Humility and Christ’s Kingdom

Matthew chapter 18, starting at verse 1.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

In verse 1.

And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.

It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Well, good morning, everyone.

Aspiring to greatness.

It's a very basic human character, I think.

We have within us that basic longing, that deep longing to make a significant impact in the world we live in.

We want people to notice a difference for us having been here.

We want, in simple terms, to make a real difference in the world we live in.

So aspiring to greatness is a very normal, very human character.

Of course, the sort of greatness a person aspires to then depends on what thinking they bring to that process.

So it may be that the desire to be great is actually the desire to be the most powerful or the most popular.

And if that's the case, then you're likely to see a lifetime shaped by self-interest, a desire for recognition, perhaps inevitably expressed in obsession with pegging orders and social status, accumulating possessions, and perhaps having a reputation among your peers for being the best in your field, whichever that field is, whether it's work or play or politics or whatever.

Or your aspiration to goodness may be driven by thinking that you want to be the most useful you can be in your lifetime.

And so you might then see from that a lifetime devoted to perhaps research, where somebody spends their whole life hoping to discover some new medicine, some new treatment for some disease, a new machine, a new process perhaps that will just advance the world generally or help people in particular, in a particular area.

Or indeed, you might see a lifetime of service.

Some people aspire to greatness through a lifetime of service, helping the poor, the oppressed, neglected.

And we see that a lot.

And of course, in that category, many of those people are actually quite selfless and unassuming.

And so their tag of greatness is actually almost an unintended consequence for them.

Because that wasn't what they set out to achieve.

But I think even for us more locally and immediate, for me, for you, there still is a sense in which we aspire for greatness.

Like we would say, look, I would want to be a great friend to such and such.

For me, I want to be a great dad.

I want to be a great husband.

And now, as I'm getting older, I want to be a great grandfather.

Well, that's another stage.

I don't want to take Don's position.

I want to be a great grandfather.

If you see, you know, I'll just move on.

It wasn't like that in my notes.

Or we say we want to be a nice, dependable worker, a great worker, a great grandchild, a great student, whatever.

So there's just this list of things where, in our own small way, we're aspiring to greatness.

But here's the question for us this morning.

Is it appropriate for us as Christians to aspire to greatness?

That's certainly the focus of the passage this morning.

The disciples ask a question about greatness.

Who is the greatest?

Who will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

And Jesus' answer is confronting, at the very least.

But at the worst, it's outrageous.

Because he outright rejects the question as expressed.

They come and say, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

And Jesus gives them a real serve, in a sense.

But here's the nuance in it, I think.

That Jesus doesn't actually reject the notion of aspiring to greatness on their behalf, on their part.

Rather, he redefines greatness.

So it seems to me that, and we'll see the details in a few minutes,

they come asking for greatness in this category.

Jesus rejects that, but doesn't reject the idea of greatness,

but redefines it into kingdom categories.

And kingdom greatness, we'll see this morning, is radically different to worldly greatness.

Kingdom greatness is about self-sacrificing

versus worldly greatness, which is often self-aggrandizing.

Anyway, we'll get to the details more.

I want to do a little bit of revision,

because I think to understand the teaching of 18.1-9,

we need to remind ourselves of a big picture context in Matthew here.

So flick back to chapter 16, verse 13,

and I'm going to walk through these texts fairly quickly.

So at 16.13, the whole of that first section of Matthew's gospel

leads Matthew to finally answering his first question.

The question that's been working for the first 16 chapters,

who is this Jesus?

And in building that picture, Matthew's reached for evidence all the way back to Abraham

and right forward through all these incidents in these early chapters to Peter's confession.

And here's the answer.

You are God.

You are Messiah.

You are God's King and Savior.

The long-awaited one.

And with that, then, Matthew turns his attention to the second question of Jesus.

That is, what does it mean for this Jesus to be Messiah?

What does Jesus come to do, and how will he do it?

That, then, is Matthew's focus for the second part of his biography of Jesus.

And this is where I want you to follow me through the text.

So if you look at chapter 16, verse 18 to 20,

it's interesting, the very, very first thing Jesus says

about what he's going to do as Messiah is,

he will build his church.

Which is another picture of God's kingdom,

God's rule in the hearts and minds of his people.

And then verse 21, 23 of verse 16,

Jesus says this will require him to deal with sin.

That is, to go to Jerusalem to die and be resurrected.

It's interesting, isn't it, that his first statement is a corporate statement.

He has come to establish the church.

And the means of establishing the church is that he will die

to save people individually into the church.

