Who Is The Greatest

WHO IS THE GREATEST

Mark 9: 30-37

I would like for you to look at verse 31 again:

“For He was teaching His disciples and telling them…”

This verse immediately tells us that what Jesus does in this passage is important to us because notice, here in this passage Jesus is “teaching His disciples.”
That is what we are; disciples of Christ…or at least I hope that is what we are.
And because we are I hope that we will learn what Jesus teaches us here.

In fact, if we will learn what Jesus teaches here, we might find ourselves more united as a body and growing in numbers.

Let me show you what I mean; Vs. 30.

Here in this passage Jesus is passing through Galilee and His disciples are with Him.

And verse 30 says that Jesus didn’t want “anyone to know” that He was passing through Galilee.
And the reason He doesn’t want anyone else to know is because in verse 31, He wants to spend this time with His disciples in order to teach them.

So look what He says to them in verse 31. He says:

“The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.”

Jesus knows where He is headed.
He knows a cross is waiting for Him and He knows what is going to happen when He gets there.

But I want you to notice the disciples’ response to this statement. Look at verse 32.

“But they did not understand {this} statement, and they were afraid to ask Him.”

Isn’t that interesting?
They didn’t understand what He was talking about…and I can understand that.
Perhaps they should have understood better because the prophets of old had declared that the Messiah must die.
But still, what Jesus was talking about was something that was still in the future.
So I can understand them not fully understanding.

And I can understand them not understanding His being raised on the third day.

The raising of someone from the tomb after 3 days is not something they saw very often.
So I can understand them not understanding.

But why were they afraid to ask what He was talking about?

No where in all of scripture do you ever find an instance where Jesus rebukes any one who is sincerely seeking to know something.
So why were they afraid to ask?

They were afraid to ask because they were afraid of what they might hear.

Jesus’ dying didn’t fit their idea of what the Messiah was supposed to do.
The Messiah dying didn’t fit their agenda.

On their agenda Jesus becomes King and when He does He restores Israel back to the top.

And when Israel is restored to national prominence there will be 12 thrones and these 12 disciples will sit on those thrones.
That is their agenda.

Jesus dying just doesn’t fit their agenda.

Because if He dies that ruins all of their plans.
And not only that, if Jesus is willing to die to Himself and go to the cross.
As disciples they must be willing to do the same.
And that is not really what they wanted to hear.

So, when Jesus makes this statement about being delivered into the hands of men and dying they didn’t ask what He was talking about because they were afraid of what they might hear.

And I think most people today, including some of us, may be a little bit the same way.

Let me show something: Look with me at Galatians 3 and verse 26. Paul says:

“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

Now today most people in the religious community stop right there.
And they say, “I am a child of God because I believe in Christ.”
And they teach others this same thing.

But look at the next verse.

“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

This verse is connected to what verse 26 says.
This verse tells you what you must do in order to become a Child of God…and yet, people don’t want to hear this.

Look with me at Eph. 2 and look at verse 8.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, {it is} the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.”

Now people don’t mind hearing this!
They like to hear that they have been saved!

But they don’t like to hear what the next verse says:

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

You see, we don’t mind hearing that Jesus willingly gave himself on the cross for us so that we can be saved.
We like to hear that.
But when it comes to the commitment that His death requires of us…we don’t like to hear that.

Just like these disciples we sometimes are afraid to hear what God has to say because it doesn’t fit our agenda…our thinking…what we want to hear.

But Psalm 119: 160 says that “the sum of God’s word is the truth.”
And if you are trying to get to heaven by only accepting the parts of God’s word that fits your agenda…that agrees with your thinking and ideas…and all the while rejecting those you don’t like…in the day of judgment you will more than like be very disappointed.

Let’s go back now to Mark 9 and look at verse 33.

And they came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He {began} to question them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which {of them was} the greatest. And sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all.”

He knew didn’t He?

I mean, here they are walking along right after Jesus has told them that He was going to die and be raised again.
But they don’t want to hear that because that doesn’t fit their agenda.

Instead, they are talking about which one of them was the greatest…which one was the most important to Jesus.

And they knew they shouldn’t be discussing that.
So they discuss this either when Jesus is out in front or in the back so He can’t hear them.

And then they come to Capernaum, and they get to this house….and Jesus says, “What were you discussing?”

And they keep silent….because they think, “He knew that we were talking but He doesn’t know what about.”

And then Jesus sits down…and they are listening closely…and He says: “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all.”

He knew!
Can you imagine the look on their faces?
He knew what they were talking about.
He knew what was in their minds and their hearts.
He knew!

It is the same for us.

