The Nature of True Greatness

Introduction: The Setting of James and John's Request

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, August 2nd, 1987, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:16 May I urge you to turn with me in your own Bibles to the 10th chapter of the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Mark and the 10th chapter. And I shall read in your hearing verses 35 through 45. Mark 10, 35.

1:10 Grant unto us that we may sit, one on your right hand and one on your left hand, in your glory. But Jesus said unto them, You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? And they said unto him, We are able.

1:40 And Jesus said unto them, The cup that I drink, you shall drink. And with the baptism that I am baptized with, all shall you be baptized. But to sit on my right hand or on my left hand is not mine to give, but it is for them for whom it has been prepared. And when the ten heard it, they began to be moved with indignation concerning James.

2:11 And John. And Jesus called them to himself and said unto them, You know that they who are accounted to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it is not so among you. But whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister or table servant.

2:41 Amen. Whosoever would be first among you shall be bondservant or slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister or serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. Now as we take up our study of Mark 10, 41 to 45 this morning, let me remind you briefly of the setting of these verses.

3:19 The time of our Lord's earthly ministry is quickly approaching its end. In a few days that week, often called the Passion Week, beginning with his triumphal entry and ending with his crucifixion will soon be upon him. He has set his face to Jerusalem with such evident resolution, with such determination of purpose that that purpose and resolution, oozing, as it were, out of every pore of his being, caused fear and amazement on the part of those who beheld him. Verse 32 of this chapter. And with his own mind and soul presently impregnated, saturated with the realities of his coming passion, James and John come to him with their carnally ambitious request, as recorded in verses 35 to 37. And the sum of what they ask is that when Jesus comes into the full glory of his messianic kingdom, the conception of which was still altogether too carnal in their minds, they desire to have the chief places of honor, of influence, and of power.

4:45 They desire to sit on the right and on the left hand of the enthroned messianic king. In response to their request, our Lord patiently and lovingly does basically three things. He first of all tells them that they are ignorant of what they are asking. He then informs them that they must share in his sufferings if they ever hope to partake of his coming glory, and finally he tells them that positions of honor and influence in his kingdom are not handed out arbitrarily by him, but they are given by divine purpose, which considers moral fitness wrought by divine grace. Now as we come to examine verses 41 to 45, which form a kind of an appendix upon that expression, the expression of carnal ambition and the response of our Lord, it is evident that there are basically two major units of thought in verses 41 to 45. In verse 41, we have a record of the reaction of the ten

The Reaction of the Ten: Sinful Indignation

6:03 when they become aware of the ambitious request of James and John. So verse 41 is a record of the reaction of the ten, and then verses 42, to 45, the response of Jesus to that reaction of the ten. First of all then, as we come to verse 41 to consider the reaction of the ten, there are three things to focus upon. First of all, the essence of their reaction, what was it?

6:37 When the ten heard it. How they heard it, we do not know. You will remember that in the preceding verses, it is clear that they had drawn the Lord Jesus aside into at least semi-privacy in order to speak their request through the mouth of their mother, and then apparently to second it with their own lips. And somehow or other, whether the mother was more excited than her two sons and blurted out at a higher volume, whether the woman's voice, being in the higher register, carried further, we don't know, but somehow the ten become aware that James and John had drawn their Lord aside into a semi-private conversation in company with their mother, in order to request places of eminence and honor in the coming glory of his messianic kingdom. And the essence of their reaction is, one of vexation and indignation. When the ten heard it, they began to be moved with indignation. And this word translated moved with indignation is the word that we encountered earlier in this chapter.

8:02 It was an emotion that our Lord experienced, but of course in his case, a purely holy emotion. Verse 14 of chapter 10. When Jesus saw that the disciples were discouraging people from bringing their little ones, not to be baptized, but to be blessed by Christ, when Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation. So this emotion of vexation and indignation is a neutral emotion.

8:39 It is not necessarily sinful or virtuous. What makes it sinful or virtuous is what produced it and what fruit it bears. The roots and the fruit of that emotion determine whether it is a sinful or a righteous emotion. Now in the case of the ten, it was obviously, and this brings us to the cause, of their reaction.

9:10 It was obviously a sinful anger rooted in the fact that they had been upstaged by James and John. They were indignant, not because James and John were talking about places of honor on the right hand and on the left hand, while their Lord is in another realm of concern, namely, his forthcoming suffering and passion. They are not indignant that James and John are utterly out of sympathy with their Lord. That might have been a righteous indignation.

