Following the Humble King

Mark 9:30-41

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

You're listening to audio from Risen Life Fellowship. If you'd like to learn more about our church or donate to this ministry, please visit Risen Life Fellowship.com.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Good morning. How is everyone today? It's good to see you here. We've got a lot of families out. It's it's baby season for us, isn't it? Baby season and I guess vacation season, that too. But uh it's good to see you here this morning. Uh on Memorial Day weekend, right? Um and so I hope you'll take some time this weekend to uh really praise the Lord for all of those who have died so that we can be here today, you know, have have the freedom to be here. And um what a privilege it is to be able to openly worship worship Christ in this country. And that's because many, many have gone before us and and and given their lives for that. So I hope we'll take some time to to to dwell on that a little bit this weekend. Um and I think as often is the case when we preach through books of the Bible, I think we uh we seem to be in the perfect passage for the occasion in Mark chapter 9. Jesus is going to be talking about being a servant to all. And uh that passage is not about serving in the military, but we are certainly indebted to those who who have served and and are currently serving, but um especially those who have served and and and given their the that ultimate cost um for our freedom. So um I'm gonna ask you to turn to Mark chapter 9, if if you will. Mark chapter 9, and it's been uh quite refreshing to sit under Drew and Patrick's teaching in the last uh couple of weeks, and and I've been convicted and challenged on several things as they've walked us through the first part of Mark chapter 9. And so this morning we're gonna continue on in Mark chapter 9, and uh we're we're in this series we're calling the Servant King. It's a series through the Gospel of Mark, and so we're gonna be reserve resuming on verse uh 30 this morning. Uh but before we do, let's let's uh let's do just a little bit of a review of uh where we've been the last few weeks. So the first fate the first eight chapters of of Mark, uh Mark is focused on uh really revealing little by little the the uh who Jesus is. What is the identity of Jesus? And and since Mark 8.31, uh this gospel has shifted just a little bit from from from really focusing on the identity of Jesus to now focusing more and adding along with that, um, focusing on the mission of Jesus, the ultimate uh mission of Jesus, and uh in turn the mission of those who follow Jesus. So if you call yourself a disciple this morning, um we're talking a lot about your mission as well. And so we're learning through this section what it truly means to follow Christ as a disciple, and and discipleship is a major theme in the gospel of Mark. And so here at Risen Life, we we use the term um anybody know our mission statement this morning? We love doing that, don't you? Putting your Joanne's laughing because, like, why'd you ask? You know, if you had uh if you had not asked. Anybody? Anyway, encourage me, right? Train, equip, encourage. And to become what? Practical missionaries, right? Which, which, you know, to to Missy's point, she said disciples. Um, you know, we've kind of used those words interchangeably here. It's uh, you know, a practical missionary is being a disciple, uh, really where you are, being a missionary, where where you are. Uh so we're talking about a person who follows Jesus, who's who's actively being transformed by Jesus, and then who's joining Jesus on his mission, right? His mission to uh reach the lost. And so through this section in Mark, we're learning what Jesus has to say about being his disciple or being his practical missionary, if you will. And so um now back in chapter 8, verse 34, we learn that discipleship involves following Jesus in sacrifice. And it was actually the same passage that Drew read from Luke, uh we studied here in Mark. Um, and he says that if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Jesus opened that section in verse 31 by foretelling to his twelve disciples that he was going to be rejected and and ultimately killed by the religious leaders before rising again. Uh and so then he charges his disciples to follow him in that kind of sacrificial living. Um so so a disciple is marked by uh sacrifice, right? And then after the transfiguration event in chapter 9, where God the Father uh clearly revealed Jesus' identity, right? And he he proclaimed to those um those three disciples uh Jesus' identity. And Drew uh really wonderfully led us through that passage a couple of weeks ago, but we get another clue after that about what what it means to follow Jesus as um as a disciple. And so they find when they're coming down the mountain, uh the other disciples of Jesus are unable to cast out this demon, right? Which is uh kind of strange to us. And Patrick led us through this uh last week, and and we learned that discipleship involves complete dependency upon God. You've got to strip yourself of you, and and it's complete dependency on God's power, right? These disciples were acting in their own abilities and confidence. They had done this many times, and they they decided, well, we're we can do this, this is no big deal. And then they couldn't uh cast out this demon. Um, and so being a disciple is that about that constant dependency upon God. And part of what we learned there as well is that um is that disciples seek Jesus through spiritual disciplines. So prayer and and and studying of his word and and being with other believers. Part of what we're doing this morning is a spiritual discipline, right? Uh spiritual disciplines are the means, um the means God uses to bring our faith into action. I really love how how Patrick said that last week. It's the means by which God uses, the means God uses uh to bring our faith into action. And I don't know about you, but I was really struck by verse 37. I'm sorry, I'm messing up my words today. Um verse 29 of that passage, uh, Jesus says, this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer. I've been thinking about that verse all week. Um, you know, there are there are certain breakthroughs, I think, in your life and in my life that, guys, they're just never going to happen until you get serious about prayer. Until you and I get serious about letting go of some control, stop kind of trying to control everything and get desperate in our prayer lives. There's just certain things I believe that God wants to take us to that he will not if we will not pray. And I don't know that that phrase, this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer. I wonder what what else in our lives. Um, you know what? God's just waiting for you to desperately seek him in prayer. Um and and and if we will not, then we're not going to experience all that he has for us. So um not to re-preach