Mark 9:30-37

As you've just heard, our scripture for this morning has been read and as you're turning there, you know, just as the disciples, as we see in this passage, just as the disciples were arguing about who is the greatest, have you also ever wanted to be the greatest? Have you ever wanted to be great at something? And I think if I'm honest, and if you're honest, I think we all want to be great at something, or at least at some point in our life, we wanted to be great at something.

And an example from my own life is whenever I was in high school, I played baseball and I wasn't the world's greatest baseball player, but I had the opportunity to be on a great team. And in fact, my junior year of high school, our team got fourth place in the state when we thought we were destined to win it that year. And we kind of choked in the semifinal game and didn't play real well and got fourth place.

And then my senior year we had a great class a year younger than me that was just had some incredible players in it. And so we lost a few seniors my junior year. But the people coming up, the, the guys coming up are probably better than some of the players that we lost. And so we, for the most part, I had most of our team coming back at with the exception of those couple of seniors that graduated.

And so we were ranked number one in the state pre season and we lived up to that ranking all year long. We went undefeated in the state of Missouri for that year. I say the state of Missouri, cause we lost one game to a team in Kentucky. But uh, that year. But we went undefeated in the state of Missouri and we're ranked number one in the state all year long. In fact, we had one, one guy on our team was so good, he at 23 home runs in 15 games.

I mean, can you imagine that 23 home runs in 15 games. He was a great high school player. So good. He went on to play pro ball for a little while in the major leagues. But, but uh, so we, we were, we were going to finish what we had started my junior year and we were planning to win the state championship my senior year.

And so we get to the district championship game and we're playing a team that we had already played twice in the season and we'd already beaten them probably by 15, 10 to 15 runs. Uh, both games that we played them. And we were, you know, we were looking at, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna crush this team and the, and the district championship. We're going to keep moving and we're going to go all the way to state.

And when it, and somehow during the course of that game, that was one of those games that our team, every time we would hit a ball, we would hit it hard line drive right at somebody and they would catch it. And every time they would hit a ball, they did a little dribbler through the Infield, what you would call Senai single where no one was. And somehow through the course of seven innings, we managed to lose that game.

And all of a sudden, all of our hopes and our dreams of being great and winning the State Championship, this was a state where there was no double elimination. Once you lose, you're out. And so we, the game and every, everything that went with it and the course of seven and eights are, uh, hopes were crushed.

And you know what I learned that day and what I learned through that experience was that anytime we try to be great for our own glory in life in this world will eventually fail and will eventually be disappointed. And you know, if you think about sports, especially everybody gets old, right? Everybody eventually will fail or their skills will slip. Whatever sport it is, even golf, eventually they get too old to be good, right?

And eventually someone better will come along and knock off whoever's at the top. And eventually, if none of those things get you, eventually there's death. Eventually we all die. And if we're living for our own glory and our own greatness, we can't take any of that with us and it's empty in the end. And so I wanna I want you to keep that in mind this morning as we look at this passage.

Uh, but before we jump into the passage this morning, I want to recap a few things that remind us of a few things that have happened in the previous chapters. We see in Chapter Eight, Jesus actually tells his disciples about his death and resurrection for the first time in verses 31 through 33 of chapter eight, we see him, him give his prediction of his death and resurrection. And what happens, we see that Peter Questions Him, right? He says, wait a second.

Like, of course, you know, surely this can't be the case. And what does Jesus say? Jesus tells him, Jesus rebukes him and says, get behind me Satan. So we see that happens. And then we see that Jesus mentions his death and resurrection again to the inner circle, Peter, James and John after the transfiguration and chapter nine when they're coming down from the mountain, he mentioned that a second time to is, is three guys that are in the inner circle that are on the mountain with him.

And then last week, I want to remind you that Jesus drives a demon out of a boy who appears to be dead when none of the disciples had the power to do it. And so we have all these things that have happened in the previous chapters that are going to, the reason I'm reminding you of this this morning is because they're going to come into play in this, in this passage this morning.

And this last thing that happened, uh, him driving the demon out of the boy that appeared dead, I think was a reminder in between these predictions of his death and resurrection. It was a reminder that Jesus had and can raise people from the dead that he had already risen some people from the dead, but he was making a prediction about himself. But he also just drove out a demon that from a boy that appeared to be dead.