9:50 But rather they are vexed and indignant because James and John preempted them. They too share the same spiritual dullness with respect to the coming agonies of Gethsemane and of Golgotha. Our Lord has just told them that he must go to Jerusalem, and there he must suffer before the Sanhedrin. There he will be handed over to the Gentiles.

10:20 Then he will be spat upon and scourged and killed. But the ten are just as out of sympathy with those realities as were James and John. And so their anger was a purely sinful anger, because they assumed that if James and John got there first and requested places of preeminence in the coming messianic kingdom, that probably getting there first meant that they would have their request granted. They were full of the same spiritual dullness and insensitivity.

10:59 I've seen it happen at camps. An announcement is made that when rest hour is over at two o'clock and the bell out in the field or the playground is rung, that all of the kids can get up off their bunks and run to the candy shop, and it's first come, first served. And I've seen it happen that some of the kids cheated, and they told their counselor they had to go to the bathroom. And so they sneaked out about three minutes to two, and instead of going to the privies and to the outhouses, what they did is they sneaked over close to the candy shop, and the moment the bell was rung, they thought they'd be first in line.

11:42 And you know what happens when they find that though they did that, someone else beat them to the punch, and they're number six or seven? They get mad! And why are they mad? They're not mad because someone else cheated on the camp rules.

11:56 They're just mad because they cheated a little quicker than they did. You see? You've been to camp too. Now that's exactly what we have here.

12:09 They are moved with indignation. Why? Because James and John beat them to the candy store. James and John got there before them, though if they had had the opportunity, the same unmortified ambition for places of prominence was alive in their own hearts.

12:29 So as we look at the reaction of the ten, we see its essence. It is vexation and indignation. Its source is a shared but frustrated carnal ambition. But then notice its interruption.

Jesus's Interruption and Assertion: Gentile Rulers vs. Kingdom Principles

12:47 Verse 42, And Jesus called them to him. Just as they were beginning to manifest this ugly sinful spirit of carnal vexation and indignation, precipitated by the carnal, carnal ambition of the two, stirring up the latent carnal ambition in their own hearts, before it turns into an ugly verbal fight, the voice of Jesus breaks through and seizes their ears. And I can only imagine how the red color must have crept up the back of their necks and out into their ears, when just as their indignation is at the point where it's about to spill out in angry words, there he'd hear Jesus calling them. And there are a couple of instances in the Gospels where when he called them with direct address, he used a very precious title. He may have used it here, Children, come. And can you imagine if he used that term?

13:58 The text doesn't say he did. But we do find several instances, and there are only several where we have any record of how Jesus addressed them in direct address.

14:08 How it would have humbled them, for it could not help but cause their minds to go back to the lesson just a few days before. He had tried to teach them when he sat a little child. They were arguing then about who's going to be hot shot in the kingdom. And he took a little child and set the child in the midst.

14:27 But however he addressed them, the voice of Jesus broke through to them and interrupted this carnal reaction of vexation and anger. And they knew whenever their Lord thus called them, it was that he might set before them precious truth out of his own heart by means of instruction. And so the voice of Jesus, with nothing short of what we could call regal grace and compassionate authority, lands upon their ears. And since James and John are already nearer to him, he now calls the other ten alongside of him, and all twelve are now gathered about him for his word of instruction. So much then for verse 41 and 42a, the reaction of the ten now for the rest of our time, the response of Jesus to the reaction of the ten. What was his response? Well, his response is perhaps best understood in terms of four simple categories.

15:40 First of all, he makes an assertion. He makes an assertion. You know he appeals to something that is common knowledge among them. You know that they who are accounted to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

16:05 Now this assertion has to do with something that was common knowledge among the twelve, and at least the mother who was probably still there. Now what was a matter of common knowledge? Well, it focuses on the disposition and spirit manifested in the rule exercised by the Gentile rulers. Notice the emphasis falls upon Gentile rulers.

16:37 You know that they who are accounted, and the exegetes debate what that word accounted means. They appeared to rule. Is there a little irony? They were just puppets of others who really exercised authority?

16:52 Or was it merely an apparent rule that God is the ultimate ruler? Or is our Lord simply saying, the parallel passage in Matthew simply says those who rule is Mark indicating that our Lord is here simply saying they are what they appear to be? Well, it's really of no consequence in terms of the thrust of the passage. What he's focusing upon is this.