uh last week's sermon, but but that that just really struck me last week. It's been on my mind um all week of as we've we've we've learned that discipleship does involve spiritual discipline. So uh a little bit of a summary, discipleship involves sacrifice, it involves dependency upon God, it involves spiritual disciplines. Now, this morning we're gonna add to that list as we learn that discipleship requires following in Jesus, following Jesus in service to others, so serving others. The path to real freedom and real joy and real greatness in God's kingdom is found in elevating others as greater than myself. So our title this morning is is going to be Following the Humble King. And I'm gonna ask you to stand with me. We're gonna read verses 30 through 41 as we look at this here. So it says, They went out from there and passed through Galilee, and he did not want anyone to know, 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. But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him. And they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house he asked them, What were you discussing on the way? But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve, and he said to them, If any one would be first, he must be last of all, and servant of all. And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in in his arms, he said to them, Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. John said to him, Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us. But Jesus said, Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be soon but will be able soon after afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink, because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for this church family. Uh Lord, we thank you for those that are here this morning. We thank you for those of our family who are maybe watching online today or they're in other places, Lord, and we uh thank you for them as well and pray that you would bring them back to us um at the appointed time, Father. And we we love you. I just give you so much praise, Father, that we do have the freedom to be here openly proclaiming Jesus. We thank you for those that have paid for those freedoms in this country, Lord. Uh, but even more, Lord, we thank you for the freedom that is found in Jesus Christ. Um and Lord, you've given us kind of some of that blueprint in this passage this morning, but it's hard, Lord. It's it's difficult to um to enact. It goes against everything in our society and everything in us if we're honest this morning, to be a servant of all. So, Father, I pray that your word um would just uh be received this morning, Lord, that you would speak through me um very clearly and that you would just um that the Holy Spirit would apply this word um to each heart as as you see fit, Father. And I love you and thank you for the opportunity to open the word with these people, and we ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. You can have a seat. Okay, well, as we begin this section, uh these first few verses should sound very familiar to us because it was it was only one chapter ago, uh chapter eight, where we saw Jesus uh do what he does here, predicting his own rejection and his death and his resurrection for his 12 disciples. And it seems that at this point in his ministry, in his in his private instruction of the disciples, Jesus' ultimate mission of dying on the cross has really become a central theme now in his teaching to the disciples. And we'll see it another time actually in chapter 10, and it reads uh very much like this. And I think that this is I think that this foretelling has a slightly different focus than the first foretelling back in chapter 8. We'll see this in a moment, but let's look at our first point this morning in following the humble king. The king's example leads the way. That's our first point this morning. So at this point in his ministry, um, Jesus' public ministry in Galilee is over at this point. We've read a lot of that in the Gospel of Mark, but it's really over at this point. And so rather than stopping for more ministry in Galilee, Mark says that Jesus and his disciples passed through Galilee. And this is the first leg in their journey to Jerusalem and ultimately to the cross. Jesus has the cross firmly set in his sights now, and so this is kind of the first leg of that journey. And Jesus is taking some time on the way for more private instruction with the twelve. And so he brings up again this idea of his death and resurrection. Now, maybe notice that the wording is slightly different this time than in chapter 8. In chapter 8, Jesus said the Son of Man must suffer many things. And the focus of that section of teaching uh really was on suffering and on sacrifice. Now, here he says the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they would kill him. And when he is killed, after three days, he will rise. Now, that Greek word delivered, uh translated delivered here means to hand over, to hand over. And certainly there could be uh many meanings to that. That that has a multiple meanings. Uh Jesus, as we know, was going to be handed over uh by Judas, right, to uh the religious leaders, and the leaders would would hand him over to Pilate, and and Pilate would hand them over, hand him over to the guards for his crucifixion. But ultimately, these men had really no power to deliver Jesus anywhere if it was not the will of the Father and of the Son. And so the idea here is that Jesus is willingly and voluntarily being delivered up to death. This is not against his will. In fact, this is completely within his will. The cross is. Um he is going to lay down his own life by his own choice, and no man will make him do that. Right? He's delivering himself up to death. Now, this is uh the ultimate paradox, and it's highlighted by the words that Mark uses here and that Jesus used. The Son of Man. The Son of Man, and we read Daniel 7 a few weeks ago. The Son of Man is this one in Daniel 7 who is given all authority and all power, and he's given an everlasting kingdom. And this son of man is allowing himself now to be handed over to die, handed over to men to kill him. As Isaiah 53, verse 7 had prophesied centuries prior, he would be silent and open not his mouth, just like a lamb that is led to slaughter. And he would do this all voluntarily, completely willingly, for you and for me. The focus of the first prediction of his death was sacrifice, but here the focus is Jesus lowering himself before men and willingly taking the form of a servant with no power. In this section, Jesus is about to ask his followers to lower themselves below others. He's about to ask you and I to lower ourselves in humility. But before he ever asked a thing of them or of us, he makes sure they know that he's about to lead by example. Jesus is about to be the ultimate example of this servanthood that he's talking about. He's not a Savior who sits on his throne barking commands at us.

