Amen. Please be seated. May the Lord make it so. Let me invite you to turn in your Bible this morning to Matthew chapter 20 verses 20 through 28.
We continue our study of this wonderful count of the good news according to Matthew. And we've seen of late Jesus says that in the kingdom of heaven, many who are first will be last and the last first. And it reminds us that his kingdom doesn't play to self-serving human expectations. That in the eyes of the world, it's an upside down kingdom, which of course it's right side up and the world is upside down.
A few weeks ago, verses 1 to 16, we heard him illustrate this principle in the story of the day laborers. And some only began working at the very last hour of the day, yet were compensated first and received an entire day's wage for one-twelfth or less of the work, way beyond anything they could have ever done to earn it or deserve it. And that because the king of the kingdom is generous and open handed and gives freely what his servants don't merit but are given as a gift to whomever he wants, whenever he wants. And then last week in verses 17 to 19, we heard Jesus speak of going up to Jerusalem where he will be betrayed, arrested, crucified, mocked, flogged and killed so that he who is first in the kingdom of heaven, he himself chooses to be last to bear the greatest burden of the work of the kingdom for our benefit.
Now this morning, verses 20 through 28, we hear again along this theme, the first shall be last. The last first, we hear interestingly of two very ambitious, and as it turns out proud and self-serving disciples seeking high places of authority and power and honor in his kingdom. And then we hear of the anger and indignation and while the jealousy of ten other of his disciples do frankly want the high places for themselves. And we hear of Jesus who teaches us that the greatest in his kingdom must be the servant of all, which invites us Christians to ask what kind of servants in his kingdom are we seeking to be.
And if you're not a Christian today, we're glad that you're here. We'd invite you to consider this message that Christ saves freely and those whom he saves, he brings into his household, the household of God, the kingdom of God, for meaningful work in his kingdom, where all the rewards are of grace. We invite you to be part of that kingdom this day. But how should Christians who are in the kingdom think of their service of him?
Let me invite you to consider it from Matthew 20 verses 20 to 28. This is the holy and inspired Word of God. 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.
Why don't you right hand and want at your left in your kingdom? Jesus answered, you do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? They said to him, we are able.
And 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. And when the 10 heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers, but Jesus called them to him and said, you know, that you're not going to be able to drink the cup. You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded 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, amen. This is the word of God. May he write it on our hearts.
Let's look to him in prayer. Our Father in heaven through your son grant that what we know not you would teach us and what we have not you would give to us and what we are not you would make of us in Jesus name. Amen. Being great in the kingdom of Christ is good as Jesus suggests.
Why be mediocre? Why be ineffective and inconsequential? Why would you want to aim for that? So what does it mean to be great in the kingdom of God?
Let's ask three questions. And by the way, some of you who have incredible memories will recall that we studied this passage a year and a half ago as we looked at church officers and the general office of service as a Christian. But assuming most of you have no idea what I preach back then, we're walking through it again. What are the three questions we want to ask?
Well, what isn't greatness in the kingdom of God and how hard is greatness in the kingdom of God and what is it? Those are the three questions. Now first, notice in verses 20 and 21 how this all comes up before we get to those questions. Notice how it comes up verse 20, then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him, Jesus with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked him for something.
And he said to her, what do you want? And she said to him, say that these two sons of mine are to sit, want at your right hand and want at your left in your kingdom. Well, now who is this woman and who are these sons to seek the highest places of honor in the kingdom of Jesus? Well, the men are the sons of Zebedee, James and John.
John is the apostle John. That's how we know him, the writer of the Gospel of John, the first, second, and third John, and of the book of Revelation. We, I think, often associate John as the apostle of love because on the one hand he spoke of himself as being the apostle who Jesus loved, and I'll admit Sinclair Ferguson recently changed my mind on what he meant by that. He wasn't in any way claiming some unusual experience better than the love Jesus had for his other disciples, but he was just remarking out of the humility of being loved by Jesus, and he identified himself in his heart.
