Greatness, as God Sees It

And as you’re being seated, if
you would, once again, take your Bibles out and turn to the Gospel
of Luke. Or if you would prefer, the passage
is there in somewhat of a convoluted form on the inside of your bulletin,
and I’ll explain that more in a moment. We all have a lingering disease
left over from the fall. It has affected countless of
God’s people even after the cross. We saw it so repeatedly in the
Old Testament with even some of our heroes of the faith. We see it even in the New Testament
playing itself out in the lives of those that we count models
of our own Christianity. We never saw it in Christ. We
never see it in God. But it is so much a part of our
human life, we begin almost to overlook it. We certainly begin
to overlook it or excuse it away in our own lives. I’m talking
about pride. Pride. What one old Puritan called
an inordinate affection for one’s own excellence. What a great
definition. An inordinate, an excessive affection
for one’s own excellence. And if you take that apart, what
a powerful statement. Inordinate. Which means that
there is a measure of a desire for excellence that is appropriate. There is a good and wholesome
desire to be pleasing to the Lord. There’s a good and wholesome
desire to want to do our best for the Lord. What William Ames
points to here is an inordinate, an out of balance, an excessive
affection. Look at that word. That little
word, affection, is often used of our most beloved, our wives,
our children. Natural affection there. But in this case, this inordinate
affection becomes an ugly thing. An inordinate affection for one’s
own excellence. And you know what? Description here goes on and
it’s so profound. I wanted to open with it. He
says this, pride is an inordinate affection for one’s own excellence
and get all the ways that he describes this pride, all the
ways that it can manifest itself in our lives. This affection
for one’s own excellence is called boasting when it is directed
toward the good things we have. And we all would say that there’s
no doubt that we’ve done that in the past. Either boasting
in what we’ve done, or boasting in what we possess, or boasting
in what God gives us, as if we got it ourselves. Boasting. He goes on. When it’s directed
toward the things which we pretend to have, it’s called arrogance. Pretentiousness. We begin to
act as if we possess something that we don’t. We live a lie. It goes on. If it seeks fame
and esteem from others, it is called vainglory. There’s an
old Elizabethan word that I knew that you would need help with.
Vainglory. But if you just simply divide
that in half, vain and glory, glory that is directed towards
our own humanity, which in and of itself is vain, empty, worthless. That word was described by some
of the dictionaries as excessive or ostentatious pride, especially
in one’s achievements. You know, I think I’ve shared
this with you maybe a number of times. But in Philippians
chapter 3, in a passage that oftentimes is quoted in the midst
of somebody’s testimony, they say, forgetting what lies behind,
I press forward to what lies ahead. Right? Haven’t you heard
that? And haven’t we heard that in that context? That I’m going
to leave my sin and press forward towards Christ. That’s not what
it says. And that’s not what Paul meant.
Paul wasn’t talking about his sins. Paul was talking about
his accomplishments. In other words, he’s not going
to stand there gawking at his trophy case the rest of his Christian
days. Forgetting what lies behind,
I’m going to forget all the accomplishments. I’m not going to glory in them.
Because Christ may have something greater. It’s vanity, William
Ames says. Finally, he says, if it’s concern
for dignity, it’s called ambition. And aren’t we careful to preserve
our dignity at every opportunity? And finally, he says, if it undertakes
matters beyond our strength, it’s called presumption. It took
me some 25 years to learn. I had this echo in my head from
a family member. Be the best. Be the best. Be
the best. Sometimes that isn’t within our
powers, people. We have God-given limitations
placed upon us. We can do our best. But we can’t
always be the best. And to try is to presume upon
God. Pride. What another Puritan called
the parent of numberless sins. This is the illegitimate parent
that goes around propagating all kinds of other horrid sins,
impatience, discontent, envy, anger, strife. That’s pride. And you wonder,
when will it be that we eradicate this? It is the most impossible
and difficult thing to get rid of in the Christian life. Because as soon as you say that
you’ve conquered it, as soon as you say, I’ve arrived at humility,
you’re back to square one. Spiritual pride is a subtle thing.
And that’s the one that usually attacks so many Christians. And
might I point out, by way of transition, that’s what was attacking
the apostles. Spiritual pride. They were on
board. We had heard Peter’s enthusiastic confession of Christ. It was
even commended by the Lord himself, not as something that he had
laid hold of or he had discovered, but something that God himself
had bestowed upon him. We had heard their confessions.
