The Way of Servanthood

You know, it was reasonably difficult for the disciples of Jesus to follow Jesus on the way of the cross. Following Jesus on the way of the cross was reasonably hard for the disciples to actually understand. And to be quite honest with you, even with our 20/20 hindsight, looking back on the Scripture, looking back on what Jesus taught, it's actually not very easy for us either to follow Jesus on the way of the cross. And the reason for that is because we have so many different ways that are given to us that are presented to us to choose from. Maybe it's the way of political power, that we think if we can just vote for the right people that all things will work out. How's that going for everybody? It doesn't work that way, right? But we're offered that way as a way to walk in. Or maybe we walk in the way of fame or the way of success or the way of personal fulfillment or the way of least resistance. There's loads of different offerings that the world wants to hand us, but Jesus has a different way for us to live. It's the way of the cross. And the way of the cross is what shapes the way that Jesus actually teaches His disciples, and by extension, is teaching us in this present context. And so we've been traveling through Mark's gospel that if you have a Bible or device that you can pull up Mark's gospel, I would encourage you to do that. It's the second book in the New Testament. Matthew is the first book in the New Testament, so kind of halfway through your Bible if you're new to this. Matthew's the first book and Mark is the second book. If you need to use a table of contents, don't ever feel embarrassed about that. All we want to do is get in a place where we're seeing what Jesus has said and begin to learn from Him what He's calling us to. And so we've looked at this way of the cross. We started in Mark 1 talking about the way of deliverance and how Mark introduced his gospel by talking about the way. And then we look last week talking about the way of suffering in Mark 8, and we saw how that plays out in who Jesus is and what Jesus actually calls us to. And today in Mark 9, we're going to be looking at something else that Jesus calls us to. But I wanna remind you that when we start approaching the text, Jesus is actually still pointing to His death and His resurrection that's going to occur in Jerusalem. Remember, Mark is called the action gospel. That's why all the time in Mark you see this word, immediately, immediately, immediately. It's like, everything is always going on very quickly in Mark's gospel. Remember, Peter is behind this gospel influencing Mark and telling him the events of the gospel story of the life of Jesus. And Mark's communicating this immediacy through this gospel, and it moves very, very quickly. There's all kinds of action that's going on. And Jesus has already told His disciples that He's gonna be handed over to people in Jerusalem, and that they're going to kill Him by crucifixion, and that He's going to rise from the dead. That's already been told His disciples, but they're struggling to understand what that means. Well, when we come into Mark 9, we find that the very same thing is happening. Jesus, for now a second time in Mark's gospel, is telling His disciples what's about to come, and they're having trouble understanding. Here's what it says in Mark 9, beginning in verse 30, it says, "They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And Jesus didn't want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, 'The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.' But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him." Now, it's easy enough for you and I on this side, right, looking back with kind of 20/20 hindsight, it's easy enough for us to go, the disciples are kind of thick. They're just dense. I mean, Jesus has already told them this stuff, right? They're headed to Jerusalem, He's gonna be handed over, He's gonna be put to death, and he's gonna rise from the dead. What's so difficult for them to understand? But it's interesting that Mark tells us that they didn't understand the saying. Now, there were probably a few reasons that they were having trouble understanding what Jesus was telling them about His death and His resurrection. I think the first reason is because behind what we read in the text was Jesus speaking in Aramaic. And when Jesus was talking in Aramaic, which was kind of a, sort of a form of Hebrew, right, that was what Jesus grew up on. Scholars tell us that the phrase that Jesus used, the saying that He used to describe what was going to befall Him, was an ambiguous Aramaic statement. Now, the text isn't ambiguous, but the statement behind it is a little bit ambiguous, because the statement that Jesus was making in Aramaic could have either talked about His crucifixion or could have talked about His exaltation. Or it could have been a combination of the two, that Jesus could have actually been making a statement that talked about both His crucifixion and His exaltation. So there's one reason that maybe the disciples, that's why the text actually says that they didn't understand the saying, because maybe there was a phrase that Jesus was using that was somewhat ambiguous to describe all of this, and they were trying to figure out how to categorize it. But there's another