Chapter 20, verse 20. It says, Then came to him the mother
of Zebedee's children, with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring
a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt
thou? She said unto him, Grant that
these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the
other on the left, in thy kingdom. And Jesus answered and said,
Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup
that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism
that I am baptized with? They said unto him, We are able.
And he saith unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of my cup, and be
baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with. But to sit
on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall
be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. And
when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against
the two brethren. But Jesus called them unto him,
and he said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise
dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority
upon them. But it shall not be so among
you, but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among
you, let him be your servant. Even as the Son of Man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life
a ransom for many. Now, the mother of James and
John, the mother of Zebedee's children, she brought her sons
to the Lord Jesus Christ, as we read here, and she figured
that if he was the Messiah, which they believed that he was, And
of course they had the common conception of what the kingdom
of God was that the Jews had was that when the Lord sent this
Messiah into the earth, He was going to establish a kingdom
in the earth and He was going to set up the throne of David
and sit upon that throne and He was going to rule in a carnal
kingdom. in this world. Now that was the
thought that they had of what the Messiah was going to do when
he came. It's amazing that 2,000 years
later that a multitude of people still believe the exact same
thing when the Lord Jesus Christ, plainly in my estimation, has
manifested that such is not the nature of his kingdom. He is
a king, he has a kingdom, and he is ruling in that kingdom
in the present time. And as he says here to this lady,
and she was just a normal mother, a very loving mother, and she
was seeking the best for her children. She figured, well,
if he was going to be the Messiah, she'd put in a good word for
him. She said, now I've got two good boys here. And I want you
to be thinking about them when you come into your place of power
on the throne. I'd like for them to be on your
right and your left. Now who can blame her for that?
I mean, she did that because she loved her children, didn't
she? And so she had it in mind that that's what she needed to
do. But the Lord gently, I believe, told her that she was sadly mistaken
about what the nature of his kingdom was. Because he didn't
say, I'm going to sit on this throne that you're going to see
so that somebody could sit on my right and don't on my left. He said, you don't know what
you ask. You don't understand, basically,
is what he said. He said to them as they approached
him, and he asked them this question. Now I don't know if she put them
up to this or they put her up to this. I'm not sure what the
scenario was there. Maybe they were all sitting around
the supper table one night and they got to thinking about it
and they all came to the same conclusion, well this would be
a good thing. Mama, why don't you go down there with us and
put in a good word for us or whatever. I don't know exactly
what was the deal there, but they were all complicit in this.
And so he says to them, you don't know what you're asking. He said,
Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink up in
the baptism that I shall be baptized with? Are you able to be baptized
with that? Now they didn't know what he
was talking about exactly because look at what they said. We're
able. They said, buddy, we can do it.
Now if they'd had any understanding of what the kingdom of God was
and what the Lord was saying to them, they would have said,
Lord, I don't know that we're able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall
indeed drink the cup. of my cup and be baptized with
the baptism that I'm baptized with." In other words, he said,
you are going to suffer in the kingdom of God even as I And,
of course, the baptism that he's speaking about there is a baptism
of suffering. It's a baptism of being persecuted
and hated of all men, because that's what he was. And he said,
You are indeed going to be hated of all men. And we find in the
Scripture that James was the first, I believe, of those who
were slain as a follower of Christ. And John, of course he lived,
he actually lived a long life but he was persecuted, he was
exiled. Tradition says that he was boiled
in oil. He was put in boiling oil and
so he was in his later years completely an invalid because
he didn't have any use of his lower extremities. there again,
I don't know if that's absolutely true, but nonetheless, we do
know for a fact that he was persecuted greatly and hated of all men
and put on the Isle of Patmos. But again, this was not outside
of the realm of God's purpose because the book of the revelation
of Jesus Christ came to us because the Lord saw fit to put John
on the Isle of Patmos. And so it is that in all these
things. And so they said, well, we want
to do this and we're able to do it. And he said, well, you
don't know what you're talking about. And as far as being sitting
on the right and the left and those who are exalted in my kingdom,
he said, that's not for me to set up because had he been an
earthly king, surely he could have done that, would he not?
