How to be the Greatest!

Jamie Spry

One Off Messages • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

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Intro

How’s it going friends and family, my name is Jamie, I am one of the Pastors here at REVO

I’m the Next Step Pastor, which means my job is to help you take your next step rather that is with an rGroup, baptism, serving, or other area! I also get the honor of leading the Student Ministry here at North!

One conversation we constantly have is what is the greatest...

What comes to mind when you think of the greatest?

Maybe it’s the moment you said I do

Maybe it’s Lebron being greater than MJ

Maybe it’s calling Tom Brady the GOAT! But no one can throw the ball like Aaron Rodgers so he must be the GOAT! But Peyton Manning was the smartest QB ever, so he is the GOAT.

Is cheesecake the greatest dessert?

We are creatures of comparisons

People that constantly care about the Greatest

Constantly trying to compare each other

We are constantly trying to inflate our ego and pride by being better than someone else

We feed our pride by knowing that we are better in some area than someone else

Yet here is the crazy thing, we aren’t the only ones

As you’ll see the Disciples actually do the same thing!

So turn to the book of Matthew chapter 18, and before we dive in lets pray

Who is the Greatest?

Matthew 18:1 ESV

1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

This was a significant question that the disciples would ask Jesus

They are asking who is the greatest in the Kingdom

Or more specifically who among us is greater than the rest

This is a passage that is paralleled in Mark 9:33, and Luke 9:46.

The disciples, just like us today, want to know who is the greatest

When they are saying greatest, they are referring to when Jesus sets up the Kingdom and is ruling over all the earth, they want to know how to be the closest to Him - How to have more power or control in the Kingdom.

How to be important

As we see Jesus answers their question! This is rare, because Jesus typically answers a question with a question, but Jesus actually answers this question directly

Childlike Humility

Matthew 18:2–5 ESV

2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,

What I love about Jesus is that he never dodges questions that are asked

Have you ever had someone like that? You ask them a question and they dance around it, or just completely ignore the question?

Jesus never does that, there is truly no dumb question you can ask Jesus

But he answers the disciples by putting a child in front of them

If you want to be the Greatest in the Kingdom here’s the first thing you must do

To be the greatest, you must be childlike

And all the immature people in the room rejoiced!

The idea of being childlike here is actually an extremely challenging thing that Jesus is telling the disciples

In the ancient world children had zero status, much like today

Think about a kid

They can’t work or make money

They can’t produce anything useful

They can’t do anything for themselves

They are completely dependent upon their parents to take care of them

This is the lesson that Jesus is trying to teach the disciples, and ultimately us

He said in VS 4 we must become humble like a child in order to be the greatest in the Kingdom

We must become fully reliant on Him, just as a child is fully reliant on their parent, if we wish to be the greatest in the Kingdom

This statement by Jesus is a complete slap in the face to the culture of that time, as well as the culture of today

Both then, and now, to be considered the greatest you need to do more, you needed to be more, have more.

You needed more money, more works, more power, more status then you are considered the greatest

What Jesus is saying about being the greatest in the Kingdom is completely opposite of everything we would ever consider to be great

He says to be the greatest you must stop doing for yourself, and fully rely on me. And oh by the way doing this will cause people to look down on you just as they look down on children.

The characteristics that Jesus is telling us to adopt is completely opposite of the culture.

To fully rely on Jesus with the way you orchastrate your finances are opposite of how the world operates

Letting Jesus tell you how to parent your children is completely opposite of what the world says

Yet these are the exact traits that Jesus says we need!

Verse 5 gives us an interesting idea of what it means to be childlike. What Jesus is saying when he means to be humble like a child

Verse 5 tells us to care for and welcome those who are children

This can mean two things

First off, Jesus is literally telling us to care for children, that’s why at REVO we care about rWorld and Student ministry so much

Children aren’t the future, they are the now.

Roughly 2/3 of people get saved by the age of 21, out of that number roughly 1/2 of them decide if they are going to follow Jesus by the age of 12!

When Jesus says to care for the little children, that’s why

That’s why serving in rWorld is so important! That’s why serving in Student ministry is so important!