reason that they were having trouble understanding what Jesus was saying. That's because of their view of resurrection. You see, Jews had an understanding of resurrection, but they believed that the resurrection was going to happen on the last day, at the end of time. When all of history is consummated, that's when the resurrection is going to happen. It's generally a view that we all hold as well. But Jesus was talking in terms like this was going to happen in the context of the present situation. He was talking like He was gonna go to Jerusalem and die and rise from the dead there. And they didn't have a category for that. That was something that they just didn't understand. In fact, we know that they didn't understand it because if you look in the same chapter in Mark 9 and you were to back up just a little bit, you would see that Jesus went up on a mountain and He was transfigured before three of His disciples, Peter, James, and John. And while He is there and He's transfigured, as soon as He's done with that and they're about to walk down the mountain, Jesus gives some instruction to His disciples about not talking about this. Here's what it says in Mark 9, beginning in verse nine, it says, "And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus charged his disciples to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might mean." You see, even there we know that they were having trouble understanding Jesus talking about His own resurrection in present time and not talking about it at the end of time. This was something that they were absolutely struggling with. But the third reason probably that the disciples were having trouble understanding what Jesus was saying about His death and resurrection was that they had a view of the Messiah that was different than what Jesus was doing. You see, what they believed is that they believed Jesus was a general who was going to be marching into and taking over Rome and Jerusalem, that that's what ultimately Jesus was going to do. What they didn't understand is He wasn't a general who was coming to take over Rome and Jerusalem, He was a servant coming to take sin and death to the grave. This is what they did not comprehend, that He would be a suffering servant as Messiah. And so they didn't understand quite what He was talking about, and that's why the text tells us that. But they were afraid to even ask Him about it 'cause they couldn't quite comprehend it. But notice what the text goes on to say in the next verse. It says, "they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house, Jesus asked them, 'What were you guys,'" He's talking to His disciples, "What were you discussing," here's our phrase again, "on the way?" Remember, this is what Mark's gospel is outlining for us. "'What were you discussing on the way?' But they kept silent, for on the way, they had argued with one another about who was the greatest." Now, this is odd, isn't it, when we read this? Jesus has just finished talking to them about His impending death on a cross, and they're discussing their own self advancement. Does that seem a little a bit inappropriate? Jesus is saying, yup, I'm gonna die by crucifixion, and they're like, which one of us is the best? That seems also kind of out of place. Why were they talking in those terms? Why were they thinking in those terms? Well, remember, they had a wrong understanding of what was happening. They're looking forward to Jerusalem as if Jesus is a general and He's taking everything over, and they want to determine, which one of us gets to be like the superstars? You already know, by the way, when you look at the next chapter in Mark, that James and John were asking that question already. "We wanna sit on your right hand and your left hand when you come into Your glory, Jesus," that's what James and John asked. A really bold proclamation. They were basically saying this, Jesus, when you show up and take everything over and you're the King, we wanna be like your vice president and secretary of state. Can we do that? Jesus told them, you have no idea what you're talking about. You don't know what you're asking. Right? You don't understand. And so probably it was because they were, they were arguing about who was the greatest because they were expecting Jesus to be the general who takes over everything, and they wanted to be maybe taking up a high position. Or maybe they were talking about who the greatest was, because Peter, James, and John had just come down from the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus, and Jesus told them, "I don't want you to talk to anybody about this until I rise from the dead." Now, can you imagine when they got back with the rest of the gang, and the rest of the disciples are like, Pete, Jimmy, John. Not Jimmy John's. Pete, Jimmy, John, what were you guys doing? Oh man, it was... We can't tell you. We can't tell you. What do you mean you can't tell us? Oh, it was unbelievable, but we gotta... It's just for us. You imagine that Peter, James, and John were feeling pretty good about themselves at this point, right? And so maybe this argument was happening because they were thinking to themselves, hey, we're special. We've got some insider information that nobody else has. Apparently we're gonna have some pretty good spots in the kingdom. Maybe that's what gave James