What Do You Want? (Matthew 20:21) | Louis Azuma

Speaker: We are still looking at questions Jesus asked, and we are

still in the Gospel of Matthew.

We're gonna be in Matthew 20 Matthew chapter 20, and, uh, this question's fun.

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

Jesus asks some people, "What do you want?"

So, um, this'll be a fun question.

So Matthew 20

is where we're gonna be, all right?

Now, uh, I don't know if you've been to a lot of weddings, but I went to a

wedding recently and, um, I was thinking about it because w- weddings at…

I don't know if you've…

how much you know about, about weddings.

I actually had never been to a wedding until I was in college.

Um, so I didn't know anything about weddings.

But when I went to a wedding for the first time, it made me realize how

much stuff happens at weddings, right?

And then when you're in a wedding, you realize there's even more

stuff that happens at weddings.

And what I learned about weddings is that there's some people really look

forward to all the wedding stuff.

They look forward to the photos, and they look forward to the pictures and

how it's gonna look and the, and the table, and the, how, what everyone's

gonna wear, and all that stuff.

Some people get really excited about all that, and that's mostly, I

think, this half of the room, right?

I think this half of the room, you guys are really excited.

You guys probably already, already have, like, your color scheme

picked out and, and you know what you want your groomsmen to wear.

I'm sure you've got all of that figured out already.

Um, no but s- some people care so much about what happens at their wedding.

There's even, like, a term, right, called a, the term is bridezilla.

I don't know if you've heard about that before.

But about when a, a bride is…

She's just freaking out about everything, and she's like a

control freak, micromanaging.

Everything has to be perfect.

It's her big day, right?

And, um, what happens to some people is, uh, and I don't think

they, they mean to do this.

I don't think they're trying to do this.

But it almost feels like they're making the wedding more important than

the marriage, if that makes sense.

And they care so much about it that it's like e- everything has

to be, has to be perfect, right?

Everything has to be great.

But I want you to imagine that you were in a relationship with someone,

and you get engaged to them, and you start planning your wedding.

And you start having this sinking feeling that they just wanna get married

so we can have a really cool wedding.

They, they're really, the only reason they wanna get married is so that they

can experience this really awesome event.

They just wanna have a really cool wedding cake, and they wanna invite all

their friends, and they wanna do all the fun dances, and they wanna have a

big party, and they wanna look all nice.

And they're really just…

The whole reason they've proposed to me, the whole reason they've dated this whole

time is just so we can have a wedding.

That would stink, right?

That would be horrible.

Um, and really, what you'd feel like, right, is, "Oh, this

person's just using me," right?

They, they, they're really just using me to get something from me And that is the

situation that we're gonna see in one of these verses, is we're gonna see some

people that really, they just want to use Jesus to, to get something from Jesus.

And then the other people, in verse 32, what we're gonna see is those people

approach Jesus a little differently.

But Jesus asked them both the same question.

He says, "What do you want?

What do you want?

What do you want me to do for you?"

And maybe you've never thought about this, but how would you answer that question?

If Jesus asked you, "What do you want?"

What do you want Jesus to do for you?

What do you want from God?

What would you say?

That's the question that Jesus is asking us tonight in Matthew 20.

What do you want?

So turn in your Bibles to Matthew 20, and what we're gonna see here is that, and y-

maybe these words are kinda unfamiliar to you, but Jesus is not a means to an end.

Uh, I was explaining this a little earlier to someone else, but, um, Jesus is not

a pathway to get what you want, right?

Jesus is not your means to get what you really want.

Maybe it's heaven.

Maybe it's comfort.

Maybe it's security.

Maybe it's purpose or meaning, right?

Maybe it's a happy family.

Maybe it's you want people to stop bothering you so much.

Maybe you want an easy life, right?

Jesus isn't what you use to get those things Jesus is not a means to

your bigger goals than Jesus, right?

Just like if you were dating someone, right?

You wouldn't wanna be the means to their wedding, right?

You wouldn't want to be, "Oh, well, the only reason they dated me was just

so they could have this cool wedding."

You'd, well, you'd want them to, to date you so they could have you, right?

Same thing with Jesus.

We don't wanna, we don't wanna approach God and say, "Well, we

just want God so we can get all His cool stuff from God," right?

