Who is the Greatest?

Driving home: You see people will own up to almost anything but the sins produced by pride and so it says they held their peace why for who was the greatest so in the midst of their shameful silence they enter into the house and while…

Martin recounts how his father's specific call for a family meeting at the kitchen table signaled a particularly important lesson, illustrating how Jesus' posture and formal call to the disciples indicated a vital, concentrated teaching.

the master in this setting was about the pupil and the student and they would know from his very posture and his more formal calling them to him for that's the connotation of the verb used for calling them to him it was more of a formal call to the disciples that some special lesson was about to be imparted i can remember growing up in my home when we had a little teacher and he would tell us to give a lecture or give us a lesson or a scolding or a word of encouragement off the cuff but whenever dad said somewhere early in the evening son after the rest of the kids have gone to school he would...

18:52 - 20:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Jesus, holding the child, teaches that receiving 'one of such little children in my name' is receiving Him, and in turn, receiving the Father. Martin explains this refers to…

Martin shares a personal anecdote of struggling intensely with the meaning of Mark 9:36-37, feeling irritable and wanting to quit the ministry due to the pressure of expounding a difficult passage, which highlights the complexity of the text before he found clarity.

Jesus then says these words, Whoever shall receive one of such little children in my name or upon my name receives me and whosoever receives me receives not me but him that sent me. What in the world is he saying? Well, let me be honest at this point and tell you it's that question that nearly drove me to distraction and brought me to one of those times that I come to periodically in the ministry when I come down out of my study I confess to my shame irritable, tense as a drum and I say to my wife I want out. I don't want the responsibility anymore of having to be an official expounder of the ...

47:07 - 48:33 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Only by pride comes contention.

Martin uses the example of two men coveting the same position in an office to illustrate how ambition, jealousy, and envy lead to strained interpersonal relationships, tearing down others, and a lack of genuine reception.

They were disputing about who's going to be top dog. Now let me ask you something. When people get involved in disputes that grow out of ambition, jealousy, envy, bribery, jockeying for the same position, what happens to their interpersonal relationships? What happens in the office where two men are coveting the same position of advancement?

51:42 - 52:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Only by pride comes contention.

Martin uses the example of sibling rivalry in a household to further illustrate how ambition, envy, and jealousy prevent unreserved, open-faced, wholehearted reception of one another, leading to fusses and fights.

Isn't that what happens? What happens in a household where there is, quote, sibling rivalry? Just a fancy way for saying you've got fusses and fights among your kids.

52:40 - 52:50 Read in full sermon