Through apparent defeat,

he would be shown to be God's triumphant, successful king and savior.

Chapter 16, verse 24 to 27.

As for king and savior, so for his disciples.

All in commitment from Jesus, including his death.

All in commitment from his disciples.

Described here as dying to self.

All in loyalty to Jesus.

All in commitment.

17 verses 1 to 13.

The transfiguration story.

Jesus is up to the task.

We get God's stamping of Jesus with his authority again.

He's all powerful.

He's all sufficient.

He'll do what Moses and Elijah were unable to do.

That is, deal with sin and renew God's people.

And victoriously, then, he will ultimately return to the glory

for which he's set aside while he's in this world.

He will return to that glory.

But the pathway to glory is one of suffering and death.

And then 17, 14 to 27 that we looked at last week.

We come down to the harsh reality.

The bottom of the mountain in the valley again.

The pathway to glory is a hard, costly, spiritual battle.

It means, verse 14 through 21,

it means engaging with Satan's kingdom and Satan's power.

And freeing God's people from the ravages of sin.

And to do that requires all in faith in the all-sufficiency of Jesus.

It means Jesus again.

Going to the cross.

Going to the cross.

Consciously sacrificing himself to deal with Satan's kingdom

and Satan's power and the issues of sin.

And finally, in verse 24 through 27,

it means dismantling the old Jewish system of worship.

It was focused on the temple and sacrifice.

And Jesus is now going to reestablish a completely new order

that's focused on him, a new community.

He'll be the place where people find acceptance with God.

He'll be the place where people go for forgiveness of sin.

He'll be the place where people go to worship.

And this new community will actually be family.

It will mean an emergence of a totally new community gathered around Jesus.

New family identity in Jesus.

New family obligations to Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Now, with that, we can see chapter 18 then, 19 and 20,

starts to spell out in detail the character of this new community.

And this is why all this revision was important.

That these verses can't be seen just as little moral do-goody things.

It's actually Jesus starting to spell out the character of this new salvation community,

the one he's come to establish.

It's a community of died for people, the church.

And once again, the principle is the same.

As for the king, so for his people.

In other words, in summary here, therefore,

we are to reflect King Jesus in our attitudes and actions.

We're to live in the light of the all-sufficiency of Jesus.

We're to think and act selflessly.

We're to be loving.

And in that love, we're to extend grace to those around us,

especially brothers and sisters in Christ.

We're to extend compassion, mercy to the helpless.

And we're to hate any expression of sin in our actions.

So with that, I want to jump into the detail now of chapter 18.

And the question, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Well, of course, it's hard.

Well, it's actually impossible to know what the disciples had in mind

when they asked that question.

Were they thinking about who was the most powerful?

Who was the most useful?

Who was the most popular?

Who was the most privileged?

Who was the most important?

It's impossible to say exactly what is in their mind.

But the question at least suggests rivalry,

jealousy, resentment,

self-interested focus on status and pegging order among the disciples.

And it's not hard, just reading the context of this,

chapters 16, 17, and 18,

it's not hard to read the context and think,

well, perhaps Peter and James and John

started to think that they had a very privileged position

because, after all,

they were the ones that Jesus took up the mountain

and experienced the transfiguration.

Perhaps they even started to fancy themselves

as being of the sort of importance

as an Elijah and a Moses.

Or perhaps Peter then wanted to separate himself

to another level

because maybe he thought

that he was extra special,

even higher up again than James and John's

because, after all,

when Jesus talked about establishing the church

in chapter 16,

it was Peter's mention,

Peter's name that was mentioned.

It was Peter who was associated

as a foundation of the church.

And then, just immediately prior to these verses,

Jesus paid the temple tax for Peter only.

So it wouldn't be too hard to think,

well, Peter thought,

well, hey, maybe I'm the favorite.

I'm Jesus' favorite.

Or at least I'm further up the pegging order

than you guys are.

Not too hard to imagine all that at all,

but we don't really know.

We don't know their precise thinking,

but Jesus did, obviously.

And in response to the thinking,

Jesus delivered an incredibly strong response.

Greatness in my kingdom

is not about competing with others

for social status

in a self-indulgent pegging order.

Greatness in my kingdom

is seen in attitude to Jesus.

It doesn't sound like very much, does it?

It doesn't catch our attention.

We associate greatness with great things,

great actions, great endeavors,

years of effort.

Jesus said, well,

greatness is first and foremost

about an attitude to Jesus.

Now, there's something that jars in the text here

as I was preparing this week

because just, I don't know,

hours, maybe a couple of days,

maybe a week earlier,

the disciples, at least three of them,

had seen the glory of Jesus

in transfiguration.