As the one loved by Jesus as every disciple can identify themselves. But in any case, John is the one who gave us in his words, you know, beloved, let us love one another. For love is from God, and God is love. So we think of him as the apostle of love, but you know Jesus in his earthly ministry called, well, he and his brother James, the sons of thunder.
And it was not because of their love. Well, at one point, you know, these two brothers had been with Jesus when Samaritan Village had not shown them hospitality and in a desire for revenge. They asked Jesus, shall we call down fire from heaven to consume them? And Jesus of course said, well, no, don't do that, then rebuke them, and they didn't.
And then that's, well, that's John here at this point. And then there's this brother James that says, and we know very little about this James. In fact, he never appears in the Bible or the Gospels apart from his brother John in any single incident. It's always the two together.
They're inseparable. James and John, his brother, they're called until you get to the book of Acts where James himself is killed and singled out. We see that. But James is mentioned first, always before his brother John, and that maybe because James is the elder brother of John, and that would make sense.
It could also be because he was somehow the leader of the two, more prominent than his brother. That's possible. But this is the James who did not write the New Testament book of James. That's James the brother of the Lord Jesus himself, but this James and this John are the sons of Zebedee.
And they were a fishing family from the northern parts of Israel along the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. And we know from the Gospel records that Zebedee, their father, actually had many servants, so that they were serving in the family business as commercial fishermen. And they had servants working with them in the boats in that industry. And so it's probable that they had a fairly decent upbringing in terms of economic prosperity within the family.
If you can afford to have your sons employed and servants employed in the work, and you own the business, you're probably doing okay. In the book of Acts we learn that Herod had this James put to death around AD 44, and John, you remember his brother, was exiled to the island of Patmos. But for now, here they are. Here they are at the feet of Jesus.
And well, as Matthew tells us, they're there with their mother, Salome. She's probably the sister or half-sister of Mary. I can walk you through that rabbit trail to find that later if you want to know. And so the men are likely cousins of some kind to Jesus.
And she asks the question that, well, as her boys are with her. But of course it's clear that it's coming from them. They're also with her, but Mom's doing the talking. And Jesus in his answer speaks directly to the boys, not so much directly to her.
So you can imagine that John and James have conspired to figure out how they're going to get leverage with Jesus for a favorable answer. And the idea comes to them, well, let's not ask him ourselves, but let's get Mom to do it, because after all, Mom's his aunt. And aunts are hard to say no to, you know. And so his aunt is asking him a favor on behalf of her sons.
And here they are, the sons of thunder. Ready to call down fire on Samaritans who insulted them with an overwhelming retaliation. Anxious to be in the highest places in the kingdom of Jesus, they want to, it seems, to use Jesus for their own glory instead of letting Jesus well make use of them for his glory. They want to be at the right hand.
They want to be at the left hand when he comes into his glory. And here they are. Think how insensitive they are. Jesus has just told them he's going to be betrayed and arrested and condemned and mocked and flogged and crucified.
Yes, he had said, and I will rise on the third day, but they seem to overlook how miserably horrible it's going to be for Jesus, but they're very self-interested in how great it's going to be for them. So we might say this, if you ever find yourself as a disciple of Jesus saying dumb, outrageous, arrogant, unkind, prideful, cowardly, self-exalting, or otherwise contrary to the gospel kinds of things, well, you're in good company. The whole, the first disciples of the apostles of Jesus. But you're also not without hope.
Jesus is very patient to knuckleheads like us. And like them, he's patient with them, he instructs them, he teaches them, he's kind to them. Unless we think that James and John are all bad, as I mentioned, they did seem to believe Jesus when he said he had a kingdom and that it was going to be a glorious kingdom. Maybe here, there's a hint that they caught the resurrection side of things, and they want to know when that kingdom comes, you know, how great is it going to be for us?