We don’t doubt their conversions, but there was still pride. There
was still that taint of pride that affected even the Lord’s
own apostles. If you will look down at the
passage now, Luke chapter 9, beginning in verse 46, where
Luke records an argument started among them as to which of them
might be the greatest. But Jesus, knowing what they
were thinking in their heart, took a child and stood him by
his side and said to them, whoever receives this child in my name
receives me and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.
For the one who is least among all of you, this is the one who
is great. Now, if you’re reading out of
the bulletin, you obviously see that there are some boxes and
in those boxes, there are some other quotes from the gospel
accounts from Mark and from Luke or from Mark and from Matthew.
Essentially, the nature of the question woven through the three
gospel accounts is who is going to have the greatest prominence
in the kingdom? They still saw this kingdom as
an earthly thing. They couldn’t get it out of their
minds. Even after the second plea by Christ, after the second
uncovering of the plan that was going to take place, that he
was going to suffer and die and rise again. And even after that,
the apostles still were locked in on this idea that the kingdom
was an earthly one. And in their pride, they begin
to wrangle over who is going to have the most prominence.
Who’s going to be Jesus’ right-hand man? Who’s going to have the
most power, the greatest position of influence, the greatest amount
of prestige? Now, we’ll come back to that
thought in a minute. What provoked that? How it came
about? How can the apostles themselves fall into such an ugly sin? But as is so often the case,
and the reason for the boxes in the text, as is so often the
case, the gospel accounts differ substantially. Some might even
get hung up on the differences, thinking them to be irreconcilable.
And I’ll tell you at the start, they’re not irreconcilable. If
you step back and look, a plausible explanation seems to just begin
to jump off the page. Luke, as we just read, merely
acknowledges that what we call in our own home, a discussion
took place. Now, we tell the children not
to argue all the time, and when Barb and I begin to discuss back
and forth, invariably one of the children will raise their
voice and say, Mom and Dad, don’t argue. And we say, we’re not
arguing, we’re discussing. The passage here will poke holes
in our explanation from this point forward, because from a
standpoint of the original, there is no difference between an argument
and a discussion, as we’ll see in a moment. But Luke merely
acknowledges that a discussion took place and he proceeds quickly
to Jesus’ response. Jesus seems in Luke’s account
just to zero in on fixing this problem. Luke records neither Jesus’ direct
question that Mark records, nor the apostles’ somewhat disingenuous
question that Matthew records. He merely states that an argument
started among them. If you look at Mark’s account,
you can see it there in the box, Mark chapter 9, verse 33. If
we consider Mark’s account, we don’t have an entirely different
account. As it seems, you look at it and the facts just don’t
seem to square with what Luke has just shared. But it’s not
something that’s contradictory to Luke, rather an account that
offers some important detail, additional detail to the incident. Mark also, similar to Luke, makes
it clear that the interaction among the apostles was something
that Jesus noticed first. And then once observed, prompts
Jesus to investigate the matter. Look at verse 33. It came to
Capernaum when he was in the house. He began to question them.
What were you discussing on the way? Jesus noticed this discussion
taking place. Maybe just this silent banter.
Maybe it was the body language of the apostles wagging their
finger in one another’s face. Whatever it was, Jesus noticed. And then once he observed, it
prompts him to investigate. Look at the question. What were
you discussing on the way? And note their silence. Gulp. Jesus had zeroed in on their
pride. Then finally, Matthew’s account offers some still additional
detail. Matthew records that seemingly
the apostles initiated the discussion with Jesus. Matthew records that
they came up to him. Jesus, who’s going to be the
greatest? Seemingly, I say, because it’s
not necessarily so just because Matthew, Mark and Luke all leave
out some detail doesn’t necessarily mean that the apostles initiated
the discussion. I don’t believe they did. I believe
that they had the discussion, Jesus noticed it, Jesus asked
the question, and then somehow the apostles finally get the
courage up to ask their own question. recorded there in 18, one. At
that time, the disciples came to Jesus and said, who then is
the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? The cat was already out
of the bag. Jesus knew their hearts. He knew
the direction of this discussion. He had already asked them what
they were discussing. Silence ensued, Mark records,
and finally, silence is broken by somebody. I personally believe
it was likely Peter, but it doesn’t matter. I think Peter was at
the center of this debate, as we’ll see in a moment. The bottom
line is that an argument had taken place. They likely didn’t
carry on this argument in Jesus’ presence. They were embarrassed
when it finally did come out, but he knew they were engaged
in a substantial dispute. He noticed it. He directly asked
the apostles about it. And then in their guilty silence,
it ultimately prompts them to ask Him, clarify this for us. Who is going to be the greatest?