17:17 They knew that those who were in places of rule in the Gentile world ruled in such a way that these two words characterize that rule. They lord it over them, and they exercise authority over them. Now these words are compound words. The standard words for exercising authority and administering or exercising lordship or rule have a preposition in front of them which intensifies the sense of the verb.

18:01 And one could in a wooden literalism translate the verbs this way. You know that those who are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise a dominion down upon them, and their great ones exercise an authority down upon them. Now we know that this is the sense of the first verb from its other usages in the New Testament. In Acts 19.16, this passage is used to describe what happened to the man upon whom the demon-possessed man fell. Acts 19 and verse 16. And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and, here's our verb, mastered both of them. So you get the picture?

19:08 The man possessed with demons jumps upon these two men and gains the mastery of them. By force he puts them under him. And it's the word Peter used when he's describing how elders are not to exercise their oversight in 1 Peter 5.3.

19:31 He says, The elders among you I exhort, exercise the oversight, not of constraint but willingly, not of filthy, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, not, here's our verb, lording it over God's heritage. So very clearly then, by the analogy of Scripture, this word, to lord it over them, speaks of the exercise of a rule in which those who are in positions of authority abuse that authority to keep people from to keep people under them in pursuit of their own carnal ambitions or for the venting of their own carnal passions. Now when we come to the second word, it is only used here and in the parallel passage in Matthew and does not occur with great frequency in the ordinary usages of Greek words in the Greek speaking world of that day. And so it's difficult to speak with the same precision. But from the etymology and the compound nature of the word and from the context, it is safe to say it has the concept of domineering authority.

20:53 And so our Lord is making an assertion in the hearing of the twelve. And He says, You know as a general rule. Now He's not speaking of every single Gentile ruler in all ages and in places. But in terms of the experience of these who remember now were part of a nation that was under the heel of Rome.

21:20 They knew what it was to live under an alien government with its governors and with its appointed officials, with its lords and with its masters. They knew by experience and our Lord asserts, you well know that those who are rulers among the Gentiles rule in a way that is characterized by an oppressive lordly rule and by an authority that presses down upon its subjects. For example, if I were to say in your hearing, you know that politics have a weak spine on sensitive issues during an election year. Now you'd understand perfectly what I was saying. Anyone who went out and said, Pastor Martin condemned every single elected official and every single...

22:20 You wouldn't put that meaning on it, would you? You'd know exactly what I meant. As a general rule and as a matter sadly of common personal observation, you would know exactly what I meant. The rank and file of politicians are out to get themselves re-elected in order either to exercise power, to have a high profile for themselves, either to give vent to sinful passions of dominance or other sinful passions.

22:50 But when we say that politicians have a weak spine on sensitive issues in election year, you know exactly what I mean. Now that's what our Lord was doing. He was taking a touchstone of common experience and observation among His own, and He says, You know that those who rule among the Gentiles, those who appear in the posture of rulers, are characterized by these two things. They use their position not to serve those under them, but to serve themselves as they press down upon them with this disposition of lording it over them, and domineering them. Now that's the assertion that our Lord makes. Then He gives, secondly, a negation. Notice, this is what is true among the Gentiles, but now He says, But, verse 43, it is not so among you.

Jesus's Negation and Explanation: The Way to True Greatness and Primacy

23:59 Here He makes a statement of negation. And by this negation our Lord draws a clear line of demarcation. He states that in the sphere of His rule that is among the twelve directly and indirectly in the church as it is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Himself the chief cornerstone, in this kingdom that He will build on the foundation of drinking His cup, of undergoing His baptism, the concepts of greatness and of power will bear no resemblance to those concepts as they exist in the Gentile nations. Not so shall it be among you. Whatever obtains as the general perspective and ethos of exercising rule and authority among the Gentiles, that is not the way My kingdom operates. And while the primary reference is to the apostles, and we must never, never forget that in our handling of this passage, or we are irresponsible in our handling of it,

25:25 the Bible is very explicit, the objection came from the ten who with the two, the Lord had already promised that they would sit upon twelve, twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, that language was very much in their own minds, and He says, whatever place of authority and power and influence you may have by My appointment, it will not be exercised in the spirit and ethos and framework of the authority exercised in the power wielded among the Gentile leaders. So He makes an assertion, then He gives a negation, then thirdly, He gives an explanation, verses 43b and 44, and the explanation has two parts, the way to true greatness, and then the path to primacy, or the first place, look at it, but whosoever would become great, He is going to deal with the path to true greatness, whosoever wills to become great among you, shall be your minister, and whosoever wills to be first, primacy, here is the way to primacy, shall be servant of all. So in His explanation, our Lord now,

26:53 having made the negation, is going to open up the way to true greatness and the path to primacy that will operate in the kingdom of grace, and it is in direct contrast to the kingdoms of this world. Let's unpack them briefly. What is the way to true greatness? Look at it, it's open to anyone.