and John kind of the courage to be able to say, hey, we think we should be, you know, vice president and secretary of state. I mean, we're just saying. Like, we've gotten to observe all this stuff. We're keeping the secrets, right? We've locked it down. We know you like us more, right? It's kind of that. That may be what was going on, I'm not exactly sure. Or it may have been that when they came down from the Mount of Transfiguration there was this boy that was waiting on them there who was filled with a demon. And the other disciples had tried to cast that demon out and they couldn't. And so maybe Peter, James, and John were thinking to themselves when they got down, well, if we'd have been down here, that demon would have been running for cover, but you guys, you're not even able to do that. So then they're having this conversation on the way, the way of the cross, headed to a crucifixion is where Jesus is headed, and they're following Him that, and they're having a conversation about who is the greatest. Now, obviously, pride gets involved in that. There's no question about that, that that's the root of why we would talk about our own pride of place. But when they get to Capernaum, Jesus asks a question, because He knew they were having a conversation. He actually knew even what they were talking about, whether they knew it or not. And He says, "What were you discussing on the way?" Of course, Mark tells us that they weren't just discussing something, that they were actually arguing about something. Jesus takes this word and He asked it in a soft way, like, what's the content of your discussion? And then Mark tells us, well, the content of their discussion is that they were arguing like cats and dogs about which one of them was the greatest. That's what they were doing. They were arguing until they were blue in the face about which one was the best. And so when Jesus said, "What were you discussing on the way?", do you know what their response was? Embarrassed silence. Could you imagine? Jesus just told us about His own crucifixion and then we're trying to determine which one of us is the best, which one of us is the greatest? And so they didn't say anything, they were just quiet. I can understand that. Notice what Jesus did though, right after asking that question in verse 35. "He sat down and he called the 12. And he said to them, 'If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.'" I don't want you to miss what transpired here, because I think it's important for us to understand. Jesus sits down, and that's the position of authority. You see, when you and I are in a meeting, if we really wanna demonstrate our authority, if we just wanna just be the alpha in the room, you know? Like, the meeting's going on and then you're just like, let me tell you something. You stand up, you maybe,, maybe, let me tell you something about this meeting. That's not what you did when you were a rabbi. When you were gonna teach authoritatively, you sat down. And that's what Jesus did, there in the house in Capernaum. Probably Peter's house, that's where He stayed. This was home base for Jesus, Capernaum was, and Peter's house was kind of home base. So He's probably sitting in Peter's house and He sits down taking the authoritative position of a teacher and He calls the 12 to Him. And guess what? They came. Probably in a hurry, right? When Jesus said, uh, fellas, they were like, okay, He just sat down. Like, let's go. I remember, it's funny they were having that conversation about who was the greatest and then Jesus sits down and calls them to Himself, 'cause I remember growing up with a brother, if you grew up with a brother or sister, I grew up with both a brother and a sister, but my brother and I were only 17 months apart. And when you're 17 months apart, there's plenty of rivalry that goes on between the two of you. Probably happens when you're more than 17 months apart, but nonetheless, it happens. And for me and my brother, it was always, who was the best baseball player? Who was the best basketball player we'd argue about that. Who was the best basketball player? We'd argue about that. Who was the best football player? We'd argue about that. You know, we'd make our case. Well, I can throw it farther. Well, I'm more accurate. Well, I'm faster. We'd argue who was faster, we'd argue who was stronger, we'd argue who was smarter, we'd argue who the better student was, we'd argue who was better looking. And as long as he agreed with me, we got along fine. Has anybody own up with a brother or sister and understands what I'm talking about? Good, there's a few of you. The rest of you are looking at me like, we're gonna pray for you, Jerry. I hope you get some counseling. I mean, we would have these knockdown drag-outs about which one of us was better at certain things. And I mean, they got to be shouting matches and then we're shoving, and then we're wrestling, and all of that. No, I'm better at baseball. No, I'm better at baseball. And we're doing all of that, until Dad says, "Boys." ♪ Dun, dun, dun ♪ And immediately we stop. "Come here." And we'd come in there. And we are no longer thinking about who's the greatest baseball, because dad has taken his position of authority and he has said to us, "What are you doing? Why are you yelling and fighting?" "He said he was better than