We just, we don't want Him to be our pathway to more stuff, right?

We just want God to be what we really want.

So that's what we're gonna see here in Matthew 20.

Okay, so, uh, verse 20 is where we're starting.

So there's this mom, and she comes up to Jesus.

So verse 20, I'll put it on the screen for you, too.

The mother of the sons of Zebedee, this is James and John.

So James and John, their dad's name is Zebedee, if you're looking for

baby names, which you shouldn't be.

Uh, that's on there, right?

The mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to Him with her sons, and kneeling

before Him, she asked Jesus for something.

And so what's funny is, uh, these sons, it's really what they want.

They're sending their mom to ask for them, which kind of a lame move, right?

You're, you're a grown-up, and you're like, "Hey, Mom, can you ask

Jesus a question for us," right?

Not a good start, but she's being respectful.

She says, "All right.

I'm coming before you."

Jesus says, "What do you want?"

And she said to Him, "Here's what I want from you, Jesus.

I want you to say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand

and one at your left in your kingdom."

Now, for you, you're probably like, "So what?"

right?

I don't care about sitting next to Jesus, right?

I wanna sit across from Jesus so I can look at Him, right?

Maybe that's…

The whole point of this, right, your right hand, your left, these are, like,

the most important positions, right?

This is, like, the best spot, best seat in the house.

So when Jesus, the Messiah, right, the king, when He sets up his

kingdom, she's saying, "I want my two sons, James and John, to be the

most important people in heaven."

That's what she wants, and that's what they want.

So James and John, and we'll just call her Mrs.

Zebedee, right?

She says, "Hey, I want you to make my sons really important.

I want you to make my sons really popular, really famous, really

cool, really respected," right?

"I want you to make my sons important."

They're asking selfishly, right?

Because you, you'll see this later, um, if you keep reading, that

other disciples get mad at them.

They're like, "Wait, what?"

Like, "Why do you get to call dibs on that and we didn't?"

Right?

So, so this is like a, this is a very selfish move, right?

This is, this is kinda like, um, you know, they're, there's

cutting in line, right, for, for getting important stuff from Jesus.

And so what they're after here is they're, they're after this

special recognition, right?

And status of wow, you know, people get to say, "You're, you're the guy

that's at Jesus' right hand," right?

"You're so cool."

I don't know if you … Have you ever had, like, a really popular

friend, or like a really … Like, my older brother at school was, was

pretty cool, um, relatively speaking.

But I was, like, proud that it was like, "Yeah, that I'm, I'm Luca's brother."

It was like, "Oh yeah, you're Luca's brother.

That's cool."

Right?

People some- for some reason respected me more.

And then after they got to know me, they lost their respect for me.

But initially, it was cool, right?

It was like, "Oh, you, you're Luca's brother.

That's great.

That's awesome," right?

They wanna be like, "Yeah, you're at Jesus' right hand."

Like, "You're that guy," right?

"We know you 'cause you're import- Jesus thinks you're important,

and so we think you're important."

Right?

They wanna be that person.

And maybe that's not what you want from Jesus, but I'm sure that there's,

there's things that you want from Jesus.

I'm sure there's things that, that you're thinking, "Man, I wish

Jesus would give me this," right?

Or maybe there's things that you're mad at God about because God isn't

giving that to you right now.

You're like, "Why?

If God is so good, why wouldn't he give me this?"

Or, "Why wouldn't he fix this?"

Or, "Why wouldn't he do this?"

Or, "Why did he do things this way?"

Right, there's things that you might want from Jesus.

And what I'm challenging you with tonight is, are those things

more important to you than Jesus?

Are you just trying to use Jesus to get those things?

Or do you actually care more about Jesus than what you can get from him?

Right, 'cause what, what these people are, are asking for is they're asking

for, right, the sons of Zebedee, James and John, they're asking for something

from Jesus for themselves, right?

And, and we see that a little bit in the next couple verses.

All right, we saw, "What do you want?"

She said to him, right, "We wanna, we wanna be important," right?

"We wanna be respected.

We wanna be cool."

And he's like, "Well, you don't know what you're asking for because if you're

gonna be great in Jesus' eyes, you're gonna have to follow his path," which

he talked about a couple weeks ago.

"Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me."

And this whole section in chapter 20 is about how the people who are

great in God's kingdom are usually the people that are the lowest on Earth.

Right?

God's kingdom doesn't work the way we think it works.

The people that the world think is cool are, are not really the people think…

That God thinks is cool.

Right?

That, that's what this whole chapter is, is about.

And they say, "We're able."

They're like, "We got this."

Right?

So they're very high opinion of themselves, right?

They've got a really high opinion of themselves.

They think they've got it all together, right?

But what I want you to see here is that they're at this point

following Jesus, it seems like, to get what they want out of it.

They have expectations for following Jesus.

Right?

They're, they're saying, "Following Jesus means we should be respected.

We should be popular.

We should be cool.

We should be important.

We should be impressive."

And maybe for you, you have expectations for what you think

following Jesus should be like.

And maybe you signed up to follow Jesus not because you wanted to

follow Jesus, but because you wanted the benefits of following Jesus.

Right?

'Cause there were some people that wanted, in this time period, they

wanted to follow Jesus 'cause they thought Jesus would help them out.

Right?

They thought Jesus would, would be the king, and he would take out the

Romans and, and fix all their problems.

And so they thought, "Oh, well, if we sign up to follow Jesus, we're

gonna get in on some of that."

Right?

And maybe for you, right, you're not hoping that you get to follow Jesus so

you get to be important in the world.

Maybe you wanted to follow Jesus because you thought it would fix your life.

Right?

You thought maybe, "Oh, well, if I follow Jesus, then I'm not gonna

have as many problems anymore."

Right?

Maybe, "If I follow Jesus, I won't be as anxious anymore," or, "If I follow

Jesus, I won't have to deal with these bad thoughts anymore," or, "If I follow Jesus,

then my family life is gonna be better."

Which those things could happen, but I don't want that

to be why you follow Jesus.

Right?

I want you to follow Jesus because you love Jesus

I don't want you to follow Jesus because of the side effects of following Jesus

So

Maybe you're following Jesus to get what you want.

And I just want you to think about that.

What do I want from Jesus?

What am I expecting from Jesus?

What do I get mad when God doesn't give it to me?

What do I get mad about?

Because maybe that's really what I want from God

Maybe you want Jesus to make your life better.

You make, you wanna make…

You want Jesus to make your life easier, 'cause maybe you're, you're

following Jesus so you can get comfort or peace, relief from anxiety, right?

Maybe that's what you want from following Jesus.

Maybe you want security.

Maybe it's physical security.

Maybe it's emotional security.

You wanna, you wanna have…

You want, you don't wanna feel like you're, you're drowning or spiraling

anymore, and that's why you follow Jesus.

Which again, Jesus can do that, right?

He s- he says, "I can give you rest," Matthew 11.

But don't make security or peace or comfort more important than Jesus.

Or maybe it's meaning or purpose, right?

Y- you just, you wanted something to live for, and that's why

you decided to follow Jesus.

Or maybe your friends were following Jesus, and so you followed Jesus so you

could be part of the community, right?

You wanted good friends.

You wanted to be part of something bigger than yourself.

You wanted friends who wouldn't lie about you or gossip about you, and then

your church friends were like that.

And so you said, "Oh, I, I wanna be with these people."

But if your church friends weren't there, would you still do it?

If, if, if you go off to college and you don't have anyone else that you

know at your church, are you s- are you still gonna be following Jesus?

Or do you just follow him because your friends are doing it?

Or maybe y- you're following Jesus because you want Jesus to affirm you and, but not

really, like, impose on your life, right?

You want Jesus to be, like, kind of the fence that goes around your yard, but

you don't want Jesus to be the sidewalk that goes through your yard, right?

You want Jesus to keep all the stuff out of your yard, but you don't want Jesus

to interfere with your yard, right?

And maybe that's why you follow Jesus, is because you're

like, "Well, I, I like Jesus.

I like what he says.

I like religion.

I like having someone to pray to when I'm sad and tired and, and, and hurt,

but I don't like when Jesus tells me, 'Take up your cross and follow me.'

I don't like when he says, 'Love your neighbor as yourself,'

or, 'Love your enemies.'

I don't like that part of following Jesus."