But he said, this is determined of my Father which is in heaven,
not that there is going to be an earthly throne, but that this
is a kingdom which is set up in such fashion that it does
not have such things as that. And when the ten heard it, they
were moved with indignation against these two brothers. When they
found out, they said, you know what, old John, James and John,
they've been over there trying to get in here and get these
places. And we want them. I mean, what
business do they have of being the right on the right and the
left? I mean, we want them. I want to be that. I want to
be the vice president. I want to be the secretary of
state. I mean, I want one of these positions of power. And the Lord called him unto
Him and He said, You know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise
dominions over them, and they that are great exercise authority
upon them. Now He's pointing out the fact
that kings and those who are in places of authority, they
have their power manifested by ruling over men, telling folks
what to do. Now in this day, Kings were kings
and rulers were rulers and they had the power of life and death
in their hand. I mean, if the Roman ruler there
of Jerusalem, as we see in the case of the Lord Jesus Christ,
if he passed the sentence of death on you, you were done for
because that was the law. He was the law. And so he said,
those that are princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion, and
they that are great exercise authority. But listen to what
he says, but it shall not be so among you. He said, now in
the world, and of course when he's using the term Gentile here,
the Gentile world, he's using it in contrast to what is of
the flesh and what is of the Spirit. Because the Jews, they
had this understanding that they were of the Spirit of God, and
all these Gentiles were in the outcast world. So he's using
their understanding here, and he says to them, now you know
how the Gentiles do this. But he said, here's how the kingdom
of God operates. He said, it doesn't operate by
those who are in places of authority and power, exercising dominion
over others. Now, who doesn't like to have
dominion over others? Isn't it a good thing when you've
got the power to tell somebody what to do? You know, of course,
some people are more prone to this than others. And I was reading
something the other day about this new campaign to quit calling, don't use the term bossy when
you're talking about, you know, young girls, how hurtful that
is and whatnot. I mean, I never thought about
it. I guess maybe it is. I don't know. But we've all known
bossy people, haven't we? I mean, not just women. Now, women do like that sometimes. I remember one time a fellow
wrote a book and the name of it was Bobbed Hair Bossy Wives
and Women Preachers. And you can kind of imagine the
thought process that he had there. Now, everybody likes to be in charge. I mean, everybody wants to be
the one telling everybody else what to do. I remember when I
was going to school, one of the things is they would rotate out
who got to be the leader going to the lunchroom. And buddy,
you just were waiting for your turn because you wanted to be
the one that was going to lead everybody to the lunchroom. Because
that's just human nature, isn't it? To be the one that's in charge. And the Lord said, But it shall
not be so among you, but whosoever will be great among you, Now
listen, He said in the world He that's great is the one that
tells everybody what to do. But He said the one that's great
in the kingdom of God, let Him be your minister or let Him be
your servant. Let Him be the one. that does. Now the word here, actually for
servant, He said, Whosoever will be your chief among you, let
him be your servant. It means that that word there
is doulos, which is slave. Let him be your slave. Now everybody
likes to think about being a king, don't they? You ever dream about
how it would have been to have been the king? I have all these
subjects running around, but he said, if you're going to be
a king in the kingdom of God, you're going to have to be a
slave. We sing a song sometimes, if
you want to be great in God's kingdom, learn to be the servant
of all. Now, that's not a desired position. You know, if you had a sign-up
sheet I don't care where you went,
and you could put on there, you had two choices. You could either sign up to be
a king, or you could sign up to be a slave. Now, how many
people do you think would be signed up on the slave side?
Not many. There may be a few. I mean, I
don't know. I'm thinking people in the world, but by and large,
you can be sure that the list would everybody be signed up
to be the king. The Lord said if you want to
be the king, you've got to be the servant. Be a slave. And whosoever will be chief among
you, let him be your servant. Now listen, everything that the
Lord Jesus Christ has ever instructed His children to do, He has demonstrated. He never ever has sent you to
do something that He hadn't already done. Even as the Son of Man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life
a ransom for many. He gave Himself for us. Now we believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ was more than just an example. He's not just an
example. Now some people, that's all they
see about what Christ did was that He is an example to men. Nothing wrong with preaching
Christ as the example of men, but that's not all that He was. But He was an example in all
things. Now He, being in the form of
God, and thinking it not robbery to be equal with God, made himself,
the Scripture says, of what? No reputation. He wasn't concerned with being
in any particular place so that men might say, man, you're doing
a good job, or whatever. He just did what he did quietly. He did what he did specially. He did it with dedication because
that was His purpose. That's what He set out to do
was to be the servant of His people even though He was greater
than all. Isn't that the demonstration
of God's grace? He who had need of nothing. The Lord didn't need anything.
