4:8–9 ESV

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

Luke says the same thing in a slightly different way:

Luke 4:5–7 ESV

And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”

Now, this isn’t crazy, is it? Don’t we say and sing “every knee will bow, every tongue confess, Jesus is Lord.” We want people to come to Jesus… and here is all authority and all glory, all the peoples, all the kingdoms of the world!

Jesus wins the game of Risk.

And… it skips past the cross! Jesus doesn’t have to go through all of that pain, all of that suffering, the pain and betrayal, all the mess of it.

Greatness beckons. Success is a moment away.

Just, you know, have to worship Satan for a second. Apparently Satan has the right to offer this, the world temporarily under his dominion. Jesus doesn’t say “you have no right to offer it.” It’s a real offer.

Jesus is tempted with a shortcut to greatness and success… and he resists.

Matthew 4:10 ESV

Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ”

An answer not only to this temptation but to all of them.

Jesus will receive food as and when my Father wills.

Jesus will receive religious greatness and success only by His Father’s hand.

Jesus will be worshipped and receive the glory of all Creation… but by way of the cross.

Jesus resists every temptation to shortcut that, to skip past the cross, to step outside the Will, Way and Timing of His Heavenly Father.

Matthew 4:11 ESV

Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Real Greatness, Real Success

So what do we do? How do we avoid the trap of “greatness-ism” or “success-ism”?

We have to learn to recognize what greatness and success really look like.

Greatness and Success look like a broke and homeless former carpenter who failed to build a significant following in a rural backwater and was tried and executed. Humble Faithfulness is the way of the cross.

Greatness and Success look like Jesus. Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Greatness and Success look like his disciples, almost all of whom died young, broke, and far from home and family.

We must learn what greatness and success really look like. This is a redefinition, counter to the world’s definition.

Greatness and success only ever happens in God’s Will, God’s Way, in God’s timing. That takes patience and discernment, waiting on God.

Not every opportunity is an invitation from God.

I see how great this could be… I see how it could bring success in every way. But it’s the invitation of Satan to step outside the will of God.

Sometimes it’s obvious: when Satan says “worship me...” Don’t. Clear enough.

But it wasn’t always that obvious, was it? Cast yourself off the mountain, angels will carry you. True. Doesn’t say anything about worshipping Satan there.

Jesus knew the Will and Way of His Heavenly Father so well he could recognize a counterfeit a mile off.

But here’s a tip for us. A bit more about this next week.

We are Jesus-centric, we are Christ-centric, we are cross-centric.

In this life, when we look for greatness and success we should be looking for the cross.

We should be looking for the narrow road, the humble road.

Jesus is on the road to the cross, it is clear that he knew from the beginning how he would fulfill prophecy here. Not that he knew all the things, but he knew the cross was coming.

And over and over and over again he told his disciples: if you follow me, it’s going to look like this. Adversity and persecution and the cross.

In the upside-down Kingdom of God, greatness and success look like sacrifice and servant-hood.

Does that mean their are no blessings from God, no comfort, no pleasure, no reward in this life? Is pleasure or blessing a sin?

Absolute not! When their was a wedding, Jesus feasted. Jesus lived, laughed and loved. Jesus enjoyed blessings as they came, but the blessings weren’t the goal. They came along the road to the cross.

Knowing that the greatest, the best, the success, the glory was through the cross and on to resurrection.

When we look for greatness and success we should be looking for the cross.

Apply that to our Christian discipleship. You think Satan can’t dress up the “world’s” definition of greatness and success in Christian-ese? He knows where the pinnacle of the temple is, if he tempted Jesus there we can be sure he knows how to tempt you and I there.

Instead of “how can I be a great father?” it is “how do I lay my life down for my kids?” “For my wife?” “For my friends?”

Not “how can I succeed in the workplace?” but “how can be faithful, humble submission and obedience to my Father, even to death on a cross?”

Not “how can I put butts in seat at church?”

This Thursday, we had a guy offering his marketing services for the ministry in the park. We need to get cameras here, get more people here, get more organizations, go bigger and better.

My spidey-sense was tingling. One, I’m not sure it was a real offer in the first place. But two, is bigger and more what we are going for? And trying for that would most likely destroy the actual greatness and success God is calling us to: to love on folks one meal at a time, one conversation at a time, one relationship at a time, one hug at a time.

It is humble ministry, the poor and broken ministering to the poor and broken.

We reject popularity - glory of men - to be popular with Jesus. The glory of the Jesus, the glory of the cross.

We reject greatness or greatness-ism - be great with Jesus.

We reject success or success-ism to be successful with Jesus. Seeking the victory of the cross.

I live for the One, then I can love like the One.

I profess to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified.

I boast in nothing except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Related Media

Related Sermons