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SERMON:
I’d like to
begin our sermon time today with a little exercise. I’m going to read off a few
names, one by one, and I’d like you to just raise your hand if you’ve ever
heard of these people. Okay? Don’t worry, I won’t call on you to tell us
anything about them, just raise your hand if you know who they are.
William
James Sidis
Terence Tao
Christopher
Hirata
Kim
Ung-Yong
Garry
Kasparov
Marilyn Von
Savant
Leonardo da
Vinci
Judith
Polgar
Albert
Einstein
Stephen
Hawking
According to
one listing, these are ten most intelligent people who have ever lived. Well,
at least they had the highest IQ’s ever estimated or recorded. William James
Sidis tops the list with an IQ between 250-300. Since the average IQ score
falls around 100, that’s pretty amazing. And yet, most of us would say, William
James Sidis? Who’s that?
IQ tests
attempt to measure a person’s ability to think and reason. And yet, registering
a high IQ score doesn’t mean you’re great. It just means you have potential.
Greatness
isn’t just having a huge IQ, or superhuman strength, or extensive power and
influence. In our sermon reading for today, Jesus teaches that true
greatness is found in using what power you have to serve others.
Matthew 20:17-28 (NASB)
17 As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples
aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them,
18 “Behold,
we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief
priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death,
19 and
will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be
raised up.”
20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with
her sons, bowing down and making a request of Him.
21 And
He said to her, “What do you wish?” She said to Him, “Command that in Your
kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left.”
22 But
Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the
cup that I am about to drink?” They said to Him, “We are able.”
23 He
said to them, “My cup you shall drink; but to sit on My right and on My left, this is not Mine to give, but
it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.”
24 And hearing this, the ten became indignant with the two brothers.
25 But
Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the
Gentiles lord it over them, and their great
men exercise authority over them.
26 “It
is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall
be your servant,
27 and
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave;
28 just
as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life
a ransom for many.”
▬
The disciples of Christ were an awkward group of men from many different
walks of life. There were blue-collar fishermen, a tax-collector, a former
political radical.
As could be expected, these men didn’t always get along. We’re told that on
a number of occasions they argued over which of them was the greatest. Fueled
by little sinful egos, they were constantly looking sideways at each other,
judging and ranking each other according to their own way of seeing things. Judging
their own greatness by holding themselves up to the rest.
But if we are to see what true greatness is, we must first look to our
Savior. For in Christ Jesus we see what true greatness is.
▬
We can easily see greatness in Jesus. He was, after all, the eternal Son of
God, made man. He was absolutely sinless. He could perform astounding miracles
with ease. Christ had immense power, but his greatness is revealed in how he
used that power.
At this point in Jesus’ ministry, he had been staying away from Jerusalem
because the Pharisees were out for his blood. But now, Jesus purposefully
turned to go to Jerusalem one final time.
As the disciples traveled with him, they were afraid. They knew that they
were walking right into the lion’s mouth. The powerful religious leaders of
Jerusalem weren’t about to welcome Jesus, or his followers.
On the way, Jesus took his fearful disciples aside and told them once more
what was going to happen in Jerusalem. He would be given over into the hands of
his enemies. They would condemn him to death. They would hand him over to the
Roman authorities for crucifixion. But on the third day, Jesus would be raised
from the dead.
Ever since Peter had confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God,
Jesus had begun to tell them what was going to happen. He foretold his cross,
and his resurrection. And in the final words of our text he states exactly WHY
he would willingly go to the cross, and the tomb.
“…the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,
and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28 NASB).
Greatness is not found in power alone, but in what you do
with that power. And this is why Jesus stands as the greatest man who
ever lived. He possessed all glory as the eternal Son of God. He possessed all
holiness as the sinless God-Man. He possessed all wisdom and power. But instead
of serving himself, he used these things to serve sinners. He took our sins on
his conscience. He accepted mockery, scourging, and even crucifixion. He
suffered the hell our sins had earned, and gave us the gift of eternal
forgiveness.
This is true greatness. This is our Savior.
Now, there are plenty of people today who realize that greatness can be
found in service. We are encouraged to volunteer, to give to homeless shelters,
to fill food banks, to give to charitable organizations, to build homes for the
homeless, etc. These are noble pursuits. But Christ’s service exceeds anything charitable
service we might provide. For Christ’s service to others doesn’t just get them
a place to spend the night, or a meal to fill their stomach. Christ’s service
erases the record of their sins, and opens the gate to eternal paradise at
God’s side. His “charitable giving” was given for all sinners, and by faith in
Christ we receive benefits that extend beyond into eternity.
This is true greatness. This is the Savior of the world.
▬
Though the disciples believed Jesus was the Messiah, they didn’t fully
understand what that meant. When they were drawn to Jesus, they saw his
greatness, but they couldn’t grasp the fact that in Christ’s life, service
would come before glory. Before Christ could appear in glory with all the
angels of heaven, he would first have to walk the road of service and
self-sacrifice.
And they also didn’t understand that in their lives, service would also
come before glory.
Did you notice that Jesus calls himself the “Son of Man” in our sermon
reading? That was one of Jesus’ favorite titles for himself. When he calls
himself the “Son of Man” Jesus isn’t just calling himself human. He’s referring
to a vision from the Old Testament.
