Copy the scriptures, and turn, if you would, to the sermon text this morning, Mark chapter 9. We’re continuing in Mark this morning, chapter 9. And let’s ask the Lord’s blessing once more before we hear the word preached and read. Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we do praise you once more for this, your word. Lord, we do pray that you would indeed let the meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing in your sight. Lord, we pray, arrest our attention. Lord, help us to have a hunger for this, your word, and help us to know that through it, by your Spirit, You grow us and You feed us and You strengthen us, Lord, for our life along the way, Lord. And so we pray that You would continue to do that work in us by this Your Word. And we confess that we don’t live by mere bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from Your mouth. And so we pray, Lord, help us to long once more. Give us an appetite and a hunger for this Your Word, that it may Indeed, continue to nourish our souls, even this morning, for our life, even unto glory, and for your glory. We ask all this through the bread of heaven. Jesus Christ and all God’s people said together, amen. Amen.

Mark chapter 9, beginning at verse 30 this morning, verses 30 to 37. Yes, Mark chapter 9. Please give your attention. This is the word of God. They went on from there and passed through Galilee and did not want anyone to know for he was teaching his disciples saying to them the son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of man and they will kill him. When he is killed after three days he will rise but they did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask him and they came Capernaum and when he was in the house he asked them what were you discussing on the way but they kept silent for on the road they had argued with one another about who was the greatest and he sat down and called the twelve and he said to them if anyone would be first he must be last of all and servant of all and he took a child and put him in the midst of them And taking him in his arms, he said to them, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me.

The word of the Lord. Amen. He had his blessing upon that word at this time. You may be seated.

Well, it’s a weird thing culturally when we think about greatness and who is great and what is great. Many people, would point to actors, strangely enough, or athletes or public figures. But we think about that and it’s like, why is that? Why would we point to such people? I even remember as a child, it was strange to me that people would refer to like actors as role models, right? Who are they, right? Why would we think of that? I didn’t know who they were. My role models were my father and my brothers and my uncles. But the culture looks oftentimes at these kind of things as great, or these people as great. But what counts as greatness? What would make someone great? Well, as we open in Mark this morning, we come to the section that is really framed around the very center of Mark’s gospel. And remember that that very central confession of this gospel is when Peter confesses, you recall, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. This is the very center of Mark’s gospel. It really is divided in these two halves, before this and then after. And yet in the midst of this center of the gospel, you’ll find no less than three times from chapters 8 to chapter 10, Jesus spells out the fact that the Son of Man has come to suffer and to die and to rise again. And the reason that these things come along with Peter’s confession, thou art the Christ, and Christ is wanting to make sure that all know for the first time in Mark’s gospel that Jesus is going to die. And it is because he knows that just because you say, as we have seen in the past number of weeks, just because someone says, you are Messiah, it doesn’t mean you understand what kind of Messiah This is what kind of Messiah he is. There are all sorts of things that are being believed about Christ. What is Christ? What a Messiah, what a Savior of Israel will be like. And he wants the disciples to know what you thought Messiah would be like will not be what you think. And I want you to know, he’s saying that the Messiah you’re getting is the Messiah that suffers and who dies and on the third day raises again. And that should inform the way that we believe in him. But it should also not only inform the way we think of Christ, of this Messiah, it should in one sense reorder their expectations for this Messiah. And it should also reorient their expectations about their own discipleship as those following this Messiah. If the Messiah that they get doesn’t match what they had expected, then their discipleship is not going to match what they thought that discipleship was going to be and what they were signing up for in following him. And so Christ that only gives us these predictions about his death, which are unsettling at first to the disciples. But he also goes through this long, these long stated teachings about what it will mean as for a disciple to be a disciple of this suffering Christ. What it will mean to be a disciple of this crucified Messiah, what shape that will take and make you into. And so as we look at this text, it opens up in verse 30 with that very thing, right? Where Christ, we are told, separates himself from the crowds. And it says that the reason he wanted to pull everyone aside is because he wanted to tell his disciples just that, that the Messiah must suffer and be crucified. And then he’ll be handed over