27:18 He says, whosoever would become great among you. Is it wrong to have a holy ambition to greatness as greatness is assessed by God? No. If it were, Jesus would say, whosoever wills to be great among you, let him repent of that ambition.

27:46 But He doesn't say that. Rather He says, would you be great in God's estimation? Because God pours content upon the world's estimation of greatness. They see the man in his place of great power, exercising great influence by keeping great masses under His control, by lording it over them, exercising authority down upon them, and the world looms and awes in the presence of its great ones.

28:18 Not so among you. Would you be great? Here's the path to greatness. Whether that greatness is conceived in the limited circle of the apostolic band, whether it's thinking in terms of the greatness of right and left hand in His messianic kingdom, it's not clear.

28:39 Our Lord seems to be broadening out His response into general principles that obtain through to the whole rank and file of God's people. But He says, you want to know the way to true greatness? Here it is. He that would be great among you, he shall be your diakonos, the word we use for deacon.

29:07 He shall be your servant. If you were going to describe, as John does, the servants who were there at the feast, helping to serve people, Mary said to the deacons, the servants, fill the water pots. It's the word used to describe a house servant. It's the word most frequently used to describe apostles in their role as ministers.

29:37 That's why the word minister and the ministry of the word. It's the word used in Acts 6. We will give ourselves to the ministry, the deaconing of the word and of prayer, or prayer and of the word. So what does our Lord say?

29:55 He's saying this. True greatness comes in the way of service to others, voluntarily rendered. That's the way of true greatness. And it's interesting.

30:09 One of the commentators first introduced the concept and others copied him, or whether they all spontaneously came to it, I don't know. But in the 15 or 17 or so commentaries that I read in preparation for the ministry this morning, at least four or five of them used the image of a pyramid. And they said the world's concept of greatness is the pyramid in the way you see it in the National Geographic magazines. The base is broad at the bottom and it moves up in triangular shape to the top.

30:40 And the world's concept of greatness is that the Great One sits on the top stone of the pyramid and exercises authority over all who are under him. They exist for him to carry out his wishes, to do his bidding, to fulfill his own desires and designs and ambitions and lusts and whatever else. Now Jesus turns the pyramid right upside down. And he says, the way to greatness is to put yourself here to be servant to others.

31:17 So that you exist to serve them, not they exist to serve me. In my kingdom, he says, there will be an absolute reversal of the concept of the way to greatness. In the world's view, the way to greatness is the way to the top of the pyramid climbing over scruples and people and things in order to get there. And when you've gotten there, then like that ancient king, you stand back, swell your chest with pride and say, look what I have wrought.

31:56 Look what I have accomplished. Jesus said, not so among you. He that would have true greatness shall be table servant, shall be your minister, and then, he says, would you be first in rank? What is the path to primacy?

32:16 Verse 44. It's open again to all. Whosoever would be first among you have the place of primacy at my right hand. He says it comes in the way of self-sacrificing service rendered with no thought of reward.

32:35 He shall be literally your bondservant, your slave. Now divest the concept of slave from cruelty and insensitivity on the part of the master and think in the sense in which the scripture sets the concept of slavery before us. It is the person who is the property of another. You are not your own.

33:01 You were bought with a price. Paul, the bond slave, the doulos of Christ. We are the slaves of righteousness. We are the property of another.

33:13 And the slave, when he's done all of the master's bidding, expects no reward, expects no compensation. And so our Lord intensifies what in some instances are used more or less as synonyms, but he seems to be intensifying the whole concept. The way to greatness is the way of the table servant. The way to primacy is the path of the bond slave.

33:43 And notice the words that he adds. He says in verse 43, whoever would become great among you shall be your minister. He shall take the place of service to the other eleven. He'll not be jockeying for right hand and left hand positions and running to the candy store first.

34:05 Whosoever would be first among you shall be servant of not just you, but of all. It would seem that there's an intensification moving from diakonos to doulos, from you to all. Whether that is intended or not, this much is clear. That the way to true greatness and the path to primacy are utterly contradictory to the whole concept of the world.