unknown 17:33

Right?

SPEAKER_01 17:33

But he's the Savior who goes before us, showing us the way to true greatness by humility. No matter how far, and I want you to get this, no matter how far Jesus asks you to go in humility, and he does ask you to go to humility. And as we study this morning, maybe you'll be convicted about some ways that Jesus is asking you to lower yourself. And as we study that, we need to understand that no matter how far Jesus asks you to go in humility, he has gone further himself. Amen? He has gone further by leaving heaven, becoming a human, and then suffering on our behalf. We're reminded of Philippians 2, 5 through 7, where Paul really uh teases this out. He says, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, a thing to hold tightly to. He is God, but he did not count equality of God, something that he needed to hold on to, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And then he went further, being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Whatever Jesus is calling you to this morning, he has gone further, I assure you. He willingly took the form of not only a human, right? Not even taking human form, leaving the throne room of heaven, but also a servant. And a servant who goes all the way in humility, even to the point of death on a cross. This was the path to his ultimate exaltation, which that Philippians passage goes on to talk about, but it's also the path to our salvation. And it was the only path to our salvation to think that before he entered into this world as a baby, he was already exalted as God on his throne. He did not endure the cross so that he could get a throne. He already had it. To think that that he was already exalted before he ever came to this earth. But he did all of this for you and for me. Oh, that ought to break us this morning. Let that sink in. He did that for you. He left his throne in heaven to suffer on your behalf so that you don't have to suffer. Let's let that sink in this morning. Don't let that blow past us this morning. Verse 32 says that his disciples did not understand. Well, what else is new, right? They didn't understand what he said. And it says they were afraid to ask him. Matthew adds in the parallel passage that they were greatly distressed thinking about his death, right? Luke 9 actually tells us that it was concealed from their understanding of it. Though he did speak very plainly, and we think, like, how do they not get this? Well, Luke adds that actually it was concealed from their understanding of it. They couldn't complete completely understand um what he was talking about. And there's a sense in which God hid the full understanding of this from the disciples, perhaps to protect them from just complete devastation. Right? Thinking about the death of this man they have spent every moment with for the past two plus years. Or perhaps God had other reasons for concealing it. But it also says that they were afraid to ask. What did Jesus say? He said, Get behind me. Satan. Peter was called Satan whenever he uh pushed back to this idea of Jesus dying. Maybe this was the reason for their fear, and they just decided. I don't think we'll say anything this time. Um, or perhaps uh perhaps they were just they were just afraid uh of what all of that meant, and maybe they they kind of didn't even want to know what all of that meant, right? You just it's not always good to know the future, right? Every detail of the future. We think we want to know that, but maybe you don't this morning. Maybe it's good that God reveals things in his own time. But part of their fear and their misunderstanding was that they just could not fathom how their Messiah, uh, again, this Son of Man given all authority, how he how could he die? How in the world could he die? How does that match up with an everlasting kingdom? What Jesus was saying simply did not fit their preconceived expectations, that they had really been taught since they were children. They've been taught many times of the greatness of this Messiah. How could he die? That doesn't add up to what they expected. So they remained silent and afraid to ask. And clearly from verse 33, they moved on pretty quickly to other topics that they enjoyed a lot more. Topics that elevated themselves, right? And that's where we'll get to in our second point. The king's instruction lights the path. Now, having explained once again to his disciples the mission he must face, now Jesus is ready to again extend that mission to his followers, so to his disciples and to you and I. But his teaching is provoked by the conversation the disciples are having on the way to Capernaum. Evidently, as as soon as the disciples moved on, right, from Jesus talking about his own suffering and death, they began arguing. And what were they arguing about? They're arguing about who's the greatest. No, I'm the man. No, no, I'm the man. I said, well, I mean, that time though, you remember in Damascus when I did that that thing, like, come on, guys, you can't beat that. Like, who's the greatest? It's me, clearly. And they're just going back and forth, and um that they think Jesus can't hear him, hear them, right? And um they just really didn't get it, huh? They really didn't get uh Jesus' um pronouncement about his death and all that, you know. He's talking about lowering himself to the point of death. They're thinking about their own thrones and the kingdom, right? This is how far off they were. And they they came to a house in Capernaum. Perhaps this was the house of Peter and Andrew, um, though we can't be for sure. Um and Jesus asked them, uh, what were you guys talking about on the way over? Heard you guys, you know, kind of back there. What were you what were you talking about? Now, Luke says he knew their thoughts, and and uh of course he knew their thoughts, right? Uh we know that on this side of the cross, we can clearly see, hey guys, he knows what you're talking about, right? Um he he he doesn't have to ask, but he will anyway. Um but you know he wants them to own up to uh what they did. And so this kind of has the feel of of moments I think we can all relate to when maybe a parent or uh a teacher or some kind of authority walks in on a conversation that you're having with siblings or or friends