to be killed. And on the third day, he will rise again. and we’re told that the disciples, first of all, don’t understand what he’s talking about entirely, and second, they don’t wanna ask any questions about him, right? They don’t know what he’s saying, and they’re afraid to inquire about it to him directly. And you can kind of understand why they would be a little gun-shy or a little hesitant about that, right? Remember the last time this was brought up, we have Peter confessing, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, and then Jesus says, and by the way, I have to die. And then right after Peter speaks up and Jesus in opposition and Jesus refers to him as the devil. And then we hear just in chapter eight, just the previous chapter, a very similar conversation going on. And Jesus has to tell them how long will I bear with you? How long do I have to put up with you guys and your lack of understanding? And so you can understand why they might be a little hesitant, a little reserved to jump in with the question regarding what’s going on and what he’s saying, because they don’t have, they don’t understand again for the second time, what Jesus is announcing clearly when he says, I will die. And no one wants to ask him, what do you mean? Or how does that work? How is it the Messiah dies? And so they remain silent, we’re told. And in their silence, we’ll see as this text unfolds in chapter nine, these four things, as they’ve heard this teaching of Christ’s death, they’re going to open up and asking him this question regarding greatness, right? Greatness. How does one become great? And this might seem strange at first reading, right? He’s announced that he’s going to die and all these things, and they’re talking about how they can be great. Who’s the greatest? And somehow this teaching about his death gets them discussing the nature of greatness. And so as we look at this text this morning, these seven verses, We want to see those four things, right? Well, what we see in this text is the flow of it is this regarding greatness. We see greatness disputed or argued, right? And then we see it explained, and then we see greatness exhibited, actually displayed before them, and then greatness demonstrated, right? So we have greatness argued, then explained, then exhibited, and then demonstrated is kind of the flow of the text. So first we have this very obvious first point. We see greatness argued or debated. Verses 33 and 34, again, we’re told, and they went to Capernaum. And being in the house, he asked them, what were you discussing on the road? And they remained silent because they were arguing on the way concerning who was the greatest. And so there’s Jesus with his disciples. He’s asked them, what are you guys talking about when we’re coming over here? And again, there’s silence. Silence fills the room. And so we think, like, what would you have said in this regard? Remember that silence in the book of Mark, very often in the Gospel of Mark, is clearly a guilty silence. It comes up again and again in the book. For instance, when Christ asks the Pharisees questions, silence falls upon them because they’re guilty of what he’s asking them. And so he brings up this question and the disciples already know their own guilt. They’re already well aware of it. He’s been saying to them, by the way, I’m going to die. And they’ve been arguing about who’s the greatest, who’s the best among them, amongst themselves. And so no one wants to answer Christ when he asked them the question concerning what they were discussing. Now, it’s easiest for us to kind of scoff at the disciples a bit here, but it’s not as odd as we would think. It’s not as strange. When we consider the culture of the day, we get great insight when we understand this, that in that culture, right, it’s a culture where greatness, the greatness of a man, is considered by where he sits in the synagogue, by what he’s called publicly in the marketplace or in the town square. His greatness of a man is considered, comes from, by what titles he’s acknowledged by, by those who come around him in public. You’ll see Jesus address this very thing in Matthew chapter five and in other places about the titles that we bear and the kind of greatness that we seek. The rabbinic writers spoke of this Often they spoke of this kind of pecking order, this ranking, this seating order and its relation to paradise, to glory. When the great kingdom comes, there will be this place, this order according to your rank as it was on earth. They had this relation directly tied, right, the heavenly ranking tied to the rank that we have in this world on this earth. And so if you’re great on earth and you had a great seat in the synagogue and everyone respected you and honored you here and now, then you would have that kind of respect and honor in place. after they die and go into the kingdom, was their teaching. And so it’s not that odd for the disciples, right, who’ve kind of signed up for a completely different program, they come to find out that in one sense, to be asking this kind of thing, this is on their mind, what sort of place do you think we’ll get? They ask one another. What kind of greatness will we have? And think about the expectations of these individuals. Probably in their minds as they joined in following Christ, Again, they had misguided views. In their mind, the Messiah was the Messiah merely of Psalm 2, where he comes and the nations come and are shattered into pieces by the iron rod of the one who was to come. And they signed up for following no less than the