What Does it Take to Be Great. (Matthew 18: 1-6)
Introduction.
There is I believe deep inside of us a desire to great. Every person has a desire to be great at something. To bake the best cakes or be the best at a hobby or have the best collection. Let me just add the desire to be good or even great at something is not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself. So, what does it take to be great? Well that very question once came up during the ministry of Christ was asked by none other than his disciples and he gave a rather extensive answer and it’s that passage that I want us to look at today.
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”2 Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, 3 and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. 6 “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
(Matthew 18: 1-6)
Before we look at this passage, just a simple observation, we’ve been going to the Gospel of Matthew and we’ve obviously come to chapter 18, but one of the things you need to know as we do this is that this is the fourth discourse given by Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.
As a matter of fact, there are five major discourses in the Gospel of Matthew, the first was the sermon on the mount, the second was the long list of instructions he gave to the disciples when he sent them out in his name in Matthew chapter 10. The third was the long talk that included the parables of Matthew 13, and now this is the fourth discourse, and it begins in Matthew chapter 18 verse 1.
This is a chapter where Jesus teaches on human relationships, and these are some of the richest spiritual insights we will find in the whole Gospel of Matthew. In this particular case the question concerns who is greatest in the Kingdom of God. Now the passage itself is rather straightforward and naturally divides into two parts. First there’s the question, who’s the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven, and the second part is the long answer Jesus gives to that question. So, let’s start with the question.
“Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
(Matthew 18: 1b)
That’s the question, but recorded in the Gospel of Mark, in his account we are given a little more detail as to what’s going on here, It says they were actually walking and talking and the disciples themselves were disputing over which one of them would be greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. They were actually arguing about this so when they got to where they were going Jesus said to them what were you talking about. But in this case, Matthew skips all of that gets right to the point and asks the question they were really asking, which is who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. We could ask if all we had was Matthew why would they be asking that, but because we have Marks fuller account, we can see they were disputing about this and that is what provoked this question.
It’s possible that some of them thought that maybe Peter, or James or John were greater than the others, because it was Peter James and John that got to go up to the mountain and witness the transfiguration of Jesus. Or maybe Peter thought he was the greatest because he’s the one that walked on water and none of the rest of them did that. At any rate there was some kind of a dispute they were arguing over who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven, and may I invite your attention again to the question in verse one.
Look at the question carefully, who then is greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. I think one of the most significant things about this question is a little phrase in the Kingdom of heaven because you see everybody has some desire to be good or great, but most have the desire to be great in the eyes of men on earth, that’s where I think some get a little misguided by this passage. Most of the people who are trying to be number one in this world are doomed to destruction, so at least the disciples asked the right question. There’s nothing wrong with ambition, but the real issue and the real question is who is greatest in the Kingdom of heaven because in order to know who, you need to know why. They are asking a question that assumes that Jesus is king, and they are his servants and some point in the future Kingdom on the earth they are going to have roles and responsibilities. So, in a way, they’re asking the right question. The real issue is what is the right answer, well let’s see what Jesus said.
2 Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, 3 and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 18: 2-3)
Alright if you’re going to be great in the Kingdom of heaven the first thing you do is to get in the Kingdom. So, the first thing Jesus does is talk about getting into the Kingdom.
I’m reminded of a story, early in his ministry Billy Graham went to a town to preach this is before he was nationally known and he had to mail a letter so he asked a boy where the post office was and the kid told him and Mr Graham said, thank-you. Then Billy Graham said to this little boy if you’ll come to the Baptist Church tonight where I’m speaking, I will tell you how to get to heaven. The little boy said Well I don’t think I’ll be there, and he said, why not, he the little boy said, well, you can’t even find you way to the post office.
So, the first thing anybody need to know is how to get to heaven, and you have to you have to be converted to enter into the Kingdom of God you have to be becomes like a little child. At this point I take it that the child is meant as the illustration of what faith is like. Most children, there are exceptions, but most children who have had a loving upbringing will readily trust people. Jesus is using this as an example of trust. By the way notice what Jesus said, most people hear this and think he said in order to be converted you have to become like a little child, but he didn’t say just that, he said in order to the king of heaven you have to be converted and become like a little child. This word converted is important.
Being Converted.
The Bible commentators say this is talking about turning around you’re thinking which is similar to the concept of repentance. You turn your attention toward the Lord and say, he’s the one who died for me he’s the one who arose from the dead, and then you trust him like a little child would trust an adult who cared for them. Jesus begins by saying, if you’re going to be great in the Kingdom of heaven, you’ve first got to enter the Kingdom of heaven, and in order to enter the Kingdom of heaven, you must have faith.
Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew : 18: 4)
Obviously the second thing it takes he tells us is humility and now he uses the little child as an illustration not just of faith, but of humility. I must say to you I learned something when I started studying this again recently. I’ve always just assumed I knew what this passage meant when I had read it in the past. But reading and researching verse 4 for this podcast I was a little surprised to discover that several commentators suggest that the point of this verse is slightly different than what I thought before. The more I thought about it and looked at the passage the more I think there is a lot of truth in what these classic commentaries say. (William Barclay, Joseph Parker, William Tyler etc) Let me explain one, commentator says, and I quote,
“A child was a person of no importance in Jewish society subject to the authority of the elders not taken seriously except one to be looked after, not one to be looked up to”.
( W. Funkhouser – Matthew 18- 1-4 Devotional Commentary)
This commentator and others suggest the point here is about the child being dependant and insignificant hence, the point Jesus about humility in about accepting an inferior position. Another commentator also writing about the position of children at that time agrees and says,
“Children has no rights in the home, all the rights belong to the family children did not exert their will against the will of the father they were subject to the father”.
Christ is teaching according to these commentators that our position in the Kingdom depends of taking the place of a child is of being subject to the father’s will and then we can be exalted/ great in the Kingdom. Obviously the point is you should be humble, but the wider point is that the child had no real authority in that society, so Jesus is saying you don’t become great by asserting yourself or your own authority, you become great by humbling yourself and living under God authority.
That’s the point I think that some of us think more highly of ourselves than we ought, Paul warns us against that in Romans chapter 12. That was Moses’ problem prior to Exodus chapter 3, we ought to take a realistic view of who we are and in terms of the Kingdom of God and be humble by denying ourselves and not asserting own wills. I am going to be willing to humble myself to the will of the father, instead of my will. So, if you have faith and the humility to recognize exactly where you are in the overall scheme of things then then you’re on the road to greatness. But there’s one other thing he goes on to say in verse five.
Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.
(Matthew 18: 5)
Again, we need to pause here for a second and clarify a couple of things. The “whoever” mentioned here is a reference to a believer, which is obvious from the fact that they are talking about greatness in the Kingdom of God. The, whoever, applies to everyone who believes and who he says receives God like one of these little children. This is very important, the child represents the believer.
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
(Matthew 18: 6)
The idea is that you’re not overbearing that you’re not domineering but that you humbly receive others.
Now as I mentioned this story is recorded in Mark as well. Mark’s account gives us some insight into what I think may be going on in this situation. He adds that it was during this event an incident that John came to Jesus and said hey there’s a man over there casting out demons in your name and he’s not part of our group so tell him to stop and this story includes Jesus’ response to that situation. But Jesus says no he's not against us because he's doing it in my name, and that means he has faith and he's trusted me and he's serving me, so let him carry on. The idea that you were receiving him indicates that you’re going to be the servant of that person that you’re not going to be the ruler of that person. Often when we think of greatness, we think of the person who’s on the top of the pile and Jesus says clearly in Mark Chapter 9, and here, it’s not who is first, it’s who is last, and the servant of all.
I’m going to choose a word that I think fits not only what I’ve just said from Matthew and Mark but what fits the rest of the passage, I’m going to say that these verses are telling us that to be great you need to be concerned about other people. This is more than just serving them, I think as well as having a servant attitude we must be mindful and concerned about other people, and that gets to in the rest heart of what Jesus is really teaching here. So let me sum up by saying these disciple of Jesus asked him, what must we do to be great in the Kingdom of heaven and Jesus has replied and told them three things.
Number one, you got to have faith.
Number two, you got to have humility, you have got to realize that you are you’re not the most important person in the world you’re just a servant and.
Number three you’ve got to be concerned about other people.
From God’s point of view the great person is the one who’s concerned about other people. In the world the great people appear to be those frankly who have a big ego and our assertive and they claw and push and do whatever they can to get to the top.
They say look at me how great I am, that’s the world’s point of view, but if you want to know how to be great in the kingdom of God, Jesus says it’s all wrapped up in your concern or others. To put it another way as Jesus said towards the end of all three synoptic accounts, “you are to love the Lord your God with all your heart and you’re to love your neighbours as yourself”.
All of which leads me to ask and what are you concerned about. I think that there are people who are concerned about things, we live in a day where people have things in their house they have bought and have never used them. I think sometime people fill their life with being concerned about things to fill up the lack of concern about people. What are you concerned about, let me tell you just hear me there’s nothing more fundamental to all of the teachings of Christ than this, you need to be concerned about people. Jesus is saying if you want to be great in the next world you got to be a humble servant and be concerned about other people.
Jesus First. others second, you last.
J.O.Y.
Jesus first.
Others second.
You last.
I think that’s a great way to remember what Jesus said, not about just about joy, but about being great in the kingdom of God.