Guest Series | Greatness on the Mind (July 11, 2021) Julian Freeman

Welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

In the sermon this morning, we're hearing from Julian Freeman, who is the pastor of Grace Church, John Mills.

The topic today is greatness on the mind.

Well, good morning.

It is good to be with you all.

We've prayed for you as a church often.

So it's a joy to be able to see you, mask to mask, uh face to face, as the case may be.

But just a joy to be together in person.

We do pray for you.

We're praying for you.

Our church, in a renewed way, is seeking to be a church that believes fervently in the power of prayer.

And so this summer we've committed ourselves, we're praying weekly on Wednesday nights through the summer, and we're praying for fellow GCC churches in particular, as well as a number of other churches in the Greater Toronto area.

You guys are on the list of churches that we have committed to pray for regularly.

We're excited about that.

We're thankful for the opportunity to pray.

We do love you.

We love what God is doing in you and through you here.

And in particular, I love your pastor.

It's a joy for me whenever I have the opportunity to get together with Mike.

It's a friendship that is quickly renewed.

He is a brother who, among the pastors that I know, is both trustworthy and transparent.

He's willing to share what's on his heart, what's going on in his life.

He's willing to ask for prayer.

He is a man who is humble and who seeks to grow in godliness and love his family and his church well.

He wrestles through issues well.

I've talked a few times with him over this past year about what are we supposed to do about COVID and government regulations and how are we supposed to pastor in the midst of this?

And he wrestles through these issues well.

He wrestles through them hard because he loves you guys and he wants to serve you well.

And that is commendable.

I love that.

That quickly knit my heart to him.

And he is one of the reasons, along with several of the other pastors in the GTA, why it was easy for me to convince our church that we should join the Great Commission Collective this past year because my heart was very quickly knit together with these brothers, uh, with Mike in particular.

So I'm thankful for the opportunity to give him a bit of a break.

Glad he's on vacation, glad he's not here, although I would have loved to see him.

Hopefully he's getting some well-deserved rest this morning.

But one thing I know about Mike is he loves the Bible a lot more than he loves us talking about him.

So I'm gonna ask you to turn in your Bible to Matthew chapter 20, and I'm gonna read for us the passage that we're gonna be thinking about together, and then we will get into it together.

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

So, Matthew chapter 20, I'm gonna begin reading for us in verse 17.

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

In our time this morning, we're gonna try to tackle Matthew 20, verse 17 to 28, so you can follow along as I read now from God's holy word.

Matthew 20:17–28

And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside.

And on the way he said to them, See, we're going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked him for something, and he said to her, What do you want?

She said to him, Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your kingdom.

And Jesus answered, You do not know what you are asking.

Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?

And they said to him, We are able.

But to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant.

But it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.

And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers.

But Jesus called them to him and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them, it shall not be so among you.

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

And whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Please pray with me.

Father God, pretty much the worst thing that could happen to us this morning would be to hear your word read and taught, to sing the gospel truth together, but to not have your spirit work in our hearts.

If you don't work in our hearts, softening them, our hearts will be hardened to you.

So, Father, we pray.

Father, we need your mercy.

We need to hear this word with ears that only your Holy Spirit can give.

So we pray for His working with power now in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So, what's on your mind?

It's an innocent enough question, right?

An innocent enough conversation starter, unless you're married.

Then it can get you in trouble, I've learned over the years.

What are you thinking about at this particular moment?

This is a question that has gotten me in trouble sometimes, because sometimes I'm thinking about things that are not as important as the things I should be thinking about.

What are you thinking?

Well, I'm kind of thinking about food.

I'm a recovering glutton.

So, you know, the next best thing to actually eating is just thinking about eating.

Like, what would I like to eat?

Right now, why are you thinking, but I get in trouble for this one all the time.

My wife, she looks at my face and she can tell when I'm thinking about going cycling, when I'm trying to get out on the road to go for a bike ride.