that you know you should not be having, by the way, and uh and asks, you know, what's going on in here? What do you what have you guys been talking about? Boys, what are you talking about in there? Right? Maybe my boys can relate to that um when they think dad can't hear. And um, you know, you you all kind of look at each other like, oh, uh-oh. Uh-oh. He he caught us. This to me kind of reads like that. They are um they're embarrassed. They don't want to admit that they were arguing about who's the greatest, especially after Jesus is talking about giving up his life, dying. And so they immediately feel the guilt and the embarrassment of that. But, you know, honestly, the disciples were just acting like the rest of the world and uh the way they'd seen modeled their whole lives by their own religious leaders. Right? The the thought of of um the thought of of that day and and even 2,000 years later, the thought of our day today is that I come first above everything. It's my wants, and it's my desires and my plans and my preferences, and if you get in the way of that, well, forget you. I come first. That's what matters. And I'm gonna fight for me no matter how it affects others. That's the kind of the thought of our day. It's always been the thought since Adam, that was the thought. It's always been the thought of humanity. I come first. It's the God of me. And Jesus condemns the religious leaders, the Jewish religious leaders, many times for their pride, you know, pointing out how they always needed to draw attention to themselves, right? And they would pray in public um places so that everyone could see them. When they would put in their offering, they would make sure it was those loud coins that everybody could hear, and they'd slam it in, right? So that everybody would know how much they were giving. Right? And he condemns them for that way of thinking, how they lorded their authority over um others. Now, the Romans, of course, um they also valued this way of thinking. You were great if you could dominate other people, right, in the Roman Empire. And we kind of love watching movies about that domination, right? We we kind of like that idea ourselves. It kind of appeals to us. Um, you know, the the great or so-called great great Greek philosophers, um Aristotle and Plato, now they lived three to four hundred years before this time, and they wrote similar ideas. Aristotle taught that pride was the crown of all virtues. But what does God say about pride? Right? He has a lot to say about it. He doesn't say it's the crown of all virtues, I'll tell you that. Um, a great man, he would say, claims the highest honors. The man's the best seat in the house. He's going to demand that that top seat of the table. He's superior to the ordinary people. He's a distinguished man. Show him honor. And Plato similarly wrote, How can a man be happy when he has to serve someone? That's what Plato wrote. Of course, this teaching, again, is carried to our day as well. And I don't think that really requires much of an explanation. You feel it in yourself, and you see it all over media, you see it everywhere in this world. We don't have to be taught to be selfish, to be selfish. We do have to be taught to be selfless. We do not have to be taught how to be selfish. That is ingrained, right? If you have a toddler this morning, you see it very early on. How quickly that is ingrained in us, to be selfish. That's natural for us. We uh think greatness involves uh getting our way, uh being served and honored. And weakness is found into submitting, submitting to people. That's where weakness is found. Serving others. That's for the weak. The disciples were simply acting uh like what they had seen and heard their whole lives leads to greatness. That's all they knew. And that's all we would know if it weren't for Christ, right? But Jesus completely flips this idea on its head for his followers. It's not going to be that way for my followers, he says. And Matthew 18, um, again, is a parallel passage to this one in Mark. And in verses 2 and 3, there it says that Jesus called a child to himself and put him in the midst of them and said, Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. If you don't become like a child, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven, let alone have greatness. And you won't even enter the kingdom. What a strong statement that is. Now, I think to understand what he's saying there, we need to understand the first century context of children. Children were not really valued other than reproducing your line. Children were thought of as really having nothing to offer adults. They made no contribution. Uh, they were completely dependent upon parents for everything. We're talking about small children, um, completely dependent upon parents for everything. They were helpless. They were considered very low in society. They didn't really have much of a standing. So, what is Jesus saying here? He's saying that to even enter heaven, you've got to realize how utterly helpless you are before God. You're not bringing anything to the table. You're like this little child, or how they how a little child was viewed in that day. You've got to humble yourself and understand your total dependence upon God to save you or to do anything good in you. That's a requirement even for entry into God's kingdom, which is totally antithetical to the world's view. You must humble yourself like a child. The point of a child. Then he continues, and we see this in Mark, if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. And he goes further in verse 37 whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me or not only me, but him who sent me. That would be the Father. Right? The idea here is that true greatness is found in serving others and making yourself last among all. Not first, but last. If you want to be great in God's eyes, it starts with how well you serve others. Even others who, like a child in this first century context, have nothing to offer you in return. Those that you serve and you know they could never repay you in any way. What makes greatness is serving even those. Those who society would call low and unimportant, the marginalized of society, the poor, the weak, the ones most would overlook. A disciple