me at baseball, and he's not." You see how stupid it sounds, right, when you say it out loud? And then you just kind of are, like, listening to your dad go, "Yeah, no one cares. No one in the whole world cares about which one of you is better at baseball. No one, so stop it." Right? That's pretty much what happens. Now Jesus didn't exactly... I've done the same thing, by the way. I've got two sons who are just a few years apart and those kinds of things have happened with them as well. And Jesus doesn't do exactly maybe what I would have done. Jesus doesn't criticize His disciples for thinking about the concept of greatness. What he does instead is He tries to radically alter their understanding of greatness. Think about it. Jesus sits down and takes up His position of authority as a teacher, everybody in that house, the disciples, all the people living in the house, the people that maybe were over to the house at the time, all the people in that house have no question. By every single measure, everybody in that place knows that Jesus is the most powerful person in the room. Right? Everybody knows it. No nobody's arguing, nobody's... Everybody knows. Jesus is the most powerful person in the room. Have you ever been the most powerful person in the room? I bet you have. If you're a parent, you certainly have. Right? You've been the most powerful person in the room. Or maybe at work. Maybe you're an owner of a business or an owner of what you do, and you're the most powerful person in the room. Or maybe you're not an owner, but in some of the meetings that you have, you've got people that report to you or answer to you, and you've had those meetings where you're the most powerful person in the room. Or maybe it's on your team or maybe it's in your school. Wherever it might be, maybe you're a spiritual leader and you've had the opportunity to be the most powerful person in the room. Let me ask you a question. What did you do when you were? What did you do when you were the most powerful person in the room? Because Jesus had a lot of different opportunities and He didn't do what normally the world says for us to do, because when we're the most powerful person in the room, usually the message that we get from the world that we live in is this. Well, if you're the most powerful person in the room, leverage your power for your own advancement. That's what you get. Oh, you're the most powerful person in the room? Don't worry, abuse that power to get what you need. Oh, you're the most powerful person in the entire room, gather more power so that you can control more things. This is really what the world teaches us when we are people who have some sense of power. Most every single activity in our politically polarized world has to do with gaining or keeping or exerting power. That's what you've got mostly when we look at all of the craziness that surrounds politics, and I'm grateful for people who want to serve, but it is supposed to be a public service. It's not supposed to be power access, but that's what it's become. And functionally, that power that is gained in a political sphere is used to either crush opponents or shame them or belittle them or cancel them. But that's not what Jesus taught us. And I realize the world that we live in, it's hard, because we get caught in that undertow, don't we? We wanna be the people who cancel everybody else that we don't like. We wanna be the people who crush our opponents with whatever power we can grab for ourselves. That's not what Jesus was like. Jesus is the most powerful person in the room, and sitting down, He says, "Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all." You see, Jesus doesn't just teach this, He doesn't just bark instructions at people, He lives this out, because if we were to follow Jesus on the way to Jerusalem when He was just literally a day before His own crucifixion, He's gathered with some of His disciples eating a final Passover meal. And while He is that meal, John reminds us in his gospel about how powerful Jesus is and what He chooses to do when He's the most powerful person in the room. Listen to how John records it in John 13. "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands." What? You and me talking about power is stupid compared to that. "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. And he laid aside his outer garments," his robe, "and taking a towel, he tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him." Now, listen, you might go, man, that is inspirational, but you need to understand what just happened here. Do you realize that the signature for an authoritative teacher, a rabbi, was their robe? That was their signature. And do you know what Jesus does when He is with these disciples of His on His way to a cross the next day, Jesus takes off this symbol of authority and power and sets it aside and puts around Him the towel of a servant. And He doesn't just do it as some symbol, He actually ties it around Him and then does the actions of a servant. You see, in the ancient world, when you traveled places, you walked and you had, it was dusty, you wore sandals. That's what you did, right? You didn't have a lot of closed toe shoes and stuff. You're just walking in your sandals. Your feet were a mess. If you've ever been to Israel, particularly in certain times of the