So maybe you wanted to follow Jesus just so he could f- affirm you and

support you, but then when Jesus steps on your toes, you're like, "Oh, wait.

That's not what I signed up for."

So think about it.

What do I want from following Jesus?

Maybe you just want Jesus to get you to heaven, right?

Maybe you signed up to follow Jesus 'cause hell is scary

and you don't wanna go there.

Again, that's-- It's like dating someone because you

don't like being single, right?

We said that before.

But that's not a good reason to follow Jesus.

'Cause ultimately, there's a lot more to following Jesus than, "Oh,

cool, I don't have to go to hell."

Right?

So maybe you really just want heaven, you don't want Jesus.

I, I remember Pastor BJ asked it this way one time.

He said, "If you got to heaven and Jesus wasn't there, would you be disappointed?"

Right?

If you had perfect health, perfect friends, everything you

wanted, but no Jesus, would you be like, "Yeah, I'll still do it"?

Maybe then you're really following Jesus to get what you want, and

you're not really following Jesus.

Right, and the whole point, uh, of this is that Jesus is not about you.

Jesus doesn't exist for you.

You exist for Jesus.

That's kind of the, the reorienting thought you might need is, oh,

following Jesus isn't for me to get stuff, like, benefits from it, right?

Following Jesus isn't, "Oh, well, Jesus now is, is all about me,

and he's supporting me, and he l- he lives to make me happy.

He does all this stuff for, for me."

Following Jesus is actually you following Jesus, right?

It's not Jesus supporting you and, and doing all this stuff for you, right?

So all that's to say is there's a lot of bad reasons to follow Jesus, right?

And there's even good reasons to follow Jesus, but don't let those

good reasons become more important than the main reason, right?

Jesus is not a, a way for you to get what you really want, and that's

really what I want to warn you against.

And so the second half of this passage, we see Jesus ask different

people the same question, okay?

So back in our passage in, in Matthew 20, down in verse 29, Jesus talks

to some different people, okay?

In verse 29, Jesus and his disciples, they leave Jericho,

and a big crowd's following him.

And look, behold, right?

There's two blind men.

They're sitting by the road, and they heard that Jesus was passing

by, and so they cry out, "Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David."

And the crowd rebuked them.

So the crowd's like, "Guys, stop.

You're, you're being embarrassing," right?

"Why are you yelling at Jesus?

Stop doing that."

And they told them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, the blind people.

They said, "Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David."

And then Jesus stops.

He calls to them and he says, "What do you want me to do for you?"

Same question, different people.

Now, what I want you to notice about these people here is that-

They have something in common with Mrs.

Zebedee, right?

They want something from Jesus.

But I, I want you to see something a little different

Mrs.

Zebedee and her sons, right, James and John, they, they asked because they

wanted to make themselves great, right?

They ask 'cause they want important positions.

They wanna sit at the right and they wanna sit at the left, right?

They're asking to make themselves great

These blind men are asking because they think Jesus is great.

See the difference there?

They're not asking to make themselves great.

Their, the reason they're asking is because they think Jesus

is great enough to help them

So even though both people think Jesus can do really awesome things, right?

The, the sons of Zebedee, James and John, they think Jesus really is gonna

rule the world, and we wanna ride along with him to, to importance.

So they both think Jesus can do great things, and that's what's

so subtle about this, right?

Is if, if maybe you really do believe the right things about Jesus, maybe

you really do think Jesus is God, and the Bible is true and all this

stuff, but you see that and you wanna take advantage of it for you.

Does that make sense?

Because, so maybe you believe the right things about Jesus.

"Oh yeah, Jesus really did raise from the dead.

Jesus really can help me with my anxiety.

Jesus really can give me a, a new health and, and a new body and, and

raise me from the dead one day."

Maybe you really do believe those things, but you see that and you say,

"I'm gonna make myself great from that.

I'm gonna capitalize on that and, and do it for me."

That's what Mrs.

Zebedee and her sons did.

What these blind men are doing is they s- they believe the same thing.

Son of David, right?

He's the Messiah.

He's the king.

He's the one who's gonna fulfill all these Old Testament promises,

and he's the one the whole Old Testament's about, and it, it's…

He's great.

But they're not asking to capitalize and make the most for them.