should be marked by seeking out to serve those who society shuns, or those that really can give nothing in return, so that the love of God may be clearly seen. That's what he did for us. Remember, he is that example. Don't forget that first point. He has gone further than all of us in this. The calling of the disciple of Jesus is to lower ourselves below everyone else. Everyone else is more important than me. That should be the mindset. Now, that doesn't mean self-hatred. Oh, I hate myself. I'm no good. That's not what he's talking about here, or thinking ourselves worthless. That's not what he's talking about. You can be confident in who you are in Christ. And you can stand firm in that identity. It's not talking about self-hatred, self-loathing, anything like that. It simply means that we don't think about ourselves much at all. Unlike what we're used to doing. Which is every single thought revolves around me. Well, not for the disciple of Jesus, it's not our calling. Our calling is that I just don't need to think about myself too much. Good or bad? It's just okay, let me just think outward. Let me think about others. I am not the focused. We live in an outward rather than an inward frame of mind. This is what Jesus again modeled and willingly being delivered up to death for our sakes. I mean, if anyone deserved something, it was Jesus. Come on. Can you imagine Jesus? Can you imagine being spat in the face? And you're Jesus. Good thing I'm not Jesus is what I'm thinking. Right? I mean, how do you how does he do that? How does he do that? And yet he puts a spirit within us as his followers, and he says, now you follow me. I get a hard time with that. I have a hard time with that, don't you? Everyone, even the meekest among us probably has a hard time with that. Right? Oh, that's a tough, tough calling to be a servant of all. Not just the people you like, a servant of all, not just the people who can give back to you, a servant of all. Prior to that passage in Philippians 2 that we read earlier about Jesus, Paul calls believers at Philippi and us to this same idea when he says this in verses 3 and 4. It says, right before that section about Jesus, he says, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. How are you doing at that today? Like just today. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. But in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interest of others. See, the way of God's kingdom is the way of service to others. It's putting myself last and thinking of every other person as more important than myself. It is absolute nonsense to the world. That is absolute nonsense. Why would you do that? That makes no sense to the world. And if you're living for just this 70 or 80 years, I gotta agree with them. You're gonna have to get yours because that's all you're gonna get. But if you're living for something much greater, something eternal. And you know the way to see riches there is to lower yourself here. That's a different perspective, isn't it? It's nonsense to the world, and it's it's not natural for us at all. Even as believers, it's not natural for us. We need God's Spirit to do this in us, to work this in us. By the way, you're not gonna leave here today and just do better. You're not, and I'm not either. You are going to have to cling to Jesus and let Him change you. That's where we go back to the spiritual disciplines. This only comes from the Holy Spirit, guys. You cannot just will, you can for a couple days, maybe. You can will yourself to just gonna keep my mouth shut and serve. But you can't keep that pace up, not without complete dependence upon the Spirit, complete fellowship with the Spirit of God. And so if you're not fellowshipping with Him daily in prayer and in Scripture, you don't have a chance. And neither do I. You're not just going to naturally be a servant of all. It's not gonna happen. This shows us our need, doesn't it? Once again, this has been a theme in Mark. You just we need Jesus, we need to be dependent upon him moment by moment by moment. This is the way of our Savior. And how can we say that we follow him if we will not follow him in this? These things that are hard for us, not just the things that are easy. Your status in this world, your accomplishments, your superior talents or abilities or intelligence will only matter in eternity in relation to how you utilize those gifts of God for building God's kingdom by serving others. That that is all that will matter when you're dead, and you will die. Oh, you're the greatest baseball player of all time. Wonderful. For about I mean for base, maybe 40 years, like maybe when you're 40, you're you're done though, right? Then maybe people remember you for a little while. You live the rest of your life, you die, and in eternity it doesn't matter. All that matters about that baseball gift is how did you use it for Jesus' kingdom? I don't think any of us in here are professional baseball players, but you can take that and apply it to any gift. God has gifted you in certain ways, God has put you in certain situations to use for his glory. And none of it matters in eternity unless you actually use it for his glory. You may get all the praise of men. So what? When you stand before his throne, that's over. And now it's the rest of eternity. What are you living for this morning? His kingdom is an upside down one. It's upside down from what our hearts naturally cling to and what this world values. It goes against everything we feel internally. We want to fight for the kingdom of me. But God says it's only in letting go of that kingdom that we'll find abundant life in his kingdom. So let me ask you, how are you doing at being last? That's something you've asked yourself regularly. How am I doing at being last, like Jesus says here? Men, we should be leading the charge in this. He leads by his service to others. Servant leadership. And some of us as men, maybe we're just ignoring that this morning. And we need to get with it. And when I say get with it again, I don't mean you can just will yourself to it. I mean get closer to Jesus, man. Get closer to Jesus. Get on your knees and ask him, how do I become this servant? Especially when you have every excuse not to at home, maybe. Maybe your wife is not fulfilling