Service, Slavery, Death
Transcript
It's good to see you all this morning. My name is Matt. I'm one of the pastors here with Mill City. And I'm excited to get to celebrate Christmas with you guys. As you can't tell, we kind of like Christmas around here. And I'm a Christmas person.
So don't get me wrong, I like the other holidays. Like I like Thanksgiving, the 3F celebration of family and football and food. But like I'm a Christmas person. Give me Christmas. The lights and the trees and the Christmas carols and everything like that. I just love it.
And the truth is I grew up in a family that was like that too. So it's kind of ingrained in me from the very beginning. We were the family that as soon as Thanksgiving was over and as soon as like the last leftover was tucked into the fridge, like the attic door just swung open on its own and all the Christmas decorations just came pouring out. And the rest of Thanksgiving Day was spent putting up Christmas decorations and they stayed up until after the new year, depending on when we wanted to take them down. But I love Christmas.
I mean, take a look at this little guy right here. I mean, that's jubilation. There's like sleigh bells going in the background. It's funny, people tell me, Oh, Emmy looks just like you. I'm like, only mostly. Only mostly she looks just like me.
But I'm a Christmas person. Our family kind of went crazy for Christmas. And the church that I grew up in was pretty crazy about Christmas too. In fact, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, our church would have this like very formal ceremonial service called the Hanging of the Greens, which literally meant we're going to decorate the church. I mean, it was like this big service where families would walk up together and they would hang wreaths and people would hold candles and we would sing songs by a candlelight. And if it sounds crazy, that's kind of because it was.
But really, that was just the tip of the iceberg to my church's crazy experiment with Christmas. We had children's plays. I don't know if you're familiar with children's plays, but you had to have a children's play and you had to have the costumes. You had to memorize your lines and you had to learn the songs and all this kind of stuff. You had to dress up. You always had to look really good.
And of course, I'm going to try to set the standard for when you're looking good. So obviously, a hand-me-down sweater because you can't even see my hands, rocking khakis, and a tie that's for some reason missing, like missing part of it. I don't, like they're supposed to go to a point. I don't know. But I tried to look good.
And every once in a while, we do like, we do Christmas plays that had a theme. It's like metaphorically to talk about Christmas. I mean, because you could do cowboy Christmas. And of course, you wanted to look the part if you were doing that. Even if you didn't have two front teeth. Like you just whistled the music out.
But you couldn't just do a children's Christmas thing. You had to have like an adult choir cantata. And if you don't know what a cantata is, you're one of the lucky ones. We're going to spare you. We're not even going to tell you what that is. But there was just all this stuff going on.
There were practices and dress rehearsals. And it was Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night. And then extra practices during the week. And you also had the Christmas card swap. And you had the candy cane tree. You had children's storybook Christmas.
And then you had the church Christmas party. And a lot of times you got to January and you were just kind of exhausted. And the truth is, I look back on all of those things that we did and I really enjoy them. Like some of my fondest memories are from some of those times. But I have to ask myself the question, like was all the time and energy we put into that stuff worth it?
Like were we actually celebrating Christmas as we were putting on those plays? Because the point of all the stuff we were doing was for our friends to like invite people to come. Like the people that were part of our church family to invite their friends to come and to maybe get plugged in with our church. And as I think back on that, I'm like, I don't know. I don't know if the energy and time we put into it allowed people to actually hop in with us. See, the church that I grew up in kind of had a come to us mentality at Christmas.
We'll put on these great plays or we'll have these parties if you'll just come. And as I think about Christmas, as I think about the fact that God came to us at Christmas, is the correct response to then get people to come to us? Or is Jesus came on a mission for us? Are we then to turn out and go on mission for others? Should we be going to them? And really all of this and more is why we as a church from the very beginning have done our give series at Christmas.
