“Kingdom
Greatness” Mark 9:30-41
SCRIPTURE INTRO: Mark divided in two halves.
First half of Mark answers the question: Who is Jesus?
The answer is that
he is the Christ, the Anointed One.
Second half of Mark answers the question: What did the Christ come to do?
The answer is that
he came to set things right by his suffering and death.
This particular passage not only about Christ—it’s about us.
What life is like
for us when we try to follow him.
INTRO: I once read about a strange bicycle race
in
The winner of this race—
the
person who goes the least distance in a certain period of time.
If you put your feet on the ground, or fall off, or go
backwards, disqualified.
So what the race
essentially amounts to is trying to balance in place.
Just imagine that you are at this race—but you don’t know
anything about it.
You think it’s like
every other bike race you’ve seen since
the
day you learned to ride a bike as a child.
You get on your bike at the starting line, gun goes off—you
start peddling away.
And you get a rush
realizing that you are in the lead.
You sneak a quick
look behind you and you see the rest of the pack way back.
You think you are
winning, you’re killing them.
But you are really losing, because everything is different
about this race.
Following Jesus is like that Indian bicycle race.
Jesus’ disciples had been arguing about who was the
greatest.
They still thought that the Messiah had come
to establish a political kingdom,
and
so they were arguing about their places in the
Each man was pointing out his own talents and experience,
and
pointing out the weaknesses of the other men.
They were all on
their bikes, peddling like crazy, trying to take the lead.
It’s easy to criticize the disciples—but they were just
doing what we all do.
We have our own
little spheres of life that are important to each of us—
and
our natural tendency is to argue that we are the greatest.
Usually the argument takes place in our heads.
Especially as
Southerners, we are too sweet to say what we are thinking.
But we argue about
who is the greatest by making comparisons.
We compare our place in life, our standing with our peers.
Our
wealth, our toys, our vacations.
We meet someone and
immediately size him up—hoping he is beneath us.
And so you are racing, racing to get
ahead.
Jesus says: No,
that’s not how it works in my kingdom.
You’ve got it completely wrong—wrong rules, wrong goals, wrong motives.
He only give them one point.
Yes, it is
legitimate to desire to be first—to be great.
But
greatness as I define it.
Greatness achieved
according to my rule.
And this is the rule:
“If anyone wants to
be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
Let’s look at this remarkable statement of Jesus
and
ask three questions.
1. What does this
mean?
2. How
do you do it?
3. What does it look
like?
MP#1 What does this mean?
What did Jesus mean when he said to the disciples:
“If anyone wants to
be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
This is what it means:
Jesus is going to bring people into your life who have nothing to give you.
They aren’t
beautiful, popular, or rich.
You are not
naturally drawn to them.
Because they can do nothing to advance
your cause of getting ahead.
If the race you are running is social status—
these
people will do nothing to help you socially.
If the race you are running is a comfortable life—
these
people will probably interrupt your comfort.
If the race you are running is career advancement—
these
people will not advance your career one inch.
Then Jesus says: I
want you to welcome these people.
By welcoming these
people, you welcome me.
And by welcoming me
you welcome God the Father who sent me.
And that is the path to true greatness—welcoming me—
as
you welcome these people I’ve sent your way.
Then Jesus gave his disciples an example.
He took a child, and had him stand before them.
Then he took the
child in his arms
and
told them to welcome this child, pay attention to child, serve child.
It’s hard for us to understand the force of Jesus’
illustration.
When we picture Jesus
taking this child in his arms we say:
Aww. That’s so sweet.
We think of a
picture in Sunday school book, Jesus hugging a child.
There’s nothing hard about that. Hugging a child.
In many ways it
seems admirable to hug a child.
We admire people who give
themselves to caring for needy children,
foster
children and so forth.
That’s the general
influence of the Gospel on our values.
But in that age and culture, children were considered an
economic drain—
Not even as productive as slaves.
Not that parents didn’t love their own children,
but
children as a group of society were held in low regard.
They could do
nothing of benefit until they reached age of productivity.
I read an article in a recent issue of Time or Newsweek
about the devaluing
of
children among the professional class in
Having children is considered a definite negative because of
the demands
they
place on parents, and they way they interrupt
the
pursuits of career and a lavish, free lifestyle.
If you want to understand the force of this Jesus’
illustration,
imagine
him doing this with a bunch of young up and coming Wall Street execs.
He interrupts their
big board meeting, or their weekend ski trip
and
puts a little child in front of them and says—welcome this child.