They're asking because they believe it

They're saying, "Have mercy on us," right?

"You don't have to do this for us.

We're not entitled to greatness from you.

We're just here if you want to heal us," right?

"Have mercy on us."

So they believe similar things, but they're asking because they

think he's great, not because they also want to be great, right?

If, if you're entering into following Jesus because you want a lot out of it,

and that's your primary goal, that's the type of person that, that Jesus

is, is warning against in this chapter.

If, if you're really following Jesus so you could build your

kingdom, that's the type of person Jesus is saying, "Yeah, you're not

really following me the right way."

These people, they're asking, they're calling out to Jesus because

they think he's great, right?

He's the star of this show, not them.

So Jesus, he calls out to them, he says, "What do you want me to do for you?"

And then they said to him, "Lord, let our eyes be opened."

And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered

their sight and followed him.

So they get what they want.

They got what they wanted from Jesus.

They, they, they got their sight.

But what do they do after they get what they want?

They follow him.

They don't say, "Great, you gave me what you want, now I'm gonna

walk away and do my own thing."

Right?

They don't say, "Well, Jesus, yeah, you got me my good friends.

You fixed my life.

Great.

I'm good.

I'm gonna do my own thing now."

They, they understand that, oh, this is really just a side effect

This is the best part, is I get to follow Jesus

So in this situation, they get what they want.

But who's the star of this show?

Jesus is, right?

What they, what they want is just a platform for Jesus to be great.

You see that?

What they want is just a way for Jesus to show how great he is.

It's not a way for them to make a lot out of who they are.

So it's okay to get what you want from Jesus.

Maybe you do want security from Jesus.

You do want the emotional security of, man, I get to be loved by God,

and his love is faithful, it never changes, and I always can, can

rely on the fact that God loves me

And you feel safe and secure in that love.

That's awesome.

But the whole point of that is that's a platform for you

to say, "Isn't Jesus great?

Look at how he loves me."

It's not for you to say, "Great, look at all the love I got.

I'm so lovable.

I'm so awesome."

That's s- so you see what I mean?

You can still get you what you want from Jesus, but who's that really about?

They got what they want

But it makes Jesus look good.

Whereas the other people, what they wanted from Jesus was to make them look good.

Right?

So maybe you're following Jesus and you're doing a lot of good Christian things.

You're reading your Bible, you're praying, you're serving at

church, you're sharing the gospel.

You're, you're doing a lot of good Christian things, but

who's the star of that show?

Are you doing the good Christian things to impress your parents, to

impress your, your classmates, your, your friends, to look good at church?

Or are you doing the good Christian things because you're saying, "God is great"?

So it's okay to get what you want from following Jesus.

But what- getting what you want is supposed to be a platform or a

sign or a billboard to say, "Jesus is great, and look what he did."

So even maybe when you share your testimony, maybe you

should think about it that way.

Well, look at all the stuff God did in my life.

Look what he did, right?

Rather than just, "Oh, well, yeah, look at all the stuff God did in my life.

Wow, I'm like, I'm so awesome now."

Right?

That's a horrible testimony about God.

That's a great testimony about you.

That's not a good testimony about God

So when God gives you help, right?

When God gives you stuff, when God fixes your problems,

when God benefits you, right?

When, when you're anxious about something and you pray and you trust God and you're,

and, and you say, "Man, God is sovereign and, and he's in control and he loves me,"

and so you're not anxious anymore, right?

The celebration is not just, "Oh, I'm not anxious anymore."

Right?

The celebration is, "God is trustworthy and He's faithful and He loves me

That's what the highlight is.

The highlight isn't God fixed my problem.

The highlight is God fixed my problem, right?

And that works with anything else, right?

When, when your friendships are, are good, right?

Because your friendships with, with Christians, and they love…

You, you love each other, and you're committed to each other, and, and

you have each other's back, and you don't gossip about each other, and,

and you hold each other accountable, and you encourage each other, right?

The, the s- the highlight of that relationship is not,

"Wow, we're such great friends.

Isn't this awesome?

This is so good for me."

The highlight of that relationship is, is look what God does with relationships.

He takes two sinful people, and he can help them love each other really well.

That's the highlight of the relationship is, is look what God did.