All we're doing is we're looking at our culture and say, no, no, let's flip what our culture values at Christmas and focus on what's really important. At a time of year where it's all about me and what I can get and that kind of stuff, we just want to remember what Christmas actually is all about. It's that Jesus came for us. And the way that we do that is that we're generous to people who are in need as we do our gift project. So when our culture says, you know, get all you can, get the new Samsung virtual reality goggles or maybe some new jewelry or the new PlayStation 8, we say as a church, no, no, no, give more away.
Be generous because he who is rich became poor so that we by his poverty might be rich. That at a time of year where it's all about what you can get and all about the memories and stuff you can make, we say let's make it about others. Let's put others' interests in front of our own. Let's sacrifice so that we can do that. And so today as we kind of tie a bow, so to speak, on our Give series, I just want to continue to echo that as we follow Jesus, what we're called to is sacrificing. What we're called to is to be generous.
And my hope is that by the end of this morning, we have a clearer picture of not only what that looks like at Christmastime, but hopefully what that looks like for all of our lives. So let me pray for us and we'll jump into the Bible. God, I'm so thankful that this time of the year we get the opportunity to just stop and press pause and remember what Christmas actually is all about. To not buy into what our culture says and to remember, to reflect, and then to actually get the opportunity to see change in our lives. So God, I pray that you would just encourage us this morning.
I pray that you would help us see the joy that it is to follow Jesus. God, that we would respond by being radically generous and sacrificial with our lives. I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Grab a Bible. Go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 20.
If you're grabbing one of the Bibles that we have on the seats, it's going to be on page 482. If you don't have a Bible, Merry Christmas. Take that one with you today. We want you to have it. If you're looking at it going, ooh, sweet, new white Bible to go with my collection of three blue and white Bibles at home, that one can just be your Glen Forest Bible. Just leave that one here.
But the passage that we're looking at today is not your stereotypical Christmas passage. There's no baby, no shepherds, no angels bursting into robust chorus. In fact, this passage is recorded in all the Gospels the week before Jesus would go to the cross and rise from the grave. And so this is really kind of at the end of everything. And here's what we're looking for. This is what I want us to see today.
What does it look like to follow Jesus in his kingdom? So if we're going to be kingdom people, if we've decided to follow Jesus, what does it look like for us to follow him with our lives? And how does his example motivate our actions? And ultimately, how does that even like change our entire approach to life? So what does it look like to follow Jesus in his kingdom?
So Matthew chapter 20, and we'll be starting in verse 20. It says this, 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. So just to kind of set the scene, James and John come with their mom and they bow before Jesus.
And apparently their mother basically says, Can I ask you a question? Can I make a request of you? And Jesus allows her to. And she says, Grant that these sons of mine can sit in the positions of power and authority in your coming kingdom. Let them sit at your right hand and at your left hand. And it's kind of funny because the Gospels are filled with stories about James and John.
I mean, they even have nicknames. Their nicknames in the Gospels are the sons of thunder. And so we kind of see it throughout. But this one's particularly funny to me because they got their mama to go ask Jesus if they could be at his right hand and left hand. I mean, sons of thunder, more like mama's boys. Like, this is, I mean, you've got to imagine how this played out, right?
Hey, James, you know, you know who Jesus really, Jesus says a lot of hard stuff, but you know who he doesn't say hard stuff to all the time? Older women. Like, what if we got our mom to go and talk to Jesus? I mean, for real, that's how that played, that's how it played out. And what we know from the other Gospels is this question didn't originate from James and John. They put their mom up to this.
But regardless, they come before Jesus and say, the mom says, grant that my sons can sit at your right hand and at your left hand in your coming kingdom because these were positions of power. Let them have power and authority and influence in the coming kingdom. Seeing an opportunity to rise up in the ranks and have some power, they jumped on it. An opportunity to kind of get to the top. And the truth is, regardless of motivation, we're all kind of doing this in our lives if you think about it. Whether it's the opportunity to get like a promotion at work or to get a raise or maybe to get a better car or to get a better house or live in a different neighborhood.