her calling. So what? Do you see a caveat here? I don't see it. We tend to follow Jesus while ignoring some of the hard things he commands, or we make excuses because everybody else treats me this way. So how am I supposed to treat them in this way? I do not see a caveat here. In fact, Jesus himself was betrayed and abused by the very people he came to serve. Yet he kept humbling himself and elevating their needs. Primarily the need for their salvation above his own needs. What if in your marriage you started taking Jesus at his word with this command? You, not your wife. You, not your husband. But then what if it rubbed off on your wife or your husband? What if your children pick that up and they saw the way you served so well? What if they saw you intentionally reaching out and serving the ones society says to ignore? What kind of transformation might we see if we started living this way? This command of Christ is what Tim Keller called self-forgetfulness. He wrote a book, the freedom of self-forgetfulness is really, really short. You can read it in 30 minutes. It's really good though. The freedom of self-forgetfulness. Again, it's not that I think badly of myself or good of myself. I just don't think of myself. I just don't think of myself that much. And there's such freedom. You begin to think that way, and you will find such freedom. Because you're not caught up in all this comparison trap and chasing everything the world chases. You're caught up in serving others. And that's where Jesus says, um, that's where Jesus says freedom is found, so that's where it is found. In serving others. It's a hard path to be sure. A path that everything in us bucks against. But it's the path to true freedom and true greatness in the kingdom. And it's the path of our Savior. If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. It's in losing our need to justify ourselves and serve ourselves that we find true life. But are you going to leave here and take Jesus at his word or not? You're going to keep living the same old way. Jesus gives his corrective instruction here, which lights the path forward for the disciples. And then he instructs further through a couple of examples that we're going to see in our third point. The king's vision locks in the focus. In order to live out this hard truth, we need Jesus' vision. We need to see things the way Jesus sees things. John here, he hears, oh John. He hears this teaching on humility from Jesus. And he immediately begins telling a story of how he took it upon himself to shut down someone else's ministry. It's hard for me to see the connection in his mind here. What was he thinking was about to happen? Did he think Jesus was going to pat him on the back? I don't know. I'm not sure he thought about what he said at all before he said it, which I have that problem too at times, right? But it's hard to see where he was going with this. And it again shows how the disciples missed the point. But again, we can't be too hard on them because we often miss the point, right? Sometimes I do think sometimes of John as a more gentle man, just based on his writings. More meek and mild. He wrote 1st through 3rd John. Beautifully written. And then of course God breathed. He wrote the Gospel of John. But remember, John is also the disciple who on one occasion asked Jesus if he should call down fire from heaven to consume the people that rejected him.

unknown 48:04

Right?

SPEAKER_01 48:04

They're leaving Samaria. And actually, that's right after this in Luke. The people of Samaria reject him, and John, James and John, they're saying, Do you think we should just go ahead and kill them? Actually, like God could do that. Should we? They rejected you. Yikes. You know, they were nicknamed the Sons of Thunder. Which sounds like a really good NASCAR duo, but it's not, that's not a that is not a compliment, right? Sons of Thunder. So any meekness that was in John, and I think it does come across in his writings. So I think any meekness was was completely the Holy Spirit, right? Transforming him for sure. Here, John is bragging, um, bragging to Jesus about trying to stop a man from casting out demons in Jesus' name because he says he was not following us. He was not part of our group. And so I stopped him, Jesus. Don't worry. Well, were people being delivered? Well, yeah, but he wasn't a part of us, though, Jesus. He wasn't our fact. You know, he wasn't part of the twelve. So um this is John's reasoning, right? Now, we don't know, we don't know anything about this man who exercised demons. Uh apparently Jesus didn't have a problem with him, right? Apparently God did use him to deliver people from demons in Jesus' name. Remember, there was another point where Jesus sent out the 70 disciples. Maybe he was one of those. I don't know. We're not told. But that's of no concern to John, the fact that that people were being delivered from demons. He didn't care about that, the fact that people were being set free. His only concern is that this man wasn't in their group, their faction, the twelve. But apparently he was a this man was a believer. Um Jesus had no problem with him, and Jesus was using him to accomplish his will and further his purposes. And so Jesus says to John, Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. See, once again, John's true concern here is for his own honor. And the honor of the group he was a part of. But he had little concern for God's kingdom overall, growing. You see, and people being delivered from these demons. He wasn't really concerned about that because he wasn't a part of it and he wasn't receiving the glory for it. Jesus is giving us a warning here about corporate pride. Right? Our focus as his followers should be on the building of God's kingdom. God's kingdom. Even if we're seeing it happen from people or churches or ministries other than ours, that's okay. Praise the Lord. This is a warning against competition or unhealthy competition among disciples. We should all have the same goal of seeing God's kingdom glorified, not our own. If he uses us, praise the Lord. If he uses the church down the street, praise the Lord. Right? Now, Jesus is not saying that everyone who claims his name is a true believer or is preaching the true gospel. In fact, in