So good morning. If you care
to open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 20, continue
our study of Matthew chapter 20 this morning. Before we begin, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, we've gathered here
this morning desiring to hear word from Thee, to be enabled
by Thy Spirit to worship, to worship you in spirit and in
truth. And Father, I beg of you that you would enable us to do
that this morning, to hear word from thee and to worship you
from the heart, that you deliver us from going through the motions
of religion, from just the habit of what we do on Sunday. Father,
enable us to worship, to hear from thee, to learn of our Lord
Jesus Christ, learn to trust him more fully, to love him more
completely. Father, how we thank you for
this opportunity to hear your gospel preached. It's not something
that you've given in every place, in every town, but you've given
it to us here. You've seen fit to do it by your
mercy and by your grace. Father, we're thankful. Pray
that you'd bless your word. Pray that you would make us faithful
to continue to preach Christ to our generation. What we pray
for ourselves here this morning, we pray for your people who meet
around this world this morning. Father, bless your people. Cause
your word to go forth in power for your glory's sake, for the
good of your people. Father, we pray that you'd be
with those who are sick and hurting and need you especially. We pray
you'd be with them, be with Novi that you'd undertake to move
things along, that she might get this transplant She might
use it to heal her body. Pray for Barb, and while there's
others who need you, be with them in a mighty way. All these
things we ask, and that name which is above every name, the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. All right, I've titled
our lesson this morning, Greatness in God's Church. And what I want
to do is begin reading our text from last time, then come down
to our lesson this morning. Let's look up beginning at verse
20. of Matthew chapter 20. Then 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 thy 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'm baptized with, they
say unto him, we're able. And he saith unto them, ye shall
drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with the baptism that
I'm baptized with. But to sit on my right hand and
on my left is not mine to give, but it should be given to them
for whom it is prepared of my father. Now this question from
James and John is caused purely by pride. You know, they were
so proud. They really did think they were
worthy to sit on the right hand and left hand of the Savior in
glory. They really did think they were worthy to have a throne
beside the Savior in glory. They were so full of pride. They
thought they deserve that honor more than the other disciples,
more than the other brethren. They were so proud. When the
Lord asked him, can you drink of the cup that I drink? Can
you suffer with me? Oh, they said yes. Yeah, they
were so full of pride, they thought they had the strength to suffer
with the Lord. And that nature of pride is in
every one of us. It's Adam's nature that's in
every one of us, and it's something that every believer should be
very aware of, very wary of. Look at Isaiah chapter 14. Pride
is the root of all sin and rebellion. It's pride. It was pride that
caused Lucifer's rebellion. Look here in Isaiah 14, verse
12. How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the
ground which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in
thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. And I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds. I'll be like the most high. Yet
thou shall be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. It was pride that made Lucifer
think. He could sit on the throne of
God that he could exalt his, his throne to, to either equal
with, with the throne of the most higher or, or above it.
It pride that caused it. And look what happened to me.
It was pride that caused Adam to fall and to destroy his whole
race. Adam really did think if he ate
that fruit, he'd be like God. It was pride. It was pride that
made him think I'll be, I'll now be God. I'll be the one to
choose good and evil. I'll be the one to make the rules
and I won't be under the rule of God anymore. It was pride
that made him take that need. Look at Psalm chapter 10, Psalm
10. It's pride that causes people
to persecute others. Psalm 10. Verse two, the wicked in his pride doth
persecute the poor. Let them be taken in the devices
that they have imagined. It's pride that makes us think
it's all right for us to persecute others because we're better than
them. It's pride that makes us think that. And even worse, it's
pride that keeps us from coming to Christ. It's pride that makes
us not beg for mercy. It's pride that makes us not
submit ourselves to the righteousness of God. Look at verse four, Psalm
10. The wicked, through the pride
of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not in
all of his thoughts. God's not in all of his thoughts.