Shocking question. We don’t have to wonder how Jesus
initially came to learn about the argument. There’s no doubt
that He could have observed some outward signs, as we’ve already
talked about. The body language. There’s no doubt that He could
have seen them bickering back and forth. Sometimes after a
parent admonishes their children, you know, I don’t want to hear
any more arguing, what they will do is just then begin to argue
so that you can’t hear them. Back and forth, back and forth,
back and forth. Jesus was omniscient. He didn’t need the verbal cues.
He knew what was in people’s hearts from the very beginning.
John, the Gospel of John, especially records the omniscience of Jesus. John 1.47, when Jesus saw Nathanael
coming to Him, behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit.
And Nathanael said to Him, how do You know me? Jesus answered
and said to him before, Philip called you when you were under
the fig tree I saw you. What a shocking statement. Jesus
wanted His apostles to know. Why would you ever carry on one
of these discussions Why would you ever entertain these thoughts
around Jesus who knew the heart of every man? John 2.25, Jesus
didn’t need anyone to testify concerning man, for he himself
knew what was in a man. And if you note that transition
into chapter three, now there was a man named Nicodemus. Jesus knew Nicodemus’s heart
before he ever came, before he ever opened his mouth. But know
what takes place in this passage. Amazingly, the apostles had the
audacity to entertain an argument, a discussion that are one and
the same. A discussion is an argument is a discussion. They
were discussing, disputing a point. In fact, this word is interesting.
In the Gospels, it’s often translated, reasoning in their hearts. Spoken
almost exclusively of the scribes and Pharisees. They were reasoning
in their hearts. And just knowing them, you know
right off the bat it wasn’t a good thing. They were being reasonable. They were thinking. Not at all.
It’s almost always used in a negative sense. Jesus says it quite clearly in
Matthew 15, 19 when He says, out of the heart come evil thoughts,
reasonings, disputes, arguments. It’s these things where we contend
with one another or with God in our head and in our heart. Classically, it’s used, as I
said so often, of the scribes and Pharisees. Mark 2.6 and in
probably a dozen other places, the scribes were sitting there
reasoning in their hearts. But note the way the rest of
the New Testament uses it. Not once in a good sense. Luke
24.38, Why are you troubled? He asked of the apostles. And
why do doubts arise in your hearts? Same word. Romans 1.21 an amazing context here for this
word. Even though they knew God, they
did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile
in their speculation, their reasonings, their arguments in their hearts. 1 Corinthians. Check that. Let me do Romans 14.1 first.
Accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose
of passing judgment. This reasoning in your heart
and in your mind that somehow lowers the status of a brother.
1 Corinthians 3.20 The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise that
they are useless. God isn’t impressed with our
wisdom. Philippians 2.14 Do all things without grumbling. One
of my favorite words in all the Bible. Gongudzo onomatopoeia. Sounds like what it is. Grumble,
grumble, grumble. Do all things without grumbling,
or don’t even let it come out of your mouth. Don’t even entertain
it in your heart. Do all things without grumbling
or disputing.” Wicked reasoning. What prompted this kind of mental
dialogue, verbal dialogue between the apostles in the first place?
This is one of those things that started in the heart of at least
one and spilled out. What prompted that? And what
effect must that have had on Christ? I have already tipped
my hand to it. They were almost locked into
this idea that it was going to be an earthly kingdom. And it
was coming. It’s soon. It’s in the offing.
Waiting in the wings. It’s coming. And we’ve got to
get our positions lined up. Jesus, almost focusing now upon
the cross, knowing His mission, having just come down of the
man of transfiguration for His own encouragement as well, now
facing His own apostles, what great sorrow, what great disappointment
had to enter into His heart at seeing the crassness of these
self-centered men bickering between one another as to who is going
to have more prominence. How shocking this was in the
face of all that Jesus had already shared about His own mission.