About 530 years before Jesus Christ was born, God gave a vision to the
prophet Daniel. Daniel wrote…
“13 “I saw in the night
visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
14 And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14 ESV).
By calling himself the “Son of Man”, Jesus was saying, “That was ME in
Daniel’s vision. I am the King of the eternal Kingdom. I am the Messiah.”
The disciples gladly latched onto this idea! Jesus is the Messiah! Great
glory and dominion is coming his way! All people will serve him!
And they wanted in on this greatness.
▬
We’ve already mentioned that the disciples of Jesus weren’t exactly humble
men. We know how they argued about greatness. We know how forward Peter was. And
James and John were pretty bold also. In our reading they come right up to
Jesus, using their mother as a go-between, and they ask Jesus to give them the
top two positions of honor and glory in the kingdom to come.
You see, they didn’t understand. When they saw Jesus going into the lion’s
den at Jerusalem, they apparently figured that now was the time. Jesus was now
going to boldly reveal his glory and seize his glorious and earthly kingdom. What
better place than Jerusalem?! Now was the time for them to cement their claim
to glory at his side.
Jesus tells them, “You do not know what you are asking” (Matthew 20:22 NASB).
They didn’t understand that before Christ’s glory would come horrendous
suffering. Christ’s day of glory was approaching, but that was FAR off. Now was
not the time of celebration. Now was the time of SERVICE.
Fast forward with me for a second here. After Jesus rose from the dead on
Easter morning, he appeared to two disciples traveling the road to Emmaus. Jesus
made it so they couldn’t tell who he was. And then he asked them what they had
been talking about there on the road. They were all confused about what had
just happened to Jesus. They said, “Oh, we thought that this man named Jesus
was going to be the the Messiah. But then he got seized by he Romans and
crucified.” They were confused, disappointed, and sad. In response Jesus told
them…
“How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that
the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer
these things and then enter his glory?” (Luke 24:25-26 NIV)
Just like James and John, those disciples on the road to Emmaus didn’t understand
that Christ’s SERVICE had to precede his GLORY.
Before James and John would stand in glory, they too would pass through a
life of SERVICE. Their sins would be erased by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross,
but still, their SERVICE would precede their GLORY.
James would be beheaded for his faith in Christ in the year 44 AD. John
would live longer, but would also suffer persecution for his faith before being
received into glory.
It’s pretty human to look for a short-cut, isn’t it? We want a pill to take
away that extra weight, instead of change in our lifestyle. We want a lottery
ticket to erase the debt, instead of hard work and careful spending. James and
John were the same. Let’s just ASK for glory at the right time, before anyone
of the other disciples think to! But before glory, and before greatness, comes
diligent service to our Savior.
▬
My college roommate once told me a story about a couple of his friends who
lived in Mankato, MN. They noticed a good deal on some office space and decided
to rent it for a time. They didn’t have a business to run, they just thought it
would be cool to have a place of their own where they could hang out. So, they
rented the space, and printed up some business cards. The business cards read, “Mad
Skills, Incorporated. Serving Ourselves Since 1998.”
If Jesus’ disciples lived in Mankato, they probably would have hung out
there too. They were, after all, pretty interested in serving themselves.
And when the rest of the disciples heard about what James and John had
done, they were upset. How dare they try to get the jump on us! And the group
that already made a habit of arguing over who was the greatest, was ready to
squabble some more.
But Jesus took this opportunity to teach them another way. If they were to
be his representatives, the disciples would have redefine their idea of
greatness. Look at verse 24 again.
“ 24 And hearing this, the ten became indignant with the two brothers.
25 But
Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the
Gentiles lord it over them, and their great
men exercise authority over them.
26 “It
is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall
be your servant,
27 and
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave;
28 just
as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life
a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:24-28 NASB).
▬
Lets get one
thing straight, the way the sinful world looks at things, is not the way God
looks at things.
Historians look
at people who amassed great riches, or carved out huge empires as being truly
great. But Jesus redefines greatness for his followers. Greatness is not just
having power, riches, or influence. Greatness is not just being able to tell
people what to do, and have them do it. Greatness, in the kingdom of Christ,
is using whatever we have, to serve others. And not just to provide for their
physical needs. Greatness is using who we, and what we have, to introduce
people to Jesus, our only Savior from sin, and theirs too. Greatness is using
our time, our words, our patience, our effort—to build up the faith of our
fellow Christians.
I mean, think
about it. The only things in this room that have lasting value, are the people.
Everything else will perish in flames at the final judgment. But those who are
united to Christ, and to the salvation of his cross—they’ll live in glory for
all eternity.
This is why
God’s Son didn’t come to create an awesome earthly kingdom for his disciples to
rule over. This is why God’s Son didn’t come to make us millionaires. He didn’t
come to eradicate cancer. He didn’t come to fix the economy, or show us how to be
really nice people. He came to save us from hell.
▬
None of us is
going to make the list of top ten most intelligent people who ever lived. We
probably won’t be recorded in the history books as great men and women. But
because of Jesus, we’ve been placed on a better list—the list of the redeemed.
The list of those who have a place waiting for them in heaven at God’s side.
God not only
redefines our concept of greatness, he redefines US. In Christ, the sinner is
declared a saint. In Christ, the humble servant is declared great.
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