She's like, why are you thinking about that right now?

And she knows, she's like, I can tell how much you love it by how much you think about it.

She's reflecting this reality back to me.

The truth is, what's in our mind is there because of what's on our hearts.

What's true about what we love?

The things that we love that fill our hearts are the things that inevitably will fill our minds and become become the things that we think about.

But this is true not just about things that we love.

It's true about things that get us worked up, too, right?

Things that get us angry.

Have you ever been in a feud?

Maybe I'll change that.

Have you recently been in a feud?

In an argument with someone, like a real, like kind of prolonged, protracted argument where they maybe they sent you a text that you just didn't like, or an email.

Can you believe they said that?

And you're just playing it over in your mind, and you're thinking, oh, maybe it was a conversation, and you think, I should have said this, or I'm gonna come back, I'm gonna say this next time, I'm gonna respond this.

Well, what would they say to that?

And it's on your mind, you're playing it over and over and over again in your mind, right?

It's showing you in your mind what's really going on in your heart.

You're angry, you're defensive.

What about fear?

You ever uh you start to develop symptoms of something and you're not sure, so you start Googling it, and then you start worrying more and more.

So eventually you do the smart thing and you go see a doctor, but then you get the tests.

And then there's that there's that time, right, between when you get the test and when you get the results.

What's on your mind during that gap?

You're working over the possibilities, all the contingencies, the what-abouts, the what-ifs, the what next.

You're thinking about it, thinking about it, thinking about it.

It's in your mind because in your heart there's fear.

What about hopes?

Your hopes, your dreams, these are the things that you make daydreams out of, right?

Like, it's been a year since I've had vacation, so I'm battling covetousness in my heart with Mike right now, but like, but but but it's one of those things where you've got vacation coming up, you just keep thinking about it.

Like, I can't wait for it.

What are we gonna do?

Let's talk about what we're gonna do on vacation, and you're you're consumed with it in your heart, and so it becomes the thing that fills your mind.

Now, of course, what's in your heart and what's on your mind is what determines then how you act, how you live.

So if we want lives that are conform to the truth, if we want to live lives like Christ, then we have to think this morning about what's on our hearts and what's in our minds.

And the way I want to do that, the way I want to try to tackle that this morning, is just by asking questions, these questions of the characters in the story that we just read.

This account of Jesus' life, we just want to ask what's on their minds.

I want to work backwards from what's on their minds to now what should be on our minds.

But first of all, like everything in the Christian life, we want to start with Christ.

So we want to ask this question first: what is on Jesus' mind?

As we come at this narrative in Matthew chapter 20, what's on Jesus' mind?

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

Look at verse 17.

We're gonna see it.

As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he's traveling with his disciples, but he and a great crowd of people, but now he takes aside the twelve, those whom he's called specifically to be apostles.

He takes the twelve disciples aside, has a huddle with them because he's got something on his heart that he needs to share.

What is it?

He said to them, see, we're going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.

See, no one was asking Jesus to tell them about this.

No one's saying, Hey, tell us about that time when you're going to be betrayed.

Now, this is the third time he's brought it up.

He's brought it up in chapter 16, he brought it up in chapter 17, he keeps bringing it up, and this time he pulls them aside because he specifically needs to share.

He desires to share with them what is on his mind.

No one was like, hey, Jesus, you told us about your suffering that's coming up ahead.

We're just wondering, can we pray for you?

Can you tell us more about that?

Is there anything we should do to get ready?

No one else had this on their mind, but Jesus did.

So he pulls them aside and he says, Let's talk about this.

And each time he's told them about his coming death, he's included a few new details.

This time he specifically includes this reality that he's going to be handed over to the Gentiles in verse 19 and that he'll be crucified.

It's the first time we've heard how Jesus is going to die, even though he's talked about his death before.

I want to pause for a second and ask you a question.

Because the disciples had heard this at least two times before.