And so when you get what you want from God, make sure you're

looking at it that way, right?

Jesus gave me what I wanted, yeah, and that's why He's so great, right?

What you got is really just to help you point to who gave it to you

That's really what all of God's gifts are for

I heard one person, the way they described it, they said, um, God's gifts are kinda

like sun rays, and the point is for…

Like, so you know if you've ever been in, like, a dark room with,

like, a tiny window, and you can see, like, the light coming down?

The whole point is for you to…

Like, that's, like, that's the good gift, right?

You got a, you got a good friendship, or God changed your, your heart, or God fixed

your relationships or, or whatever, right?

And then that's a good gift, and you take your eye and you trace

it back up to the window where the light's coming from, right?

So when you have good things in your life, when God gives you what you want, you,

what you, you do is you don't say, "Wow."

You don't look at the spot on the floor where the light is and say,

"Wow, that's so cool," right?

You, you trace your eye, you follow the beam, and you look up at the

window and you say, "Wow, look at that.

Look at God.

Look what He did."

And that's what we wanna do.

So the whole point, right, of this sermon, I, I was joking with Kelly at the office

'cause I said the sermon was pointless 'cause there's no blanks on the worksheet.

But there's really one point, right?

Is Jesus is not a means to an end.

Right?

Jesus is not a pathway to get you what you really want

Jesus giving you what you want is an opportunity for you to

say, "Look how great Jesus is."

You probably know the story in Luke 15 of the prodigal son, right?

He wants his inheritance.

He wants to go live however he wants to live and do his thing, and so he basically

says, "Dad, I wish you were dead.

Give me my money now.

I don't really want you to be alive.

I just want your stuff, so give me my stuff."

And he goes and he wastes all his money, right?

He spends it all, right?

He proverbially, you know, goes to, goes to Vegas and blows all his money,

and then he doesn't have anything left, and he's, like, eating with the pigs,

and he's eating the pigs' food, right?

And then he's like, "You know what?

This is horrible.

I've wasted everything.

I've thrown my life away."

And he comes back, right?

And when he comes back, I don't know if you remember this, when he comes

back to his father, he says, "I'm not worthy to be called your son."

Right?

And he doesn't really care about all this stuff anymore, right?

When he comes back, he's not like, "Oh, wow, look, I get to live in this awesome

house, and I get to have, you know, I get to have my, my brother back," which he

probably didn't like his brother very much 'cause his brother was kind of a loser,

um, which tr- his brother's, like, kind of the point of the parable actually,

but that's a whole 'nother story.

But, um, he's not like, "Oh, wow, look at this yard," and, "Oh, look

at this bed I get to sleep in.

Look at this great food," right?

What he's most excited about is his, is his dad, right?

And he, he, he…

Basically, what he's saying is, is, "I don't want your stuff anymore.

I want you

And that's what I want you to say about God.

Right?

That's what I want you to say about God.

I, I don't want you to say, "Well, look at all of God's cool stuff."

I want you to say, "I want Jesus."

And if I get his stuff, great, and he has a lot of great

stuff that he gives you, right?

But the stuff's not the point.

Jesus is the point.

Well, let's pray, and we can talk about that more in small groups.

Father in heaven, we are grateful that you, like the father in Jesus' parable

about the prodigal son, that you welcome

anyone who comes back to you with humble, repentant faith.

And so I pray for anyone in this room who feels like they're too far away

from you, they've sinned too much, and maybe they have been living their whole

life wanting your stuff instead of you.

I pray for anyone who feels like that, who feels like you wouldn't

welcome them, you wouldn't love them.

I pray that they would do what these blind men in our chapter today did.

They would cry out to you and say, "Have mercy on us."

And I pray that you, just like Jesus, would look on them with compassion

and turn to them and forgive them.

And, um, I pray for those of us who have already had that amazing--

experienced that amazing love, that we would remember that when you do

give us what we want, that it wouldn't become a distraction from who you are,

but it would highlight who you are.

It would highlight how good you are, how loving you are, how faithful

you are, how big you are, how

righteous you are, and I pray that you protect us from being distracted

by all the amazing things you do, and that instead we would use all the

amazing things you do in our lives and in the lives of others to turn

attention back to you and who you are.

We pray this all in Jesus' name.

Amen