year, it's rocky and it's dusty, right? Good luck with pedicures. Like, they just didn't do those kinds of things. Your feet were a mess. So when you arrived and were being hosted by somebody, what happened at that point was there was oftentimes a servant who would have a towel and would kneel down next to a basin of water and would clean your feet, so that your feet were clean when you came in and you could recline at the table clean and enjoy the meal and time together. Well, Jesus, He doesn't offload that job, He just does it. He does that with His disciples. Listen, the one who knew that the Father had entrusted to Him all things, that He had come from God and that He was going back to God, takes off the vestige of authority and puts it aside and takes the role of a servant. This is astonishing, because Jesus is always the most powerful person in the room. That's why when He's teaching his disciples, He sits down in this position of authority, He calls them and they come, and here's what He said, "If you want to be first then you need to be last of all and servant of all." That's what this looks like. Do you know what Jesus has just done with that statement? Listen to this. He's reversing gravity. You see, you and I, in the world that we live in, we constantly think about how we can be great. And Jesus takes that and He turns it upside down. He reverses gravity, such that down is what equals up. And it's hard for them to conceptualize, because Jesus is teaching them the way up is actually the way down. That's what greatness actually looks like. 'Cause He's talking to them about being first and being great. And that was something that meant something to Jewish people, because everywhere they went, they always saw a pecking order. You go to the worship assembly and the people that are first and the greatest, they get special seats, right? That's what they do. Sometimes, even in modern context, you can go to churches, hmm, and you can sometimes see the same thing. I got a lot of things running through my head right now. Hmm. I am not going to release them all right now. But that's the job, right? I don't have a parking space in the best spot. I park far away. You know why? Because there's people that are gonna be coming as guests to this place that I want them to have a space and be able to come in nice and easy, 'cause I'm gonna be here all day, so I know I'm taking up a parking space for two services, right? Which is kind of inconsiderate of me, but I'm here. We gotta do that. Our staff does that too. Park away from the building and you walk. We wanna leave spaces for people. That's the job. It's not for us to just try and take advantage of that or treat ourselves in a special way. You see, in the Jewish culture, you saw it everywhere. You go to the worship assembly, people were sat by rank. You go to banquets, same thing. The seats of honor, the places of special, right? You go to social settings, same exact thing. So when Jesus is talking about this, this really, really makes a difference in their lives because it's all that they see. The truth is we see it too, right? We're always wanting the best seats in the house. Sometimes we're always wanting the best seats in the church. Maybe not thinking about other people, maybe you've got, you know, you got your seat and this is my seat. It's where I'm coming, it's where I'm gonna sit, it's just what I'm gonna do, and it doesn't matter what's going on around me. Some people may have that mom who couldn't get their kid into King's World and they come and you're like, yeah, you can sit. You can sit in the middle, when maybe what they needed was an aisle near a door in case that kid started acting like a kid. But nah, man, that's my seat. Not thinking about you, thinking about me. I've never done this in my whole life. This is just your problem. Haven't we all done this? Like, it's so easy for us to just roll back into, this is all about me, but Jesus takes all of this and He flips it upside down. And that's why we don't wanna be sucked in in the undertow of the current of the culture that we live in. But instead, embrace what Jesus has actually said about what greatness looks like. It's a simple formula. Here it is. Jesus' formula for greatness. Greatness equals servanthood. That's it. That's the formula. Greatness equals servanthood. Now listen, if you're saying to yourself, okay, well, what do you mean by servanthood? What does that mean? Listen, here's how I will say it really easily, really simply. How far down are you willing to reach? That's servanthood. How far down are you willing to reach? One time I asked a mentor pastor of mine who I love dearly. I said, "You know, I know God's called me to ministry and He's called me to be a servant of His, but how do I know if I have the heart of a servant?" He said, "You'll know when people start treating you like one how you respond." Okay. Not what I was hoping to hear, but true. You find out if you've got the heart of a servant when people start treating you like one. Jesus here tells us that greatness is actually servanthood. How far are you willing to reach down? And then what Jesus does is He illustrates it. Watch. Right after teaching them this, it says that "he took a child and he put him in the midst of them, and taking them in his arms, he said to