If you've been in church for any length of time, if you're a kid who grows up in a church, if you've been a Christian for a while, or if you've been coming to church for a while, you have heard, even this morning, we've already sung about Jesus being crucified.

You've heard these words, you've heard this language, but do you understand what it means?

Do you understand what is on Jesus' heart?

He is describing the events that are coming up next in his life.

He is going up to Jerusalem where he will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes.

Who are they?

They're the bigwigs.

They're the power players, they're the influencers, they're the political figures, they're the ones with all the power in Jewish society.

So the people who have all the power, all the influence are gonna be arrayed against him.

He is going to be an outcast, he is going to be belittled.

They're gonna condemn him.

See, that means there's gonna be some kind of a process of a trial.

We know how this works out.

It's a mock trial, right?

It's a mockery of justice.

They already have the jury rigged, they've got the case rigged, they've got the witnesses that they need.

The whole thing, in the pretense of justice, makes justice itself look preposterous.

You see this in the world's systems?

Oh, we're all about justice, but in reality, they flip it around.

Jesus is going to be taken before court, and in reality, the only one innocent person ever is going to be found guilty and condemned.

But the Jewish people, even the leaders, the power players, the influencers, the great ones among the Jews, even they don't have authority to put someone to death, especially not crucifixion.

The Romans had to do that, and that's why it's significant that Jesus highlights that it'll be handed over to the Gentiles and that he will be crucified, because the only way he can be crucified is if he is handed the utter shame, the utter shame for a Jew to be handed over to the judgment of God through the hands of pagans.

Utter shame.

Why would the Romans get involved in this?

Why would they care about this Jewish preacher?

Well, again, as you go on and you read about it, you understand there's these backroom deals, there's crooked politicians, there's bribery, there's a twisting and brokenness of this world's systems, all of which conspire against Jesus, against the Lord, and against his anointed to put him to death.

This is how the world works with fear and power plays and politics and bribes and scandals.

All of it arrayed against Jesus.

They will mock him.

They'll hand him over to the Roman soldiers who will mock him and belittle him.

Prophesy.

Who's hitting you?

Well, they flog him and beat him with rods and with whips and tenderize his flesh in preparation for death.

They hammer a crown of thorns into his head and put a purple robe on his wound-opened body.

Hail King of the Jews.

They laugh at his suffering.

And then they crucify him.

They string him up naked between heaven and earth for all to see by a roadside, so even those who never even knew he existed until this moment can stop and laugh.

Or turn away because they can't handle the sight of this man nailed with his flesh pierced, hanging on a cross, drowning in the fluid of his own lungs, gasping, trying to breathe until he slowly suffers and dies with everyone watching and no one helping.

Look at how he suffers.

He is humiliated.

This death, this death by crucifixion was so humiliating.

It was so belittling that it was not a death that could ever be imposed on a Roman citizen.

It's illegal to do to a Roman citizen, no matter how lowly, even if you're a slave, you cannot be crucified.

But Jesus, because he's not a Roman citizen, is subjected to the lowest of low of all the deaths.

Now notice how Matthew sets this up.

Look what he says in verse 17.

As he was going to Jerusalem.

And look at how Jesus introduces it when he starts speaking.

He says, See, we are going up to Jerusalem.

The going up to Jerusalem is said twice, it's repeated for the sake of emphasis so that you, as a reader, don't miss it.

No one is dragging Jesus to Jerusalem.

No one's twisting his arm to make this happen.

No one is capturing him.

No one's tricking him.

Jesus knows.

He pulls them aside to tell them to say, I know, I know what I'm going to.

It's not an accident.

It is deliberate.

I'm going with every step, being reminded that this is my fate, this is what I'm going to.

I am going to become the lowest of the low, utterly humiliated.

I'm going to suffer and die.

He goes to take the curse that you deserve for your corruption.

To take the wrath that you deserve for your rebellion.

He goes to take what you deserve.