A mission of selflessness as the one who was God come to earth. What could have motivated such
thinking? This is why I tell you that I
believe Peter was at the heart of it. Because it was all the
benefits that had been bestowed on Peter already. Either there
were those that were promoting Peter to the office of president
or suggesting that he run for the position. Or Peter himself,
certainly an impetuous one, wanted to step up to the plate at any
opportunity. We don’t know. We know that it
was the apostles, but we know that there were some that were
shown preference even recently. Peter, James, and John on the
Mount of Transfiguration. And you ask your own heart. If
you were in the same scene, would you have been able to hold your
tongue? Last week in the baseball game,
I asked one little guy just to feign a bunt. step up to the
plate, show bunt, and then back off. Well, the guy was just giddy
because he knew this secret. He couldn’t contain himself.
He’s telling his mom, he’s telling the other kids, hey, watch this.
Tip picture. Watch this. Umpire. I think that’s the same attitude
that the apostles came down the mountain with. I have a secret
and I’m not going to let you in on it. I can’t tell you. Jesus
told me not to. Isn’t that exactly the way we
are? Isn’t that exactly the way the children are? What should
surprise us that the apostles themselves, who would dream up
such an argument as this, it’s something so amazing that they’ve
been privileged to be a part of, not because of themselves, such as the transfiguration would
lead to a dispute. Well, that wouldn’t shouldn’t
surprise us. Temptation not to gloat about
a secret may have been too overwhelming for them. They were also stimulated,
the argument probably was stimulated by other privileges given to
Peter. Remember this? He asked the apostles, do you
know who I am? Simon Peter answered, you are
the Christ, son of the living God. Jesus said, blessed are
you. Simon Barjona, you know, Peter
took that and ran with it. We’ve often seen times since
then where Peter wanted to assert his authority even over the Lord
himself. Blessed are you, Simon Barjona,
because flesh and blood did not reveal us to you, but my Father
who is in heaven. I say that you are Peter and upon this rock
I will build my church. You know Peter ran with it. You know because your own heart
would run with it. Our hearts are so insidiously proud that
even the slightest hint of preference on our part, the slightest hint
of authority makes us into some kind of a tyrant. This inconceivably arrogant argument
would play itself out again and again and again in the apostles
lives. Luke 22, it happened again. There
arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them would
be regarded the greatest. You would think that Jesus, having
dealt with it once, it never happened again. This is how deeply
rooted pride is in our hearts, people. It’s going to be a struggle,
I believe, until the Lord returns or until He takes you. Pride
is there and it constantly needs to be crucified. Matthew 28. If you don’t reason this way
in yourself, in your own hearts, your mother will do it for you.
My mother would. My mother would be just like
the mother of the sons of Zebedee. My mother would go and ask the
Lord for a special place for her son because he’s been to
seminary. Matthew 20, 20, the mother of
the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her two sons, bowing down,
making a request of him. He said to her, what is it you
wish? She said to him, command that you’re in your kingdom.
These two sons of mine may sit one on your right and one on
your left. Amazing. Just an amazing response to all
that the Lord had done and taught. And He, in a sense, tells her,
you don’t even know. You don’t even know what you’re
asking for. He was as gracious to her as
could be. And you know what that did? What’s
interesting is that produced a great dispute between the apostles. How could your mother say such
a thing? Well, such is the pride of the
human heart. It is certainly it attached itself
and shown itself from the apostles themselves. And that’s why it
says in verse 7, pardon me, 47, Jesus, knowing what they were
thinking in their heart, took a child. The child is now going
to become a living illustration to them, took a child and stood
him by his side. What Jesus does here is call
a meeting. A very formal meeting. Because
when Jesus sits down, He is imitating the posture of the teachers who
when they taught, and when they taught a very substantial lesson,
would sit down. Jesus calls His beloved and yet
troubled apostles to Himself for one of the most intimate
meetings that I believe the Gospels record. Mark even says that he
called the twelve. He called them out. And if you’ve
never been called out, no doubt these apostles were on very uncomfortable
ground. If you’ve never been called into
the boss’s office or called aside for one of these kinds of discussions,
you have to use your imagination. These apostles, no doubt, maybe
even thought this was the end. Their apostleship was over. They had been found out. The
pride in their hearts had been inexplicably exposed. And now
they’re being called into a meeting. What a tender, poignant, powerful
moment, like so many of those recorded in the Gospels, isn’t
it? Remember, you know what this likens itself to in my own mind?