them, 'Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me but him who sent me.'" It's an interesting thing here that Jesus does, and to be honest with you, it seems a little bit ironic, because what Jesus has just done is He's actually teaching His disciples, who were acting like children and arguing about who was the greatest, and then He takes a child and He illustrates what greatness is with the child, even though these guys were acting like children when they were arguing. Now, when you look at this word for child, it actually is the Greek word that's not talking about an older child, it's talking about a very, very, very young child. Now, there's a lot of speculation and a lot of scholarship actually about this child, and in the text here, it says him, and a lot of times the way that that's described can be him or her. You know, it says that in the Bible a lot of times, where it talks about he, but it can mean everybody. And there's a lot of scholarship to suggest that this little child was a girl, which is important, because in this context, I'm not 100% sure about that and neither was the scholarship, but you've got a small child. Whose child was it? I don't know, was it Peter's child. Maybe. Peter's brother Andrew's child? Maybe. Peter and Andrew's niece? Maybe. They were staying probably in Peter's house, so it was somebody that they knew. And this small child is there with Jesus, maybe even a girl child, which, by the way, were viewed even less so than boy child in the culture. And Jesus takes that child and says, "Whoever welcomes this child welcomes me." In other words, what He's saying is, this child actually has no rights, nothing at all. This child in our culture is not even regarded as fully a person. No power, no authority. Now, they value the dignity of life, because they understood what God taught about that. But they weren't regarded as a person, a full person with rights and all of those kinds of things. So they didn't have opinions. You don't get opinions. You're a little child. You don't have any rights. You don't have any power. You're functionally just a child. You're like a servant. By the way, in the Hebrew language, there is a word that can mean child or servant, neither of which, by the way, have any power, neither of which, by the way, have any rights, have really any authority whatsoever. And Jesus was trying to demonstrate to them that you must be willing to reach down as far as necessary to demonstrate the love of Christ. Because greatness is not about how many people are serving you. Greatness is about you being willing to be servant of all, no matter how far you have to reach down to child or servant in that culture. It really is a remarkable thing, because what Jesus is doing is He's demonstrating not only what He wants us to embrace about the way of the cross, but He's also showing us what He is. Let me ask you this question. How far was Jesus willing to reach down? To lowest depths. Because the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, in eternity past at one point took off His heavenly robe of authority and power and majesty and glory and set it aside and was born among us as a child. He came to a sin-scorched earth, descending to the depths of even being born as a child and then ultimately taking the posture of a servant who would die in the place of all of these sin-stained people. This is exactly what greatness looks like, because this is exactly what Jesus did. And do you know, the apostle Paul told us to model our very lives on that? This is what he said in Philippians 2, "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interest of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Jesus demonstrated what true greatness is. Greatness is servanthood in Jesus' name. That's what it looks like. I know this feels radically different for us because it feels like we have reversed gravity. That's what Jesus has done, because the culture that we live in says something very different about power and about influence and how we use it, and Jesus says, I want you to do something different with that. The way up is the way down. So let me ask you a question, the same question, by the way, that Jesus asked the disciples. Let this question be for you and me. What are you discussing on the way? On the way of the cross, what is it that you've got going on in your head and in your mind? Is it possible that, like the disciples, when we hear what Jesus has actually taught that we kind of just sit in embarrassed silence because what we realize is that we've been thinking of being great in every way possible, except this one? We've thought about how to be great in every way we can, except for the way that Jesus defined greatness. Well, let me say this to us all, just as Jesus showed to the disciples, it's okay to think about greatness. It's okay to think about how to be great, but make sure it's the way that Jesus tells us. Make sure that Jesus is the one who's defined what greatness actually looks like. Because when we're the most powerful person in the room, and we all have been or will be at times, if we think that our power or our influence is for ourself, that it's for our advancement, that it's for our recognition, that it's for us looking good in comparison to other people, that it's power that we've gathered so that we can crush our