See, there's a whole other dynamic, like a current below the surface of calm waters that the disciples, the disciples can't even perceive at this point, that as Jesus prepares to go to the cross, he goes to suffer what no human has ever known that is that is alive in Jesus' day, which is simply this: the wrath of God.

Jesus, the Son of God, who has known the eternal smile, the pleasure of the Father, who says, This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.

He has always known the smile of the Father, goes to have the Father turn away in wrath, the Father turn his head because he can't bear to look at what the Son becomes as he bears our sin.

The eternal fellowship of Father and Son and Holy Spirit, somehow on the cross, the Son is going to experience a severing from the Father as he bears the wrath that we deserve for our sins.

Jesus, in a matter of hours on a cross, bears an eternity of hell for countless sinners to reconcile us to God.

This is what is on his mind.

Why?

Because you are on his heart.

Look at what he says in verse twenty eight.

The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

He goes to suffer utter humiliation, to become the servant of servants, the slave of slaves, the lowest of the low, the least of the least for you.

The cross is on his mind because you are on his heart.

So the question is: have you responded to this grace?

Have you responded to the death of Christ?

Have you put your trust in him?

You who had turned aside and gone your own way.

You who are created in the image and likeness of God.

You who are created for the glory of God, but instead have lived for yourself, for your own glory, for your own honor.

Have you repented?

Have you given up hopes of being your own king?

Have you trusted in Christ?

You who live for your own honor, for your own glory.

But instead, in following your sin, have accumulated shame.

Have you turned and trusted in Christ?

This is what's on his mind because you are on his heart.

But this begs the question if that's what's on Christ's mind, then what's on his disciples' mind?

Here's our second question this morning.

What's on the disciples' mind?

The disciples are supposed to be followers of Jesus, right?

They've followed him for years.

They're supposed to be learners.

They're learning from Jesus.

They're supposed to be taking the things that he lives and the things that he says.

Says, and embodying them, becoming like him.

They've been following him for years, they should be like him, so are they thinking like him?

Look at verse 20.

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked him for something.

And he said to her, What do you want?

She said to him, Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand, and one at your left in your kingdom.

It's important, right?

What you ask for, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go to Jesus and I'm gonna ask him for something.

That's telling you what's on your mind.

Grant them to sit on your throne, Jesus.

Verse 22, Jesus answered, You do not know what you are asking.

Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?

And they said to him, We are able.

He said to them, You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and my left is not mine to grant.

It is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.

This is what is on their minds because of what's on their hearts.

Jesus has a heart to serve, so his mind is on the cross.

They have a heart to be served, so their mind is on a throne.

They're seeking greatness as the world defines it.

Now, don't let this confuse you.

The fact that the mother comes to ask, that's not supposed to indicate that this wasn't what James and John wanted.

Like James and John wanted this.

When Jesus responds to them in verses 22 and 23, he responds to the men.

He doesn't respond to the mom.

He responds with you, plural, you, and he talks to James and John, are you gonna drink the cup?

And then he talks to them about what will happen to them.

He's acknowledging that the request of what comes through the mother is actually their request.

It's what they want.

That begs the question: why does mom come and ask?

There's all kinds of reasons suggested.

Different people hypothesize different things.

I think the two most likely explanations, and they're not really mutually exclusive, are this.

Um, there's good reason to think that um James and John's mom, Saloon, was actually Mary's sister.

So Jesus' mom's sister.

So the lady that comes to ask Saloon is Jesus' aunt, which means that James and John are Jesus' first cousins, which means something like this.

In chapter 16, Jesus has already talked about how Peter's gonna be great and the church is gonna be built on Peter.

But and there's all this question about who's gonna be the greatest beginning in chapter 18.

And now the the aunt comes and says, Listen, we've heard enough about Peter.

We you know, let's just settle this.

We're cousins, they're your cousins, I'm your aunt.

We all know how this is supposed to work out.