And again, those things aren't bad in and of themselves, but I think intrinsically all of us kind of want to keep moving forward, keep achieving, keep having success is one of the things that Chet mentioned earlier in the announcements. Like, I think that's intrinsic to us because we live in a society that highly values those things. That's kind of what capitalism actually is. It's all about. It's getting to the top. It's climb the ladder of success, make the most money you can, get into the best school and get the most sought after degrees.
And in a lot of cases, regardless of what you have to do to get there. And I think that's part of the mystique behind Donald Trump being elected president. I think there were a lot of people that looked at Donald Trump and said, if he can grow this huge company and have business ventures across the world and have a last name that's synonymous with wealth and status, then of course, he can run the greatest nation in the free world. Because they look at that and they see that as kind of the pinnacle of human existence. Like, he's made it to the top. And the truth is when it comes to looking at power and authority, another term that you can throw up there that goes right along with it is wealth.
A lot of times, power and authority just kind of follow the money. And you can see that on a big scale. You can see it in the macro. So if you look at this last political cycle, you've had lots of conversations about how Wall Street and politics kind of played out. Like, what were the relationships between CEOs and the people who were running for president? Any business, the waitstaff makes less money, has less authority than the shift manager, than the manager, than the owner, than the regional vice president, than someone who's on the board, than the CEO.
It just kind of, it's a, you follow the money and you kind of find where the power and authority are. And even, and even that can be true in our lives. Like, even on the small scale. So if you've, if you've got maybe a little bit more money and a little bit more standing, maybe you can live in a different neighborhood. Maybe you can get a better Job and have more authority. And so even, even on the small scale, you can see how that affords you a little bit more opportunity.
And while James and John live in a completely different culture than ours, their, their question is still at the, at the heart of what we're going after too. James and John seeing an opportunity to kind of rise up in the ranks, to, to move their way to the top, to have more authority, more influence, seeing that opportunity, they jumped on it. So let's, let's see how Jesus responds. Verse 22. Jesus answered, you do not know what you are asking. Which is, which is actually a very gracious response from Jesus because he, he does know what they're asking.
And he's simply just pointing out that they don't, they don't know. They don't know what he knows. That there's obviously a disconnect between what power and authority look like in Jesus's kingdom and what his disciples actually expect it to be. He continues on. He says, you don't know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?
And they said to him, we are able. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? Now that's not like a, a turn of phrase that we would use nowadays. So we have to unpack that just a little bit. All throughout the Bible, the cup is basically used to represent someone's like God-ordained destiny. What God had for their lives.
And so if you look in the Psalms, you'll see the cup representative of like blessing or salvation. And then other times you'll see it has more of a negative connotation where it's like God's wrath or disaster. And more often than not, the cup is going to have some connotation along with it that deals with like suffering and trial and hardship. And Jesus, Jesus asked him, he says, are you able to drink from the cup? And they said, they said we are. So regardless of what James and John know at this point, so regardless of, of, of what they understand the cup to be, they respond that they're able to.
That whatever it takes to get to the top, whatever it takes to be Jesus's right-hand men, James and John are saying, we're in, we'll do this. Whatever path we have to walk, whatever we have to do, we are in. Jesus responds to him, verse 23. He said to them, you will drink my cup, 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. He says to them, you will drink my cup. Whatever that cup means, you're going to drink that cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left hand is not mine to decide.
My Father is going to decide that. And so, hang on to that little bit about James and John drinking the cup, but you've got to imagine at this point, they're disappointed. So they come with this expectation of, of maybe getting elevated to this position and it just doesn't work out for them. Jesus says that it's, it's not, it's not for them. It's not going to work out. It's not as they plan.
And then verse 24 adds to it, it says this, and when the 10 heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. The 10 being the other disciples. Okay, James and John were two of the 12 disciples and when the 10 heard it, it says they were indignant. These guys were ticked. And rightly so, I mean, think about this. Think about all that James and John and the rest of the disciples have gone through.