Messiah, right, whose ministry, according to Scripture, flatly seen, is a kingdom where Israel is exalted and her enemies, all of them, are put down. And if you’re one of the inside group of the followers of this Messiah, on the inside, if you’re one who has given up the most and you’ve remained near to him and faithful to him and you’ve suffered along the way with him, what sort of expectation would you have, right? There’s things that would have been in their minds and their thinking. And they would think, of course, we’re gonna have a place and a rank in that kingdom. Think of all that we’ve done and all we’ve given for him. We’ve been faithful. But not only that, as they begin to discuss these things, as we’ll see later for sure, this is what’s in their mind when they begin to ask the question about how do we rank among one another? Who’s the greatest among us? And they thought surely it was based on the rank of how they figured Christ was viewing them or what they had given up for this particular trek, this time, this journey with the Messiah. And so they believe the same thing that the culture believes. Not surprisingly. And the culture believed that it was all about rank and placement of self-importance. And they bring that about along with their fellowship with Jesus in their thinking. And they figure, if we live in a culture that cares about who you are, where you rank, what place you have, how you find your importance, then of course those are the same principles. They must be for the kingdom, right? The kingdom and becoming part of it. And they begin to have this conflict with one another, we hear, or this debate, this discussion, this conflict. And you notice the desire of greatness leads to conflict, right? They’re apparently trying to outdo one another or to one-up one another in some way. And that brings up this bitterness in their midst. And if you think about it, even in our own present situation, the sorts of things that bring discontent, conflict, disharmony in our relationships, in our homes, in our friendships, they’re often framed around that question of greatness or place or value, right? And people not, for instance, valuing you the way that you feel you should be valued or appreciating you for the way that you feel you should be appreciated. And it’s no different here with the disciples. in their natural, it’s their natural way of pursuing greatness, right? And conflict in one sense is inevitable when this takes place. This is the way or part of the way that conflict. So we see here this dispute over greatness, right? This dispute or this debate, this argument. But then we see in the text there, we see this, that Christ in the midst of this dispute, he goes on to explain this for them, right? He doesn’t leave them flailing about. We see here greatness is explained. In verse 35, it says, having sat down, he called the 12 to them, and he tells them, if anyone wants to be first, must be last of all and servant of all, right? And oddly, we think that Jesus, we think he rejected the idea of greatness just out of hand, right? But he doesn’t. I think a lot of times, the very question of the way we perceive in Christian culture, we say, well, you know, the desire to be great clearly is sinful and unworthy and ungodly. It’s not something we should even want to attain, right, to smallness. You know, that’s our fate. And yet Christ doesn’t dismiss it in that way, right? He doesn’t dismiss their quest for greatness as it were, but he turns the criteria around for them, explains how it actually works, and he says, I’m gonna tell you, if you wanna be great, I have the actual formula for that. I have the recipe, if you will, for your greatness. I’m going to give you the secret of that. All you have to do, he says, is become last of all and servant of all, and you will indeed become the greatest. You’ll become first. And so he accepts their premise, and then he wants to define for them what it means to actually get that, to attain that end. He says, if you want to be great, you have to abandon the whole line of thinking, that whole manner of living. You’re going to have to reorient your vision to what I’m telling you, which in one sense should be truly freeing. I know that this is hard for us when we want to first wrap our minds around much less our actions and actually move in this direction in reality. But in one sense, it is very freeing. Think of what this means, right? To become great, you must become small. It means that anyone can become great. Imagine that in a culture, our culture specifically, that says if you don’t look a certain way, if you’re not beautiful enough, if you don’t have enough money, if you don’t have the status, then you’re nothing. If you’re not skinny enough or whatever it might be, if you’re not smart enough, you’ll never be really anything. You have limits upon what you can be. If you don’t have some kind of natural ability, you’ll never be great. in a culture that talks about power and prestige and wealth, and how greatness is really defined. There are many who will never fit in those categories, no matter how hard they try to fit in those categories. They’re born in a certain place, they’re placed in a certain neighborhood, they’re with a specific degree of IQ, and they’ll always be the height that they are, and they’ll always have the beauty that they have, they’ll always have the weight that they have. and they realize at some point they don’t fit into that slice of what culture tells them would be great, and they will never be great, right? And so we have to settle