And so before we jump into this section this morning, I want you to think about these things but also want to pray together. So let's pray as we go to the Lord this morning. Dear God, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word, God. We thank you that is alive and active. Lord, we thank you that we can be here today to hear what you had to say to us, Lord, and I am unworthy to this message or I'm a sinner saved only by your grace Lord.

And, and so this morning I pray that you would forgive me of my sin and all unrighteousness and make me a clean vessel to deliver your word to your people. Or that it would not be my words, but it would be your words this morning, God, that you would fall, Lord, your Holy Spirit would fall on this place this morning, God. And then we would not just hear you lord, but it would move us to action.

It would move us to obedience or, and that we would see ourselves for who we really are and that we would see you for who you really are and the be at this time. And we just ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. So if we look back at verse 30, what does it say? Is this from there? They went out and began to go through Galilee and he said, and I'm sorry, and he did not want anyone to know about it.

So you know, when you think about this, uh, we see that this, the Jesus's Public Ministry in Galilee is pretty much over, and this is the beginning leg or the first leg of the journey to the cross in Jerusalem. And so Jesus wants to spend some time with his disciples. And that's why it says that he didn't want anyone to know about it because he didn't want all of the crowds gathering around him to do all the things that he normally did.

This was time was reserved for his disciples, for him to teach them and to prepare them for the coming trial of his death that was getting ready to take place. And he had some private time with his disciples to teach them. And that's what we see in this passage. And so in verse 31 says for he was teaching his disciples and telling them 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.

You know in this passage in verse 31 it just says that he was telling them, but in the parallel passage in the book of Luke of the same story in Luke chapter nine verse 44 he actually uses the phrase, let this in the original language. It's, it's translated. Let this sink into your ears. Let the sink into your ears. So obviously the disciples weren't getting it, if that's the actual language that he used.

The disciples weren't getting what he was saying the first couple of times and so he gets, he says it another time, but he tells him, let this sink into your ears. We see that he says, the son of man is to be delivered. And what this, this verb is actually translated into is that it's already occurring. That there were already things set in motion for the son of man to be delivered into the hands of men.

There was already plotting and scheming that this wasn't some distant far off future event that was going to occur. But there's, this was something that was already in process and already beginning to happen. And we see that word delivered there indicates that his death was not an accident. This is important. It wasn't an accident, it wasn't a murder, but it was the result of God's divine plan that Jesus willingly gave himself up. What's going to give himself up in this passage?

And whether that's backed up in scripture in Romans four 25 and eight 32 as well, we see that. But obviously no matter what he was saying, and even if he's telling him, you know, let this sink into your ears, they weren't getting it. They weren't, they weren't understanding fully. And so we see that in verse 232 it says, but they did not understand this statement and they were afraid to ask him.

So I think the question has to be now, if we think about this, well why in the world after hearing something like Jesus just said, were they afraid to ask him? Why? In the world where they're afraid to ask him about his death and being killed and rising from the dead? Well, I think there were a few different reasons. Maybe they were afraid of being rebuked just as Peter was.

As we talked about a few minutes earlier when he questioned Jesus's prediction and and Mark Chapter Eight Verse 33 Ryan, if you think about it, Peter was one of the inner circle guys. He was one of the leaders of the disciples and he questions Jesus the first time that he predicts his death, right? And after he does that, what happens? Jesus rebukes him. And so if Peter got reviewed, the other guys are probably thinking, you know what?

I already heard him say this earlier and we saw what happened to Peter. Better not ask any questions. So that could be one reason that maybe they didn't want to ask questions, but maybe they were afraid that his explanation would destroy their hopes of an earthly kingdom. We see all throughout scripture evidence the way the disciples are talking and thinking that they still are thinking about an earthly kingdom.

They still are thinking that there is a political kingdom, that Jesus is going to become the king of, that he is going to be the head of the government and they're still thinking about their quote greatness on this earth and what it's gonna look like for them when Jesus becomes king in his earthly kingdom.

And so you know, it's Kinda like one of those things where you know when you, you kind of know the truth about something but you're kind of in denial and you don't really want to ask because you don't really like the answer that you're going to get. So you don't really want to ask cause you don't want to face the truth. Maybe it could have been something like that or maybe they were afraid of the details if they would hear about his death after all.

