Be The Church: Serve Faithfully

What makes a person great? Is it power? Is it who you know? Is it your position, your rank? Does having money make you great? Does accomplishing great things make you great?

Or is greatness something else entirely?

Our text answers that question for us.

This is part of our sermon series on summer theme. What was last year’s summer theme?

What is this year’s summer theme?

Be The Church.

You can see the permanent logo for our church on your screen.

What does it mean to be the church? It means to worship, serve, grow, and love. It’s the purpose of these sermons to help you understand what it looks like to worship, grow, love, and serve.

BRTP: Bring your Bible, have it out and open; read along with me, don’t go on autopilot; think about what you hear — God gave you a mind; don’t let it go to sleep; and pray for me and pray for you and those around for open hearts to receive from the Word.

May the Lord bless the preaching of His word.

#1: Why do we misunderstand what greatness is?

The disciples misunderstood what greatness is. We see that in the question they ask Jesus and in Jesus’ answer to their question. You see, the disciples defined greatness much like we define it today. They see greatness as having authority over others, having a high position over others. They’re letting the world define what greatness is. God defines greatness as service. How did they get it so wrong? How do we get it wrong?

A. We have a sense of entitlement (their question)

The first reason we get it wrong is that we have a sense of entitlement. And we see this in the question they ask Jesus in verse 35. Two disciples, James and John, come up to Jesus and ask Him a question. What do they ask him?

Verse 35

“We want you to do us a favor” (NLT)

“Will you do us a favor?” (CEV)

“We want to ask you to do something for us” (NCV)

“We want you to do for us whatever you ask” (ESV/NKJV/NIV/NASB)

Now if you have the NLT, it translates the question like this: “Teacher, we want you do us a favor.” If you have the CEV, it says the same thing: “Teacher, will you do us a favor?” The NCV is similar: “Teacher, we want to ask you to do something for us.”

Worded that way, the question doesn’t sound that bad. But that’s not really the best way to translate it. The Greek says what the NIV and the NKJV and the NASB and the ESV say, which is this: “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever you ask.”

It doesn’t take a lot of smarts to understand that this is the equivalent of a walking up to their mom or dad and saying, “Mom, dad, I need you to something for me, and I need you to promise right now that you won’t say no.”

I came home the other day and found a contract that Abigail had written up for Shannon one day when homeschooling was over for the year. It said, basically, “I, Shannon Mace, agree to say yes to whatever Noah and I ask of you today.” It wasn’t totally unreasonable. It went on to clarify some things: “It can’t be unreasonable.” Ok, good. “It doesn’t involve spending a lot of money.” Whew. “It doesn’t require us to go anywhere.” Do you agree, mom? Signed, Shannon Mace.

Now that’s a funny example because it was kind of a game. Our kids know that we’ll say to something if it’s reasonable and good for them and safe and they’ve earned it. But the disciples have a sense of entitlement. They believe they it’s all about them. How do I know they believe it’s all about them?

Look with me what Jesus had just finished saying, right before this. Ignore that little heading in your Bible between verse 34 and verse 35. Start reading with me in verse 32:

Mark 10:32–34 ESV

And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”

So Jesus has just told them that he’s about experience the worst event of his life. And it’s all going to be for them. And yet, what are the disciples thinking about immediately after? “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”

How many of you know someone who makes every conversation into a conversation about them? Folks like that have an entitlement mentality. So did the disciples. And so do we.

We think we’re entitled to power and authority and privilege. If we’ve given a lot of money to the church or served a long time in the church, we feel like we’ve earned a louder voice than other people.

I’ve heard stories of church members at other churches who were willing to write a check for $5 million to the church, on one condition: they have to build a specific type of building, and make the building a memorial to them. If you actually had $5 million, and if you really wanted to give your money, and if you really wanted to be generous, why not give the $5 million to the church for them to use it on what they church needs most, rather than on what the donor thinks is best? That’s a sense of entitlement.

A sense of entitlement causes us to have a misunderstanding of what true greatness is. But true greatness is the willingness to serve.

B. We have a desire for political power and worldly authority (their demand)

We have a desire for political power and worldly authority.

We see this for the disciples in their demand. What is the thing they want Jesus to do for them no matter what it is? Verse 36. “And Jesus said to them, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand, and one at your left, in your glory.”

What is this about? Your right hand and your left, in your glory? Well, remember that Jesus has just warned them of three things: 1) he’s going to Jerusalem; 2) in Jerusalem he’ll be arrested and condemned and mistreated and eventually crucified; but 3) on the third he will rise.

