True Greatness

Q: What does the Bible say about true greatness?

The Bible teaches that true greatness comes from serving others, not exercising power over them. In Matthew 20:26-28, Jesus teaches that whosoever desires to be great among His followers must become their servant. This principle contrasts sharply with worldly views of greatness, which often involve power and domination. The ultimate example of true greatness is found in Jesus Himself, who came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. This servant-hearted approach to greatness reminds us that in the kingdom of God, humility and service are prized over ambition and authority.

Q: How do we know the doctrine of servanthood is true?

Jesus exemplified servanthood in His life and teachings, confirming its importance in His kingdom. The doctrine of servanthood is firmly grounded in the teachings and actions of Jesus Christ. In passages like Matthew 20:26-28, Jesus explicitly states that greatness in His kingdom is determined by one's willingness to serve. He modeled this throughout His ministry, including the ultimate act of servitude—the sacrificial death on the cross (Philippians 2:6-8). By His example, we see that the path to true honor is paved with humility and selflessness, reinforcing that servanthood is not merely an ideal but a foundational element of Christian living.

Q: Why is understanding Christ's suffering important for Christians?

Understanding Christ's suffering reveals the depth of His sacrifice and teaches us about our own call to bear trials. Christ's suffering is central to the Christian faith, highlighting the gravity of our sin and the lengths to which God went to secure our redemption. In Matthew 26:36-46, we see Jesus in Gethsemane, distressed and earnest in prayer as He faces the impending agony of the cross. His willingness to suffer demonstrates His love and commitment to fulfilling the Father’s will. For believers, it not only assures us of our salvation but also instructs us on how to face our own trials with faith, knowing that we are called to participate in Christ's sufferings. This perspective enables Christians to view their struggles through the lens of Christ’s victory over sin and death.

came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshiping him and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, what wilt thou? She saith 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. But Jesus answered and said, you know not what you ask.

Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, we are able. And he saith unto them, ye shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with, but to sit on my right hand or on my left hand 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 said, You 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. 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.

Let's pray. Gracious Father, thank you for bringing us together. Thank you for your precious word. I pray this morning that you'd make it clear, Lord, your teaching. make it clear that you are the point of everything, that you're our all, and that all of our vain thoughts of greatness or prosperity, all the things that man, even religious man, craves, I pray you'd wean our hearts, Lord, from this world and cause us to look to you alone and trust you and worship you alone. Bless us this morning, Lord, with your presence and with your Holy Spirit to take the things of our Savior and show them to us. Bless our children, Lord, and just have mercy on our souls. In Christ's name we ask, amen.

Now, this mother shows our depravity. We don't have any evidence either way as to what her spiritual condition is, and it doesn't matter, but we know what she represents in this text is pride, self-righteousness. And in other words, she represents all of us. Our Lord had just spoken of the one event, and I don't know if she was there, I suspect she was, because the sons of Zebedee were there, and this is their mother. He had just spoken of the one event around which every event revolves, around which the whole universe revolves. He said, I must be betrayed and delivered into the hands of men, beaten and crucified and rise again the third day, and here she comes with this question about greatness for sinners.

And even with this solemn truth in our hearts, we know that Christ is all. We know that he hath made us and not we ourselves. We know that he's redeemed us if we're his. And we do have the spirit by his grace of not under us, oh Lord, not under us, but under thy name, give glory. But also we have an old nature that still is in love with his flesh.

And this is a petty thing. It's a selfish thing. What about the other disciples? Do they have mothers? And it's easy sometimes, I think, for parents to be proud over their children because they think it's selfless. You know, it's not me, it's for my children. Well, it's the same thing. It's for you. It's you. She was all about her. And it's easy to miss that when it comes to your children, I think.

She may have had faith, but our faith is all the same as that man's faith when he said, I believe Lord help my unbelief. She mentions the kingdom and it says she worshiped him. But that word worship has been used in the scripture to not mean that she knew who he was. And as far as the kingdom, it's very unlikely that she had any idea what she was talking about.

And I'll tell you why. Even after our Lord did what he told them, that he was going to do, what would happen to him and what he would do, what he would accomplish in the context there that we mentioned. He's going to die and he's going to rise again from the dead.

The disciples still didn't know what the kingdom was all about. In Acts chapter 1 and verse 6, This is talking about his disciples and his apostles. When they were therefore come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? They still thought it was all about delivering them from the tyranny of Rome. Even after our Lord rose from the dead, So when she's saying, I want my sons on your right hand, your left hand in the kingdom. She didn't know when the Lord said, you don't know what you're asking. That was part of it. She didn't know the kingdom from anything else. She had no idea what she was talking about.

So this is a quick snapshot of our foolishness also. Our Lord tells us through his gospel of heavenly things, vital things, spiritual things, eternal things, and we're still taken up with earthly, petty, selfish, self-interest, self-righteousness. I'm sure she firmly thought her sons deserved it. Look what they've done, you know, compared to these other men. And before we start shaking our heads at how foolish she was, we ought to be shaking our heads at how foolish we are, because we're still caught up with petty things. As our Lord said to Philip, have I been so long with you and you still don't know me? That's a good question. Can somebody be completely ignorant of the Lord's kingdom and still even know the Lord, be a believer? I hope so, don't you?

