Monday 24 September 2018

A Lesson in Servanthood - 16 September 2018


“Who is the Greatest?”
Luke 9:46-50 (SBC, Sligo IE)
16 September 2018

INTRODUCTION:
            In the 90s, there was a craze in the USA and in many other parts of the world of Christians wearing brightly colored plastic bracelets with the initials, “W.W.J.D.” It stood for “What Would Jesus Do?” The movement was fueled in large part by a rediscovery of Charles Sheldon’s wonderful old 1896 novel, In His Steps, which was subtitled, “What Would Jesus DO?” It is the story of a Christian man who decided to live his life always asking that question before making any kind of decision. After reading the book millions of Christians started wearing those bracelets and trying to have their behaviour guided by that probing question.
            Now I am not trying to make light of that, but I would simply point out that perhaps the real question should be, “What would Jesus THINK?” For you see, attitude determines action, and belief governs behaviour. What we do is an extension of what we believe to be true. In other words, Jesus’ doing was always predetermined by His clear vision of who He was and His unshakable understanding of what He believed.
            This morning we will see Jesus trying to straighten out His disciples and help them see that being great in God’s Kingdom looks differently than being a great person in this world. He will try to correct their thinking, which, in turn, will correct their behaviour. Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 9:46-50.

TRANSITION:
            Last Sunday Matthew explained the fact that the four Gospel writers seldom if ever include all the same details in their accounts of the teachings and miracles of Jesus. An illustration of this could be four different people standing on four corners of an intersection when a parade passes by. Each observer watching the same parade would tend to notice different details, and their writeups of the parade would be colored by their own experience and the things that caught their eye. In the same way, only by comparing the various Gospel accounts do we get the full picture. That was true of last week’s study and it is true of the passage we are looking at today. And again, as with last week, Luke’s account of these events is the briefest of the three.
           
MAIN BODY:
Verse 46: An argument started among the [disciples] as to which of them might be the greatest.
·         Luke does not give us any background information or lead-in. He just tells us that an argument broke out between the twelve apostles about which of them was the most important. However, Mark’s account in 9:33-34 gives us a little bit more information: “They came to Capernaum; and when [Jesus] was in the house, He began to question [the disciples], ‘What were you discussing on the way?’ 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest.” As strange as it might seem, this was apparently a common topic of conversation among these guys (cf. here and in 22:24; Matt. 18:1-5; Mark 9:33-37). We would like to think that this bunch of “spiritual giants” would be better than that, but they had feet of clay like the rest of us. Only later, after the Resurrection and the Day of Pentecost, do we see them really begin to show the mature spiritual character that we have come to associate with them. But at this point in the story, as Matthew pointed out so well last Sunday, they were fumbling the ball at every turn.
·         Notice that Mark says, “…and when [Jesus] was in the house, He began to question them…” While we don’t know for sure whose house He entered, you will notice that the text says He entered “the house.” Mark deliberately uses the definite article. I believe, as do many others, that there is a very good chance that it was Peter’s house in Capernaum. That would make perfect sense because Jesus and the fellows had stayed there on other occasions.
·         Jesus asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” I have told you before that whenever Jesus asked His disciples questions it was never to gain information. There was nothing they could possibly tell Him that He did not already know. However, Jesus posed this probing question to open the door for Him to teach them a very important spiritual lesson. You can bet your hat that He already knew exactly what they had been arguing about as they had walked along the road.
·         Mark says in 9:34, “But they kept silent…” Yes, they certainly did, and it is obvious why. As soon as the Master asked that question their consciences were pricked. In that moment I think they must have looked like the little boy who was caught with his hand in the biscuit tin. The instant that Jesus asked them the question they knew that they were in the wrong. Jesus asked the question out loud, but all He got from them was guilty looks, their sheepish silence, and a whole lot of foot-shuffling. I think they were suddenly ashamed to admit that rather than being concerned with His coming death, they were more interested in jockeying for positions of personal greatness in His coming Messianic Kingdom.

Verse 47: But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart, took a child and stood him by His side,
·         Jesus did not need to hear their excuses to sort out what was going on. He could look deep into their hearts and minds and perceive what was there. Nothing was hidden from Him, just as nothing we do, think, or say escapes His notice.
·         There is an old familiar saying that goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Object lessons function in the same way. According to Mark’s account, Jesus, the Master Teacher, first sat down because He had something very important to teach His disciples it was customary for a rabbi to sit down to teach. Then He reached out His arms and beckoned a little child to come to Him. Where did the child come from? Maybe it was from that household. Maybe he was Peter’s little grandson. Maybe he was a little boy who had been watching Jesus from the doorway. We do not know. But Jesus called the little boy over and had him stand there beside Him. Then Jesus began to teach them about real love. The disciples’ conversation on the road revealed that their love was puffed-up, self-seeking, self-serving, and me-centered. Jesus’ love, on the other hand, is selfless, focused outward rather than inward, always looking out for the best interests of others. And that is the way we should love too, whether we are talking about loving our spouse, our parents, our Christian brothers and sisters at church, or the people out there in the world who do not yet know the Lord Jesus and are sometimes rather unlovable.   

