and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave—Whoever desires to be first among you shall be your bondservant,And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:and whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant:
5 sermons cite this verse
I titled today's message, The Way Up is Down. In Matthew chapter 20, verses 26 to 27, Jesus said, It is not so among you, but whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. notice jesus says there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be successful in life there's nothing wrong with wanting to be great but what jesus said is if you really want to be great and important and significant you need to follow a different path to success than that which the world offers for example the world says look out for number one jesus says look out for others The world says, destroy your opposition. Jesus says, love your opposition. The world says, hold on to your rights. Don't let them go. Jesus said, let go of your rights. The world says, if you want to be great, rule other people. Jesus said, if you want to be great, serve other people. …
… has to do with the subject we're looking at today. In Matthew chapter 20, verses 26 to 27, Jesus said, It is not so among you, but whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant. And whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Notice Jesus says there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be successful in life. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be great. But what Jesus said is if you really want to be great and important and significant, you need to follow a different path to success than that which the world offers. For example, the world says, look out for number one. Jesus says, look out for others. The world says, destroy your opposition. Jesus says, love your opposition. The world says, hold on to your rights. Don't let them go. Jesus said, let go of your rights. The world says, if you want to be great, rule other people. Jesus said, if you want to be great, serve other people. …
Tell me you weren't paying attention without telling me you weren't paying attention. And so Jesus reiterates, Matthew 20, verse 27, whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, what did he do? He came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Number three, don't get over it. Don't get over it. Don't get over it. Don't get over what? You didn't see it? Verse 13, the vineyard owner called the 6am Christians friend. Friend. friend. He didn't just bring them to his vineyard to work. This is astoundingly out of keeping with the cultural norms of the day. He brought them into relationship with him. He calls you his friend. Oh, what? The creator of the world. The king of kings and the Lord of lords. You want to stay 5 p.m. everywhere all the time? Just remind yourself, pinch yourself, I'm the friend of God. God is my friend. …
… The Greek word is diakonos. Whoever wants to be first among you will be your slave, doulos. Now what Jesus is pointing out here is the paradox of greatness. This is how he's redefining what greatness looks like. So he's gonna speak about this in a number of ways in the gospels. He's gonna say in the Beatitudes, the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the meek or the poor in spirit or the humble. He's gonna say the first shall be last and the last shall be first in the kingdom of God. He's gonna demonstrate this a week later when he washes his disciples' feet at the Last Supper. And he's gonna say, you see what I'm doing? I've taken the role of a slave. Now I'm modeling for you how you're meant to live as my followers, as my disciples. He lives this message out, this paradox out by caring for the nobodies, the marginalized, the low lives in society. And as I've said here before, thinking about that great Garth Brooks song, Jesus had friends in low places. …
… is what he's saying, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Do y'all see that right there? Are y'all following me? Have I confused you yet? Okay, let me try a little harder. Jesus is dialoguing with his disciples and here's what he is saying. If you're going to be a part of my kingdom and you want to be great, there's so much discussion about who is the greatest and who's going to be great and who wants to be great. There are three words he uses to define what can't constitute a person being great. And these are three words I want you to evaluate about your own life. Go ahead, lean over to your neighbor and say he's talking to you. the first one is in verse 26 are y'all with me in verse number 26 he says yet it shall not be so among you but whoever desires to become great somebody say desires can i stick can i stop right there god doesn't condemn them for wanting to be great I want to be great. …