The time when Jesus started his ministry, walking into the sanctuary,
grabbing up the scriptures, reading from Isaiah and sitting down.
You could have heard a pin drop. Same exact scene here. Quietness. Similar to the upper
room. Jesus had finished dinner. They
had well into their time together in the upper room. Well past
the time when someone else could have noticed and taken notice
of a great need, the washing of one another’s feet. And Jesus,
it says, almost without a word, got up and began to wash the
disciples’ feet, including Judas. It just says that He took a child stood him by his side. And what
a powerful image that must have been to these men clamoring for
power, clamoring for attention, clamoring for attention from
those who were the religious elite, trying to match wits with
them as we just saw last week. Mark says, taking a child, he
set them before him and taking him in his arms. What a tender
moment. Because if you know children, most children will not go to
just anybody. They have to be well advanced
in age and maturity and confidence. You’ve got to trust whoever’s
picking them up. That little word there, taking
Him in His arms, it’s derived from a word that meant the bent
arm. And it pictures Jesus holding this little child just in the
crook of His arm, embracing Him, drawing Him near. Even that illustrates the trustfulness
of this child And it harkens back even to the first moment
when we met Christ. Remember, they took Him to the
temple and Simeon picked Him up. Took Him up in probably a
very similar position. Jesus had a special place in
His heart for children and the teaching on and about children
forms a central theme throughout the Gospels. Just briefly, in
your mind’s eye. On the innocence and the accuracy
of children, Matthew records in chapter 21, the chief priest
saw the wonderful things that he had done and the children
who were shouting in the temple, Hosanna to the Son of David.
They became indignant. They didn’t like the way the
children were responding to Jesus. They didn’t like the accolades
that he was receiving. He said to them, do you hear
what the children are saying? Jesus said to them, yes, if you
never read out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies,
you have prepared praise for yourself. On the privilege of
ministry to children, Matthew 19, Jesus said some children
or Matthew records, some children were brought to him so that he
might lay hands on them and pray and the disciples. Now you’ve
got the disciples themselves that are against children’s ministry.
Jesus said to them, yes, if you pardon me, let the children alone. Do not hinder them from coming
to me for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these echoing
even the thoughts of our own passage. Repeatedly throughout
the scriptures, the children play a central theme. Child likeness
plays a key part in highlighting the receptivity of the gospel. Don’t misunderstand what’s going
on here. Jesus isn’t saying that children
in and of themselves inherently are free of sin. One Puritan said it this way,
we must not beware that we do not rest our Lord’s language
about children into a false notion that children are naturally innocent
without sin. But the simplicity, the worldliness,
the dependent spirit of a little child arising from a sense of
weakness and feebleness, ignorance of the world’s standard of good,
those are the real points in which the child is to be the
Christian’s pattern. It’s child likeness, not childishness
that we are to emulate. Children aren’t faultless. They show jealousy and envy.
Sin doesn’t have to be taught to our children. It naturally
will come out in time. Jesus says that there is something
here to be emulated, there’s something here to be seen in
this child that he was carrying. their humility, their simplicity,
their readiness to believe and obey. Those kinds of things are
what Jesus was pointing to. And He says that it’s of great
importance. How great? Look at Matthew 18. That verse
is there in your Bible. The third and final box, Matthew
18 says it’s of utmost importance. This is a message that if the
disciples, the apostles here miss this message, they miss
it all. Jesus said in verse three, truly,
I say to you, always framing those those words that were most
crucial, most important. Truly, I say to you, unless you
are converted and become like children, you will not enter
the kingdom of heaven. Not only was he saying that,
you know, you’re not going to have a prominent place. If your
heart isn’t already turned, if you aren’t already in the process
of becoming like one of these children, you won’t even get
in. This is of absolute utmost importance, what he is about
to impart to them. One pastor writing on this said,
adults tend to leave childlike ways behind them and such ways
certainly ought to be abandoned. There’s some things. Children
can manifest qualities like pride, selfishness and temper. But Jesus
is pointing out that there are some things to be learned. And
in this case, he says it’s absolutely imperative that you learn it.