So there's some internal family things going on.

So that's that's a potential answer.

The other one is just this.

Um, in most cultures throughout history, women have been able to get away with asking for stuff that guys can't get away with asking for.

And so the disciples have it on their mind, but only the mom, the proud mom, proud of her boys, eager for the welfare of her children, just comes and boldly asks with the boldness of a mother Hey, come on, I want my boys to sit on your throne.

But Jesus is insistent.

You do not know what you are asking.

There is a place of honor, my right hand and my left.

But before we talk about that, let's talk about the cup that I'm gonna be called to drink.

Are you also able to drink it?

And proving that they don't know what they're talking about, they say yes.

Now, now here's the thing: the word cup, as you study it through the Old Testament, has a broad enough range of meaning that it can encompass at least two things.

One, it means the wrath of God, which is what Jesus is about to go and suffer, but your cup can also just mean your portion, your lot in life, what's coming to you, what you're going to go through.

And so Jesus uses it both ways here to talk about the suffering that he's gonna endure, but also their lot that they're gonna endure, their own suffering for being associated with him.

So James is gonna be the first apostolic martyr in Acts chapter 12.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

He's gonna suffer and die.

And John in Revelation, we read about his exile on the island of Patmos.

So both of them will suffer for their association with Christ.

That much is clear, but Jesus is insistent that these places of honor are not for disciples to seek.

Pursuing greatness of this kind is not what they should be after.

I love the humility of Christ again here, contrasted with the disciples.

This is this is so remarkable.

Jesus, in addressing them, says, Look, those seats of honor at my right and my left are for the Father to assign.

Do you understand this humility of Christ, where even looking forward to his throne in glory still ascribes authority to the Father.

He's not grasping for power even then, but says, My Father knows who's gonna sit at my right and my left, and he's gonna sort that out.

He still defers.

This is remarkable.

And then his interaction with the disciples, this is so different than me.

So, like when I was writing this message, I was sitting in my office and we just hired a guy.

So he's like, he, he's he's a you know, new guy in the office, and I'm sitting at my desk, and he walks by and stops at my door and wants to have a chat, and I look and he's drinking out of my coffee mug.

And I'm like, who does this guy think he is?

He just walks in here, starts drinking out of my mug?

That's a mug.

I'm being an idiot, right?

Like you can laugh about it, but but here's the reality: they're walking up to Jesus.

Hey, Jesus, you know your throne in glory?

How about we just get to sit on that?

You know how my heart would respond?

But look at Christ, Christ's heart of humility.

Hey guys, let's leave this one up to the Father, huh?

Let's let's see how it works out.

It's not just them that are seeking this honor, this power, this glory for themselves.

Look at how the others respond in verse 24 when the 10, the rest of the disciples, when they heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers.

Why were they indignant at the two brothers?

Because they wanted those seats and they think the brothers are trying to snake it on them.

That's important to recognize.

This this is uh this is what's on the disciples' minds.

So, like, if you if if you go back just a couple chapters, if you if you go back to chapter 18, this whole body of teaching from chapter 18 to 20 in in Matthew's gospel starts with a question of who is the greatest?

That's what they were thinking about.

Who's the greatest?

So Jesus teaches them.

He says, look, the greatest is the one who becomes like a child who doesn't fight for supremacy, the one who embraces the place that they're given and is just happy to be included in my kingdom.

They're so over themselves that they're willing to live for others, so that they're not gonna cause others to sin.

And in fact, they're so over themselves, they're over their big dealness so much that not only are they not gonna cause others to sin, but when others fall into sin, they're gonna go and pursue them, they're gonna go out of their way to serve and to love those who are weak, the sheep who are straying, they're gonna leave the 99 and go after the one and find them and bring them back.

And when that sin, he goes on in chapter 18, when that sin is turned against you, you're gonna forgive them 70 times seven.

Because you're humble, you're over yourself, you realize you're not a big deal, so you can forgive.