And Matthew's account, the parallel passage that Matthew writes the same story. We know Matthew was one of them, but he writes about the SA, the sorrow that the news that Jesus gives them brings the disciples. So even if they didn't completely understand, we we know that at least made them sad to hear this news. And I think knowing that from the book of Matthew, I think it really begs another question. The other question would be, why in the world would they be sad?

They must have been missing something. So what were they missing? The fact that they were sad shows us that, that they were missing something. Well, they were obviously missing the resurrection. They were missing what God, what Jesus said about his resurrection. Right after he talked about being killed. When Christ spoke of his death, he always spoke of his resurrection, which should have taken away grief from the disciples.

But even in these circumstances, he gives them hope and they're still missing it in that awesome that God, even in the most difficult circumstances always gives us hope. But so many times, just as the disciples did, so many times we miss the hope that God gives us because we're focused on the wrong things. Jesus is a god of hope.

So as we transitioned to the second part of the passage, look at what it says in verse 33 and 34 since 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? Now these verbs in this original text or not, like he asked him one time and they remain silent one time.

The original text is really a verb that is saying that he is continually asking them. They say, hey guys, what were you talking about? They remain silent. Come on guys. Tell me. What were you talking about? They remained silent. He was continually asking them and they were continually remaining silent because they were ashamed of what they were talking about. Even after what Jesus just said about his death and resurrection, these disciples immediately began to talk about themselves again.

Can you imagine? I mean, does that remind you of anybody? I mean, if I'm being honest, that reminds me of myself. It should remind you of yourself because we're all selfish, right? Compared to Jesus, especially, we always think about ourselves. That's part of our sinful human nature. And that's what they were doing after what he just said. They were thinking again about who was the greatest among them.

I think you got to ask the question, well, other than what I already shared, why in the world would they be thinking about who was the greatest right after Jesus said this? Why were they asking you about who was the greatest? And I think there's several reasons. This kind of brings back into our background information that we talked about earlier. Uh, we know in Matthew Chapter 16 that Jesus introduces the idea of the kingdom and who would have the keys to it.

So we've already talked about they're thinking more about an earthly kingdom, not a spiritual kingdom, right? And so we have, uh, im saying this right after Peter's confession and Matthew Chapter 18, that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. And, and, and then he mentions to Peter first that he would have the keys to the kingdom.

But we see throughout scripture that even though he mentions this first to Peter, the keys to the kingdom, we're not just for Peter, they were for all believers. And it wasn't an earthly king. You move as a spiritual kingdom. He's talking about this keys to the spiritual kingdom of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Because the statement that was made was you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

But I think also the recent transfiguration comes into play because think about it, Jesus picked three guys, Peter, James and John to go up the mountain with him to see this amazing thing that took place in the transfiguration. And he left the other disciples behind.

And, and I imagine it to be very similar in this situation that these guys were invited to go with. The other ones were left behind. So as much as these disciples might've felt inferior to the three that got to go with Jesus up the mountain at the same time, the three that were picked to go, could you imagine? Probably feeling pretty important, you know, that hey man, I got picked by Jesus to go up on the mountain and Ali did. I see something incredible.

But Jesus said to keep it quiet and not to tell anybody. So it's kind of our little chic secret mean, you know, we're really in good with Jesus here. So can you imagine what kind of tension this could have caused within the disciples? They maybe that was one of the reasons they were talking about who is the greatest, but we also see that in the previous passage that we studied last week, the pastor Dan taught on last week.

This is probably the most harsh one, but maybe they were just competing for who was going to take over after Jesus died. Who's going to be the new leader? How selfish is that? But as I said earlier, I think we can for sure say that one of the reasons that they were talking about who was the greatest right after this prediction because they were selfish, sinful human beings just like us.

And once again, they were missing the resurrection because if they would have actually caught on and thought about what he was saying about the resurrection and they would have understood it and they would have believed it, then it wouldn't have mattered if any of them were great because they would have re realized that all that really mattered was that Jesus was great and he was about to show it through the resurrection.

And so Jesus has to sit down and give them a teaching principal and a teaching example. And look at what he says in verse 35 sitting down. He called the 12 and said to them, if anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all. And Servant of all, he gives him the teaching principal. The teaching principal does it, you must be last and you must be a servant of all. You. Notice that Jesus did not content condemn their ambition.

He didn't say, Hey, you shouldn't want to be great, but he redefines their ambition in terms of the Kingdom of God. He flips it around and says, the greatness is linked to service, not control or power.