another place, he says, if you're not with me, you're against me. So that's a different place in a different context. And he's speaking of those who reject the truth. And so we're still called to call out false gospels, and there are many in this world, but we also should be able to celebrate when other churches that are maybe different from us, maybe even different denominations from us, or other individuals succeed at being used for growing the kingdom. Praise the Lord. There are far too many harsh divisions in Christianity today, whether it be Calvinists versus Arminians or infant baptism versus believers' baptism or arguments over the gifts of the Spirit. So many, so many arguments. Now, it is okay for us to have distinctions. To be a Baptist church, have Baptist distinctions and secondary doctrines, but not animosity and exclusivity. Well, if they don't believe in believers' baptism, then I'm not praying for anything for that church. If that guy's not a Calvinist or an Arminian, well, I forget him. He doesn't even preach the right gospel. And this is where we often take these arguments and these divisions, and we begin to have enemies within the church. Again, it's okay to have distinctions and to hold fast to those distinctions. But we're for the kingdom. We're for God's kingdom. And if someone that we disagree with on some secondary issues, God's using in a mighty way, then we should be able to rightly praise the Lord. And maybe even learn something from that person, right? And the way they're serving the Lord. The real focus should be the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Not the kingdom of risen life fellowship. Not the kingdom of me, but the kingdom of Jesus Christ. This is again a call to humility, a call to celebrate others' successes if God's kingdom is furthered. Even if we don't agree on every little doctrine, and even if it's not our ministry receiving the recognition, it's his kingdom over ours. You know, Paul wrote about this too in Philippians 1. And he speaks there about some who are preaching Christ, he says, from envy and rivalry, but others were preaching Christ from goodwill. So they had different motives. And here's what he says: he says, the latter do it out of love, knowing that I'm put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. They were saying, Follow me, not Paul, he's in prison. Follow me. But they were preaching the true Christ. Paul says, What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. That's humility. Paul says, I don't care if these people who hate me get the glory, maybe Christ has got to work on that hatred. But if they're preaching the true Christ, and people are coming to Christ and they're preaching against me, even, well, I rejoice. Boy, that is a statement right there of humility. That's the way we ought to view our ministries and our churches. That's a mature mindset of humility that says, God's glory is what matters, not mine. If Christ is preached and people are being set free, then praise the Lord. Again, this principle that the first shall make themselves last. It's the same principle. We celebrate what brings God's glory, even if he uses someone else to do it. This section closes with one more illustration from Jesus in verse 41. He says, Whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward. I think this is meant to be an encouragement. As we live out this difficult calling of elevating others before ourselves, it's a difficult calling. As we live out that calling of becoming last, of elevating his kingdom over my kingdom. I think this is meant as an encouragement. It's easy to get discouraged because we're humans. And we kind of like recognition. We're kind of addicted to it, in fact. And we don't like when we do something, we don't get recognized for it. That's a natural way to feel if the Holy Spirit's not working in us. It's easy to get discouraged when we're faithfully pressing on for the kingdom, using our gifts and our opportunities for his glory, but receiving no recognition. Or maybe also not seeing the fruit that we expected to see, that we hoped to see. Have you ever been doing that? I mean, you're being faithful, but you're just in this relationship, like you're just not seeing the fruit that you were hoping to see when you started living this way. We can all probably all can all relate to that. Jesus' implication here is that God notices and rewards even the quote-unquote smallest of deeds of service. Even like giving a cup of water, he says, when it's done with a pure heart, God sees that and he rewards that. You can be assured. That ought to be an encouragement to us this morning. You know, every big transformation is made up of these little moments. Life is made up of these little moments, little decisions to do the right thing in little situations, even when it goes against our instinct. Marriages are made up of little moments. Little moments. Parenting of little moments, friendships, little moments. Evangelism is made up of little moments, little decisions. God sees us in those little moments and is a rewarder of those who seek Him and His will with a pure heart. God uses a host of small moments to accomplish enormous things for his kingdom. And he calls us to not grow weary in doing his good work. Don't grow weary in doing those quote-unquote little things that maybe you think nobody's noticing. Don't grow weary. Every time we choose to elevate someone above ourselves in service, even if it's a small thing, it doesn't escape his watch. Even when we don't see the fruit that we're expecting, it doesn't escape his watch. We can be encouraged that he sees and he rewards. You know, personally, I think those closest to the throne in heaven will be those whose names we've never heard. Maybe some of the names we've heard too, but I think a lot of them are going to be people we've never, you would have no idea. Some old lady that lived in 1910 and she was just on her knees every day for the church. And she would just give and baked goods to people, and they came in their house and usually as an opportunity to proclaim the gospel, and no one ever knew who she was. Those people we might say are little for the kingdom. Oh, that's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. Those ones that