34:39 And you see, when we put this in its context, it all begins to make sense. What fills the mind of a servant or a slave? Why, it is knowing the will of the master and doing the will of the master in service to others. What fills the mind of the table servant, of the household servant?

35:05 It is the will of the master as that will terminates upon the servant using his strength and energy and skills to minister to the needs of others. So our Lord makes the assertion, gives the negation, proffers the explanation, and then it concludes with the supreme illustration, verse 45. And the word translated also in the old 1901 in this context could better be rendered, for the Son of Man, or even the Son of Man, came not to be ministered unto, not to be deaconed, but to minister, to deacon, same family of words, and to give his life a ransom for many. Our Lord, you see now, comes to the supreme illustration of the principles of greatness and primacy operative in his kingdom, and he says to the twelve, the principles I've articulated are most clearly embodied in me, the king. I do not relinquish my identity as king, for even the Son of Man, the technical name for the messianic king, going right back to Daniel, we are confronted with the Son of Man who is seen in the midst of the throne

The Supreme Illustration: Christ's Self-Giving Service and Ransom

36:35 and to whom is given a kingdom and power to rule. So our Lord says even the king is upon the messianic throne as the messianic king, for even the Son of Man, the king himself, to have people minister unto him. Oh yes, people did minister to him, and he accepted the ministry of the women who followed him from Galilee, he accepted the ministry of Peter's mother, it's recorded earlier in the Gospel of Mark when he healed her, and she rose up and ministered to his needs, but those were incidental events. He said, my mission is not understood in terms of going to the top of the pyramid, bringing behind me an entourage of people who run to every whim that I have. No, the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, to take the place of the servant. And then he says to give, to minister and then to give, and to give what?

37:52 To give his life, his most precious possession, in the place and on behalf of others. In other words, our Lord says, do you want the supreme illustration of the principles that operate in my kingdom with regard to greatness and primacy? Then look at me. You've been filled with amazement and some of you filled with fear because you see that I am possessed with a passion to go to Jerusalem.

38:28 And my very bearing has upset you. And seeking to explain what lies behind it, I've told you, the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem. And there he must be rejected by the Sanhedrin. He must be delivered up to the Gentiles.

38:45 He must be saved. He must be scourged and spat upon and killed and raised again. And they did not understand, so he comes back to it again and says, you talk of thrones at the right and left hand. I'm going to drink a cup.

39:00 I'm going to be inundated with a baptism of suffering. And if you would be with me and share in my glory, you must come along and share in my suffering. They still don't understand and so he comes back. And uses different language to seek to impress upon them this great truth.

39:21 I am coming to my place of appointed greatness and glory by way of rejection and suffering and shame and spittle and agony. A cup must be fully drunk. And there is a baptism to be undergone. The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.

39:54 Now, in the midst of this illustration, we have what some regard as the most profound statement of the death of Christ found anywhere in the Synoptic Gospels. And I don't have time this morning to expound the significance of that text. We're going to leave that for another sermon. Because in a sense, it's really not necessary to do so in the light of the thrust of the passage, for the focus falls upon these two words.

40:23 To serve and to give. I am the great example, Jesus says, of the principle that operates in my kingdom with regard to greatness and primacy. It is the greatness of serving. It is the primacy of giving.

40:43 It is not like it is out there in the Gentile world. By hook or crook, by blood, by manipulation, by bribery, someway climb and crawl and claw to the top and then keep people down in expression of carnal ambition. Not so among you. Not so among you.

Overarching Message: Self-Giving Service in God-Appointed Positions

41:07 Not so among you. Well, dear people, as best I understand it in my present light, that's the response of our Lord to the reaction of the ten. Now, what does this say to us sitting here this morning? Well, surely, the central, the dominant, the overarching message of the passage is clear, and this is what it is.

41:36 Whatever our God-appointed position in life may be, the way to true greatness and primacy in that position is the way of self-giving service to others. You see that? Whatever our position may be, for what Jesus says now to the twelve does not negate what he previously said. He said, You who have shared with me in my tribulation will share in my glory.

42:09 He had told them, as recorded in Matthew 19, when the Son of Man comes in the regeneration and the reconstitution of all things, you shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Whatever that meant, it meant a place of prominence and influence and leadership would be given. Even the parables that speak of the age to come, the new heavens and the new earth. How are the concepts of reward set forth?