If you want to be great, being great in of yourself for your own glory is empty. It's fleeting. It is no good. But being great for Jesus is what really matters. That we want to exalt the greatness of Jesus Christ. With our lives and to do that, we must be willing to serve. We must be willing to be last.

So it gives him this teaching principal, but then he follows it up or backs it up with a teaching example and look what he says in verses 36 and 37 taking a child, he sets him before them and taking them 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. We know that in especially in this society, children were considered the lowest of the society.

In fact, the Aramaic word Jesus uses in this passage for child is the literally the same word that is used for a servant. So it, those words are interchangeable. We also see the children are a symbol of innocence and helplessness and vulnerability. You know, child knows he's a child. He acts like a child and this is the secret of attraction, practicing love and care and give you an illustration. This week we were on vacation. We're the place we were at, had some swimming pools.

And my son Logan is, uh, 18 months old today. And so a year and a half, um, I'm loving being a dad and, and, and this, this week was his first time to where the little swimmy floaty things that you put on your arms, a little kids, but on their arms. And so we put them on him and we got them out there in the water the first day. And the first day he would not let go of me. I mean he wanted the right there with me. You know, he was scared.

Anytime he got a little bit far off, he'd start to go under the water. And you know, the funny thing was the first couple days we had to teach them not to drink the chlorine water cause he just thought that was like, you know, uh, you know, it's water, I'm going to drink it, you know, whatever. And he'd get in his mouth. So I have to keep him above the water.

And you know, so the first couple of days I was, you know, being the dad that's there to protect him and take care of, make sure he didn't get in the water. Well by the end of the week he had gotten so good with these little floaties and kick in and staying above the water and no one to close his mouth when he got close to the water that he started to push me away like he wanted to do it alone and leave would start crying anytime I was trying to hang on to him.

And I got to admit, I mean I love serving my little boy. I love taking care of them and protecting them and holding them and knowing that he was relying on me and holding onto me tight. And you know, I was a little disappointed at the end of the week when he didn't want my help anymore. You know what?

I think the same thing is true a lot of times with being a servant is that when we serve others, when we're there to protect others, when the were there to, to love on others and to take care of others, there's joy in that. And so not only is is, you know, service about the secret to service as being last and being a servant, but there's actually joy in it. And that's another secret is that the joy of the Christian life is actually found in serving not being first.

And that rang true in my life this week is I was taking care of my little boy. But I think it's also a picture of God's love for us, that God wants us to rely on him. God is pleased when we cling to him and we don't let go of him. And because he knows that when we begin to let go of him that we're going to drowned, we're going to be destroyed. And he wants us to trust him. And just as he served us, he wants us to serve others because he knows there's joy in it. Even the little children.

We also see the children represents. Uh, those are the child represents a helpless person, especially a humble believer. A disciple is to receive. So not only would receive unbelievers to deserve unbelievers, but we're also the re to receive and serve each other fellow believers. And we see that to except the outcast in the oppressed is a way of accepting both Jesus and God. So greatness in the kingdom consists not a position but of ministry.

And the disciples needed to learn this lesson before Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead because it was going to be the foundational principle of their ministry as disciples after his death to serve others and to be willing to be last even to the point of death as Jesus was about to model. Because the disciples continued to miss the predicted resurrection. They also missed the fact that he is actually Jesus Christ is actually the one who has the greatest amen.

Jesus is about to model this principle by going to the cross and dying a horrible death to show that he is the greatest, that he is the ultimate servant servant and he is going to put himself last for you and for me and for the disciples and for all the centers of the world. He didn't just say it, but he showed it and so this morning is we get ready to close. I want to read some scripture over you this morning about the greatness of Jesus Christ in scripture.

Sometimes we just need to hear the word of God that speaks for itself and to hear how great Jesus Christ truly is. We see in John Chapter one the deity of Jesus. It says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him and apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. In verse 14 the war, the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw his glory, Glory as the only begotten Son from the father full of grace and truth. And so we first see that Jesus Christ is the greatest because he is God. He has existed from the beginning of time. We see Christ's example and Philippians chapter two that being found in the appearances of man.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also God exalted him and bestowed upon him the name which is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every tongue, every knee will bow and those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. We see that Jesus is the greatest because of what he did for us.