They would say: This
child doesn’t do anything for me.
One old minister explained Jesus’ illustration this way:
“A child cannot
advance a man’s career, nor enhance a man’s prestige. A child cannot give us things; it’s the other
way around. A child needs things. A child must have things done for him. And so Jesus is saying: ‘If a man welcomes the poor, ordinary people,
the people who have no influence, and no wealth, and no power, the people who
need things done for them, then he’s welcoming me. And more than that, he’s welcoming God.’”
Don’t get hung up on the child illustration—you may love
children,
love
spending time with them. Jesus is
getting at something deeper.
There will be people he puts in your life who have nothing to
give you,
they
just need you—and you have to welcome them.
Let’s think about that word “welcome.” Can be translated accept, or receive.
That’s an important
word.
We say that to be
saved you have to accept Christ.
Or receive Jesus
Christ as your Savior.
What this shows us is that receiving Christ means more than
just saying:
Yes, I’m a sinner
and I need Jesus to be saved.
You can say that
and just keep it in the realm of ideas—not really receive him.
To really receive him means to get rid of your pride and
your agenda—
and
come to him humbly, and accept him.
It is that same
humility that is necessary to follow this command of Christ.
That brings us to our second big question:
MP#2 How do you do this?
How do you welcome the people Jesus brings into your life
who
have nothing to give you?
You can’t. It goes
against every fiber of your being.
You can’t do this
naturally—you can only do it supernaturally.
You can only do it
with the Gospel.
There are two huge natural obstacles to welcoming needy
people.
The first is your pride.
Your pride makes
you puff yourself up and look down on these people.
Because of pride
you absolutely cannot meet another person without
making
comparisons.
Second is your own neediness.
Yes, these people
are needy, and their needs put you off.
But the reason they
do is because you can see that they
won’t
help you fill your own needs.
It is Gospel alone that simultaneously crushes your pride
and fills your soul.
It humbles you and
it lifts you at the same time.
That supernaturally
empowers you to welcome needy people.
Look at verse 31 again.
Jesus was alone with his disciples.
This time with them
was more important than the crowds.
This was the big
thing he wanted them to grasp.
All of Christianity and all of the
Gospel is in this verse.
He said to them,
“The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.
They will kill him,
and after three days he will rise.”
Now, I’m going to do something that I don’t like to do—
I’m going to gripe
about the way the NIV translates a crucial word
in
this sentence. It’s the word
“betrayed.” What does that make you
think of?
Make you think of
Judas, right? Judas
betraying Jesus with a kiss.
But the King James, and many other
versions translate this word “delivered.”
The Son of Man is
going to be delivered into the hands of men.
And this is the difference—it’s a huge theological point.
Who is the one who
actually delivered Jesus into the hands of men?
God the Father. That’s what Jesus was trying to teach his
disciples.
Acts 2
Jesus was “handed over by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge.”
The Father’s
deliverance of the Son is the heart of the Gospel.
Why did he deliver his Son to death?
Because your sins
and wickedness is so great only the death of Christ
could
save you from hell and the wrath of God.
That has to humble your pride.
You are no better than the most needy
person.
God the Father had
to deliver his own Son over to death for you—
that
is how great your wickedness was. What
did you give God, nothing.
What did he give you?
Everything.
As that sinks in,
it humbles you, and as you look at yourself differently,
you
are able to look at other people in a different light.
But that’s only half of the answer of why he delivered his
Son to death.
Because
God the Father loves you. He
values you.
You are precious to
him. He has claimed you as his son or
daughter.
And he was willing to deliver his own Son so that he could
have you,
forgiven
and purified as his very own.
As that sinks in, it fills you. It lifts you.
You no longer have
such a desperate need for whatever it is—
success,
social connection, or comfort or whatever.
So you don’t care so much that this person can’t give you
anything.
You have it already
in Christ and in the love of the Father.
The Gospel means that I am more sinful and wicked than I
ever dared to admit,
but
at the same time I am more loved and accepted than I ever dared to hope.
That alone gives me the supernatural power to welcome
the
needy people Jesus brings into my life.
Getting back to last week’s lesson.
The real problem
that you have in welcoming the needy is not
your
pride, or your selfishness—for a Christian it’s your unbelief.
And so your prayer of repentance needs to be not so much—
Lord, forgive me
for not treating that person right—but—
Lord, forgive me
for not believing the Gospel.
Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.
And that brings us to the third question:
MP#3 What does this look like?