A lot of these guys even knew James and John before they became disciples. And so, I mean, they've walked with Jesus. They've, they've heard him teach. They've, they've gotten to be a part of these miracles and experiencing all this together. And now they're trying to jump ahead of them, trying to get to a place where even maybe they're ruling over the other 10 disciples. And they're ticked.
I mean, I would be, and I think there's a little bit of us when we read that, it's kind of like, for real? That's what you guys are doing? And the passage doesn't tell us like that they became friends immediately after that, like it wasn't all okay when Jesus stepped in. I mean, there's probably some time. But honestly, I hope, they made up.
But honestly, I hope that the disciples, the rest of the disciples never let them live that down. Like, never. James looks at Peter and says, where's Jesus off to? I don't know. Why don't you ask your mama? I mean, like, the appropriate amount of forgiveness and the appropriate level of mockery.
I feel like that probably embodies Mill City. Pretty good bit there. But regardless, Jesus saw an opportunity to teach. He saw an opportunity to correct an understanding of what it meant to be a disciple in his kingdom, what it meant to be a follower in his kingdom. And even more than that, what does it mean to be a leader and have power and authority in his kingdom? He says this in verse 25.
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. Jesus says, you know, I.e. I don't really have to explain this to you. You know how the rulers treat the people who are underneath them. See, Israel was occupied by Rome at the time.
So whether it's governors or administrators or maybe it was people that were in charge of the Roman military, they constantly had their authority lorded over them. It was forced on them. Like it was for shameful gain. It was oppressive misuse. Most of the leaders were just trying to, again, climb the ladder of success or just make the person who's above them happy. And he said, it shall not be so among you.
And the truth is, in a lot of ways, our culture is like this too. That's why most of us are kind of wary of politicians or people who are in like places of authority and leadership and really don't want to do it. They say, because we've seen this all too regularly. We've seen deceit and manipulation and lies and corruption, which is why we're kind of wary of people who are in leadership. And what's interesting is, even though we know that's true, what we just admitted earlier is that all of us are trying to claw our way to the top to get there. To get to that place where we know that there's abuse and misuse of authority.
But Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no. It shall not be so among you. Jesus isn't against all types of authority and influence. He's just exposing what oppressive misuse looks like. And he says, no, no, there's another way. There's another way that my disciples are to act.
He's got a different definition of what it looks like. Pick it back up, beginning of verse 26. He says, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be your slave. Here's what Jesus says. He says, greatness in his kingdom isn't measured by dollar bills or the number of people who call you boss.
He begins by saying it's about being a servant. servant. Not like a server at a restaurant. He says, servant of the servant class where your life is leveraged for whoever is above you. And to clarify, he takes it a step further. He says, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave. I mean, that's picturesque.
That's service and slavery. And if you're putting it in terms of their day, he's saying that authority and power in his kingdom look way more like working long hours in the field or washing a visitor's feet when they come in from a long journey. It's way more like taking garbage out to the dung heap or cleaning a cattle stall. And you've got to imagine at this point, James and John are listening to Jesus talk. They come to Jesus with this expectation of we want to be in power and authority. And they're kind of like raising their hands at this point going, um, excuse me, I, when, when we came to you and we're talking about this, we, we, we just thought that you would be on a really big cushy seat and we, we would, we would also get cushy seats, not as big as your cushy seat because you'd be in the middle, but we'd be on the right and left and maybe, maybe the things you're saying would be what people do for us.
And Jesus says, no, you've, you've got it backwards. It's as if he's looking at them and saying, hey guys, remember, remember when you were a fisherman? Before I called you, remember when you were a fisherman? Greatness in my kingdom doesn't look like the person who owns the boat, looks way more like the peon who carries the nets off the boat and then goes back and scrubs fish guts off the deck. See, here's the problem. It's the, it's the same problem for them as it is for us.
While we read this passage and see exactly what Jesus is talking about, while we understand that a life of serving others and putting others first is, is noble and it's good and it's what Jesus did for us, we're bombarded on a regular basis with thousands of other messages that say the complete opposite. Our, our culture says, you do you, do whatever makes you happy. Whoever you've got to push down to get to the top, do that. It's all about you. It's all about autonomy. That's what Chet was talking about just a little bit ago.