So then all of a sudden the bigwigs, the Pharisees, the beginning of chapter 19, come up to Jesus and they kind of think they're a big deal.

So they say, hey, look, we want to divorce our wives for any cause, because you know, we're better than them.

Can we get away with that?

And Jesus is like, Well, there's a small problem of, you know, covenant, love, and faithfulness that are kind of close to God's heart.

And the disciples hear this teaching to the Pharisees and the disciples, you know, in male hubris that spans every generation, say, Well, it's better then not to get married if I gotta put up with one wife my whole life.

And Jesus is like, hey boys, how about you humble yourselves and actually think about what you're saying?

Maybe you should think about becoming a eunuch for the sake of the kingdom.

Take a low role, become a single so that you can serve for the greatness of this kingdom.

The disciples don't get it though.

And so the very next thing that happens is some children are being brought to Jesus.

And the disciples are like, You don't have anything for for us.

Get out of here.

You have nothing to contribute.

And then a rich man comes, and the disciples are kind of impressed.

They want him to stick around.

But Jesus does the exact opposite.

He says, Let the little children come, and he blesses them, those who come with nothing, those who come in humility, and the rich man who's got something, hey, I got stuff to give here, is sent away from Jesus.

And Jesus explains it to them.

He's like, guys, the first will be last and the last first, but they still don't get it, so he gives them a parable at the beginning of chapter 20, talking about a man who owns a field, a vineyard, and he and there's these workers who he hires throughout the day, and at the end of the day, he's still hiring the deplorables, the the unhirables, and he's giving them rich rewards, he's paying them for a full day's labor, even for one hour's work.

He's honoring the least, and he explains it again: the first will be last, and the last first.

The disciples hear all of this and then say, Yeah, but can I sit on your throne?

Because I'm still kind of thinking about that greatness thing.

It's a magnet.

And their mind keeps coming back to it and keeps coming back to it.

What about me?

What about my honor?

What about my place?

What about my comfort?

What about my position?

Their mind is on their greatness as it is humanly defined.

How far, how far is their heart, how far is their mind from the heart and the mind of Christ?

Look at what Jesus says in verse 25.

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them.

The Gentiles.

When was the last time the rulers of the Gentiles were mentioned in this passage?

Do you remember?

They're the ones who crucify Jesus.

In their pursuit of greatness, they end up killing Jesus, turning against him.

Jesus is saying, if your mindset is on your own greatness, as the world defines it, you are more like those who kill me than those who follow me.

Your kingdom is like the kingdom of the earth, not the kingdom of heaven.

You are opposed to me, not followers of me.

Jesus keeps coming back to his suffering and to his death because this is what is on his mind.

They keep coming to their position and their power and their glory and their honor because that is what is on their minds.

The contrast is set up, and this sets us up for our last question this morning, which is simply this what's on your mind?

Come full circle.

What's on your mind?

We thought about what's on Christ's mind, we thought about what's on the disciples' mind.

What about you?

Think back over the last little while.

What kinds of thoughts have consumed you?

Have you been concerned about your status?

Who's noticed you and who hasn't?

Who's approved of you or who's disapproved?

Who's loved you or who hasn't?

Who's forgotten you or remembered you?

Are you consumed with these things?

Are you consumed with thinking about your ease and your pleasure?

See, ease and pleasure are not bad things in themselves, right?

They're good things.

We serve a God who in creation built in a whole day for rest, for enjoyment.

But when we take that one day and want to make it define our whole lives, our life should be one of ease and enjoyment.

What we're really doing is contending for supremacy.

I want to live in a world where people serve me and my needs are met, and I am honored and I am pleased.

Have you been concerned?

Has your mind been working over time trying to justify your views, your takes, your understandings of situations, your decisions, why what you have chosen to do is better than what others have chosen to do.

See, if we're not careful, this is what social media becomes a lot of times for us, right?