42:39 You have been faithful in little. I'll make you rule over five cities, rule over ten cities. So what our Lord is teaching does not fall. He has flattened all concepts of rule and authority now, much less even in the world to come.

42:58 But what is he doing? He's saying, Whatever your God-appointed position in life may be, the way to true greatness and the way to primacy is the way of self-giving service to others. Self-giving service after the pattern of, and motivated by Christ, serving and giving himself for us. That's it.

43:29 That's the way to true greatness. Isn't this Philippians 2 all over again? Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a doulos, a slave. That's the pattern.

Indictment: Against Carnal Ambition and Abused Authority

44:01 Now I want to make specific application in two areas as time permits. If we've rightly understood what our Lord is saying, not exhaustively, but if we've properly understood it, then surely this passage comes to us first of all with a very searching indictment and then with what I hope for some of you will be a very great encouragement. And what is the indicting side of this passage? Well surely it indicts as anti-Christian all carnal ambition to gain a position of authority in order to take advantage of others.

44:43 Or it condemns all who have a position of authority and use it to be served rather than to serve. Doesn't it indict that? On the very face of the passage, it says to every husband who has a God-given authority over his wife and children, if you use that position of authority to push down, to lord it over, rather than to serve and to give, you have an anti-Christian understanding of that position of authority. Now it is a position of authority. The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Fathers, nurture your children. Children, obey your parents.

45:42 Yes, you see, that's why I've used this terminology whatever our God-appointed position may be. And the place of a father and a husband is a God-given position of authority. But how is that position and how is that authority to be exercised, to serve and to give, not to be served and to receive? And if you have the notion that God has put you in that position in order to receive, in order to be served, rather than to pour yourself out in loving, Bible-directed service to your wife and children, you have a form of twisted and perverted notions of what biblical headship as father and husband is. The same is true of elders and the flock of God. How can the Church of Rome be comfortable with this passage in its Bible? How can any pastor, how can any elder, how can any bishop, how can any overseer, in the light of 1 Peter 5, 3, throw around, his clerical weight in order to promote himself

47:08 and to advance his own carnal ambitions and exercise an oppressive influence upon his people when the Scripture says, not lording it, same word, not pressing down upon the flock, but going ahead of them in godly example, leading them by the rule of Scripture, in the Spirit of Christ, who came not to serve, not to be served, but to serve and to give. That's the indictment. If I ever use any God-given position for any other reason than self-giving service with respect to those with whom God has given me that relationship, I'm denying the very principles on which the kingdom of God is to operate. So it is an indictment, but thank God it's an encouragement. If the path to greatness lies in service, and if the road to primacy cuts through the field of self-giving service with no thought of reward, listen carefully then,

Encouragement: For Those in Servant Positions

48:36 everyone who by providence, choice, and the directions of the word of God, in some cases all three have conspired, anyone who by providence, providence plus personal choice, plus the precepts of the word of God, anyone who finds himself in positions synonymous with service should be greatly encouraged, because you are in the most likely position to true greatness and true primacy. And I want to speak first of all to those who by choice, providence, and the word of God are in the most servant position that I know of, and that's mothers. By its very definition, motherhood has written all over it, give and serve. You gave your body to your husband to conceive a child. You gave your body to nourish and cherish that child in its prenatal development.

49:49 You gave up looking like a woman to look like a pear for the last few months. And then you gave up comforts to go down into the valley of birth pangs and travail. And then for many months, many of you gave of your very life as you nursed your little ones at your breast and gave up nights of uninterrupted sleep and gave up and gave up and gave and gave up. And then the second child came with all of its demands and without changing at all were all those standing needs in which you sought to provide for your husband a neat and comfortable home that would be his haven when he came out of the office and out of the shop and off the workbench and out of the workplace. And you sought to prepare nutritious meals that would make it a delight to sit at the table and to admire you as the one who served and cared and you continued to give and give and give at the level of a wife while ever increasing demands were upon you to give and give and give some more in the care and the nurture of your children. And there was the open ear and the willingness to hear their silly babblings and the openness and the vulnerability to listen to their preteen and teen confusion and when they didn't know who they are

51:18 and what they are and where they're going and can't figure out anything and the whole world seems to be scrambled eggs. And there you were giving yourself with all the demands still there crying for attention. There was the emotional giving. There was the mental giving.