The disciples have what we might call selective hearing. They hear the words “Jerusalem” and “rise again” and they start thinking about Jesus’ messianic kingdom. The Jews at this time, you’ll remember, were looking for an earthly Messiah who would give them earthly liberation from their earthly enemies, the Romans. He would do this from Jerusalem, they believed. And they have taken Jesus’ sober warning in verses 32-34 as an indication that this is about to happen. Jesus is about to set up His earthly kingdom from Jerusalem.

Well, in their minds, if this is about to happen, "We know Jesus pretty well. We’ve demonstrated our loyalty. We’ve got connections with the king. He’s going to Jerusalem, it’s time. The right hand and left hand are the two highest positions of authority. Let’s secure our position and our authority.”

They have a desire for political power and worldly authority. This is a political desire on their part. And what makes it even more political is that Peter is notably absent. Why is that a big deal? Peter early on, it was pretty clear, was sort of the number one disciple, so to speak. Peter, James, and John are often taken with Jesus at times when the other 9 are not. Jesus invested a lot of time in these three men because they would emerge as leaders more so than the others.

But Peter plays no role in this…and James and John are brothers…and there’s only two high positions of authority, the right and left. There’s no room for a third…you see where I’m going with this?

We have a desire for political power and worldly authority. We fall into this. How? We fall into this when we start thinking that we’ve earned a high position of leadership in the church. We fall into this when we forget that we’re appointed leaders by grace, and that we are always undeserving. We fall into this when we get into this positions of authority and leadership in the church and then start exercising that authority like we’re CEOs who give orders. This happens when we start excusing and overlooking immoral conduct from our elected officials, so long as they enact Christian principles.

We have a desire for political power and worldy authority. This is the second reason why we misunderstand greatness. True greatness to serve.

The third reason we misunderstand greatness? We have an inflated self-image.

C. We have an inflated self-image

We have an inflated self-image.

Look at Jesus’ response in verse 38: “You do not know what you are asking.” “James and John, in the kingdom of God, greatness is something you have yet to even begin to comprehend. The kind of greatness and authority and position in my kingdom that you are asking for — the pathway to that greatness is no through having a connection with me. The pathway to that greatness is through service. The pathway to that greatness is through sacrifice. The pathway to that greatness is through suffering.

He describes that more fully when he continues in verse 38: “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And note their response in verse 39: “We are able.” One word in the Greek - dunametha. Rolls right off the tongue. They don’t even have to get it a moment’s consideration. Their confidence level is extremely high.

But just step back and consider what Jesus is asking them! He asks them, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” He’s talking about his death. What’s the cup? Remember Jesus’ prayer in the garden on the night he was arrested? “My Father, if it be possible, let this” — what is it? “Let this cup pass from me?” The cup is often used to in the Bible to describe the judgment of God. On the cross Jesus will drink the cup of the judgment of God. But surely not God’s judgment against Him, because Jesus was sinless. So it must be God’s judgment against someone else, His wrath toward someone else, poured out on Jesus. That would be ours.

Isaiah 53:6 ESV

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

So when Jesus asks, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?”, and when they so easily answer, “We are able”....I mean, where do you even start?

I’m all for self-confidence. I believe God wants us to grow in self-confidence. But the right kind of self-confidence, right? A holy self-confidence. True self-confidence is not delusional optimism. True self-confidence is honesty about what you can do and about what you can’t do.

True, very often we can do more than we think we can. Like the guy that stowed away in the wheel well of the airplane? Did you guys hear about that? In 2014, a teenager hid in the wheel well of a Boeing 767 and managed to survive the six hour flight from San Jose, CA to Maui. When you’re flying, as many of you know, you’ve got temperatures outside the aircraft of 50 degrees below zero. You’re traveling about 600 mph. There is a lack of oxygen at 40,000 feet. The kid was weak when he got there, but he survived.

Sometimes self-confidence can propel us to be able to do greater things than we would otherwise think we could do. And when it’s a holy self-confidence, where it’s a confidence in God’s power and and confidence in who you are in Him, then we can say with the apostle Paul, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”

But sometimes, confidence masks arrogance and ignorance. You wouldn’t stand on the observation level at the top of the Empire State Building and jump off, confident that you can fly or otherwise survive the fall. We would call that person arrogant at best, crazy at worst. When that happens, when confidence masks arrogance and ignorance, we have an inflated self-image.

When we have an inflated self-image, we feel entitled. Combine that with a desire for political power and worldy authority, you’ve got a completely distorted view of what true greatness is. True greatness, we’re going to see, greatness is God’s eyes, we’re going to see, is service.

D. They are ignorant of how God defines greatness

There was a bank in Chicago who was looking to hire a guy to fill one of its senior leadership positions. One of the guys they were looking at was a young guy from Boston. The team doing the search sent a request to the investment firm in Boston where the young guy currently worked. This is what the letter said. Notice what the qualifications were in their mind that made this young man worthy of the job:

“Mr. Smith will come highly recommended from us. His pedigree is impressive. He comes from the Cabot family via his mother. On his father’s side, he comes from the Lowells, the Saltonstalls, and the Peabody’s. This young man is deeply embedded in some of the finest, wealthiest familes in the greater Boston metropolitan area.”