He died on the Cross and rose again conquering sin and death and hell. We see the preeminence of Christ and Collagen's chapter one that he is the image of the invisible god, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether Thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together.

He is also the head of the body, the church, and he has the beginning, the firstborn from the dead so that he himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him. We see here that Jesus is the greatest because everything in the world was created by him and for him.

He is first in all things and we see the supremacy of God and Hebrews chapter one God after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways in these last days, he has spoken to us in his son whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom he made the world. He is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power.

When he made purifications of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they. Jesus is the greatest, but because he is supreme over all things. And then finally we see a great multitude from every nation in revelation chapter seven, nine through 12 look at what it says after these things.

I looked and behold a great multitude, which no one could count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands and they cried out with a loud voice saying salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb.

And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying Amen. Blessing and honor and glory and wisdom. And Thanksgiving and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. Jesus will be worshiped eternally as king of kings and Lord of Lords because he is the greatest. Amen. And we see that all throughout scripture.

And so this morning the question becomes, are you and your own life trying to be the greatest, but what the world says it requires to be great and whatever area or field, or talent or ability that is, are you living your life to make sure that your life shows the world that Jesus Christ is the greatest? How are you living your life this morning? You know, the question really is, do we really believe that Jesus is the greatest? Do we really believe that he is the greatest in our church?

Do we really believe that he is great enough to bring us whoever God has for us to be our next lead pastor? But do we also believe that he is great enough? Then in the meantime, he can do whatever he wants without a next lead pastor? Do we really believe that or are we just waiting for a man to save us? When we already have the king of kings and the Lord of Lords who is the greatest that can do anything and I've convinced as much as it is as good as it is to have a leader and have a lead pastor.

I think what God has asked her even more is a group of body of believers, a group of people that are completely sold out to him that completely believe in his greatness so much that they're willing to follow Jesus Christ wherever he takes us, that they're willing to do anything. They're willing to be obedient and serve and do whatever God has called them to do right now without a leader, without a lead pastor. He is more concerned about that in the heart of the people of the church.

Then who's going to lead this church? Because when we have a group of people that are going and doing now, regardless of whether we have a leader or not, they're not willing to sit and wait and see, but are willing to go and do. That's when God is going to do something great through us in this church.

But not only that in our own lives do we really believe in our own individual lives that he is truly great cause if we do, then we should be coming before him and our private life in our corporate worship time. We should be coming before him with everything that we have and seeking his face because he is the greatest and he can take care of anything that we have going on in our lives. So the invitation this morning is very clear.

If you've never made Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, then you can make him the greatest in your life this morning. It's going to be people down here at the front. There's going to be people in the back that would love to pray with you, that would love to show you and talk to you about how to become a believer in Christ, to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Those of you over here that maybe on this other side that say, you know what?

I've, I've received Christ, I know Christ and I just need to be reminded of his greatness this morning and I need to remember that he can take care of everything. He can take care of anything that I have going on my life. And maybe this morning you just need to come to the altar and seek his face again and say, Lord, here I am. You're, you're great. I want to just tell you how great you are once again and because of your greatness. I want to give you everything in my life.

Whatever it is in my life, I want to give it to you. Will you join me this morning and seeking God's face for our church? We got plenty to play it. Pray about in our church, we got plenty to pray about and our personal lives. And if we really believe that Jesus is the greatest, then there's no reason we don't seek him in our private lives. In the Pew where you are this morning, come to the altar of God leads you to do that. Whatever it is.

I encourage you this morning to be obedient because when we believe he truly is the greatest, it changes everything about our life.

Dear God, we thank you so much for just being able to be in your house and worship you. Lord, we thank you for your word, Lord. We thank you for the reminder or through this passage that none of us are great. None of the disciples are great Lord you modeled with greatness. Look like for us by dying on the cross, by becoming last for us, for us, Senator Scott, by being willing to be a servant, even to the point of death, death on a cross. We thank you for that.

Lord, this morning I pray that you would humble all of our hearts and we would see how many needs we have for our church and our individual lives, that we need to always be seeking you and your greatness on God and that we would truly see you as great this morning, that everything else would be stripped away, where we're going to lunch, what we're doing this afternoon, whatever it is.

Got It. Everything would be a stripped away during this time and we will be able to focus on your greatness and that you would be great in our church and then you would be great in our lives this morning and we just ask it in Jesus' name.