But Jesus also tells us a second thing in verse 5

Remember who the children were in those days - the downcast, the ignored, the forgotten

Jesus tells us to care for the children or the outcast, ignored and forgotten

We are to care for those people who society would throw out

We are to care for the lost and weak

Jesus answered the disciples first off by saying to be the greatest in the Kingdom you must be like child

You must be fully reliant on God, killing your pride, and being humble seeking to care for others

Fleeing sin

Matthew 18:6–9 ESV

6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! 8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Jesus continues teaching the disciples what it means to be the greatest in the Kingdom

This time he switches from “children” to “little ones”

He makes this shift because He is no longer talking about children in the literal since, but now talking about new believers, or immature believers

In talking about them Jesus gives us our second thing when it comes to be the greatest

To be the greatest, you must kill sin

Jesus tells us of the importance of killing sin

Jesus warns us of two things

Never lead someone to sin

Flee from sin our self

What sin does

Because we know what sin does to us

In the unbeliever sin that is never forgiven by Jesus results in eternal judgement

For the believer that is sinning it results in

Loss of fellowship

Loss of joy

A darkened walk with God

A weak prayer life

For the persistently sinning believer

Punishment

And even physical death

Sin is extemely serious no matter who you are, or where you are in your walk

So Jesus tells us to kill sin

He said in VS. 6 it is better to die by drowning than it is to lead someone to sin!

Building a fence

He is not teaching us to literally gauge out our eye, or cut off our hand

Instead Jesus is using hyperbole to show us how important it is to flee sin

Now you don’t literally need to tear your eyeball out, or cut your hand off

Those things alone won’t stop you from sinning!

But what Jesus is telling you to do is make it extremely hard for yourself to get to sin

This is a common teaching principle used by Jesus, and many Rabbis in that day

It’s called “building a fence around the Torah”

Setting up boundaries that keep you from actually sinning

You see this in Matthew’s writings about Jesus’ teachings

Matthew 5:21–22 ESV

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Jesus isn’t teaching that being angry with someone is the same as murdering someone

Instead he is teaching that you should stay so far away from murder that you don’t even get angry with someone

Because if you get angry with someone you may slip into the temptation to murder

Jesus is doing the same thing in this passage here

He isn’t saying you must cut off your hand to stop sinning, or gauge your eye out

Instead he is saying you must stay so far away from sin, that if you must do that, do it!

For example, if you struggle with pornography, maybe you need to take Instagram/tiktoc/Facebook off your phone

Those things aren’t pornography, but they could lead you in that path

Maybe you struggle with pride and ego, avoid leadership positions so that you don’t fall to pride

Jesus isn’t teaching that we must cut our hand off, he is teaching that we must flee from sin if we want to be the greatest in the Kingdom!

We don’t kill sin by building fences, or uninstalling apps, we kill sin by doing the first thing Jesus taught the disciples - fully relying on Him

We kill sin by letting God be the one that rules our life, and not us

To be the greatest in the Kingdom we must kill sin!

Leave the 99

Matthew 18:10–14 ESV

10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. 12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

Jesus then tells the disciples this parable giving them the third way to be the greatest

To be the greatest, you must leave the 99 for the 1

Jesus tells them the parable of a Shepherd who has 100 sheep

The shepherd than realizes that one of the sheep has gone missing

Instead of keeping the 99 and being happy - the Shepherd leaves the 99 in the mountains where they are safe - and runs looking for the 1 sheep that is missing

When a Shepherd finds the sheep Jesus tells us that he rejoices greatly for finding that one sheep that was lost

The 100 sheep in this parable are the “little ones” he mentions in Verse 10 - the “little ones” meaning spiritually immature believers, new believers, or confused believers believers

Jesus is using this parable to show the importance of us taking on Shepherdly duties today in our church

Namely, on us helping those who are lost in sin, lost in false teaching, or just Christians in name only

In verse 10 we know that these little ones are important to God because Jesus tells us that angels are going back and forth from them to God on their behalf - so clearly God cares about them

What Jesus is telling the disciples, and what He is telling us is that we need to be a shepherd