We go on social media and it's like you just start scrolling and it's like you're taking stock of who agrees with me, who disagrees with me, who's made dumb decisions, oh look what's happened to them.

Oh no, they're see now here's the thing: when we think about who's the greatest, we're a little, often we're a little too Canadian to be like, well, I'm the greatest.

That doesn't that doesn't seem like our culture, but you know what we do?

We often kind of do this.

We're like, oh, I'm not the greatest.

False humility.

But at least I'm better than so-and-so.

And you know, I can produce a list right away of like people that I've made better decisions than, because I've kind of been keeping track of that.

It's the same thing.

We're ranking, we're contending for supremacy, we're trying to find our place on the totem pole, on the ladder, we're just like the Gentiles.

Jesus, I think, would say to you this morning, if if if the if the thoughts of how other people perceive you are big.

Like they feel big.

It's important for us to understand that they feel big because they are big.

So let's pause and reflect for a minute here.

We're created in the image of a God who really cares how people perceive him and what people think about him.

We're created in his image and likeness.

Part of what it means to be human is that we have an innate desire, a built-in hardware to want to be seen and known and loved.

So, what we're not saying here is don't concern yourself with what people think about you.

What we're trying to do is refine our categories a little bit.

C.S.

Lewis said this when talking about humility, like the humility we read of in this passage.

He said, humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.

That's helpful, right?

It's not thinking, oh, I'm the worst, I'm the worst, I'm the worst, because that may or may not be true in a given context.

It's just being less consumed with you.

There's other ways of describing that.

Tim Keller has a great little book.

If you can ever get your hands on it, I commend it to you.

It's called The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness.

It's a beautiful little read.

It's short.

If you're like me and you're like, meh, short books are kind of my thing.

That's a great little book for you to pick up.

Freedom of self-forgetfulness.

John Piper has another term for the same thing.

He calls it the miracle of self-forgetfulness, because as Piper would do, right?

He talks about the miracle of God's acting in our lives to give us that brilliant moment where we can actually get past ourselves and consider God and others.

What we're not talking about here in pursuing humility is pretending like being seen doesn't matter.

Or pretending like your exaltation doesn't matter.

What we're saying is you're not treasuring them enough.

What I mean by that is this.

What you've got in your sense of seenness and loveness and knownness is a precious treasure.

It's valuable, but it's easily breakable.

And because we sense it is valuable, because we know it's important, what do we do?

We trust ourselves, we want to hold on to it because we think we can steward it best, we can keep it best, but the reality is that when we hold on to it, we we end up breaking it.

You know, I have this image in my mind of like, you've you've seen moms do this, right?

Where they're like, they're multitasking queens.

They got like a baby strapped to them, and they're they've got kids running around the house, and they're trying to like do the dishes and make dinner, and everything's happening all at the same time.

And it's like we're trying to do that, but like manage life, but at the same time hold on to something precious and not let it get broken.

But inevitably it will get broken.

And so sometimes we sense that, so we're like, I'll entrust it to another person, and their estimation of me, their love for me, their seeing me will give me value.

That'll build me up.

But the reality is that we can't trust it to other people either because it will inevitably also get broken.

What Jesus has in mind is for you to entrust your exaltation.

Entrust your seenness, your knownness, your loveness to God.

Look at verse 28.

Or verse 26, rather, it shall not be so among you.

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

So he doesn't say don't seek greatness.

He's saying entrust it to God.

Whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

Whoever would be first among you must be your slave.

This needs to be our mindset.

How do I go low?

How do I serve?

It needs to be our mindset, needs to be on our minds because it's not something that ever comes naturally.

No one ever just woke up in the morning and they're like, hey, I want to be a slave today.

No one thinks like that, right?

So we need to consciously, deliberately get our mind there.

It also needs to be our mindset because it cre it requires creative thinking, it requires careful thinking.