I get so irritated when I hear people speculating on why God
created the world, and they say, well, I guess at some point in
time in my growing up I was taught this, and this was kind of the
things in the back of my mind, the Lord was lonely and He needed
somebody. So He created the world so He'd
have some people. How stupid is that? I mean, the
God who's perfect, He needs nothing. He didn't create anything because
He needed it. He created it because he wanted
to, because it pleased him, not because he had to. But consider
this, that the God who needs nothing is the one who came and
dwelt among men, and gave himself in ignominy." He gave himself
with no reputation, with people hating him and spitting upon
him and pulling his beard out and having no consideration for
his person. Yet he willingly and gladly undertook
that for his people. Now, we know that he did that
in order to redeem his people, but he also did that that he
might demonstrate what it is to be great in the kingdom of
God. And so it is that he said, Whosoever
will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Now, are
you clamoring to be the servant of the people of God? If you're not, then according
to what Scripture says, you can't be following in the footsteps
of Christ, can you? I mean, you couldn't be a follower
of Christ if you're seeking to be the Lord over God's heritage.
Or if you're seeking somehow or other to make some name for
yourself or to build up your reputation among men, But He said, he that would be
great, let him be your servant. Now a servant, a servant is somebody that serves. Now that's pretty simple, isn't
it? He serves. Now if you go to a banquet and
you're seated at these tables, they always have somebody that
comes around bringing you the food, do they not? They're the
servants or the servers. Now, you don't go to the banquet
to see the servers, do you? But you can't have a banquet
if you don't have servers. You see, the kingdom of God operates
in the same fashion. Everybody wants to be seated
at the head table. That's where everybody's looking
out over, but nobody wants to be the one having to go back
into the kitchen and bring the food out to serve the people
that are there. But the Lord said, Whosoever
will be chief among you, let him be your servant, even as
the Son of God came not to minister, but ministered unto, but to minister,
and gave his life for ransom for many. Oh, that the Lord would
give us the heart of a servant. Because you see, unless the Lord
gives you the heart of a servant, you can't be a servant. Because
by nature we're not servants. See, by nature we want what we
want. By nature we want to impose our
will on other people. By nature. But by the grace of
God, He calls men to be servants. And He said, if you'd be chief,
and Kingdom of Heaven. Then let me become the servant
of all. Now, you know, there's a difference
between a servant and a hireling. Over in John 10, the Lord says this. He says,
But he that is an hireling and not the shepherd, whose own the
sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep,
and fleeth, and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
The hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling, and careth
not for the sheep." Now a hireling is somebody that works for pay. Now if you go in the average place calling itself a place
where they teach the truth of God, they are basically teaching
people to be hirelings, because you will constantly hear, Oh,
my brother, you need to be doing this so that your reward is going
to be bigger than heaven when you get there. And if you go
out and do all these things, well, I mean, it is going to
be better for you when you get up there. Will there be any stars
in my crown? And all that kind of thing. But
you see, a hireling is somebody that works for money. A hireling
is not a servant. See, a hireling, when things
get going right or the conditions aren't right, and he says, well,
I ain't doing this anymore. But you know what? A slave, he
doesn't have that choice, does he? Because he's bound to the
master. And he's got to do it whether
he likes it or he doesn't. The Lord said if you'd be great
in the kingdom of God, then you need to be a slave. Now we don't
even like to think about that term slave. I mean servant sounds
a little better than slave, doesn't it? But the reality is it's the
same thing. Because a servant serves because
of his ownership to the master. The hireling, he's just doing
it for the money. And so if he gets ready to quit,
he'll quit. That's what the Lord said. He
said, man, a hireling, you know, when the wolf comes to take the
sheep, he'll say, well, I didn't sign up for this. I'm not going
to do that. I mean, there's a limit to how
far I'll go. Well, how far? What's the limit
for the children of God as the servants of God and servants
to one another? See, some people say, oh, well,
I'm serving the Lord. Well, can you be serving the