There's no room for him to be thinking about God. He's so full
of pride, all he's thinking about is himself. It's pride that keeps
him from coming to God, begging for mercy. Now look at Proverbs
16. You know of the seven things
that God says he hates, pride is at the top of the list. And God hates it so much, look
what he says here, Proverbs 16, verse five. Everyone, that is proud in heart
is an abomination to the Lord. Though hand joined in hand, he
shall not be unpunished. Everyone that is proud in heart
is an abomination to God. How I want the Lord to strip
me of pride. Strip me of the pride that keeps
me from coming to him, begging for mercy. Strip me of the pride
that keeps me from humbling myself before him and strip me of the
pride that makes me an abomination to God. Oh, how I want that.
Now look back in our text, Matthew 20. Here's another thing pride
does. Pride rips apart the unity of
brethren and it's pride that destroys the worship of God.
That's exactly what happened to the disciples. Look at verse
24. And when the 10 heard it, they
were moved with indignation against the two brethren. Can you blame
them? I mean, really, can you blame
them? Of course the other ten were upset when they heard James
and John ask for such an honor above them. Of course they were
upset. I mean, who wouldn't be? But now, let's be careful not
to kind of pat the other ten on the back, you know, kind of
raise them up as an example of how we ought to be. They didn't
have any real sort of righteous indignation here. I mean, we
can understand why they were upset, but they didn't have righteous
indignation. You know why they were angry?
They wanted that honor for themselves. They didn't want James and John
to have that. They wanted it for themselves. They felt like
they deserved the honor more than James and John. James and
John felt like they deserved it more than the other 10. The
other 10 felt like they deserved it more than James and John or
any of the other of the 12. It's pride. It was pride making
them, this is so sad. They're in the presence of the
Redeemer. They're in the presence of the Christ. They're in the
presence of the Savior. And it was pride making them
scramble around like mad, trying to get honor and recognition
for themselves. Just trying to scramble and climb
higher than their brethren when they're in the presence of the
Redeemer. I mean, isn't that sad? And I point that out as a warning
to us. We got the same nature. We got
the same proud, haughty spirit. Let's not do that. The gospel's
being preached here. We're in the presence of the
Savior. Our purpose for meeting here is to worship. God help us that we don't get
so full of pride. We're scrambling around trying
to get, you know, someplace higher than what we think our brethren
have or something, you know, nothing can be more contrary
to the gospel of grace than that, than pride. Nothing can be more
contrary to the nature of God's kingdom, the nature of the church,
then pride, the way of God's church and the way in God's kingdom. is always the opposite of the
way of the flesh. The way of the flesh is pride.
Get all you can for yourself. I mean, whatever it is, if it's
money, if it's trinkets, if it's recognition, whatever it is,
get all that you can get for yourself and then hang on to
it for all you got. I mean, no matter how cutthroat
you gotta be, hang on to it. The way of God's kingdom The
way in the church is humility. Do all you can do so Christ gets
the glory. Do all you can do so others get
a benefit. Do all that you can do so others
can worship in peace and focus on what we're supposed to be
focusing on, on the Savior, not on each other. Do what you can
do to lift others up instead of yourself. You know, the way
of the world is just scrambling like, you know, I worked for
in a lot of different places, isn't that the way of the work
world? Scramble around, get all you can get, climb over, I mean,
step on whoever you gotta step on to get a leg up, you know.
The way up in God's kingdom is down. The way up is coming down,
coming down in our eyes, coming down in our own estimation of
ourselves. The way up in God's kingdom is
coming down in the dust, at the feet of the Savior, begging for
mercy. The way to be great in the world
is to get all the authority you can get. Again, I'll just use
the workplace as an example. Isn't that the way the workplace?
Get all the authority you can get. Get your little fiefdom
of stuff that you're in control of and just hang on to it and
defend it for all you got. That's the way to get authority
in this world. The way to be great in God's
kingdom, the way to be great in God's church is to be humble. to be an unnoticed servant. Now
you notice I didn't say do nothing. I said, be humble and be an unnoticed
servant. And that's exactly what the savior
teaches us here. Look what he says in verse 25
in response to this, 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 should not be so among you. But whosoever will be great
among you, let him be your minister, your waiter. That's the word
there, your waiter. And whosoever will be chief among
you, let him be your servant. And that word is slave. Let him
be your servant. Now the greatest in the kingdom
of God, the greatest in God's church is not the guy who's bossing
everybody around, telling them what to do and when to do it.