51:34 There was the spiritual giving. The psychological giving. I say motherhood in its biblical concept has stamped all over it the words serve and give. And dear mothers, I am angry with what this world is telling you about your position.

51:54 It's telling you it's beneath your dignity. Throw it off and become great. Amen. Jesus has told you how to be number one.

52:15 Would you be great? Be table servant. Would you be first? Be servant to all.

52:25 Oh dear mothers, God has locked you into a position that in its very nature has the building materials of the path to greatness and the way to primacy. Don't you envy the prime minister of England. Don't envy the beauty queens and the corporation presidents and all of the rest who are paraded in Ms. Magazine and all the rest.

52:58 Oh yes, they're looked upon as the powerful ones because they've got men beneath them. Anything they can do, we can do better. That song was sung as a joke when I was a kid. I tell you, it's serious business now.

53:22 You see women pumping iron until they look like grotesque animals from Mars. Yeah, anything you can lift, we can lift more. We'll do better. You swagger, we'll swagger.

53:35 You cuss, we'll cuss. Oh dear women, be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You precious teenage girls bombarded with that stuff. Don't let it get into your soul.

53:52 I plead with you, don't let it get into your soul. Would you be great in the eyes of Christ? Would you be first in the estimation of Christ? And take the path as providence appoints it, in which you serve, in which you give.

54:19 I want to say a word to our deacons. You see, nowhere does God say to deacons not lording it over God's heritage. Your office by its very nature is a serving office. It's much more likely that you'll be at the right hand than we elders, according to this passage.

54:44 Who will be great? He who serves. Who will be first? He who slaves.

54:50 Oh may the time never come when the office of a deacon is looked upon as a secondary office. in this church. No, it is not a ruling office. Its very name forever enshrines the glory of Christ as the servant of Jehovah.

55:10 And I believe that text, many that are first shall be last, and last first is going to be fulfilled when God gives out the rewards for office bearers. And people are going to expect certain high-profile preachers and elders to be given the place of prominence and they're going to be bypassed for some quiet servant who served with all of his heart in the office of a deacon to the glory of God and to the benefit of God's people. Oh dear deacons, take this passage to heart. It has special reference to you.

55:49 It speaks to us as fathers. Would you fathers be encouraged? Then listen. Christ is saying, would you be great?

56:00 And give your life for your wife? Isn't that what Ephesians 5 says? Love her as Christ loved and gave. I don't think some of you have yet begun to grasp that.

56:13 If you did, how could you be so hard-hearted in the simple matter of saying to your wife, dear I sin, will you forgive me? Dear, is there something I can do to help you? I see that you're under a lot of pressure. Is there something I can do?

56:31 When's the last time, husband, you came and presented yourself before your wife as a servant and said, is there something I can do to make your burden a little lighter? If that's your disposition, and bless God, I believe there are wives here who can say, thank God, my husband does that all the time. Then husband, don't be discouraged. If the world looks upon you as a second-class citizen, you've got no office with your name on it.

57:07 You may have no trucks with your name on them. You may have nothing that makes you in any way to be remotely considered in the who's who, even in a town of 500. But listen to what Jesus says. He who would be great among you shall be your table servant.

57:28 He who would be first shall be slave of all. And I want to speak a word to you single women and you widows, some of you widowed by the death of your husbands, some of you widowed by the cruel and horrible scourge of infidelity and other sins that have shattered your marriage. Go back and read 1 Corinthians 7 and what it says about the peculiar advantages and privileges of singleness in terms of what? Service, service, service to others in service to Christ and how we bless God for those of you who are in a place of singleness through no choice of your own. If you could have what your heart desires you'd have a husband. Some of you who've never had a husband, some whose husbands have been taken away by death or by the scourge of sin and the marriage has been fractured and declared dissolved by the court and by God. Oh dear women listen, listen, listen with the ears of your heart.

58:41 There is open to you in a unique way the path to greatness and to privacy. Use the peculiar circumstances of your singleness to excel in service even as the Son of Man came not to be served. It's a horrible thing when you see a professing Christian woman going around like God in the world owes her a husband. And instead of her eyes looking for ways to serve they're always looking for a man.

59:16 May God help you if that's your case. But I know there are many who need the encouragement of this passage. God has providentially done what? Nothing cruel to you.

59:29 He has as it were taken you inside and said my child I love you so much that I want to open to you a path to greatness and to privacy. And providence has put you in that path and you ought to rejoice in it and bless God for it. Well the passage is an indictment. It's an encouragement but it's also a summons.