So let me pick on dads for a minute here because in reality, when we talk about going low and serving, this will never be part of the culture of your home if it is not first characterized by the dad in the home.

So, guys, I'm gonna pick on you for a minute.

Let's think about decisions that you make.

It is possible for you, in a misguided effort to serve, to arrange your whole family's life around your child or children, and do them great spiritual harm.

It is possible for you, out of a misguided effort to love your wife, to make the whole world revolve around her and what she wants, and you can do her great spiritual harm.

The question is not what will make people happy or what will make people like me.

That's not how we aim to serve, but like Christ who served us by pursuing our spiritual good.

The question is, how can I pursue the spiritual good and stability of my family?

So maybe sometimes that might be counterintuitive.

It might mean that for dad to serve with longevity and with stability, he might need to take a night out to go be with friends who will build into him and encourage him and instruct him in the Lord so that he returns home reinvigorated and ready to bless out of the overflow.

It might mean that there would be seasons in your life where you need to invest, dad, in more schooling or in a double shift at work, because pursuing that will allow you to be a good example of hard work and provision for your family.

On the other hand, there might just be nights when you just need to be home.

How do you make that decision?

A mindset of service.

What is for the spiritual goods?

Sometimes dad needs to be the disciplinarian, dad needs to be the heavy, dad needs to be the one that no one likes because he's bringing order and discipline and structure in his home.

And sometimes dad needs to just bring the levity and the laughter, he needs to bring the lightheartedness to the family so that we grow in love and unity together in ways that only a dad can do.

How do you know the difference?

What serves my family in this moment?

Now you don't have to be a dad to realize these decisions face you too, right?

Moms, deal with this reality too.

If you're a single, you have a roommate, you know this reality too.

You belong to a church, so you know this reality.

Where are you gonna serve?

What ministry are you gonna be a part of?

Is the question, what will make people like me, or what will make me happy, or is the question, how can I go low and serve the spiritual good of my brothers and sisters in my church?

How do you get there?

How do you have this mindset?

Jesus in verse 28 reminds us again, the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Even at the end of the passage, if the disciples keep going back to their greatness, Jesus still has his suffering and his service on his mind.

It's still on his heart, and this kind of begins to clue us into our problem.

You ever wonder why our kingdom, why our world, why our culture looks so little, why my life looks so little like the life of Christ and the culture of Christ and his kingdom is supposed to look?

Frankly, it's because a lot of us haven't thought about the cross since last Sunday.

We treat the cross like it's a gateway, an entrance to the Christian life, but then we leave it behind.

When in reality, the cross is to always be on our minds, always shaping the way we look at the world.

It's the all it defines reality for the Christian.

The apostle Paul reflects this.

He lived this in his life and he reflects it in Galatians chapter 2.

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

He says, the life, he's reflecting on the life that he did live, and now he says, the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

He's got a heart that's captured by the cross, so a mind that is fixated by the cross on the cross, and a life that then keeps in step with the pattern of Christ on the cross.

See, here's the reality for us as Christians.

He gave his life to ransom us, to purchase us.

When he purchases us, when he redeems us, he repurposes us and he commissions us to go to be like him as servants and slaves, the last, the least, and the lowest.

That needs to capture our heart, consume our minds, and come out in our lives.

What's on your mind?

Are you thinking about the good of others?

Are you eager to become like Christ?

Are you thinking of ways to go low and to serve?

Do you have greatness as Christ defines it on your mind?

Because greatness in this kingdom is likeness to the king.

The king who suffers and serves.

Let's pray.

Father God, all of this is so counterintuitive to us.

In our flesh, our desire is still to pursue greatness in the world's categories, to pursue honor and power, to pursue position and the praise of people.

Father, help us to entrust our exaltation to you who see in secret.

To believe that as we serve you and serve others and go low, at the proper time you will exalt us.

Help us to live as a people with the greatness of likeness to Christ continually on our mind.

We pray in Jesus' name.