just continually humbled themselves. They didn't need the stage, they didn't need the recognition, they just continually humbled themselves, did the hard work of serving others, of praying for others, of celebrating others, of encouraging others behind the scenes, of exhorting others, having one-on-one gospel conversations, using meager resources and abilities to just be faithful to the Lord. I think a lot of those people closest to the throne receiving the biggest rewards are going to be those people that we never even knew about. But God saw them, God sees everything, and he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. You know, that's kind of what Jesus is saying here, isn't it? The greatest in his kingdom will be the ones who are greatest at making themselves last. Those are the greatest in his kingdom. So as we close this morning, let's think about how we can take the next step into this humble calling of being a servant to all. Again, it's not gonna be by just your will. You're not gonna will yourself to this. But let's ask the Spirit to change us. I'm gonna ask the band to come back up and we're gonna close here. You know, maybe for you it means uh making a meal for a family, welcoming a new child. We got opportunities for that here, don't we? Maybe it means uh offering to hold a baby so that a mother can sit and watch a sermon. Oh, it's just a little thing, maybe. Oh, it's not little, not to her, it's not, not to God, it's not. Maybe it's stepping into a position of service here at Risen Life and in kids ministry or or hospitality or or connect team. What does it mean for for you at this church to become a servant of all? What does that mean? I don't know. Only you can answer that. How about at home? What does it mean? Are you actively seeking ways to humble yourself below your spouse, your children, your siblings, your parents, your roommate? This is the path to real joy and freedom. This is the path to a healthy marriage. This is the path to transformation, according to Jesus. If you got some other way, you can try it, but how is it working for you? How is it working to continue to seek the kingdom of me above everything else? How is that working for you? It's never worked very well for me. And when I fall back into it, it still doesn't work very well for me. Maybe you've been been serving at home faithfully, but but nothing else at home seems to be changing. I want you to know that he sees you. And he is working even when you don't see it. He is working. And he rewards better than this world ever could. His rewards are better than this world could ever be. You just continue to be faithful in humility. How about at work? How about in relation to the unsaved world? We should go out of our way as believers to serve our coworkers. To just randomly do acts of service for our coworkers so that they might see and really feel the love of Christ. We should be thinking of ways to get our families involved in reaching out to the weak of society, the unimportant in our society. About and how you celebrate others. Are you able to truly celebrate others? Even when maybe you're not seeing the fruit you're wanting to see, things aren't going your way necessarily. Are you able to humble yourself and celebrate others? That's part of being a humble servant as well. This is a hard calling. A hard calling, Jesus calls us to, but he's shown us the way by his example. And he's given us the power, not in ourselves, but through his Holy Spirit, to obey what he says. We went to a conference recently. My wife bought a shirt with this quote from Charles Spurgeon. And I'm going to leave us with this, but it says, if Christ be anything, he must be everything. And if he be not everything, he is nothing to you. If Christ be anything, he must be everything. Now, this could have many applications. If he's going to be savior to you, he must also be Lord and master to you. We must take in and obey the things that are difficult for us and unnatural for us as much as we take in and obey the things that are easy for us. Because it just kind of naturally lines up with who we are. If he's anything to you, he must be everything. Jesus calls us to humility, to lower ourselves, to actively think about how we esteem others as more important than ourselves. So that his kingdom is furthered. It's unnatural, but it's the path to true greatness according to him. Are you going to leave here and follow that path? Now, as we choose to follow that path, get back on that path, we're going to fail at times. We're going to fail a lot. We're going to blow it and we're going to need grace sometimes. We'll find ourselves like the disciples at times seeking our own throne rather than seeking to serve. But I want us also to be comforted and reminded that in those failures, Jesus still saw you in those failures and chose to willingly lay down his life for you. Even in those moments of great failure, those moments where we're just seeking nothing but ourselves, he chose to die for us. And he's the only one worthy of all praise and honor. He is the Almighty God, yet he humbled himself to the position of the ultimate servant so that he might save us. And he offers his forgiveness this morning. I'm going to ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes. If you don't know Jesus, what are you waiting on? Come to this Savior who has sacrificed everything in your place as a substitute for you, the punishment you deserve, He took on the cross. And he bids you to come and find forgiveness. Forgiveness for everything you've ever done and ever will do. And find life in trusting him. Trusting his sacrifice. Trusting the path that he sets before us. And we're saved. There's no other name by which you can be saved. It's Jesus or nothing. You cannot save yourself. So will you come? Will you humble yourself before him and find life? Will you find life? We're going to close, and as we do that, let's ask the Spirit how he would apply this to our lives in very specific ways. Becoming a servant of all. How would you, Spirit, how would you apply that to my life? Whatever position you find yourself in today. Let me give you a few moments to do what you need to do with the Lord. I'll be in the back if you need me. And then we'll we'll close with a song.