Sermon Tone Analysis

Gospel Diagnosis | Who is the Greatest | Matthew 18:1-9

What is something you want to be really good at?

I always wondered what it would really feel like to be the best at something.

To the point where no one argues that you are truly great.

Like, what would it be like to be LeBron James or Michael Jordan in their prime?

Or Mohammad Ali, or Mike Tyson.

Knowing you’re the greatest at what you do.

As a pastor I try to do my best.

What makes the greatest pastor?

Right now I am once again reading through the Bible which would make I think the 3rd time I have read every single word, and I spent a lot of time in prayer this week.

Some of you might hear that and say wow that’s a lot of reading and others might say only 3 times I know someone who has read it 15 times.

I have baptized people, shared Jesus with people.

Seen people dramatically change by God, but what if I was the greatest?

What if it wasn’t me but you?

What would your life be like?

What if you could be the greatest, truly the one who is incredible as a Christian, a follower of Jesus.

What would you have to do for God to think of you as the greatest follower of Him?

pause

What would you be like if you were the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Are you pursuing that?

Are you close like the Bengals?

Is greatest in heaven what you are about?

I do believe heaven is real.

I do believe it is eternal.

Everything else in my life this week is temporary.

The job I hold.

My health, Even my relationships, even tensions of war, while everything I mention are important they are all going away including the books that will be written about this time.

Temporary all of it, but heaven is eternal, so what if, should we, pursue being the best at the eternal?

As Jesus taught, his disciples lived on his every word, he taught them about life and he taught about the eternal.

we too should hang on his every word because we just agreed we still desire the eternal today.

Whatever age, gender, wherever we are to live as followers of Jesus so we desire to live out what Jesus said, and so they asked Jesus about what it takes to get an A+ in Jesus following, what it takes to be the best, specifically they asked who does one have to be, to be the greatest.

Matthew 18:1 CSB1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “So who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

What will Jesus say?

PAUSE

It’s the answer to what I have talked this whole time.

If we know who is the greatest than we will know why and we can pursue that.

Take a second and think about your answer.

Let’s get nerdy for a second.

The bible wasn’t written in English it was written in ancient Greek.

The greek word here for greatest is

may-zone which is the nominative adjective singular form of megas.

Was that nerdy enough for you.

We have an English word from it - MEGA!

Big, huge, most important!

So who is it Jesus?

Who is MEGA in the kingdom of heaven.

Is it the disciple Peter?

Is it Mary, his mom?

Someone like Billy Graham who lived with integrity and preached about Jesus to the whole world.

Who is it?

Matthew 18:2 CSB2 He called a small child and had him stand among them.

Who here has a younger brother or sister, maybe it’s them?

Jesus called young child up and said,

Matthew 18:3–4 CSB3 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “unless you turn and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child—this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Not just MEGA in heaven but entry requires the humility of a child.

okay, so before when I asked what you thought might be a requirement for heaven we said....... but here Jesus says none of that.

He says you need to be like a child.

Children don’t know much and they don’t have much.

Kids have to learn how to do almost everything, by either copying or directly being taught.

In the days of Jesus the father was the head of the household and the ultimate police power in a child’s life.

A child in the days of Jesus would be anyone 11 and under.

5th grade and below.

The children were to bring honor to the family and depended on the family.

Just as they still do today.

Kids can be remarkable but this was as we say, “just a kid.”

Not a remarkable kid, not an incredible gifted kid, not a injured kid, just a kid.

A kid who was farming with dad.

A kid who was being a kid.

Why a kid?

Because the kid is totally humble, totally dependent on God.

You may have come tonight thinking that if you did more, believed more, fasted more, prayed more, evangelized more, gave more, more attractive, smarter, something, if you do more for God if you had it all together than God will change you.

God will answer your prayer.

God will make you whole, better, important.

Nope.

Not more.

Not more effort, not more work.

Not out of you.

Instead a willingness to accept what the work He did for you.

A willingness to accept that you can’t be “good enough” but you need God.

John 3:16 CSB16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Do you know that Jesus loves you so much he can’t love you anymore.

There is nothing you can do that can change his love for you.

God cares for you so much you could never care for someone as much as he cares for you.

You (and your siblings you thought of earlier) can never be more loved by your parents than you already are.

Even on your worst days your parents love you so much.

Even thought your parents love you and could never stop loving you, God’s love for you is infinitely greater.

Would you accept that Jesus truly loves you?

Right now.

God loves you.

Like a child will you rest in the fact that Jesus, your father, can be taken at His word.

He made it right.

It’s essential that all of us, with all of our sins recognize what the greatest love of our life did for us,

And this points to why we can trust him too!

It’s one thing for God to say he loves you, but it’s another thing for him to prove it.

Any parent who loves their child will tell you the thought of losing their child is the worst pain imaginable.

And remember that as much as your parents love you, it pails in comparasion to God’s love.

When we remember this is puts into perspective what God did for you.

He sent his one and only Son to die, for you, and you, and you.

And to make it even worse, he didn’t just die for all humanity, but it was humanity that killed him.