Summons: To the Unconverted to Embrace Christ's Disposition

59:55 I'm speaking to some people sitting here this morning that say Pastor Martin that's wacko. I mean nobody can live that way. People will trample you underfoot. They'll take advantage of you.

60:07 Everybody will run rough. You've got to stand up for your rights man. Is that right? Is that what Jesus did when they came and they got him in the garden?

60:17 Dragged him off? Did he stand up for his rights? No. The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto.

60:28 He says don't you think that I could even now summon legions of angels and my Father would send them. But he said no. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give. My friend listen, listen, you know why this seems wacko to you?

60:47 Why you say nobody can live that way. It shows that you're still an unconverted, unregenerate man or woman, boy or girl. And you see you live with the pyramid this way. That's the world's mentality and you're a part of the world.

60:59 And your very reaction to what we've considered this morning is a revelation that you're still living as a worldly. You're part of this world system. And my friend this passage is a summons to you to face what you are. And to run from the world and its ways and to run to Christ and say Lord Jesus no way I can live that way unless you do something here that I can't do for myself.

61:23 Lord Jesus you must give me your very disposition. And that's the ministry of the Holy Spirit to implant in us the very disposition of Christ. And then you must ask that Christ who did in giving his life a ransom go to the cross and die for sinners and ask him to claim and cleanse you of all of the guilt of your sin of self-centeredness and willfulness and pride and ambition. Ask him to wash it all in his own blood and then to give you of his own spirit so that you can begin to live that kind of a life.

Reminders: Repetition of Truth and Quelling Sinful Passions

62:01 So the passage is an indictment. It's an encouragement. It's a summons. And very interestingly it also in closing it's a great reminder of two very fundamental principles of the Christian life.

62:15 You know what they are? Repetition is often necessary in basic spiritual truth. Back in chapter 9 Jesus was telling them this in different words with a different illustration. It didn't get through so he told them again.

62:29 Later on in Luke's Gospel there's some intimation that he may have on another occasion told them again. He went over this lesson again and again and again and again. It's so vital. And if you wonder why we repeat some things again and again and again and again we have precedent in our Lord.

62:49 And then finally the great lesson of the Christian life that is here that I would underscore in closing is this. We should learn from this passage what to do when sinful passions begin to rage in our breast. What did Jesus do? Just as they were about to break out in a fight he called them to himself and he put his words in their ears.

63:13 And it cut off all of the horrible manifestations of those passions that otherwise would have broken out. Dear Christian when you see things in your brethren that stir up angry passions what should you do? Hear the voice of Jesus calling you to himself in his word and listen to his voice. And you can't listen to his voice and give vent to those passions.

63:37 When you husbands are tempted to be irritated by the words of the Lord you must listen to this verse. Husbands be not bitter against your wives. Don't put it out of your mind. Welcome his voice calling you to think biblically about that thing that your wife did that provoked you.

63:59 When your wives are tempted to think well that he is just thick and that guy is stupid in some of the things he has done. How in the world Obey then the words of your wife and listen obey them in everything. Hear the Lord Jesus calling you to Ephesians 5 and know that his will is right and good and leave with him to sort out your husbands stupidity. Don't add your rebellion to his stupidity.

64:31 Two sins don't make a virtue. They just make a messed up household that's a reproach to Christ and causes your kids to say is anything real. They see you sit here and sing the hymns and read the prayers and then fight like worldlings in your home. Why?

Prayer

64:50 Because when those passions arise you don't hear the voice of Jesus calling you saying my child listen to me. Oh may God help us more and more the voice of Christ by the spirit and the word will break in upon us at the point of temptation and we will have our angry passions quelled by his gracious word and his mighty spirit. May we with these disciples may learn what it is to live and to think in terms of the laws of Christ's kingdom concerning greatness and primacy and not reflect the perspectives of the world. Let us pray. Our Father we do thank you for this passage of your word. We thank you that you overruled even the angry passions that we might forever have in our hands a record of our Lord's dealings with them that we might know how we should think about greatness and primacy.

66:07 May the Holy Spirit continue to apply this word to each of our hearts and may we be given grace to live in its light for those our Father who cannot begin in their sins. They are yet in Adam. They are yet rebels against you and your law and your ways. Be merciful to them and give them no rest until they rest in him who came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.

66:47 Hear our prayer and seal your word to our hearts we plead in Jesus' name.