for something else, right, a little bit less. And Christ is saying all those kinds of limitations are thrown out the window. That is not how greatness is measured, he’s saying. That is not kingdom thinking. He says you have the opportunity to be truly great You just have to serve and make yourself less. That doesn’t require a great IQ or a certain figure of your physical appearance. It doesn’t require a certain salary or even being from the right town or even the right nation. He’s telling us that this is primarily what we do. The primary way of doing this is that we imitate him and join him in this particular mission as the Messiah, that we lower ourselves in service to others. And so what does that look like? Because saying this at one level is easy, right? Just serve, just become last, like no big deal. When you come to the church, you know, we joke often at times, getting in line, right? I think I joked with some friends last night about this. And he said, you go ahead, you go ahead, you be first, but you’ll be last in doing so, right? And you kind of just leave it off as a goof. But Christ doesn’t leave it there. And because he doesn’t want to leave us in this particular abstract way, he presented for us or he puts on display, he demonstrates for us exactly what that means. And so you’ll notice in verses 36 and 37, greatness exhibited, right? Greatness exhibited. And it says there, he took an infant child and placed him in the middle of them. And essentially, he hugs him and he said to them, whoever receives one of these little ones in my name receives me. And whoever receives me doesn’t just receive me alone, but the one who sent me. So we can see here, Christ gives an illusion, an illustration rather, that is very hard for us to miss in one way, right? He took a small child, it says. Small child, that’s the word in the Greek. And it definitely we’re speaking about an infant or a toddler, right? A young child is not speaking of an older child. And he wraps his arms around this child in the text. And he brings this child into the middle. And he says, if you want to be great, serve these ones, receive this, these ones, he says, if you want to be great, this is what you do. Now, this doesn’t mean, you know, it doesn’t mean to work in the cry room or something like that. It’s not what it’s talking about. In the first century, it was a different culture. You’re not receiving this child in the way that we would think of children. Their view of children was different. It wasn’t a child-centered culture where children are affirmed and valued and held in high esteem. They’re receiving this teaching in a culture where about half, if not more, of the children would die within the first couple of years of their lives. And not only that, just the way they viewed children was lesser. You’d be living in a culture where the elderly are held in the highest esteem, right on down the line, and then there were children at the bottom of that totem pole, if you will. And until they came to a certain age, which is considered adulthood, they are really considered, in one sense, property. who were under the complete command of their parents. They were not highly valued like we highly value children in our day. And you’ll notice the disciples even have this same kind of mindset. We have reference to this. Because people are bringing their infants to Christ to be blessed, and the disciples are trying to keep them away, stop bothering him. They want nothing to do with them. They’re not important enough to bother the master with. And he comes to the big things in the world. He has no time for these less valued, insignificant children. We come from a tradition, our tradition, that used to at least be believing like women and children first, right? Most of us grew up hearing that, women and children first. But we have to understand that that sort of thinking only comes to us because of the teaching of Scripture and the radical change that happened in the world in redemptive history and the value that Christ placed upon them. But it’s not natural, the natural order of things, if you look at the history of the world, right? And so when Christ puts this child in the midst of the disciples and he says, receive them, he’s asking them to stoop very low and to pay attention to those who are often not even considered fully human. It is to these that Jesus assigns our service in order that we might become great. Notice what’s really going on here. He says to them, I want you to pay attention to the children. I want you to give your service to them. And in saying this, he’s ultimately saying, I want you to serve those that have no possibility of ever giving you anything back for it, never returning the favor or the service. You get nothing for this service. That’s what I want you to do. Think of how often we structure our lives in our relationships, in our time. We typically do so when we structure these things around those who we think we can gain something from, whether it be from the company or the possibility of getting to know someone, or how they can help me along in my plans, or a business launch, or the desires that I have in this life. How can they assist me? How will I benefit from this relationship? No matter how small or great, we often view our relationships by what can be gained. is actually encouraged and championed in our culture. And Christ is saying here in this text, I want you to give your time and your energy to those that you realize will never be able to give you anything that I’m looking for, any benefit, and yet