That's not who's greatest in God's kingdom. The one who's
greatest in the kingdom of God, the one who's greatest in God's
church is a servant. He's a minister. He's one, he's
just a waiter who waits tables, who brings stuff to people that
they need. He's a, he's a slave. That's the one who's the greatest
in God's kingdom. He's a, what, you know, you think
about a slave, a slave doesn't own anything. A slave doesn't
have any recognition. He's nothing. His sole purpose
in life is to serve the master and to serve others. That's the
greatest in God's church. The way to be the greatest in
the church is not by receiving. It's by giving. It's by giving
of yourself. It's by giving of your time.
It's by giving compliments to others. It's not by trying to
look to get other people to compliment you, recognize you. It's the way to be the greatest
is by giving compliments to others. The way to be greatest in the
kingdom, the way to be greatest in God's church, is not to get
yourself lifted up so everybody sees you and thanks you and praises
you. The way to be the greatest in
the church is to lift others up so they get recognition for
their service. And just let your service, let
what you do go unnoticed. But don't let what somebody else
does go unnoticed. That's the way to be the greatest,
the servant. Now, there's no doubt, there's rules. in God's
church. Pastors and elders are to rule the local church. Scripture
can't make that more plain. That's where the authority rests.
The pastor has responsibility to rule over the church, to guide
the church so that we accomplish what it is we're supposed to
accomplish. It's the worship of Christ. It's the preaching
of Christ. But we're to rule as a servant, as a servant. In
2 Corinthians 4 verse 5, you know what Paul called preachers?
Ourselves your servants, for Jesus' sake. We're to rule and
to lead as a servant. And the way all of us can be
the greatest in the church is by sacrificing of ourselves.
It's sacrificing of ourselves to show kindness to others. Sacrificing
of ourselves to do whatever we can do for others to help them
to do what they need and to do it without expecting or seeking
any recognition or reward for it, to try to do it as unnoticed
as possible. Now, here's the thing about service.
Don't overcomplicate it. Just do whatever the Lord's put
to your hand to do today. Just whatever it is, whatever
the Lord enables you to do. Don't, don't think about it.
Just do it. If the Lord gives you an ability
to do something, he gives you an open door, buddy, charge through
it. Now wait till the door's open,
but if you, charge, do it, just do it. You know, really, the
simplest, I mean, it's just the simplest things. You can be the
greatest in the kingdom of God when you cut the grass here.
The men that cut the grass here, except for you men who do it,
probably nobody knows who does it. You just show up here in
the summertime, the grass is always cut. They do it without
ever being noticed. Nobody sees them doing it. How
about when you clean the church? Sean and Tara were telling me
their dad used to make them do a jot and tittle cleaning. You
know, that's being greatest in the kingdom. Just, I'm going
to do such a good job at this. I mean, it's a menial task, but
I'm going to do such a good job of it. Nobody sees you. You know,
when you do a great job of cleaning, nobody notices. What they notice
is when you don't do a very good job, right? I mean, it's a thankless
job. But that's being the greatest. You ladies, when you bring food
to fellowship dinners, don't think that's a small thing. That's
being the greatest. It's just doing what God's given
you to do. It doesn't have to be a big thing. It can be. But
it can be little things, too. Whatever it is God's given you
the ability to do, just do it. Find out where you're needed. Find out where there's need.
And then fill it. That's service. It's very simple. Nothing's too small. Just do
it. Somebody should make a marketing
campaign. You should just do it. Let's do it. Now, that's
a lot of responsibility to put on people. I mean, we're just
flesh after all. That is not the way of the flesh.
So that sounds like, man, the pastor's really putting a lot
on people here. Well, what's the believer's motivation? To
serve God and God's kingdom with that kind of humility, without
seeking recognition for yourself. What's the motivation to a believer
for that, to do that? It's looking to Christ. You know,
the believer's life is always looking, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. How is it you are first
saved when you look to Christ? Some preacher kept telling you,
look to Christ, look to Christ, like Moses lifting up the serpent
in the wilderness, saying, look, and you finally looked. That's
the day God saved you. That's the day he revealed himself
to you. Well, you know, our walk through this world is directed
the exact same way, by looking to Christ. And that's what their
savior tells us here, verse 28. 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, our Lord Jesus Christ, he's
our Lord, he's our master, he's our savior, he's our God. First
and foremost, that's who he is. He's our God, He's our Savior,
He's our Master. The Lord Jesus came and He did
absolutely everything that it took to save His people from
their sin. Salvation is His work, His work,
and it's His work alone. This is why Christ came incarnate. This is why He was born in the
flesh in Bethlehem's manger, to be the Savior of His people.