Because our salvation is not dependent on the extent of our knowledge. Our salvation is a person, not even facts about him, of course, which will be true. We will believe. You can't believe on him and not believe what he said. But there is some knowledge that accompanies salvation, of course. But our Lord said, knowledge puffs up and love builds up.

This is life eternal, he said in John 17, that they might know thee. The man in John chapter nine, the blind man, he didn't know a whole lot, did he? He knew that he had been blind and when the Lord came along, now he can see. He knew who did that. And then the Lord taught him who he was. He's the son of man. He's the son of God. Do you believe on the son of God?

But he didn't know a whole lot, did he? But he knew somebody. The thief on the cross, how much did he know? Just about nothing, but he knew somebody. He knew he was the Lord. He knew he was the king of the kingdom. If you know the king, then you understand about the kingdom.

But we, just like this mom, we brag about how much we know. easily dismiss our own wretchedness, but we could spot it in somebody else from a mile away. We can pick at somebody else and criticize somebody else from a mile away. And yet we're all guilty. We look for the splinter in everyone else's eye and look past the beam in our own.

But the Lord is gracious to remind us, and that's what he does in this text. Our Lord's answer to her and them, when it says them, it says she asked, And then they answered. And that's very simply explained by the account. Mark's account of this same event says that the sons of Zebedee were there too. It actually gives them the role of asking the question. So they're standing there with her, and she likely was the spokesman for them.

Being proud of her boys, you know, but all fleshly pride is vain. But he answers her this way, and them, you don't know what you're asking about. You don't know what you're talking about. And part of that is, they didn't even know what the kingdom was. That's how foolish we are. We're not even in the game, much less playing well, making the right moves. We're not even in the game. They didn't even know what the kingdom was, yet. And how true this is of all of us. Listen to Romans 8, 26. Because this is talking about you. It's talking about me. Romans 8, 26. Likewise, the spirit also helpeth our infirmities. The Spirit of God enlightens us and teaches us, because, why does he need to do that?

For we know not what we should pray for as we are. We don't even know how to pray. We don't even know what to ask for. She was asking the Lord, that's prayer in its essence, isn't it? She's talking to the Son of God and saying, here's what I would like to see happen. He says, you don't know what you're asking for. And Paul spelled it out right there.

We know not what we should pray for as we ought. We don't even know what's wrong with us. How are we going to know what to pray for if we don't know what's wrong with us? We overlook all of our weaknesses and failures. See them in somebody else. We're probably praying that somebody else, you know, wouldn't be such an idiot. We ought to be praying for ourselves.

But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." The Lord saves us even in that. He saves us from our ignorance. He saves us from our self-righteousness. He saves us from our covetousness, because much of what we pray for is just flat. We don't need or should ever have.

But there are two considerations here in our Lord's answer. And we'll look at them again, and then we'll look at them more closely again. But the first thing he addresses is what will happen. Notice it in, let's look at verse 20 again. He said unto her, What wilt thou? And she said, Grant that my two sons may sit. And then look at verse 22. You know not what you ask.

Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? And they say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto him, You shall drink indeed of the cup. and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with, but to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give." That's already been established in eternity.

The Lord, as a man, is not gonna change that, and he said, it's not my place now to tell you that. And it doesn't have anything to do with anything. I don't know if anybody particularly is gonna be distinguished in that regard, to sit on his right hand or his left hand. I don't think the text indicates that necessarily.

But what's important here is he said, you shall drink. But they noticed the way they answered, we are able. His answer to them back was not you are able. He said you will, but it won't have anything to do with your ability. Their ability is left out of the Lord's truth to them. They said we are able. His answer, a direct answer to that in the affirmative would be, yeah, you are able. That's not what he said. You're gonna drink, but not because of your ability. And there's a double meaning to that.

There is such a thing that's called the fellowship of the Lord's sufferings. And in that is that we will, he promised us where you're going to suffer. They're not going to hate your Lord. And then like you, if they hate your master, they're going to hate you for my sake, because I'm your master, because I'm your savior.

But the second thing that he deals with. It's what's in her heart and what's in these disciples' hearts and of the other disciples standing around listening to this. And we know that they are standing around listening to this, as I said, from Mark's account. It says in Mark's account that James and John asked him this question. They were the sons of Zebedee. She's the mother of the sons of Zebedee. So evidently she came with them and spoke for them. on their behalf. We all know moms like that, don't we? We all are moms like that, we're just like that, all of us.

So two things, what would happen, you'll drink of the cup I drink of, and also he dealt with the pride in their hearts. And we'll sum it up with this for now, but we'll look at the whole passage, Lord willing, in a minute. But he dealt with the pride in their hearts this way, whosoever will be greatest, let him be your servant. So he talks about what's gonna happen with regard to the kingdom.