It’s absolutely imperative that we grasp this. What I want to
point out to you, these are the kind of messages that my wife
cringes at. because I’m not even on point
one yet. This is all preliminary set up, I call it. What I want
to point out to you is essential characteristics learned at the
feet of a child. You don’t often think of sitting
at the feet of a child. You think of sitting at the feet
of a learned scholar. In a sense, sitting at the feet
of the pastor or the teacher. sitting at the feet of the professor.
But you don’t think of sitting at the feet of a child to learn
from him. But Jesus says that’s what we’re
to do. And in the time remaining, I want to give you three indispensable
features of a Christian who would be great. I don’t believe Jesus
disparages the desire for greatness. I don’t believe Jesus rebukes
them for the desire to be great, even greatest. What he questions
is the means, the avenue that they’re taking to get there.
Three indispensable features of a Christian who would be great.
If a Christian would be great, first of all, he must learn to
be humble. Look down at the very bottom
of the last box, Matthew 18.4. Jesus is holding this child and
He says to them, whoever then humbles himself as this child,
Now, the child, don’t misunderstand Jesus’ words, hadn’t actively
humbled himself. He was by nature humble. He was
small. He was seemingly insignificant.
He had no power. He had no prestige. He had no
pull on the local society and government. He had no say. Whoever then humbles himself
as this child, he is the greatest. One of my hero Puritans, J.C. Ryle, said, the surest mark of
true conversion is humility. A meek and childlike spirit. We shall think of our own strength
and wisdom and be very dependent on our Father in heaven. We shall
not see great things in this world, but having food and clothing
and a father’s love, we shall be content. Jesus was calling
these apostles to a new way of living and we had well learned
it as well. We had best pay attention to
what the apostles had to endure lest we face a similar crisis. We are so proud. We are so proud
we won’t defer to anyone else. Oftentimes we won’t even let
them get a word in edgewise. We won’t yield. Another sense of pride that no
sin is so deeply rooted in our nature, it cleaves to us like
our skin. Its roots never entirely die,
they’re ready at any moment to spring up to exhibit a most pernicious
vitality. Let me tell you what pernicious
vitality is. If you’ve ever had what they
call the Canadian thistle, that’s pernicious vitality because not
even Roundup kills it. You can kill it and kill it and
kill it and dig it up and tomorrow there will be more. The root,
the spore, the tiniest seed, the tiniest part of that plant
will regenerate and produce more weeds. He goes on, no sin is
so deceitful. It can wear the clothing of humility
itself. In other words, acting humble
is a mark of pride. If you’re acting, it can lurk
in the hearts of the ignorant, the ungifted, the poor, as well
as the minds of the great, the learned, and the rich. In other
words, it’s an equal opportunity sin. And we all have it, as I
said at the outset. And then unless we learn to humble
ourselves, take a modest opinion of ourselves, and carry ourselves
accordingly, We have no designs on being great,
certainly not the greatest. If we begin to entertain these
humble thoughts about ourselves, carry ourselves in a humble manner, not insisting on our own rights
and opinions, not carrying ourselves in a haughty fashion all the
time, but deferring to those even of a humbler state than
ours, If that’s the case, then we’re on the path. And only Christ can give us humility. It’s nothing we can drum up of
ourselves. We’re humbled by His grace. And it’s something that
we would have to eagerly seek and appeal for. And Christ will surely give it. There’s another indispensable
feature of a Christian who would be great. Characteristic learned
at the feet of a child. If a Christian would be great,
not only must he be humble, he must learn to be receptive. Look
at v. 48 of Luke’s Gospel, where it records that Jesus said
to them, whoever receives this child in My name receives Me. And whoever receives Him who
sent Me.” To receive is a simple word. It just means to welcome. And
it speaks of a kindly, a definite, kindly reception that we are
to give to anyone who proclaims Christ. Not just the strong,
the powerful, the handsome, the beautiful, the rich, the powerful. Not just those. But even at the
opposite end of the spectrum, the insignificant, the powerless,
the homely, they’re to be welcomed not because of what’s in them,
but because of Christ. Because of who they are in Christ.
Not by worldly standards of judgment. Luke records a similar point.
about causing these little ones to stumble at a later point.