Certainly it would have been a talking point

among the disciples for all that time.

And certainly they would have gotten the message

that Jesus' pathway to glory

was through suffering and death.

But it would seem like

the disciples are still determined

to pursue their own glory

in a form of worldly greatness.

They were going to carve out

their own pathway to glory

through status and privilege

and reputation.

And in response to all of that,

Jesus puts a little child

in the center of a group

as an illustration

of greatness

in the salvation community,

the church.

And he speaks about

childlike humility.

Truly I say to you,

unless you turn

and become like children,

you will never enter

the kingdom of heaven.

Whoever humbles himself

like this child

is the greatest

in the kingdom of heaven.

Not will become,

but is the greatest

in the kingdom of heaven.

So what is this childlike humility?

I think it's actually quite simple.

I think it's an attitude

of littleness

and insignificance.

That's certainly how

children were viewed

in the ancient world.

And you have to think about that.

If you think about children

these days,

they're not little

and insignificant.

They rule the roost

far too often.

But in Jesus' day,

children were viewed

as little

and insignificant.

And in many ways

they still are.

Because children in the end,

in spite of what they might think,

they're unable

to care for themselves.

They're certainly unable

to care for themselves properly.

And Jesus' point here

is that in sharp contrast

to the subtle self-promotion

of the disciples,

the little child

doesn't consider himself

or herself

to command the attention

of Jesus.

The little child's just happy

to be in the middle there

and have the focus

of Jesus' attention

on them.

So greatness in the kingdom

begins, therefore,

with an attitude

of honest realization

about ourselves.

What is that realization?

That there's nothing in us

to command God's attention.

Command God's attention, sorry.

To command God's recognition.

And that we have God's attention,

we have God's love

and care

is a matter of grace.

And then it's an attitude,

I think,

of trustful dependence.

And children just look

to their parents

to care for them,

to provide for them.

They expect their parents

to dispel their fears.

They expect their parents

to fix whatever

needs to be fixed.

It's just that sort of

all-in dependence

on mom and dad.

Well, I think

it's almost exactly the same,

Jesus' point here.

Greatness in mind,

you died for community,

will be characterized

by total dependence,

unembarrassed

dependence

on Christ's

goodness

and care

and provision

and blessing.

Not their own abilities.

Now, those two things

aren't too hard

to describe.

But gosh,

they're a lot harder

to live out,

aren't they?

Very hard to live out.

And that's the other point

I think Jesus is making here.

He says,

you need to turn

unless you turn.

this sort of attitude,

this childlike humility

is not natural to us.

It requires

a conscious turning away

from how the world

thinks of greatness

and a conscious commitment

to Jesus' pathway

to greatness.

But put simply,

humility is not natural

to us

in our sinful state.

I cannot consciously

strive to secure

my own glory

or greatness

through what I do

and at the same time

consciously strive

to express

childlike humility

towards Jesus

and other

died for people

in this community.

The two just don't mix.

We can convince

ourselves they do,

but they don't

truly mix.

One will,

it's like oil and water,

one will settle

on top of the other.

We need to

consciously turn.

So,

it seems to me

that greatness

in the church

is a real paradox.

It actually

is the

unintended

consequence

of

an all-in

commitment

to thinking

and acting

with childlike

humility.

So,

as we

go about

serving Jesus

in that attitude

of trustful

dependence

and that attitude

of insignificance

living in the

light of grace

and having

our identity

from Jesus,

it's as we're

doing that

that we're

actually declared

by Jesus

to be great.

And it's not

a conscious thing

we're pursuing.

And there's

the paradox.

Our world

offers greatness

through self-achievement,

self-aggrandizing.

And often

that comes

at the expense

of manipulating

others around

us.

So,

if I set

myself to be

great in this

congregation,

then I'm

going to have

to barge

through others

that might

stop in my

way.

Or I might

see others

as useful

to me

toward the

end of me

looking great.

And so,

I'll manipulate

them,

I'll use

them.

And if they

get in the

way,

I'll skittle

them.

That's what

our world

offers as

greatness.

Jesus

says,

the most

inconsequential

Christian

who is

faithful and

loyal to

Christ

will be the

one deemed

greatest

in heaven.

It's a very

different pathway,

isn't it?

imagine if

local church

families like

ours, all

around Australia,

all around the

world, could

get a grasp

of that.

It would

just

immediately rid

church of

all the

politics that

is so

grubby, even

in churches.

churches.