opponents, or that we can exert all of our rights, or it's for our own glory. If that's the way we think, we've misunderstood Jesus. We've misunderstood what Jesus says life on the way of the cross actually looks like. You see, people that give away power are the only people that can be trusted with it. And that's what Jesus did. He took His own power and He leveraged it to serve us. That while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That He took His influence and His power and leveraged it for other people. We have a world that needs to see the life of Jesus, truly the life of Jesus. We need a world that sees that we're willing to reach down as far as we have to to be able to show the love and the life of Jesus, because greatness is servanthood. What will that look like for you? What will that look like in your home? What will that look like in your office? What will it look like on your team? What will look like in your school? What will it look like in our church? You see, we need this instruction. Even individually, we need this, but we also need it corporately as a body. We need it, because when the church of Jesus Christ understands corporately that their role is that of a servant of Jesus and a servant of people, then it keeps us unified around the mission. It doesn't compartmentalize us where we start to think to ourselves, how much better we are, where we try to make other places look bad while we look better. That we get into these comparison games. Our church is so much better than your church and your church is so much better than this church. And, ah. That's actually not what we're trying to do. That's just us on the way arguing about who the greatest is. And I don't think that's what Jesus would have for us. And so when He asks us, what are you discussing on the way, it's a question we need to ask ourselves individually and we need to ask ourselves corporately. Individually we need to be able to understand that people that will walk into our buildings on all of our campuses that will connect with us, they may not be like us. So what are we gonna do? Do we wanna exert our rights or our opinions or all of those things? Somebody comes in wearing a Trump T-shirt or somebody comes in wearing a Biden T-shirt or somebody comes in wearing another T-shirt, whatever it is, and we're like, . How about we love them? How about we try that? How about we don't know them, we don't know where they're coming from, we don't know what their background is. How about we love them? How about we think of others before we think of ourselves? How about we realize that greatness actually equals servanthood? Where we can actually yield ourselves to the Lord and say my concern is not being first, my concern is not necessarily being right, my concern is not even for all my rights, it's for the sake of the gospel. Every church has done different things during the time of this pandemic. Every church has chosen some different routes of what they're going to do, how they're going to do what they're going to do. And that's understandable because we never had all of the information and every decision you make is gonna be imperfect, but you're going to have some people get all wound up about certain things. I'm leaving this church 'cause they made me wear a mask to show up in the building. Okay, all right. If that's the level of our discipleship in the church of Jesus Christ, I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed. You may not like it. I don't like wearing a mask. Who likes wearing a mask? I don't know anybody that like, bank robbers. I don't know anybody who really likes it. You know, skiing when it's really cold. Like, I like those things, but just normal conversation. I say to people all the time, "It's great to see half your face." You know? Hey, what's going on? Nothing, what's going on with you. And then you're talking to somebody and you don't know who they are, but you actually know them, but you haven't been able to pick it up 'cause you didn't see their mouth. And for those of us that are getting older, and I'm not hearing as well as I used to hear. What? I'm not. And then somebody's trying to talk to me and I'm just like, I, I don't know. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes. And they're looking at me confused, like what? What are you talking about? So I realized, listen, I realized all of these things, they can be issues and stuff, and people are upset, and we felt alone for a long period of time and all of that, but these don't need to be the things that define the church of Jesus Christ. It's not these things. Why are we arguing on the way? Why aren't we doing that? And by the way, the decision-making around what we do didn't have to do with you getting a little bit huffy. It had to do with a lost and dying world of Western New York. That's what it had to do with, and not compromising our prophetic witness to them, because I'm around enough to know that they think if we just wanna show up and do whatever we want, throw caution to the wind, and say, stick it to the governor, now, sometimes you kinda want to do that. Like, I understand, I understand that motivation, but everybody around us would look at us like we're trying to kill their grandparents. That you're the problem. And they may be wrong about that. But regardless, my rights and