It's about self. We, we use this metaphor a lot and I think it's helpful here that if our culture and what our culture values is like a driving, pouring rain and you as a Christian have an umbrella, you can't help but get wet. There are going to be times when we're so overwhelmed by what our, our culture teaches that even though we understand what Jesus is saying that it's about others, it's about serving them and putting their interests first and sacrificing for them, we can't help but let this little bit just kind of trickle into our lives while we're all going, no, no, no, serve and give our lives for others. It can trickle in.
Let me give you an example of how it does this. If you're a part of a community group, I want you to think about your group for a second. Has the thought ever popped in your mind, I wish I was in another group or maybe this, I wish I was a part of my old group maybe something like this. I would go hang out with my group but they're just not really meeting my needs. I would be open and honest but that person monopolizes all the time with all the problems they have going on. It's subtle but deadly.
At the time that we're looking at what Jesus says about serving and putting others first and that's what Raz and Josh have articulated so well the last two weeks about putting others first. It can creep in. Even though we understand what Jesus is calling us to, it can creep in. So the question becomes, how do we do that? What's our motivation? How do we begin to approach life in the same way that Jesus does and what he's calling us to?
Verse 28. In fact, we'll back it all the way up to 26 and just read the whole chunk. He said, 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 you must be your, you must, sorry, 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. Jesus said, Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus, the one who the disciples realized was worthy of all honor and all praise and all glory who would one day sit on a throne said he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom.
Like he sets the example. He puts others first. He is the one who is generous and he would do so by giving his life as a ransom for many. And in that statement, Jesus sets out and shows us what his mission has been from the very beginning. He didn't come to set up an earthly throne. He's going to have a throne but it's by way of a cross and it's an eternal throne.
It wasn't to be set up here. The reason that Jesus had to go to a cross is because we had a debt that we could not pay. That we could not overcome outside of his sacrifice for us. that when Jesus is talking about that cup in a couple of verses up, he's talking about the cup of God's wrath. When Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, God, he said, Father, if this cup can be taken from me, let it be. But if not, your will be done and not mine.
Jesus went to the cross because he had put, he put us first. It was about sacrificing himself for us. And so when he says he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom, we're beginning to understand that Jesus is the king of an upside down kingdom where our culture says that moving up is where greatness is. Jesus says, no, no, no. Greatness is by moving down from service to slavery and even to death. Greatness, success, and wealth, and prominence isn't measured the same way.
It's not about sitting beside him but following behind him. And the essence of what Jesus is saying this morning, this is what I want us to walk away with and realize. We could not get to God. We couldn't. We could not get to God not by our morals, not by behaving, not by anything. We could not get to God so God came to us.
It was a rescue mission. That's what we're celebrating at Christmas is that God came to us. He came as a missionary. Think about that for a minute that Jesus who spoke everything that is into existence is now in the form of a baby staring at sheep and cows in a manger in the backwoods middle of nowhere. The king of the universe humbled himself and came but he didn't stay a baby forever. He would go to a cross where he would die.
He would die for us. He would die for our sins so that we could follow after him. So the question becomes how do you respond to that? Like how do you respond to what Jesus says in these verses? We follow after him. We respond by following after Jesus in the same way that he did for us because Jesus came on a mission for us we go on a mission for others.
That rather than buying into the it's all about me nonsense that we get from our culture especially at Christmas we get to make it about others. Jesus looked at James and John and he told them you are you're going to drink the cup that I'm going to and what we know that after Jesus ascends into heaven that James and John are some of the leaders of the early church and they went out they went out from Jerusalem pursuing people spreading the gospel and for the people that were followers of Jesus it didn't always go well there were persecutions and beatings and there was jail time and some of them ended up murdered. James would be murdered for his faith and John they tried to kill John church history tells us and it didn't work and so they exiled him to an island where he would die. Service slavery and death but what James and John realized is all that Jesus had done for them and so the rest of their lives got to be this humble grateful response to what Jesus had done.