And then he deals with this right here. Come down, come down. If you want to be great, be nothing. If you want to be a master, be a servant. Because that's true greatness. That's true greatness. They needed a lesson on what true greatness is, and so do we. So do we. And in teaching them what true greatness is, we make this third point, and we'll talk about all this as we go forward.

But when he's talking to them about true greatness, notice the reference he makes himself. What other reference is he going to make? He said, even as the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, be a servant like that. What is he going to reference? How is he going to say there's greatness be like that? He's going to point to himself because there's only one great one. There's only one that lives up to the qualification of what is great. And he points to himself as a servant, not to himself sitting on the throne, but to himself ministering. Now he's going to be glorified on his throne, no question about it.

But when was it that the Lord said, now is the son of man glorified? You remember when he said that? When he was betrayed, when Judas went out to betray him so that he would be, what he said right before this text this morning, betrayed into the hands of evil men. beaten, mocked, scourged, tortured, crucified, and raised again the third day. His glory, if you want to see the glory of Christ, look to Calvary. Isn't that what God said to Moses?

Here's my glory, I'll have mercy. I'll have mercy. He hit him in the cleft of the rock, the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ crucified is our message, and what are we gonna see in glory? He's still gonna bear the scars, isn't he? We're gonna see a lamb, a lamb, the most humble, unassuming, lowly creature on this earth. A lamb, the lamb, the mighty lamb, the eternal lamb, the glorious lamb, but a lamb. And that's our lesson. We're going to look at it as we go forward here. Let's look a little bit more. What would happen, what's going to happen, can you drink of the cup?

He tells them that they would drink of it, but not because they were able, not like he did, not like he's going to drink of it. and not willingly like he did. They're not going to willingly be, they're not going to willingly suffer for his sake. And he's, in effect here, he didn't say this, but I'm not going to put words in his mouth, but I'll tell you this right now, if they knew what they were asking, he said, you don't know what you're asking for. If they had known, they wouldn't have asked for it. They wouldn't have asked for it. Our Lord knew what he was about to drink. He knew what was about to happen. Look at Matthew chapter 26 with me and we'll break for a while. Matthew 26. Verse 36. Matthew 26, 36.

Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. There they are, those same sons. And he began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my father, if it be possible that this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

And he cometh unto his disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, Who was Peter with? The sons of Zebedee. What? Could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

He went away again the second time and prayed, saying, Oh, my father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were very heavy. And he left them and went away again and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then cometh he to his disciples and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. And then obviously a little bit later, because he had just said to take a while to sleep.

But then he said, rise, let us be going. Behold, he is at hand that doth betray me. So there's our part in drinking the cup that he drank. We slept through it. So yes, his disciples suffered for his sake. In those days, especially, we don't suffer in a physical, earthly sense now for his sake. But they're talking about drinking the cup. We're able to drink the cup that you drink. And while he drank it, they slept. They couldn't even watch him drink it, much less drink it themselves.

They wanted the benefit of it. They wanted to sit on the right hand of God, you know, right hand of the Savior. They liked the idea of drinking it, but when it came time to drink that cup, the Lord taught them what I pray He's taught us, that without Him, we can do nothing. They wanted the reigning, but not the suffering.

When it came down to suffering for him, what did they do? When it came down to their skin, when they had skin in the game, what did they do? They forsook him and fled, Matthew 26, 31. Then saith Jesus unto them, all ye shall be offended because of me this night, for it is written, I will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.

In order for us to be saved at all, much less sit on one hand or the other of the Savior in the kingdom, the cuff of the suffering of God's wrath must be drunk dry. It's got to be drunk dry. All of the wrath of God, the cup of God's wrath has to be drunk to the last drop. And we couldn't even watch the Savior drink it.

That's our part of it when it comes right down to it. We weren't even smart enough to know that he must drink it when he said, I'm going to have to drink it. The Lord said, shall I drink the cup the Father hath given me to drink? And Simon Peter said, be it far from thee, Lord. And as he was drinking, he began to drink that cup in Gethsemane, and he drank it dry on Calvary.

And here comes the men. He said, I'm going to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they're going to beat me. They're going to crucify me. They're going to torture me. They're going to kill me. And here they come to do that, and Peter draws his sword out and starts cutting ears off. We're ignorant, we're impotent, we're nothing. Christ is all. So in a sense, yes, maybe they suffered a little bit for Christ's sake in time.

But the truth of the matter is, when the Lord says, you'll drink the cup, you will drink it. He was talking about him drinking it. Because when he drank it, we drank it. He drank it for us. He drank it as our representative. He suffered the wrath of God in our place. We have to be punished for our sin. How's that gonna happen? We'll go to hell forever, or he'll drink it for us. One of the two. So he said, you will, you will, you'll drink it. Not because of your ability, but because I'm gonna drink it for you. And that's clearly seen.

True Greatness

What does the Bible say about true greatness?

How do we know the doctrine of servanthood is true?

Why is understanding Christ's suffering important for Christians?

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About Chris Cunningham

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True Greatness

What does the Bible say about true greatness?

How do we know the doctrine of servanthood is true?

Why is understanding Christ's suffering important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Chris Cunningham

Comments

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