our rights aren't as important as their lives. We want them to know Jesus. And if we have to endure some things in order for them to do it, then we do. Now, again, you can agree or disagree, I'm losing no sleep over it. And I say that humbly. I am not losing any sleep, because you can't make decisions in this environment perfectly. It's impossible. You can't. You cannot make these decisions with perfect and absolute certainty, and where there is no certainty, what you need is clarity. And so we chose a path, we've walked in it, we're not apologizing for it, I'm not conflicted by it. And it's on me. I didn't do it alone, but it's on me. And we're walking that out. But understand that the motivation for the decision-making is not because, oh, somebody's a little bit ruffled up because they got that. Listen, if you know Jesus, man, come on. Right? Come on. I'm concerned about the people that don't, because that's the mission that we're on, because our job is serving them. It's serving one another, absolutely, but it's also about serving them. So as a corporate body, we need to hear this word as well. I'll tell you, I was so encouraged, I got a, I was a recipient of an email from Dr. Myron Glick from Jericho Road, and he was talking about some of the work that they're doing in Sierra Leone right now. Here's what was so encouraging. As I am reading that, he's talking about all of the partnerships from Western New York that they're involved in helping Sierra Leone. See, it was a number of years ago that The Chapel got to kind of play host to pulling together a number of entities from different churches and different organizations that were all doing some work in Sierra Leone and got to talk about, hey, what if we actually leveraged all of this together for a nation? What if what we were doing here together could actually impact them? Sierra Leone at the time, according to the UN, the United Nations Human Health index, was the poorest country on the face of the earth not just in their hemisphere, but on planet earth. What better way for those of us who are involved together in the mission of God to be able to reach down as far as we need to to be able to help those among us who need the help the most? And I'm reading Dr. Glick from Jericho Road talking about EduNations and Christian schooling that they're doing, and talking about Let Them LOL, which is rebranding as Hope Rising Together. And talking about the water wells and the orphan care that they're doing. MissionGO that's doing hospital building and that kind of stuff. So I'm reading all of these various partnerships, surgeries and church planting and hospitals being built and fresh water wells and orphan care and micro business opportunities. Listen, this is what it looks like. Greatness looks like servanthood. Taking the influence and resource and power that you have together to be able to make a difference, reaching as far as you need to, as far down and as far out as you need to, because this is what Jesus did. Greatness is servanthood. Jesus taught it, Jesus modeled it, and Jesus calls us to walk in the way of the cross embodying it. Let's bow our heads together. We'll be dismissed in just a moment. And before you walk out, if you're here and you've never before entrusted your life to Jesus, know this, that He set aside His privileges and rights to come and dwell among us, to identify with us, so that He could die for us. That kind of love, that kind of servanthood is so remarkable. He's given you the opportunity to have your sins forgiven, your life transformed, because of what He's done as the great servant. And so if you've never before entrusted your life to Jesus, I hope that today you will do that. And if you're here in this room, when we dismiss in just a moment, you can come right across the atrium and we'd love to talk to you about what it means to put your faith and your trust in Jesus and send you home with something that's gonna help you in your journey of faith. And if you're online, one of our pastors is gonna be able to talk to you in just a moment about how we can follow up with you. Father, thank You for every way in which You've spoken to us through Your Word. Jesus, thank You for Your very words that resonate so deeply in our own hearts. How You've not only taught us what it looks like to live greatness through servanthood, but You embody it. And I pray that as we walk and follow You on the way of the cross that we would recognize that that's our responsibility too. And that Your life within us can allow us to live in such a way so that we don't view power through the lens of selfish ambition, through the lens of our personal fulfillment, or for the opportunity to crush our enemies, but we view it as in service to You and in service to others. All of us at some point in time either are or will be the most powerful or most influential person in a room. And when we've been given that stewardship, would You help us to embody the life of Jesus in doing it? That we wouldn't abuse it, but that we would use it for Your glory and to serve whomever it is, however far we have to reach to do it, because we want this world to see You, Jesus, clearly, not a warped interpretation of who You are, but who You are. Would You help us as Your people to do that? I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.