That's the, well, I suppose the selfish side of it, but at least they believe there's a kingdom. Maybe they believe Jesus back in chapter 19, when he said, truly, I say to you, in the new world or at the regeneration of all things, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel, verse 29, who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. So there's this mix in these disciples of belief and yet still needing to be rebuked, and that sounds a lot like us as disciples of Jesus. I believe Lord, help my unbelief, I believe Lord forgive, all that's wrong in me.
In any case, they want to be great in the kingdom of God, and Jesus tells them what it isn't. Well, it's not what James and John are doing, asking that one could sit on the right and one on the left in the place of honor and influence and power and authority to be seated as it were higher than others, than Peter or Matthew or Thomas or Andrew or Philip or all the rest, you know how they might have thought of it, those chumps. And that takes a lot of nerve. It takes a lot of gumption and a sense of self-importance and a self-centered ambition to be wanting to be recognized and honored in that way.
And they make a couple of really big mistakes. Obviously one is they really mistook the nature of the kingdom of heaven. They thought that kingdom that Jesus was talking about and his reign was going to happen soon, maybe even in the next few days after all Jesus said, we're going up to Jerusalem. And maybe they thought, well, you know, after a bump in the road, here it comes, and let's, you know, jockey for our position now.
Let's get on those 12 thrones now, Jesus, and let's be closest to you in them. And somehow they overlooked or didn't sufficiently contemplate the suffering that must come before the glory, the humiliation that must come before the exaltation of their king. It doesn't seem to have registered in their minds that Jesus, whom they love, but not nearly enough, is just going to have a terrible time of it. And so they don't seem sympathetic to what it will cost him, and they have clearly no idea what following him will cost them.
And then secondly, they mistook the nature of kingdom greatness. They thought greatness was directly tied to their apostleship, the office that Jesus had given them, and the position or rank they had within the apostles. So they want to be elevated above the other ten. And they think of greatness the way that Gentiles do, that is non-Christians do, that is the way the world thinks of greatness.
And we know that. They think of it that way because Jesus extensively then talks about how the Gentiles think of greatness and then says, but it is not so in my kingdom. And they need to be told that. So they think that having a position of importance is, well, something that makes them important.
In the higher position, the greater your importance, and the higher your profile, the more power you yield, the greater you must be. They think having a title and holding an office and wielding power and authority makes them great and is the path to true greatness. And so they're asking for the inside track on the thrones and the closest places to Jesus. And in that they're thinking like pagans.
They evidently have not yet understood as they will one day. What all Christians need to understand is that our importance and our value and our worth to God is not based on or measured by the places we have been able to do. It is based on the love of the Father who gave his son and the love of the Son for us, who gave himself for us. And we need to base our sense of worth and value and importance to God upon the Gospel and the love of Christ.
So there's not a minor misunderstanding going on here, so it's Lee and Morris, but an error at the heart than of what service in the kingdom means. Pagans, after all, as Jesus indicates, they want to be lords over people, the Gentiles, the way the world works. People want to rule the roost. They want the levers of control and power.
They want to be able to hire and fire. They want to be known for doing it. They want to be recognized. They want to walk into a room.
And all eyes turn to heaven. People say, oh, they're here. They want to be rewarded for it. They want the promotion and the compensation and the balance of the power of the people.
And the promotion and the compensation and the benefit package befitting their high opinion of themselves. This is the way the world works. So Jesus said to them, you have utterly misunderstood the kingdom of heaven and greatness in it. You're jockeying for position with one another, and the reason you're jockeying for position is you don't understand my kingdom, and you have no idea what you're asking for when you ask for greatness in it.
And so this passage, of course, rebukes are selfish ambition, even in spiritual things. None of us, of course, are immune to the problem of pride, and none of us are immune from the desire to be lifted up above others. And that's true not outside of the church, though it's true. That's true inside the church and in the kingdom of heaven, as sin remains, as depravity and twistedness remains.
