Greatness Comes From Serving
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Worldly Leadership
Worldly Leadership
James, John, and Their Mother Ask For Positions Of Heavenly Leadership.
James, John, and Their Mother Ask For Positions Of Heavenly Leadership.
James and John were already in the inner circle of Jesus relationship. Jesus had the 12 that he discipled, but he also had Peter, James, and John that He had a closer relationship with. This is evidenced by Jesus allowing them to see His transfiguration. They were trying to leverage their relationship here on earth to gain power in the eternal future.
Jesus knew that they did not have a true understanding of what they were asking for. He used this opportunity to teach them what heavenly leadership was truly about. Heavenly leadership is what you give to others, not how much control or authority you have over others.
James and John thought if they could sit at the right and the left of Jesus, they could control His kingdom.
Worldly Rulership
Worldly Rulership
Jesus said the rulers of the world “lord it over them”. The Greek word used here means to control. This is done by positional leadership or oppression. When we try to control someone we are robbing them of the freedom that Christ has given them. This is done in the workplace by overworking and underpaying those that are under your positional authority. Typically this is done for the benefit for the one in authority. For example, a supervisor forces his salaried employees to work overtime so he can meet a quota and receive a sizable bonus. He has forced his laborers to work longer hours without compensation, caused them to spend valuable time away from their families, and created undue stress on them for his own self gain. we see an example of this with Moses and Pharaoh. Read . This is a case where pharoah and the task masters used their rulership to oppressed the nation of Israel. Authority without love equals oppression.
Another way people oppress is relationally. They manipulate and even physically abuse the other person in the relationship in an effort to control them. This is not healthy. It is not good leadership.
The Cost of Heavenly Greatness
The Cost of Heavenly Greatness
Jesus Explains the Cost of Heavenly Greatness.
Jesus Explains the Cost of Heavenly Greatness.
Jesus asked James and John if they were able to “drink the cup” that he was about to drink. Jesus was referring to the physical suffering and the wrath of God that He was going to take. They said they would, without knowing what the cup was. They were woefully short in their ability to take on the wrath of God, but they both would endure the physical persecution for Christ. James was beheaded and John was tortured and exiled to Patmos.
What Jesus was explaining to James and John is it is those that suffer the most for Jesus that attain greatness in heaven. This is a difficult teaching to understand, but it is a truth that we find over and over in scripture.
2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
9 When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; 10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.
“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
We do not like the idea of suffering, but the scriptures say it is something to be expected if you are going to follow Christ. We must also understand that our suffering is not for the sake of suffering but will ultimately bring us greatness in heaven.
There are going to be many people that will be much closer to the throne of God than me. They have suffered much more than I have and will be richly rewarded.
We are not to pursue suffering, but if we are actively following Christ we will suffer. We are different than the world and stand for holiness. The world loves sin and when we call sin what it is we will suffer persecution.
In order to follow Christ one must be prepared to be committed to following. It is not an easy road and you will be tested, tried, and persecuted. But as Christ has said, “He has overcome the world.”
Greatness In Serving
Greatness In Serving
Jesus Explains that Those That Serve Will Be Great.
Jesus Explains that Those That Serve Will Be Great.
Servants are great because they serve. They put themselves in a position that people count on them and need them. A good servant is on that serves with a heart of love toward the one they are serving. Christ has given us the perfect example. He loves us and laid down His own life for us so that we would not be eternally separated from Him, but instead can spend eternity with him.
Jesus did not come to be served but to serve. Our lives should be Christlike. We should dedicate our lives to serving others. Granted we may not be able to give our lives to save others, but we can use our lives to point people to the one who did give his life for us. When we demonstrate christ-likeness by serving others they will bring glory to God. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
In this world it is the one who is being served that is perceived great. They are the one’s who by the world’s standard are successful. They have attained wealth, power, or authority. They are presumed great in the eyes of men. The eyes of men are misguided.
God looks at the humble servant and sees greatness. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
God sees greatness in the lives of those that are humble enough to put others before themselves! This is the heart of a true servant and what makes them great in the eyes of God!