What Jesus Has to Say About Greatness
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 6 viewsNotes
Transcript
Mark 9:30-37
Mark 9:30-37
30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, 31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.
33 And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” 36 And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”
This passage marks Jesus and His disciples passing through Galilee, which has been the centre of His ministry, for the last time. He has now set His face toward Jerusalem. He won’t return to Galilee until after He rises from the dead.
This is clearly forefront in Jesus’s mind as they pass through. He doesn’t want anyone to know they are there, He doesn’t want a crowd, Galilee in no longer the focal point of his ministry. He knows what needs to happen now and again reminds the apostles of His destiny;
31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.”
This is now the second time Jesus has told them this, the first being recorded in Mark 8:31
31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.
When Peter takes him aside and rebukes Him. The fist time He tells them about what must take place, the focus is on the suffering that He must endure. This second time it’s a little different. Hidden in the wording there are echoes of Old Testament prophecy.
καὶ ἔλεγεν* °αὐτοῖς ὅτι ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου παραδίδοται εἰς χεῖρας ἀνθρώπων
The force of the original Greek is hard to capture in English. Most English translations have it as; The Son of man is going to be delivered up (ESV), or is going to be betrayed (NLT). And these tranlations do convey the sense of what’s being said. The word being translated ‘delivered up/betrayed’ is the present passive verb παραδίδοται, and is thought to be a Divine passive. A passive verb is a verb with no subject, as in we don’t know who is doing the action of delivering up/betraying. This verb in particular shows up in the Old testament in Isaiah 53 in connection with the work of the messiah. A divine passive then, is a passive verb that hints at God being the subject, as in God is doing the delivering up. It’s also in the present tense, not the future tense, so it really says, the son of man ‘is being delivered up’ into the hands of men.
16 οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται ἀλλʼ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον.
Only the Father can truly deliver up His son into the hands of men.
18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
So if it is a divine passive, then delivered up is the correct rendering. For the Father did not betray the son. The cross was both the will of the Father from eternity, and the will of the Son, and the will of the Spirit. The Holy Trinity works in perfect harmony at the cross.
Jesus speaks also of His death and then that He will rise after 3 days. Mark says that the disciples didn’t understand, Matthew’s gospel says that they were deeply grieved. How is it that they could be grieved if they didn’t understand?
New Testament II: Mark (Revised) The Reason for Grief
CHRYSOSTOM: If ignorant, how could they be sorrowful? Because they were not altogether ignorant. They knew that he was soon to die, for they had continually been told about it. But just what this death might mean, they did not grasp clearly, nor that there would be a speedy recognition of it, from which innumerable blessings would flow. They did not see that there would be a resurrection. This is why they grieved.9
I agree with Chysostom here. But I also think they were likely grieved because the entire notion of Jesus dying grieved them. They still hoped that this journey they had been on with Jesus was going to keep going, that He would be recognised as Messiah by the scribes, not killed by them! I think maybe there was also a bit of self pity involved; what are we going to do if you’re killed? What will happen to us?!
But this is the case with all of us followers of Jesus when God delivers us up into a season of difficulty or suffering, we are prone to react exactly like the disciples, we are confused and we are deeply grieved. But what we need to mediate on is the cross; what did the suffering and death of Christ result in? In resurrection! In new life. And not just new life for Him either, new life for billions and billions of souls. His suffering became the way of salvation for the whole world. No Christian is ever allowed to suffer by God for no reason. He will bring new life from every place where we have experienced a type of death. Just as Jesus’s scars became a source of hope for the world, your scars, your wounds become the very place from which God births fresh hope.
Now they arrive at Capernaum and go into the house, this was likely the house that Jesus had used as His base throughout His ministry, some think it was Peter’s house which was mentioned in chapter 1. The disciples had been having a rather heated exchange on the way into town, and as they get inside Jesus asks them what they were discussing on the way, and it says that they kept silent. They knew what they’d been talking about, they knew Jesus probably already knew what they’d been talking about and they knew it probably wasn’t going to go over well!
What discussions would you stop having if you knew that at the end of the day you’d have to sit down and dicuss it with Jesus?!