He didn't come to be a reformer. He didn't come to be a religious
leader, to start this new religious way. He didn't come to be an
example to people, how they ought to live their lives, so they'd
wear these little bracelets, you know, WWJD. That's not why he
came. Christ came to save his people
from their sins. He came as the sovereign savior
over all. He came as the Lord over all,
who would come to save all the people that the Father gave him
to save. He's the Lord. He's God. He's our master. We're
to bow to him. And that can't be overemphasized. We can't lift him up too high. And if we lose sight of that,
if we lose sight that first and foremost, the Lord Jesus Christ
is our savior, he's our God, he's our master. If we lose sight
of that, we're gonna lose reverence for Christ and we're gonna lose
the worship. Worship has to start with reverence,
doesn't it? If we forget that, if we lose sight of that, if
all we think of is that Christ is an example for us. We're going
to lose worship. And all that being said, the
savior did in fact leave an example for his people to follow. Now,
first and foremost, he's our God, he's our savior, he's our
master, but he did leave. The master left an example that
his people are to follow. Human language cannot express
the glory, the heights of glory that belong to our God. Yet when
he came to earth, how did he come? As a low-born, poor man. He was poor. He was homeless. He had no place to lay his head.
People that knew him mocked him. They mocked his upbringing. He
was raised in a carpenter shop. They mocked his education. They
mocked his hometown. Can any good thing come out of
that place? No. They just mocked him. The
master of all came to this earth as a lowly servant. The master
didn't come to this earth to sit on a throne and have his
people all do for him. He came to earth to do for his
people, to do for them what they cannot do for themselves. He
came, he humbled himself to come and save his people by working
out a perfect righteousness for them under his own law, obeying
his own law. And by suffering and dying for
their sin, the holy one was made sin for his people, that he might
make his people holy. Now, nobody has ever done greater
service for anyone than that. That's why he came. Christ came
as our master. He called himself the good shepherd,
didn't he? He's the great shepherd of the
sheep. When you think about a shepherd, the shepherd is in charge, isn't
he? He's in charge. He's in charge of the sheep.
The sheep do whatever the shepherd says. They go where the shepherd
tells them to go. They eat where the shepherd tells
them to eat. They drink where the shepherd tells them to drink.
But the shepherd, you know, he's in charge. Well, he spends a
whole lot of time caring for the sheep, doesn't he? One wanders
off, he goes and tenderly gets it. One gets sick, he tenderly
cares for it, nurses it back to health. One's weak and and
he kind of slows everybody up, so that one doesn't fall behind,
so he doesn't become prey to the wolf. Well, that's our master. He's the one that's in charge.
He's our master. He's our Lord. We do his bidding.
But boy, he sure does do a lot of tenderly caring for his sheep,
doesn't he? Tenderly nursing us and caring for us, being the
serpent for his people. Look at John chapter 13. Our
Savior clearly told us this is how we are to act with each other.