We long to be first and to be noticed and to be patted on the back, and Jesus is speaking to that problem among his people. And as another illustrated it, it was what they were doing and coming and falling at the feet of Jesus on the cusp of the Jerusalem cross, was kind of like this. Imagine you were on a landing craft, coming ashore on the beaches of Normandy at the height of the most decisive moment in World War II, and bullets are flying past everybody's head, and bombs are bursting, and people are dying everywhere, and you, as a private, walk up to the commanding general and say to him, excuse me, sir, I was wondering if, you know, when we get the ticker tape parade for our victory today, could I ride as the guest of honor next to you in the front seat? I mean, how inappropriate.
And that's what James and John and their mother were doing, how inappropriate. They had barely entered the contest, and they're already talking about the position they'll have in the conquest and the celebration. So Jesus says, you don't understand? And that, as many have said, and we've said before, that the cross comes before the crown, that humiliation comes before exaltation, that his sufferings comes before his glory, and that was true not only for the redeemer, but no servant is greater than his master, and in this world we too have yet days of suffering and days of humiliation and days of seeming defeat before that glorious day of exaltation and glorification.
So they get greatness in the kingdom of heaven wrong. Now, second question we want to ask is, well, how hard is greatness in the kingdom of heaven then, verses 22 and 23? And Jesus answered them, you do not know what you were asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?
And they said, we are able. And he said to them, you will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand, and that my left is not mind to grant, but it is for whom it has been prepared by my Father. Now he calls it a cup. What does that mean?
It's a reference to the prophets. The prophets periodically spoke of the cup of the Lord. I say 51 verse 17 actually says this. It speaks of you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord, the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs, the bowl, the cup of swaggering.
What's this cup of swaggering, this cup of wrath, but the cup that Jesus spoke of in that garden of Gethsemane as he contemplated his sufferings and said, Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. The cup that Jesus will drink upon the cross when he drinks to the dregs, the just wrath of God due to sinners and drinks in our place. Giving then verse 28 his life as a ransom for many. That's the effect of his drinking the cup.
He pays the debt owed for sin, the debt due to us, and pays it in our place on our back to free us from bondage to destruction, to drink the cup of the Lord's wrath, to satisfy divine justice, to rescue us from the curse of a broken law, and to rescue us from death, and to rescue us from hell. He takes what we deserve, and he drinks from that cup to the dregs of the very last drop. So you can see why Jesus said to them, you do not know what you are asking. They still didn't understand.
And he says to them, knowing of course their ignorance, are you able to drink the cup that I drink? So can you imagine how they reflected upon this in months and years later when they so quickly said in their reply, we are able? Now, they learned quickly after his resurrection that they could not do what only Jesus could do for them. But they're sort of, well, flippant and foolish, certainly it seems quick to reply because they have no idea what Jesus will suffer on their behalf, that he'll take up his cross and do this for them.
Now, in verse 23, Jesus does reply to them as part of his reply, you will drink my cup. And so what is he saying? Jesus is not saying what the rest of the Bible clearly is also not saying that we somehow drink ourselves a portion of the wrath of God due to us. We could not bear that.
That's not the kind of cup he has in mind when he speaks of their, sharing in a cup. But it is the cup of suffering. It is a cup that they themselves as his people will also suffer, not to satisfy divine justice, but as followers of Jesus in a world that hates him, which will also hate them, they will endure great hardship in this life on his behalf. We've already told you, John was flogged and then exiled and James was martyred.
And so it is for every one of his people in our own way. I think Derek Thomas is right when he points us to 1 Corinthians 4 to illustrate this kind of suffering experience. That is in the context of the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, they had kind of developed a popularity scale among the apostles and preachers of the Lord's Church. You know, once I follow Apollos and once I follow Peter, so I'm better than you and another son I follow Paul that's better than you and another son I follow Christ.
Y'all are following man, but I alone follow Jesus. And in response to that kind of attitude, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4 and 9, I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. So Paul has in mind by that word spectacle, he hasn't mind actually a returning Roman army victorious from battle, coming back and leading the parade as they enter the city are first of all the generals and the commanders and those who have distinguished themselves in battle and been awarded. Their laurel wreaths and their flowers thrown at their feet and the people cheer for them and the warriors and then would come all the regular troops and most people would be looking is that my father's, that my uncle is that my cousin and they would cheer and welcome them home safe and then following in that train would be the prisoners.