I’m still going to value them and serve them nonetheless. And he says, in doing so, you will indeed become great. This is how you become great. The system is completely different than the system of the world of that world or ours. It’s not what can I gain, but what can I give to the one from whom I can gain nothing, right? Do you see the picture there? And when Christ says this, what he’s saying is that from a Messiah whose ministry climaxes on the cross, right? This is the high point of what he’s doing. We have to see that connection there. He’s saying to them, you have to come to the world with a whole new standard and value and all that that means, and then you’ll begin to define greatness. You’ll begin to understand what greatness is when you begin to look at others and say, who is valued? And you have to turn your value system right upside down because I’m the Messiah who dies, and that is my greatest act. Therefore, I want you to be found. The same way this great act will also have to be undone and redefined and reconsidered, all that you’re thinking going into this. And what’s interesting as we look at this, we often think that Christ is saying here is that we become like a child, right? Other texts speak to that, but that’s not what this text is saying. He’s saying, receive this child and receive this one that has no ability to repay or benefit you at all, nothing from which you can gain. Receive this one and receiving them, you will become great. But also notice what he adds to that. He says in receiving them, part of the greatness you’re already receiving is that you’re receiving me and receiving me. You just don’t receive me alone, but you receive my father who is in heaven. the one who sent me. And then in giving your time, your attention and your energy to those who mean nothing to the culture around you. What is God saying? He’s saying you’re giving your time and attention to me personally. I’m being received by your actions to these and therefore their value is great despite what it may appear to be to the watching world and the culture in which you find yourself. And so it’s a specifically a Christ-centered, Christ-obeying act to receive those who are lesser than yourselves. And so I think we need to ask ourselves at some level as we come to this text, what are the values of our culture and who is exalted and put to the side, right? It’s an interesting thing when we ask these questions. Because in this culture, the youth are exalted, and the elderly are looked down on and discarded in our culture and put aside, out of sight. In past generations, you know, it’s curious when you look even at old photographs, you see the children, like the boys have little suits, right? They’re dressed up like little men. And they look like little adults in adult clothes. The more recent generation, what do we see? It’s the opposite, right? It’s the adults who try to look like the children. and dress like children. We lose so much as we age already. Our comfort, our health, our physical well-being. And so it’s odd that the culture grooms the oldsters to throw away their dignity and integrity even more by trying to look like children. It’s sad, really. And the elderly, again, are shoved aside because they have no value at all. These who were the highest esteemed in cultures of old. have nothing to give us, they’re seen as. And so when we begin to think about those questions, we have to ask ourselves, what is the value system of our culture, and to whom should we give our time and attention, right? And is that value in our culture contrary to what Scripture teaches us, right? Because regardless of the culture or the time we live in, We’re to have a biblical worldview and think in that way and measure all things according to God’s word and not our culture, right? So what would Christ be saying to us in our culture? Do you want to be great? Serve the lesser, serve the lesser. And a lot of times we think for us to become a servant is for us to become less. But he’s saying, I’m challenging you to be strong, to be strong, to be great enough to give yourself away to those who are less and the least. And of course, it’s here that we see the truth of this text. It’s not because you’re less or weak or not great. He’s saying, serve those who are. Defining you is defining who you serve. And he’s saying, if you are truly great, you’re truly strong, this is what you will do. But the problem is, this isn’t what we do, right? This is not who we are, if we’re honest with ourselves, in the quietness of our own minds, right? We fail at these things. And as much as we realize that we should do these things, we realize that our priorities are all wrong, and our way of doing business is not according to this particular standard set forth by the Lord in this text. And so if we wanna rid ourselves of the inconvenience of those who do not measure up That’s the way that we normally think, even subconsciously, because we’re so conditioned by the culture to do so. The scale that we have set concerning greatness and worth and value needs to be altogether changed. This text comes to us in our culture, in our thinking. And it means something to us when we realize where it opened from. You’ll notice the discussion comes right on the tail of Christ saying, by the way, I’m gonna be handed over to man, I’m gonna be killed. And then it forms the rest of the text, right? Every text has a context. And that’s our final point, right, that we wanna look at. It’s the greatness is demonstrated in the text in verses 30 and 32, right? 