This is by following his example to serve our brethren. John chapter
13. Verse 12. So after he had washed
their feet and taken his garments and was set down again, he said
unto them, Know ye what I've done to you? You call me master
and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. If I then, your
Lord and master, have washed your feet, you also ought to
wash one another's feet. And he doesn't mean literally
washing one another's feet there. He means that's the lowest task,
the lowest slave in a household. That's your entry level position
is to wash feet of somebody coming to the master's house. And that's
what our Lord do whatever it takes. There's no job too low
for us to do for each other. If the master washed our feet,
if the master did the lowest task, we're to do the lowest
task for each other. Verse 15, for I've given you
an example that you should do as I've done to you. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord,
neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If you
know these things, happy are you. If you do then, everybody
wants to be happy. Let me tell you believers how
to be happy. Serve this way. In humility,
doing the lowest task, serving one another. For God's glory,
that'll make a believer happy. That's why God made us. To serve
one another, to worship him, to serve one another. Look at
Philippians chapter two. Here's the motivation that'll
reach the heart every child of God. The motivation for serving
one another so humbly that the lowest task is not too low for
me to do for you is this. It's the humiliation of the Savior
and Christ's sacrifice for us. Philippians 2 verse 1. If there
be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of
love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
Fulfill ye my joy that you be like-minded, having the same
love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind. Let
each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man
on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Now 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, He wasn't robbing God of his glory to say he's equal with
God because he is God. He is equal with God. But verse
seven made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Now you will desire to
serve your brethren in humility. unless the gospel has been preached
to you in vain. If that doesn't reach your heart, if that doesn't
just grip your heart and pierce your heart, it's because you
don't know Christ. Unless the gospel has been preached to you
in vain, that gives you the motivation to serve one another. You think
about the son of God. He's equal with the father, came
to earth as a servant. He came as a servant to his father,
to do his father's will. His father's will was to accomplish
the work of redemption for his people, to fulfill God's eternal
purpose. And he humbled himself to come
do it. He humbled himself to pay a debt that he didn't know.
Now, actually, he made the debt his when he was made sin for
us. That sin became his sin. He became guilty of it. But you
get what I mean when I say that he paid a debt that he didn't
know. We're the ones who committed
the sin. He's the one paid for it. Christ gave himself. He gave
his life. He gave his body. He gave his
soul. He says here for the ransom,
for the ransom of many. Well, who are the many? Well,
the many are God's elect. There's so many, we can't even
count them all. And Christ paid that ransom in
full. So his people would go free in
justice. That word ransom means the price
that's paid to redeem. It's the price paid for a slave.
But that word ransom also means this. It means to liberate from
misery and the penalty of sin. That's what the Savior did for
us. He set his people free from the misery of sin. He set his
people free from the penalty of sin by taking that misery
on himself, by paying the penalty with his own death. Now that's
the service our Redeemer did for us. Does that make you want
to serve? Want to serve his people? See,
this is why we keep preaching Christ. And we keep preaching
Christ on no matter what topic it is that you want to discuss. I mean, we're talking here about
service this morning. I hope as you hear the totality
of the lesson that you think, well, Frank preached Christ.
I hope that's what you think. No matter what the topic is,
We preach Christ. We preach Christ. We keep preaching
Christ and Christ alone and don't make an issue of anything else. Because seeing Christ sacrifice
for me, I can talk about pride all I want to. But you know what
will kill it in me? Seeing Christ sacrifice for me.
Seeing Him humble Himself to redeem me. Seeing how He came
to humbly serve. That will humble me and make
me want to serve you. It's seeing Christ, see? It worked
for Job, didn't it? Worked for Job. Job unfortunately
spent some time on his high horse, and then he heard from God. And
you know what Job said? I abhor myself and put my hand
over my mouth. Isaiah, whoa, Isaiah was a tough
nut, wasn't he? Going around woeing everybody.
And then he saw the Lord, high and lifted up. And he said, woe
is me, I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm undone, I dwell among a people
of unclean lips. And God said, all right, Isaiah,
now you're ready to go preach. Now you're ready to be the prophet.
See, we saw Christ. That gave us the, not only does
that give us the message to preach, it gives us the attitude in which
we're to preach it. Now, can there be any doubt, who's the
greatest in the kingdom of God? Who's the greatest? It's our
Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? Well, what did He do? He came
to serve. He came to serve His Father.
He came to serve His people by doing for them what they cannot
do for themselves. Well, if you and I are going
to be great in God's church, in God's kingdom, if we're going
to be great amongst each other right here, I'll tell you what
we're going to have to do. We're going to have to come down off
our high horse and we're going to have to get to work. Get to
work as the lowest servant. doing whatever it takes to help
our brethren. If we would be great in God's
kingdom, we're going to have to set pride aside and quietly
and humbly serve our brethren without looking for any thanks
or any recognition for it and do it out of love, out of love
for the savior, out of thanks for everything he's done for
us and out of a desire to glorify him, not us. That makes a good
servant, doesn't it? I hope God will enable us to
do it by looking to Christ. All right, Lord bless you.