When we basically refuse to receive people and we keep these little
ones at arm’s length, what a greater definition of causing them to
stumble is that. Setting up some impossible standards
that they have to attain to. Keeping them at arm’s length.
Not participating in their lives. Go on to consider persecuting,
ridiculing, opposing. All of those things add to that
great sin of just not receiving them. Just keeping them at arm’s
length. But if we are like those who
remember their own calling in Christ, that we didn’t deserve
it, we didn’t deserve to be there, we didn’t deserve to be called
by His glorious voice, and we begin that same process of welcoming
and loving the unlovely, caring for those who don’t seem to be
able to care for themselves, not just the little babies, the
lambs, as it were, of the flock, But those who by God’s grace
have become like them, insignificant, humble. We begin to love those and care
for those and consider those. Then we’re on the path. Then
we’re on the path to becoming great. Even the greatest. Jesus goes on in that passage
and says, For the one who is least among all of you, this
is the one who’s great. How much a premium does God put
on humility? And how proud are we? How proud
are we to sit in judgment of others, to decide who we will
and who we won’t minister to? Even the least, Jesus says. And
it harkens back to that precious story in Matthew 7 about the
glass of water, just the coat in times of nakedness. Those
things when done, even to the least, are done as to Christ. He said that there were three
essential characteristics learned at the feet of a child. If you, as a Christian, would
be great, you must learn to be humble. You must learn to be
receptive. And finally, you must learn to
be a servant. Because it’s not just enough to be humble. That
humbleness, as it were, has legs. It does something. That receptivity
has legs. It does something. And if a Christian
would be great, thirdly and finally, he must learn to be a servant. Look, if you will, in the middle
box, Mark 9.35, where it says that sitting down, He called
the twelve and said to them, if anyone wants to be first,
if you really want preeminence, if you really want to be the
greatest, he should be last of all and
servant of all. And in a sense, Jesus issues
one of the classic paradoxes of Scripture. I can remember
hearing it, thinking that it had been uttered for the first
time by a pastor who said, the way up is down. If you want to
be exalted, you’ve got to humble yourself. He went through Scripture
pointing it out. And really, it’s been said for
centuries. The way up is down. If you want to be first, you
want to be the greatest, you must. It’s absolutely imperative
to be a servant. He says, servant of all, He asserts
that this attitude of humility is ultimately going to express
itself in service to others. This isn’t the word here for
a slave, but someone who renders free service to others, not for
a fee. In fact, it’s the word that’s
translated in so much of our New Testament as deacon. And
remember, several weeks ago in our Sunday school class, we tried
to unpack that word. It just simply means servant.
Scripture doesn’t even tell us what the deacons are supposed
to do in the church. They’re just to serve, just to help. And that true humility is not
this self-deprecating humiliation that just kind of sits in the
corner. But it ultimately issues forth
in service, in care, in doing something for others. And for
a man to begin to devote himself to that, out of humility for
what God has done for him, out of a receptivity to even the
least of the saints, it issues forth in service if he does that.
If by God’s grace he’s begun to mortify his pride and is not
above serving anybody, not above doing anything in the church,
then this is the man who’s destined for greatness. People, we have great cause.
I know that if the apostles walking with Christ had cause to examine
their hearts, pray for God’s grace, I know far worse are we. We struggle with our quiet times.
We struggle to pray. We struggle to walk with the
Lord. And here are the disciples with him day in and day out,
and they struggled. They develop this well-ordered
argument on why they should be the greatest. And Jesus had to
rebuke it. How much worse would it be for
us? If our thoughts were exposed. I was talking in last Sunday school
class. About those who smoke, and I’m not going to go into
it all. But essentially, what if your sin smelled on your breath
like a smoke? What if we were able to examine
the thoughts and intentions of each of our hearts this morning?
I wonder. I wonder what our repentance would look like before Christ
this morning. Let’s humble ourselves before
him. Let him examine our hearts. Our kind and our merciful God,
we do humble ourselves before you and pray that you would examine
our hearts even this day. Father, show us where these marks
of pride and arrogance, this lack of humility, this lack of
openness to others, this reluctance, even refusal to serve others.
Father God, show us, humble us, and grant us the grace to change. For Your glory, in Jesus’ name,
Amen. If you will, take your hymnals
and turn to hymn number 335 and let’s stand. Gracious Spirit,
dwell with me.