The bank in Chicago hired the young man from Boston and sent back a letter of thanks to the Boston investment firm and it included this line. A little bit snarky but it makes the point: “We are not contemplating using the young man for breeding purposes. Just for work.” [Larson p168]

We are not great because of what family we come from or how much money we have or what position we hold or how smart or educated we are. It is not external things like that that make us great. God alone has the power to define greatness. And God alone has the authority to declare who is great in His kingdom.

That’s what verses 39-40 and mean. This is Jesus’ reply to their over inflated self-image: “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized. But” - and look at this, it’s the clincher — “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.” That word “prepared” - it’s used often to describe God preparing things in eternity past for our use and enjoyment in the present and in eternity future. Jesus will use that word when he welcomes us into heaven. “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34 ESV).

“For whom it has been prepared”:

God the Father plans salvation

God the Son accomplishes salvation

God the Spirit applies that salvation to us when we believe

The point is that Jesus is the Mediator between God and man. Jesus accepted a voluntarily submissive role in relation to His Father. You could say the God the Father plans salvation, God the Son accomplishes salvation, God the Spirit applies the finished work of salvation to us when we believe. Jesus has not set these terms. The Father has. That’s why Jesus says it’s not mine to say who will occupy those two coveted positions; that’s already been worked out by the Father. The Father alone declares who is great.

#2: How does Jesus respond to our misunderstanding of true greatness?

The first thing we should note is that Jesus does not become angry with us for our failure to get it. Jesus does become angry with the disciples for their failure to get it. He accommodates Himself to their misunderstanding.

A. Jesus does not become angry with us for our failure to ‘get it’

We see that primarily in the fact that Jesus gets in deep with them on this question. He seizes a teachable moment. How so?

The other ten disciples, understandably, are angry. Peter is one of them. Look with me at verse 41: “And when the ten heard it, the began to be indigant at James and John.” The word indignant means righteous anger. The kind of anger you see when you see injustice be perpreterated and the perpetrators are getting away with us. But there’s a little bit of sinful anger, too. Christian, do you get angry when your authority is disobeyed? Do you feel entitled to lash out when someone makes a grab for power? If you are secure in the person God has made you to be, if you are secure in the task and role God has given you, you will not be as offended when that happens.

The disciples still have some growing to do there. There’s a breach between the 10 and the two. They’re probably not on speaking terms. They’re mutually offended. You say, “Pastor Dustin, that is such petty behavior on their part.” Yes it is, but that’s not the point of the passage. The point of the passage is the patience of Jesus.

Rather than lecture them for being petty, rather than tell them they’re being petty, Jesus seizes a teachable moment. We think often of Jesus teaching the crowds. But equally important are the times when he sits down and teaches His closest followers, like here. It’s relevant, personal, and tailored for the situation, occuring in a relational context -- that’s often the way we grow, in fact.

Preaching just solidifies and reinforces small group teaching. Preaching builds us up corporately; admonition builds us up individually. Both are important and crucial to our growth. If you want to grow as a Christian, and I hope you do, you need to give priority to preaching and small group Bible study like Sunday morning Bible study or Sunday evenings and Wednesday evenings.

Verse 42 says he called them together, the ten and the two. And this is what he says.

He starts by describing the world’s understanding of greatness.

B. Jesus describes the world’s understanding of greatness, and it is often the same as ours

Mark 10:42–44 (ESV)

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.” In other words, non-Christian rulers tend to rule with an iron fist. They tend to lead in such a way that benefits mainly themselves. They tend to oppress. Power corrupts the person who holds the power, from the lowest levels of municipal government to the highest positions of world leaders. How many even Christian leaders have gone to Washington DC for a career in politics and have fallen into this?

“But it shall not be so among you.” With these words Jesus marks out the Christian as distinct. The world sees greatness in terms of position and rank and power and connections. God does not see things that way. That’s not because God is God and we are not. That is because God is holy and perfect, and we are fallen. Sin has caused us to distort things, to turn them upside down. Since we ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we now feel we have the right to define things for ourselves. We call what is good evil and what is evil good. It’s backwards. So it should not surprise us that Jesus expects things among His followers to be different. It shall not be so among you.

How shall it be? Verses 43-44: “But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.”

Look at the terms he uses. He says, “Whoever would be great among you” -- It’s not wrong to want to be great. Church, God has created us with a desire for greatness. The problem is not that we want to be great. The problem is that we misunderstand what greatness really is. Is greatness found in the what you’ve managed to do? Or is greatness found in the kind of person you are? Is greatness is about achievement? Or is greatness about service?