Here's the deal I want you to think about this for a second. The reason that you're sitting here this morning is because Jesus came on a mission for us and then somebody responded to Jesus' call to be on mission for others. Think about the person who told you about Jesus. If you're not a Christian think about who has invited you to hang out with our church because Jesus came on a mission and others have responded to that mission since. That's why you're sitting in this room. That's what Christmas is all about is that God came for us because we could not get to him.
So our response is not to make it all about us but to turn our eyes outward and to go and to pursue others. Our response is to have the same posture as our king. And this is so freeing. This is so freeing when we don't have to buy into everything that our culture tells us. That rising to the top that having the most money or being successful that everything else that our culture tells us to chase after isn't going to isn't going to fill us up. Isn't going to bring us joy.
And if it brings us happiness it's only temporary. But Jesus calls you into a relationship with him where he served and sacrificed and died for you. And so our response gets to be that we approach life in the same way. We're all mission to see more and more people become Christians and we go to them. Which means that your entire approach to life changes. It means you're a missionary at work.
It means when your boss asks you to do something that's degrading or menial or below your pay grade you do it. Because you're just there to serve. That when you notice someone skipping work for the second day in a row you go to them and say hey can I treat you to lunch? And instead of going to McDonald's to the value menu like you take them to Moe's. Or if you're really rolling you take them to Chipotle where they can pay more and get worse food. But you treat them.
When you realize that a co-worker's been sick all week you leave work and you go get some soup and you drive it to their house. That's going to people. It means you're a missionary in your neighborhood. If you've got a crabby neighbor that always is yelling at you about your dog using the bathroom on their lawn even though your dog's in a fence and never comes out of the fence. Can't be your dog. If you look out the window on a Saturday and see them working on their shed it means that maybe you sacrifice some of your time and you go help them.
Maybe you realize that there's a lady that's in her late 80s who can't drive that's down the street but just needs someone to come sit and to talk with her. It means we give up some of our time and we go to them. It means we're missionaries in our city especially to those that are less fortunate than us because that's who Jesus went to. Jesus went to the people who needed help that were kind of outcasts from the society. That's why we spend time trying to help people that are often just kind of neglected and forgotten. That's why we spend time at Gentle Pines because it's a part of our city that has kind of just been forgotten and overlooked and we want to go in there and tell them that we love them and that Jesus loves them and that we want them to be a part of our family.
It's why we've partnered with Samaritans well this year. We want the women and the children there to know that we love them and care about them and Jesus loves them and we're willing to leverage time and resources so that they know that. I've been so encouraged. I've had two separate group leaders in the last couple of weeks tell me that they kind of want to be in line to partner with Samaritans well long term. That's so encouraging. Man, that is so encouraging to see our church family turning our eyes outward and looking at the people that God has placed us around.
But it's all of life, guys. It's every second of every day realizing that you exist for the benefit of others. That you don't have to find your worth and your joy and your value in meeting all of your needs and making it all about you because it's ultimately bankrupt and you have everything you will ever need in Jesus which means that we get to turn our eyes out and like everything we do as a church family we get to do it together. We get to do it with our community groups that our friends and our neighbors and our coworkers we're trying to reach them for Jesus and build relationships but we get to invite our community groups into that.
And so here's I've got two ways I want us to respond this morning. Two ways that we can respond to Jesus' call to go out and to see more people become Christians and as we do it to meet people's needs. Two ways we can do that. The first one is that we do. We actually meet people's physical needs. Jesus went and he healed the sick and he spent time with those who were in poverty like Jesus met real needs and so his church meets real needs.
You can meet real needs today by giving to Samaritan's Well. I've been so proud of our church family so far and I know that we can continue to give. We've got the envelope set up over there. You can write a check. You can put cash. You can drop it in the gift box.