30 to 32, rather. It says, “‘So they went from there and passed through Galilee, for He did not want anyone to know. For He was teaching the disciples, saying to them, “‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of man.'” Right? And so now that might not mean much to us because, right, this is common biblical vernacular, and we’re all familiar with hearing it and saying it and brushing by it. But the Bible words that we read, sometimes we just say and we don’t, we strip the value from them. But this term, the Son of Man, we’ve seen a number of times in the last month or so. It’s very specific. It has a very specific usage, and particularly when Christ uses it. It’s a quote, of course, from the book of Daniel, the prophet Daniel, concerning this one who is to come in the future and do mighty things and ultimately to bring all of history to its conclusion, right? And so this is what Daniel says in Daniel chapter 7. It says, I saw a night vision, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like the Son of Man, and he came to the Ancient of Days. He was presented before him, and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples and all nations and all languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom is one that shall not be destroyed.” Right, so if there’s a definition of honor and greatness in the Old Testament, the Son of Man is right up there with that definition, right? That’s what it is, greatness and honor. And notice the Son of Man is exalted over every tribe and tongue and nation on earth and every king and every people. The whole earth bows the knee to him and his dominion. He is ruler over them. And Christ says, he comes along and says, just so you know, the Son of Man is about to be betrayed and handed over, given away into the hands of men and be killed. This great one is about to be handed over to those who are far lesser and least. And in saying that, you’ll notice Christ is what? He’s showing and putting on display what is actually being taught in this text. He is not the weaker one, right? Jesus is not the lesser. He was, according to Scripture, the greatest. He is God in human flesh. He is the God-man. He is the exalted, currently reigning Son of Man. But he willingly served those who were less and the least. And not only that, for whom did he act? He acted for those who could never repay him, who had absolutely nothing to give from which he could gain, for he had everything. And we have nothing to give for what he was about to do. And yet he came. to us, to us who are like this child in the midst of these disciples who have nothing that they can give to Christ in order that he might be glorified and magnified more because of it. And he says, I come as the son of man. Yes. And I allow myself to give myself to be handed over for the sake of men, these ones who have nothing to give me in order that they might join with me in my exaltation. And you see what’s interesting about this text. is that when we come to it, and each one of us at a certain level thinks, again, if we’re honest with ourselves, we realize the problem is not that we think too little of ourselves. Most of us aren’t hearing the sermon saying, well, I’m the least. I wish people would just serve me more, right? But according to this text, our problem is not greatness. Greatness is not solved by the cross. This is the problem that Jesus came to answer in these people that Christ came to serve. And when we see that, we stand back. stand back from that and we realize that we are part of that least and the last. We truly are and that our quest for greatness at present time is only being formed at all because the truly great one came and served us and we had absolutely nothing to offer him in return for his benefit. So how can we be so arrogant now to not give ourselves, not to give ourselves to him and for him and in desire for what he has taught here and the desire for the greatest that he affirms that we would become in him, with him, least of all, last of all. And you see it’s in Christ that what he has already done and displayed for us that we can enter into the obedience of this text and what it is truly saying. for we were the least and the last. And this great one came and he became the servant of all. And so may we find our identity in him and our value and our life in this one who came. and own who we truly are, and therefore truly be servants one to another, even unto his glory, as we walk through this life, as we go step by step in this in-between time until he returns and calls us home into glory. We may live our life for this one who gave all for you, those who are united to Christ, and name his name.

Let’s pray. Our Heavenly Father, we praise you for the love you’ve shown us. Lord, we pray that We would believe what you tell us in your word, even what we have just heard. Lord, help us to put off the selfish desires of service and serving from wrong hearts. And Lord, truly, as Christ did, to give ourselves out of a love for him and therefore a love for others as well. Lord, we pray that we would in our lives truly reflect what we’ve been given and what we’ve been shown, even to a even to a world, a dead and dying world that is so opposed to and a rebellion against this Christ, Lord. We pray that you would use us, even us, Lord, in the spread of the gospel with our lives and yes, with our lips, and that we would continue to grow, Lord, that you would use us to call others to come and to have that oh-so-imperative confrontation with Jesus Christ, your Son, our Savior. And so we ask this in his name, amen.