Jesus is saying if you want to be great, make it your ambition to serve. Be a servant, he says. “Be a diakonos”, is the Greek word, the word we get our word “deacon” from.

And notice this, church. Notice that Jesus does not say that if you want to be great someday, you must serve now. Jesus is not saying that if you put in your time serving now, you can one day move beyond serving and do “important” things. We don’t serve in order to be promoted to greatness; rather, greatness consists in service. Service is not a stepping stone to greatness. Service is greatness.

And Jesus has modeled this for us. What He’s about to say to wrap up this teaching ought to cause our mouths to drop open. Jesus says, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (v. 45 ESV).

Just step back and consider what Jesus is telling us here. [LONG PAUSE]

Jesus calls himself the Son of Man. His disciples would have known exactly what he meant. It’s not a reference to Jesus’ humanity. Jesus is referencing the book of Daniel. Daniel is given a vision of a divine being called the Son of Man. In this vision The Son of Man comes on the clouds of heaven and appears before God Almighty in heaven. There this Son of Man is given all power and all authority over every person and over every nation. This kingdom we are told is an everlasting kingdom, one that will stand the test of time, one that will remain after every earthly kingdom and yes the United States has passed into the pages of history.

When Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man, He’s telling us that that person in the book of Daniel is Him. And then He tells us that the Son of Man, the One who has all authority and all power, did not come to be served by human beings. No one listening to Jesus say this would ever have dreamed that the exalted Son of Man would come as a humble servant. [Schnabel TCNT).

We talk alot about serving God. We need to be careful when we talk about serving God as though that is what the gospel is all about. It is not! The gospel — the good news — is that the God who has all power and all authority and all glory and who is worthy of all worship and all of our service did not come to this world in order to demand that we serve Him but rather to serve us.

How did He serve us? “By giving his life a ransom for many.”

The United States has a policy. We don’t negotiate with terrorists. Similarly, we don’t typically pay ransom fees. It’s the same with missionary organizations. Most will not pay a ransom to someone who has kidnapped one of their missionaries overseas. The reason why is obvious. If pay $25 million to ransom someon back, we may have gotten that one back, but they’ll just do it again because they know we’ll keep paying it.

A ransom is a sum of money paid in order to liberate a person from captivity or slavery. Jesus’ blood, His life, of immeasurable worth, that is the price He paid in order to set us free from the guilt and power of sin.

And He paid that ransom price, Jesus says, for many. In our place. As our substitute. Jesus was forsaken by God the Father that we might never be forsaken by Him. Jesus was condemned by God on the cross that we might be forgiven. Jesus suffered the wrath of God on the cross so that we might know only His love. And He did all of this for many.

Conclusion and call for response

So then, who is the person God considers to be great? Who will be declared and considered great and treated as great in the messianic kingdom, in heaven, on the new heaven and new earth? It is those who do not seek greatness. Who is the one who will be considered great on that day? The one who makes it his or her ambition to serve today.

Tomorrow will mark the 157th Independence Day since the end of the Civil War in 1865. Tomorrow will mark the 104th Independence Day since the end of the first world war in 1918. And tomorrow will mark the 77th Independence Day since the end of the second world war in 1945.

And as we mark Independence Day, we cannot help but think of the men who gave their lives in service to their country. Hundreds of thousands of men gave their lives in those three major conflicts in the last 160 years. They are regarded as heroes, and rightly so.

But there is one unsung hero in the story of these wars and every other war our country has fought. That unsung hero would be the instructors who trained those men at what we call boot camp.

Friday evening we had some of our neighbors in our yard watching the fireworks and one guy I talked with was a career Army officer, retired about five years ago. He said he was an instructor, a drill sergeant.

Without guys like him, we wouldn’t have the military we had then. Because it’s guys like him who take guys who are weak and timid and uncertain and turn them into warriors, strong, confident, ready to serve by fighting and laying down their lives if need be for their country.

Boot camp, in other words, makes men out of boys.

The gospel of Jesus Christ who gave Himself as a ransom for many — what will it make out of us? The gospel has made us new. 2Cor 5:17

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

We’ve been made new. We’re free to serve.

Look for small ways today that you can serve others. Are there any tasks you think are beneath you? Certain things you feel like you’ve moved beyond, you shouldn’t have to do them anymore? Jesus tells us like it is. Do you think some tasks are beneath you? “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant”. Are there any people you consider to be beneath you in terms of loving, serving and interacting with them? “Whoever would be great among you must be slave of all”, not some.

Have you trusted in the Son of Man? Do you believe that He gave Himself as a ransom for many? Do you believe that you are one of the many? Are you resting in Him, are you forsaking your own sense of goodness before God and instead relying upon Him to save you and make you right with God?

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