What does it look like to be the last instead of the first,
and to be a servant of all,
and
to welcome the needy child that Jesus brings into your life.
This is what Jesus says it usually looks like:
Little acts of
kindness, done in his name.
John speaks. And he
says, Jesus, we saw a man casting out demons in your name.
We told him to stop
because he was not one of us.
What was it that got John’s attention? This man was casting out demons.
That’s a big
deal. It’s very dramatic.
Remember the
description of the exorcism read last time.
The boy was foaming at the mouth, thrashing around on the
ground.
The demon was
shrieking and a crowd was running to the scene.
Remember also that the disciples were unable to cast out the
demon
because
of their unbelief. So there was some
jealousy as well.
But the point I want you to get is that John saw a man
doing
something very big, very dramatic in Jesus’ name.
That caught his
attention, and the told the man to stop because
he
was not one of the Twelve.
Jesus, very gently reprimands John.
“Do not stop
him. No one who does a miracle in my
name can in the next moment
say
anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.”
That is a fascinating response. But I want to skip it—it’s another sermon.
Want to focus on the last thing Jesus said to John.
“I tell you the
truth, anyone who gives you a cup of cold water in my name
because
you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.”
This is what Jesus seems to have been saying to John.
John, if you had
seen this man giving out a cup of water to a thirsty person,
and
you had heard him say, I give you this water in Jesus’ name,
would
you have stopped him?
Of course you wouldn’t.
Because it wouldn’t have seemed like a big deal to
you.
So what if he gives
out water in Jesus’ name,
that’s
nothing compared to casting out demons.
But that’s where you are wrong. It’s usually easy to do the big things in my
name.
Especially
when it is so dramatic, and seen by other people.
But it’s the little things, the little kindnesses, the cups of water
that
you give to needy people in my name that are truly great.
You will not always have the opportunity to cast demons out
of a person—
but you can always
give a cup of water, you can show a small kindness.
And those are the things that I see that no one else sees—
and
those are the acts that really show that you are following me.
I want to read something that I heard a pastor named Ray Cortese read recently.
He’s a
PCA minister in
It was my turn to chaperone the kids in the gym before youth
group. Just after the smaller children had
gone to choir, but before the teens had started their activities, I noticed a
boy shooting baskets. He was tall and
handsome and had a smile that I’m sure tugged many a heart. He shot baskets with nearly 100% accuracy
from all around the court. A girl was
also on the court. She clearly was not
very athletic. Physical problems made
her efforts look awkward at best. Very
few of her shots made it to the backboard, much less hit the rim or went in the
basket.
I noticed her watching the boy. He smiled and invited her to play. They took turns shooting baskets for the next
10 minutes. She missed most of her
shots—he did too. But I’d seen him play
and I knew he wasn’t taking his best shot.
As I watched I realized he was reaching out to a young woman who needed
the love of Christ in an unconditional way.
He wasn’t too important or too talented to play with the worst player on
the court.
When she wandered off, a smile had spread across her
face. He went back to shooting baskets
by himself as if nothing had happened.
He didn’t tell anyone what he had done, he
didn’t know anyone had noticed him. But
in those moments between kid’s choir and youth group a boy acted like
Jesus. Perhaps those were the best shots
he’s ever taken.
There may be times when Jesus calls you to serve a needy
person in a great way.
You may have to do
something dramatic—like cast out a demon.
But
probably not. It’s mostly going
to be a cup of water in his name.
A small kindness, but not small—because of
the motive of your heart.
To honor Christ for
all of the great kindnesses he has shown to you,
and
to welcome him as you welcome this needy child.
CONC: What race are you in?
How are you looking for greatness?
Remember that in
all of the world’s races
No matter how fast
you can peddle—someone faster.
No
matter how smart you are, how beautiful—smarter, more beautiful.
No matter how nice
and popular your children are—nicer and more popular.
And on and on it goes.
God has put a desire for greatness in our hearts—
but
it’s the greatness that he defines,
achieved
the way that he directs.
And that greatness is personified in Jesus Christ—
who
came and welcomed needy people who had nothing to give him,
no
glory, no advancement—instead they brought him very low.
Those needy people are you and me.
And greatness means following in his steps.
He did so much, he
gave so much—
We achieve
greatness by becoming last as Jesus did, and a servant of all.
Remember that this week as Jesus brings into your life needy
people,
who
seem to offer nothing for you in the way of greatness as the world defines it.
But who give you an opportunity to serve the One
who
will make you truly great.