Verse 48: …and [Jesus] said to them, “Whoever receives this child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me; for the one who is least among all of you, this is the one who is great.”
·         What does Jesus mean by all that? Well, it’s kind of like this… If you love my grandson, Lucas, it shows that you love Lucas’ daddy, Christopher, which shows that you love me because Chris is my son and Lucas is my grandson. We are a package deal. We go together. In fact, don’t ever try to convince me that you love me while you are saying horrible things about my son. And don’t even think about bad-mouthing Lucas! I love my son and my grandson, and they love me, and we go together. You can’t have one without the other.
·         Jesus loved that little child standing by His side. He told the disciples that by truly loving and showing love to that child they were really showing their love for Jesus. On top of that, to receive Jesus and to love Him means that they love the Father who sent Him. Bottom line… you can’t love Jesus and hate the people that Jesus loves. You cannot say that you love God and yet reject the Son whom the Father sent to be the propitiation for our sins. If you really love God, then you will love Jesus. And if you really love Jesus, then you will love the people that He so loved that He was willing to die for them. According to 1 Corinthians 13, real love, genuine Christian love, agape love, “suffers long and is kind, does not envy, does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own.”
·         Luke does not tell us how the disciples responded to Jesus’ admonishment and His lesson about serving others. My impression is that there was a stunned silence in the room. According to Mark 9:35 Jesus had just said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all.” That must have rocked them back on their heels and left them sputtering, especially considering the argument they had had just a short time before.
·         You may have noticed that often when people are left speechless and feel embarrassed or threatened by something that has just been said to them, they will try to change the course of the conversation, to switch subjects. I believe that is exactly what happened here.

Verse 49: John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name; and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow along with us.”
·         Astonishing! Immediately after Jesus’ lesson about the true nature of being a servant and having the godly attitude of seeking to serve, rather than to be served by others John comes up with this as his best response. Right after Jesus used the little child as an object lesson to teach them that really loving God also means loving the Son of God; and that, in turn, means loving the people that Jesus loves, right on the heels of those powerful lessons about servanthood and humility and genuine love, and then John pipes up with this zinger comment! Amazing! How obtuse can you get, John?
·         We do not know what caused John to want to change the subject so abruptly. Maybe he was feeling convicted by Jesus’ words. Nevertheless, John took the conversation in another direction by bringing up these folks who were casting out demons in Jesus’ name but were not part of their little group. John’s comment fairly bristles with hostility, bigotry, intolerance, and self-righteousness. He was thinking, “How dare they do stuff in Jesus’ name but not submit themselves to us, the real followers of Jesus?” This sounds like a Pharisee talking, doesn’t it?  

Verse 50: But Jesus said to [John], “Do not hinder him; for he who is not against you is for you.”
·         What is Jesus saying here? The first part is clear: “Leave him alone. Do not hinder him. Quit trying to stop him.” Then Jesus explains the reason: People doing miracles in His name and by His power and by His authority obviously believe in Jesus! And they are only going to have good things to say about Jesus, not bad things.
·         “…for he who is not against you is for you.” John and the others would have turned that around: “By George, whoever is not exactly like us and hangs out with us and does everything the way we do it is obviously not part of our group and therefore should be stopped at all costs!” That is what the disciples believed. What a contrast to Jesus’ way of thinking!

CONCLUSION:
I suspect that we, often, more closely resemble John and his mates in some of our attitudes toward fellow believers, than we do Jesus. Among Christians there is a great deal of “brand loyalty” to denominations, creeds, traditions, worship styles, and hobby-horse doctrines. Although people seldom verbalize this attitude, if they did it would sound something like this: “We are from the First Church of the Heavenly Handshake and we have the most accurate theology, the most biblical way of conducting worship services, the most powerful praying, and the most authentic New Testament way of doing church in general. That puts us at the top of the hill and everybody else somewhere down below us. Jesus must be very proud of us. So, if you want a good church, come see us!”
Now there is nothing wrong with being connected to a denomination or an association of churches. In fact, it is a good thing in my opinion, for a variety of reasons. Moreover, there is nothing wrong with having a well-thought-out doctrinal statement and definite positions on biblical issues. We should know what we believe and be able to explain the “why” of it. Likewise, there is nothing in the world wrong with having a style of worship with which we feel comfortable and that aids us in connecting with God. The Bible leaves the door wide open as to worship styles, and we have a lot of wiggle-room there.
The problem arises when we take our denomination, our worship style, our doctrinal slant, and our modus operandi and make them the norm for every Christian or Christian group to follow, under threat of excommunication if they fail to live up to our homemade theological litmus test. That is Pharisaism at its worst! And sadly, I have observed that it is common among Christians, and I have even occasionally been guilty of it myself, which really troubles me.
The two big take-aways from this morning’s teaching are…
1.    If you want to be great in God’s Kingdom, learn to be the servant of all. Jesus is our model, our example to follow. He came, not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for others. That should be our attitude as well.
2.    Do not think that you have a corner on truth and that your way is the best way or the only way. Recognize that the Body of Christ is bigger than our church or our denomination. Be open to the fact that other believers might just have something to teach you about piety, godliness, zeal, and service.