36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,
Mark tells us what they had been talking about; they’d been discussing who was the greatest! After listening to Jesus teach them about the kind of end that he was heading to, Luke’s gospel tells us they were actually arguing over which of them might be the greatest. Just think of the things they might have been saying?!
And Jesus sat down, as He regularly did when wanting to teach His closest friends something, and gives the most radical teaching on the subject of greatness that the world has known;
35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”
You know - this teaching ought to set the church apart from the world. It tells us what leadership ought to look like in the church. As Mike Winger has said - Pastors are not CEOs! A pastor, or a shepherd is someone who is last of all, servant of all. Not someone looking for profile, looking for notoriety, or a name for themselves. There is a lot of self aggrandizement that goes on sadly in ministries today - a lot of self publicity.
1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
A minister of the gospel should be a servant of all. That means to prefer others before yourself, to consider others as more worthy than yourself and to dedicate yourself to their service. The church is not there to serve it’s leaders, the leaders are there to serve the church. But ambition for greatness has wreacked havoc in the body of Christ.
When the ambition to be great gets in the driving seat of a ministry, the weak and the needy are always crushed under the wheels
Leaders driven by a desire for greatness look to serve only those who can help them acheive greatness; so if you’ve got a large chequebook, or a particular skill set that the church needs, the pastor will be very friendly, and will look for a way to access your resources. But if you can offer him nothing, you are of little interest, you’re just there to make up the numbers.
These ministries begin to use people rather than love people. They see people as resources to be used, and when those resources are used up they move on and find another resource to drain. And because people aren’t any longer seen as image bearers of God to be served, but resources to be utilised, they are treated poorly, they are abused.
2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
Because of this there is an epidemic of abuse happening in churches and a trail of devastation left behind this pursuit of greatness. I believe that we are entering a time of reckoning, and judgement will start at the house of God 1 Pet 4:17
17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
This pursuit of greatness is evident all around us in the world. There is a ‘celebrity culture’, this insane idea that just because someone is well-known that they are somehow more important than everyone else. We put them on pedastals, hang on every word they say, we love to love them, and we love to hate them. Everyone wants to be a celebrity these days. And this same worldly cult has found its way into the church. As a friend of mine says ‘it’s all who’s who in the Christian zoo!’
I’m not saying every Christian celebrity is bad news, but I’ll tell you this, most of them are. I honestly think the proper place for a Pastor is under the radar, getting on quietly and consistently with the job of shepherding God’s flock.
Greatness in the Kingdom isn’t measured by riches, or followers, or ministry success, it’s measured in the heart. It’s measured by the posture of your life, do you consider yourself to be the least amongst your brothers and sisters in Christ? Is your life a story of serving those who can’t repay you? Then Jesus says that you have understood what greatness is really about.
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.”
He takes a child, wraps his arms around them and says, whoever receives one child like this in my name, receives me, and whoever receives me does not receive me but Him who sent me.
In late antiquity children weren’t honoured like they are in our western culture today. They were seen as being amongst the lowest and least honorable in society. With such high infant mortality rates most kids just weren’t really given a place in society until they had reached adolescence. So the child represented those who society deems as the least important. Jesus says, you want to receive the Father? Then receive those who are viewed as the least.
And what is it to receive them? Well that word in the Greek is often used to describe welcoming someone into your home, it speaks of hospitality, of opening up your home to someone, feeding them, making them comfortable, at your own expense. So Jesus isn’t saying, acknowledge them, or go up to them and say, welcome! He’s saying it’s got to cost you something, will you love them, will you give them your time, your home, your heart, show them that they are valuable.
Just like Jesus did for Zachheus, He went his home, he honoured him, he ate with him and spent time with him, took time out of his ministry calendar just to be with this little tax collector, hated by all!
And this is our story with Jesus in a nutshell. We are that child! We have nothing to offer our Lord! But He welcomes us into His home, puts His arms around us, pays for our seat at the table with His own blood, takes off our filthy rags and gives us a brand new robe and seats us with Him. That is greatness, that is servant leadership, that is grace, that is our Lord.