It would

rid churches

of so

many, probably

not all, so

many of the

conflicts, so

many that

ended up in

broken

relationships or

strained

relationships.

It would

literally be

life-changing.

Then moving on,

verses 5 through

to 9,

greatness is seen

in attitude to

sin.

Verse 5 is a

bridge.

It's a

bridge from

verses 1 to

4, obviously,

through to the

severe warnings

of Jesus in

verses 6 to

9.

And these

verses, if you

came here

hoping for a

warm, fuzzy

sermon this

morning, they're

going to really

disappoint you

because they're

harsh.

These are

confronting

verses.

Extreme.

And again,

once again, we

see the

principle of

as for the

king, so

for his

people.

Greatness in

Jesus died for

people also

means reflecting

Jesus' character

and attitude

towards sin.

What was his

character and

attitude towards

sin?

He saw it so

awful, so

much the

cause of the

broken relationship

between God

and his people

that he is

prepared to

sacrifice himself

to deal with

it.

he didn't

spare anything

to deal with

sin and

free God's

people from

its ravages.

And in

verse 4 and

5, you

get that

notion of

not being able

to separate

Jesus from

his people,

from his

died for

people.

very, very

simple

connection, but

it's very, very

powerful and

profound.

The way we

treat other

believers is a

clear indication

of how we

ourselves believe

we are saved

and acceptable

to God.

all believers

are died for

people.

That's what

Jesus came, go

back to that

summary again,

that's what

Jesus came to

achieve.

He came to

achieve, to

establish his

church, and

he did that by

dying for it.

All, therefore,

are part of

God's kingdom on

the same

basis, grace

alone.

All, therefore,

are precious to

Christ, regardless

of how insignificant

they are in

the world's

terms.

So what does

that mean for

us in practice?

What does that

look like in

practice?

Well, I think

very, very

simply in this

context it

means that we

should never be

competing with

other believers.

Never should we

be competing

with other

believers, especially

not for social

status or

reputation or

recognition.

Because to do

that in the

church is to

say that, well,

when Jesus died

for his people, he

was actually

establishing some

new but equally

horrible pegging

order.

Not quite the

same as the

world, but in

some ways it's

like the world.

against that and

contrast that, because

of shared identity

in Christ, we

should have the

same all in love

for and commitment

to our brothers and

sisters, our fellow

died for people.

We should love and

commit to them as

Christ loves and

commits to them.

And that's

greatness.

Practically, that

means these last

three verses,

practically that

means doing

anything we can

to avoid causing

little ones or

other believers

to sin.

verse 6.

It would be

better for him

to have a great

millstone fastened

around his neck and

to be drowned in

the depths of the

sea.

Now, apparently,

the Jews had

a protocol of

taking the worst

of criminals

out to sea,

tying a millstone

around their

necks,

chucking them

overboard,

drowning them.

Why?

Because the

nature of their

crime was so

awful, they

wanted to remove

them, as it

were, from

existence.

They wanted to

deprive them of

a proper burial.

Their crimes are

so horrendous.

And they

believed the

awfulness of that

crime required

such an extreme

response.

Jesus is

saying here

that the

worst possible

death imaginable

is actually

preferable to

causing one of

his died-for

people to sin.

Now, I have

to say, I got

stuck on this

this week,

because that's

such a huge

call.

Well,

it's a huge

call in

terms of the

challenge for

how I relate

to and

treat my

fellow

believers.

Greatness in

Christ's new

community, the

church, is

seen in loving

what Christ

loves and

hating what

he hates.

And that

means, again,

practically, being

as ruthless on

yourself as

necessary to

guard other

believers.

Now, look at

those verses

again.

Woe to the

world for

temptation to

sin, for it's

necessary or it's

inevitable that

temptations will

come.

But woe to

the one by

whom the

temptation

comes.

And then

here it is.

If your hand or

your foot causes

you to sin,

cut it off and

throw it away.

Now, that's

extreme language,

isn't it?

It's picture

language, but

it's still an

extreme picture

language.

Why?

It is better for

you to enter

life crippled or

maimed than

with two hands

or two feet to

be thrown into

the eternal

fire.

fire.

And if your

eye causes you

to sin, tear

it out and

throw it away.

It's better for

you to enter

life with one

eye than with

two eyes to be

thrown into the

hell of fire.

That picture

language is in

the context of

the temptation

or causing

little ones to

sin.

sin.

It's picture

language to

describe how

severely and

passionately we

must hold

ourselves to

account.

That is, we

hold ourselves

to account.

So, it says

here, it's not

that we can stop

sin altogether

because it's

inevitable, verse

7, that

temptations will

come.