Lord if you're not serving your brethren? The Lord said, how can we say
that we love the Lord whom we've not seen if we don't love the
brethren whom we have seen? How can we say we're serving
the Lord if we're not serving one another? That's why Paul said, let each
esteem the other better than themselves. Now, it's easy to
get on a high horse and say, well, you know, if they had any
spirituality about them, they would be thus and so. Isn't it amazing that we're never
instructed to be in such a position as that? If we're esteeming the
other better than ourselves, I mean, when a servant is sent
to perform a task, he's not sitting around thinking of all the faults
of his master. Now, that's not to say carnally
he might not entertain those thoughts from time to time, but
his whole purpose in life is to serve and do the thing that
his master said. But a hireling, on the other
hand, he'll look around and say, This guy over here is making
more money than me and we're both doing the same thing. I'm
going to quit because I'm not getting what
he's getting. But the slave doesn't have that
option, does he? Remember when Peter, when the
Lord told Peter that he said, Peter, all your life you've done
exactly what you wanted to do and you went here and you went
there. But he said, when you get old, you're not going to
be able to do it. He said, you're going to be carried somewhere
by somebody else. And it's not going to be what
you wanted to do. It's going to be what they wanted to do.
And Peter said, well, he got to thinking a little bit about
it. He said, well, what about John over there? I mean, what
about him? The Lord said, Peter, it doesn't
make any difference about John. You don't need to be worried
about him. You see, a hireling is concerned about those sort
of things, but that man who's just serving Christ, he doesn't
have time. He's not worried about that.
And so we're not called, dear brethren, to straighten one another
out, but we are called to pray for one another. Are we not? We are not called to figure out
jobs for others to do, but we are called to do the job. If your eye sees something to
do, do it with all your might. I mean, I've been, you know,
in churches and places where people, they say, well, those
people, they just won't do nothing. Well, just don't worry about
what they're doing. Do what you know to do. See,
it doesn't make any difference what somebody else is not doing.
What are you doing? What am I doing? I mean, that's
what it is to be a servant, to be concerned with serving. What
needs to be done? What can we do to enhance our
brethren's benefit? What is it we could do for one
another? See, that's what the servant's
mind is. What can I do to make things
better? You've all been in, say, even at a restaurant. Now, some
waitresses, you go into a restaurant and they're hirelings. They're
there because They're going to work eight hours or however many
hours they're going to work. They're going to bring the food
out of the kitchen, do you? And that's about it. I mean,
they've done their job, and that's how they look at it. But every
now and then you'll run across somebody that they just seem
like that every time you turn around they're trying to do something
else for you, and they're making things better than what you expected. See, that's what a servant's
heart calls them. You didn't expect that they were
going to do. The hireling just does what's
required of him, but the servant does what he can. The servant
does what his master would have him do. Now, what would the master
have us to do for one another? See, that's the question that
needs to be in our mind. Lord, what would you have me
to do? Where would you have me to go? What would you have me
Where can I serve? Are we looking for opportunities
to be a servant? Or are we just going along doing
whatever is required and comes in the job? Well, serving Christ
is not a job. You can't sign up and you can't
be fired. Because you see, those who are
the servants of Christ, they've gone to the doorpost and had
their ears bored through with an awl. And you remember in the
Old Testament that the servant, they were set free in the year
of the Jubilee. And if a servant had served his
master and he didn't want to leave, then his master would
take him to the doorpost and he'd take an awl, which is a
thing like an ice pick, And he'd punch a hole in his ear and put
a ring in it. And then he would become what
would be called a bond slave. And he would be the man's slave
forever. Now, being a bond slave carries
with it great privilege, but a great calling, because
we're called to be the servants of the King. And dear brethren,
I don't know of any higher calling than that, than to by love serve
one another by the grace of God. How can we serve the King if
we do not serve those whom He loves? That's what it is to be great
in the Kingdom of Heaven. May the Lord give us grace.