He knows!
As disciples of Christ, Jesus has promised to be “with us always, even to the end of the age.”
And we can whisper…and we can argue somewhere in private.
We can do things in secret…in the dark.
We can sneak around with it…hide it.
But it doesn’t make any difference…Jesus knows.
And we need to understand that, because if we do it might keep us from doing a lot of things…and saying a lot of things that will only lead to more problems.
It makes no difference how well you try to hide it…disguise it…or sneak around to do it…Jesus knows.
You can hide it from people…even deceive them…but you can’t hide it from God.

Now, look again at what Jesus says in verse 35. Jesus says,

“If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all.”

Being first is what they wanted wasn’t it?

And they could be, couldn’t they?

Jesus doesn’t condemn being first here.
What He does do is say that you don’t become first in His kingdom the same way you become first in the world.
The world says “you scratch and claw your way to the top”…stomping everyone down on your way to get there.
But that is not the way it works with those who want to be first with Christ in His kingdom.
To be first with Christ and in His kingdom…a person doesn’t exalt himself…a person must be last…and a servant to all.
Not just a few…not just a select group…not just a certain class…not just to friends…but to all…just like Christ was.

And do you see that word “servant?”

That is the Greek word ““
It is not the Greek word “doulos” which would mean slave.
A slave is ordered to do what they do.
They have no choice.
A “diakanos” chooses to do this.

If a person wants to be first with Christ….then he chooses to be last…and he chooses to be a servant to others.

He doesn’t arrogantly and selfishly exalt himself…and look down on others.
He doesn’t say, “I am better than you…or I am too good for that.”
He doesn’t tear others down so he can exalt himself.
Instead, he sees others and their needs as more important than himself and his own needs.
And he serves, not only others, but God….and thereby he exalts himself in the kingdom of God.

And to illustrate His point look what Jesus does in verse 36.

And taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them,

“Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.”

Now, why does Jesus take this child up in His arms?

Well, He has just told them that they must be a “servant to all.”
And this child is part of that “all.”

Now, how humbling is it to be a servant to a “child?”

It is not too bad to be a servant to a king…or to a rich man…or even to an adult.
But to a “child?”
- Jesus is stressing how humble you must be to be first in the kingdom.
- The one who wants to be first in the kingdom must be willing to serve even the “smallest”…the seemingly most insignificant in the kingdom.

But there is more…He is also stressing the kind of servant they must be

Let me ask you this: Do adults ever serve children?
Ask the parents of some of our babies.
- Babies are high maintenance.
- You have to feed them, burp them, dress them, change them, put them to sleep and wake them up.”
  - Do you see what kind of servant you must be if you want to be “first” in the kingdom?
  - Whatever it takes…whatever is needed…whenever it is needed…you are willing to do it
  - In short, what Jesus seems to be saying here is: If you want to be first in the kingdom you must serve others the way an adult serves a child.

And let me ask you, what can this child do for me?

They can give me a hug…maybe even a kiss, right?
But really, they can’t do much more than that for me, can they?
I can do a lot of things for them, but they can’t do much for me, right?

That is Jesus’ point too.

You serve others…regardless of what they can or cannot do for you.
Most of the time children don’t praise you for what you have done.
In fact, they pretty much take for granted what you do for them.
But that is ok, because to be “first” in the kingdom…you will serve others regardless of what they can or cannot do.

So many times we want to serve those who can “do things for us.”

Those that can help us.
Those that are neat, and clean, and have a certain social status.
Those that fit our idea of what is acceptable socially and financially.
That is the kind we want to serve.
But that is not what Jesus is saying here.

Jesus is saying, “You serve everyone like you would a child.”

“But he has a different colored skin.”
“He is poor.”
“He doesn’t dress very well.”
“He is over weight…or not very neat…or not very high on the social ladder.”

When we make those kinds of comments and judgments…what are we doing?

Aren’t we exalting ourselves…just like these guys were?

Jesus served everyone alike…made no difference if they were old, young, rich, poor, Gentile or Jew…He received them all.

He sat down with children…ate with tax gatherers and prostitutes.
He touched lepers and the demon possessed.
He served them all.
And when He did, He changed their lives.

And if we will do the same, if we will live this same way…and not just talk about it…then we will change not only our lives…but the lives of others as well.

These disciples were walking along discussing who was going to occupy the chief seats and that was not some little thing.

That could tear the apostles apart.
They could get to worrying more about who is number one than they were serving others and the apostolic band could rip apart and there goes the unity of the early church.
It is a poison that has to be purged out of the system.
And that is why Jesus sits down and takes care of this.

That same kind of attitude and thinking has embittered many “children” and it has torn many of our sister congregations apart…and it can and will tear us apart too if we are the same.

That is why this lesson is so important to us.

Let’s be first by being last…let’s be servants to all…and let’s serve others as well as each other the same way we would a child.