Sin is everywhere

around us and

in everything around

us.

So, it's

inevitable.

But we can

take ourselves

to account.

And this is

the extreme

length where

we hold

ourselves to

account.

Our

thinking, our

attitudes, our

actions.

And we've

got to be so

passionate about

those that

we'll take

whatever action

it is within

our will to

do and our

ability to do

rather than

possibly

cause a

fellow brother

or sister

in Christ

to get

tripped into

sin.

So, it's

not a

sinless

perfection

Jesus is

talking about

here.

Because even

as believers,

we know the

reality of sin

at every point

in our being.

But what he's

talking about

here is taking

responsibility for

ourselves,

holding ourselves

to account

for how our

actions, our

thinking, our

words impact on

those around us,

other died for

people.

And Jesus

said here, we

need to struggle

with every ounce

of our ability

and being to

ensure our

impact on other

believers reflects

our identity in

Jesus.

Jesus.

Now, I was

trying to work

out, well, how

do you unpack

these things in

application?

And I honestly

came to the

conclusion I

didn't know how.

And I wasn't

sure even if I

needed to because

the words

themselves are so

painfully obvious.

But I thought,

well, okay, I'll

give it one go

anyway.

So how might

we cause other

believers to

stumble?

In Greek, the

word is

scandalize.

So how might

we scandalize

other believers?

I think in the

context here, in

these verses, it

will be thinking

about church

competitively and

evaluating one

another on

performance.

because.

And we hear it

all the time,

don't we?

I am more

important than

others because.

I have more

influence than

you because.

I am more

useful in this

church than you

because.

I am more

godly than

you because.

And so the

list could go

on and on.

Now, of

course, we might

not hear such

thoughts expressed

openly because I

think even for

our own ears,

and sometimes our

ears are rather

dull to these

awful things, but

even to our own

ears to express

that openly would

be a step too

far.

But I suspect it's

there lurking in

the back of our

minds and driving

us nonetheless.

I don't think I

need to spell it

out to you.

I think if you've

been around

churches for any

length of time,

you've seen it.

you've experienced

it.

You've probably

dished it out.

And together we

see its destructive

impact.

So here's the

challenge.

Are you able to

say, honestly, in

your mind before the

Lord this morning,

are you able to

say that you're so

concerned to avoid

causing others to

stumble into sin or

to be disheartened

in their service of

Christ, that you

would restrict any

freedom that's

rightfully yours as a

believer, that you

would curb any

opinion legitimately

held as a believer,

that you would back

down on any issues

that you might

legitimately be

passionate about in

order to avoid

causing somebody

else in this

church family here

to stumble into

sin?

That's a big call,

isn't it?

I think that's what

the text asks us to

do.

That's exactly what

Christ calls us to

do.

Now the question is,

do you see why?

these disciples were so

determined to advance

their own position and

rank that they were

prepared to wound other

believers in the

process instead of

guarding them and

encouraging them.

And after all that,

these disciples had

missed the mark anyway

because the evidence of

greatness in Christ's

kingdom is treating

all believers as

carefully and lovingly

and sacrificially.

as Christ does.

So friends, let's

look right back to

my start.

Greatness is a

great thing to

aspire to.

I think it's an

honourable thing to

say I want to be a

great Christian.

I want to be a

great follower of

Christ.

I want to be known

as a great follower

of Christ.

But here's the

rub.

You need to choose

then whether you

chase greatness in

the self-seeking

categories of the

world, position,

power, reputation,

status, or whether

you'll pursue

greatness, kingdom

greatness, self-giving,

self-sacrificing

humility, total

dependence on the

all-sufficiency of

Christ, and a

ruthless determination

to avoid anything that

might cause another

believer in this

church family to

sin.

As always, it's

your choice.

But make a choice

you must because

the two can't fit

together.

Pray with me,

please.

Lord, these are hard

words, but they're

your words, Lord,

spoken in love for

the good of your

people.

So help us to hear

them.

Help us, Lord, to

hear them without

defensiveness.

Help us to hear

them with a heart

of repentance.

For each of us

know only too

well, Lord, how

we've sought to

carve our own

little empires in

a church family

like this.

We want to be

noticed.

We want to be

recognized.

We want to be

considered to be

important.

We want our

statements to be

considered valued,

valuable.

And so the list

goes on.

Lord, help us

to be truly

childlike in our

humility.

Help us to be

those who are

most noticeable

for our

dependence on

Jesus.

Help us, we

pray, Lord, in

Jesus' name I

pray.

Amen.