One that seeks the “little ones”

This should be challenging to us

Jesus is telling us to help someone grow in their faith, to help them learn right doctrine, to help them learn how to kill sin, to help them learn to fully rely on God and not themselves

Jesus is calling them to be a Shepherd just as He is a shepherd for us

To wake up and realize that we are meant to lead people and help them grow

We are to do this because Jesus did it for us, and someone else

Jesus tells us that if we want to be the greatest we must leave the 99 and find the 1

Don’t give up

Matthew 18:15–17 ESV

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Jesus finishes out this discourse by telling them how to deal with people that are sinning and living in constant sin

He first told them that if someone is sinning you should go to them individually

Then if they don’t listen, bring some more people

If they still don’t listen bring it up to the church

If they still won’t hear rationale reason we should consider them a tax collector

This leads to the last thing that Jesus said about being the greatest

To be the greatest, you can’t give up on people

The common thread that Jesus had here is that you can’t give up on people

If they are sinning don’t give up on them

This idea wasn’t to destroy the person, but to bring them back into fellowship with God, the very same thing He was teaching with the parable of the Shepherd

To bring them back to God we are to call out their sin and bad behavior by using God’s word

This is a process that is meant for discipline and correcting of sin

If they won’t listen to you bring others, and if they still won’t stop bring them infront of the church

The thing is verse 17 is a very misunderstood verse

In verse 17 Jesus tells us to treat them like Gentiles or Tax Collectors

Treat them as if they don’t know who God is

See a Gentile was someone who was a Pagan, far from God

A Tax Collector could be Jewish or Gentile, but they were outsiders

Jesus tells us to treat these unrepentant people as Gentiles and Tax Collectors - to treat them as an unbeliever and not let the sin infiltrate the believer

BUT - we are to share the gospel with them

Don’t give up on them, but instead seek to reach them with the Gospel!

Jesus is telling the disciples, and us that we need to not give up on people when they continue to fail and live in sin

If you call out their sin and they don’t repent, continue to seek them

If you bring others and they still don’t repent, Jesus tells us it’s time to change your approach

Don’t give up on them in their sin, but instead share the Gospel with them

Conclusion/Communion tie in

Jesus tells his disciples very plainly how to be the greatest!

He said to be the greatest you must:

Be like a child - filled with humility

Kill sin - see the reality of your sin and fight it

Leave the 99 for the 1 - seek out those who are lost and need to come back to Jesus

You must not give up - don’t stop fighting for people and seeking people

Here is the beauty of this - this is exactly what Jesus does!

The mark of a good leader is someone who never asks you to do something they wouldn’t do themselves

Now think about Jesus

Came into the world full of humility - son of God born in a stable, spit on while on the cross

Killed sin by literally dying on a cross

Leaves the 99 for the 1 - he is always seeking the lost. Jesus even said a healthy person doesn’t need a doctor and that He came to seek and save the Lost

Doesn’t give up on us - He continues to chase us down and not give up on us

That’s the beauty of what Jesus is telling them is nothing crazy or to hard. He’s simply asking us to do what He is doing

Before you can become the greatest, you first need to be a sheep

You need to be a believer in Jesus

Understanding that Jesus died on the cross

His body was broken for your sin

His blood was poured out to forgive you

And believing that He is the only way to get to heaven, the only way to forgive sins

That’s why we take communion, to remind us what Jesus did, to worship Him, and to commit ourselves to what He calls us to

The band is going to come up and play - while they are playing think about what Jesus did for you - what He is calling you to

Think about the sacrifice

Then if you are a believer - come up and take the communion elements and bring them back to your seat and in a minute we will take them together as a church family - committing to God that we will do what He is calling us to

Communion

Communion is a time to remember what Jesus has done for us

How He died on the cross to save us

Communion is also a time to recommit to Him the obedience that you are called to live

To live in a manner that He is calling you

In Matthew 26 Jesus lays out the first communion for us

How Jesus first started with the bread

Matthew 26:26 ESV

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”

He then moved to the wine

Matthew 26:27–28 ESV

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.