I mean the defeated leaders of the conquered nation and you would, well like a crowd might do boo and hiss at them and then right at the end at the very tail would come the condemned man who were on their way to be thrown to the lions or to be forced to fight and die as a man. They would fight and die as gladiators, demoralized men covered in mud and filth that had been thrown at them bruised and bleeding from rocks people hurled at them torn by the savage dogs that had been released on them and certainly cut up by the battle wounds they'd suffered, these despised ones last of all. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians that's us, that's the apostles, a spectacle to the world and angels and men beat up worn out, misunderstood, despised, mocked, rejected, unappreciated, hated, hated by the world and so says Derek Thomas to James and John as it were, get those haughty peacock feathers down and humble yourself into the mighty hand of God and let him exalt you in do time. Take up your cross, the instrument of death and follow Jesus dying to yourself for his sake.
And so it's ironic, they ask Jesus for a throne on either side of him and he says here's what you'll get, you'll get the cup of suffering as you follow me. And that's the shape of Christian greatness, it will cost you, greatness in the kingdom of heaven is marked by self-sacrifice, not self-indulgence says Eric Alexander. And so then let's ask, okay what is it then, spell out this greatness in verse 24 and that's where we'll conclude. When the 10 heard of it, that is the appeal of the mom, they were indignant at the two brothers, verse 24 and verse 25, Jesus called them to him.
So you all gather around them, you know that the rulers of the Gentile put over them and they're ground ones, as 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. So James and John have stirred up a hornet's nest. The other 10 are indignant, they're angry, and you can see it, they're jealous, they want those positions themselves.
Who are you that want to be closer than us, higher than us? And Jesus says, you know what, true greatness in my kingdom isn't like that. It doesn't run to the front of the line, it runs to the back of the line. It doesn't seek its own reputation and honor, it seeks the honor and reputation of he who came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.
It seeks to love him by serving him and his people at the lowest places at the table. You don't need a title then or an office or a position or recognition to be great in the kingdom of Jesus. Your name may simply be on the nursery duty list that nobody ever reads, but you love the least of these out of love for Jesus and his people. And one day when we all get to heaven, Jesus will shame none of his people, he took our shame.
We'll bear no guilt, he has taken our guilt, but we will see that it is in so many cases, those completely almost utterly unknown to the body of Christ, who are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, while pastors and teachers and professors and authors and missionaries who have biographies written about them. Well it turns out for some of them and praise the Lord not all, they did the whole thing chiefly for themselves and for their honor and for their reputation and for their glory. Look, I don't mean instantly and certainly genuinely out of love for Jesus, but terribly mixed and motive and desire and ambition, whereas the humblest servant in the Church of the Lord Jesus out of love for Jesus serves in hard places, remote places, unacknowledged places, and they are great in the kingdom of heaven. Think of the widow who gave two small copper coins, all that she had, nobody gave as much as her, Jesus says, she gave more than all of them, and he was paying attention.
And so in the world's mind, the higher your office, the greater you are, but in Christchurch, it's not that way. J.C. Riles says, true greatness consists not in receiving but in giving, not in selfish absorption of good things, but imparting good to others, not in being served but in serving, not in sitting still and being ministered to, but in going about and ministering to others. It's a ministry that calls us to die to ourselves, to live for Christ who died for us, who came to give his life as a ransom for many, not to be served, but to serve and serve us.
He's first, and the first made himself last, and so we worship him as highest of all and worthy of the greatest of honor. Let's do so. Father, thank you for your Son, Lord Jesus, we bow before you, and declare you Lord, and God, and Savior, and King, and delight that you are the servant of your people, the Savior of mankind. Oh, help us to see you, and then grant us to become more like you, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Together, and sing his praise.