Sermon Tone Analysis

The 1980s and 1990s was probably the heyday for breakfast cereal makers.

Back then, most everyone believed that eating cereal was good for you… and cereal companies were creating all kinds of gimmicks to get you to eat their cereal.

Although toys in cereal box were introduced much earlier, by the 80s, you couldn’t buy a box of cereal without a toy inside… and a kid’s favorite cereal would change on a weekly basis based on what kind of toy was inside the box.

I never really got into the toys so much though personally… in fact, my cereal of choice was about the only cereal that didn’t put a toy in the box.

They had a completely different gimmick to sell cereal.

Let me show you…

*SHOW VIDEO*

Wheaties brand cereal… the breakfast of champions.

If you wanted to be great… have a great mind… be a great athlete… then you needed to eat your Wheaties.

While they never said this… their marketing was designed to make you believe that you would be great if you ate Wheaties!

You too could be great… just like Babe Ruth… or Pete Rose… or Walter Payton… or John Elway… or even Michael Jordan.

I mean… these were the greatest of their time… some are even considered the greatest of all times!

So if you wanted to be great… you need to eat your Wheaties!

However… In real life, these athletes never claimed that Wheaties made them great.

Although Michael Jordan was on the box of Wheaties more than any other athlete in history, his choice of cereal wasn’t a factor in his greatness.

Here’s what MJ had to say… “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career.

I've lost almost 300 games.

26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.

I've failed over and over and over again in my life.

And that is why I succeed.”

MJ credits never giving up and hard work as his reason for greatness.

Many of you may recognize the name… Vince Lombardi.

Recognized as perhaps the greatest coach in all the NFL.

He once said… “The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work.

Hard work is the price we must pay for success.

You can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price.”

Lombardi also believed greatness depended on hard work.

Ronald Reagan… considered by many to be the best president of the 20th century… once said… “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things.

He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.”

Reagan believed that greatness depended on influence.

My point is… Nobody actually believes the brand of cereal that you eat will make you great… but, the path for greatness looks different for many people.

Hard Work, Never Giving Up, Having Influence… These are the ways our world views greatness… these are the things that inspire us to be great.

Here’s what we need to understand this morning… As Jesus understands greatness… He doesn’t talk about any of this stuff.

When Jesus explains what greatness in the Kingdom of God looks like, he doesn’t talk about hard work, determination… or even influence.

Today, we come to week 10 of our series through the Gospel of Matthew.

And we’re going to begin our time today by looking at Matthew chapter 18.

So if you have your Bible, and I hope that you do, turn with me there… Matthew chapter 18. We’re going to look at two stories this morning to help us wrap our minds around Jesus understanding of greatness… and how we are to be a people of greatness.

Look at verse one of chapter 18 with me…

Jesus and his disciples are traveling around the region together… and as you can imagine, while walking from town to town, the disciples have a lot of time on their hands to talk and to banter back and forth.

And as guys tend to do, I can imagine they would rib each other a little bit.

You know… I can see Peter looking at John and saying… Yea… you may be the disciple that Jesus loves… but everyone knows I’m the greatest disciple… I’m the rock ya know.

And perhaps after some back and forth banter… we’ll just have have Jesus settle this.

Jesus… Who is the greatest in your Kingdom?

And Jesus, as He tends to do, doesn’t give a straight answer.

Instead, he picks up a kiddo that is nearby… and says look guys… you’ve got it all wrong.

When you see this child… now you’re seeing greatness.

A child… really?

That’s greatness?

He’s never won a Superbowl ring… He’s never won a gold medal in the Olympics.

How is this greatness?

Again, Jesus doesn’t always answer questions directly… so to understand what Jesus is saying, let’s look at a couple of things in His answer.

Look at verse 3 again… And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change”

That’s the first key to understanding.

When Jesus talks about change… Unless you turn around… unless you try to start moving in opposite direction you’re not going to get it.

Understand that the first century was very much a culture of male driven status, prestige, and honor.

And so, Jesus is saying… this image of greatness that you have in your minds is an image that you have to change.

You’ve got to turn that around and start thinking entirely differently.

Jesus basically says… You’re defining greatness incorrectly.

You’re thinking about greatness in the manner in which the world thinks about greatness… but my Kingdom is different.

And then He points to this child.

What would the disciples had seen in that moment?

Many people have speculated what Jesus is talking about here.

Some say that a child is a representation of pure innocence… that a child represents perfect purity… that a child represents perfect humility.

And to those people… I just want to know how in the world they parented… and where in the world I went wrong!

I must be a terrible parent.

I love my kids… but… Pure innocence, Perfect Purity, and Perfect Humility are not how I’d describe my children.

That’s just not what Jesus is going for here.

Understand that in a culture of male driven status, prestige, and honor… a child in that day had none of those things.

Anything this child had came from their dad.

So, what Jesus is actually saying is… to understand greatness, look at this little one who has no status, has no great accomplishments or achievements.

Instead… This child is totally dependent upon his dad… this child is totally dependent on his father for everything.

That, Jesus says, is the model of greatness.

This would’ve been a punch in the gut in that culture… but it’s also a punch in the gut to our culture.

We define greatness through status… we define greatness by being in the front of the line.

We define greatness through our achievements and reputations.

Jesus punches down on that and says… In my Kingdom, greatness is defined by your dependence of the Father.

Matthew is going to elaborate on this again in chapter 20.

If you would, flip a few pages over with me to Matthew chapter 20.

*PAUSE* Look at verse number 20 with me…

Let’s stop there for a moment.

Once again, if you can imagine the disciples… bantering back and forth again… and this conversation about greatness comes up again.

And Jesus never really answered their question before… at least, not to their satisfaction.

So they’re still talking about it.

And we don’t know if James’ and John were momma’s boys… or if maybe she had overheard this conversation the disciples were having… or maybe she’s just one of those over-zealous moms… but James’ and John’s mom places herself in the conversation now.

What a way to win friends and influence people… right?

So mom approaches Jesus… Hey you know, Jesus… My boys… They really do love you… and they don’t have quite the big mouth that Peter has… by the way… that get thee behind me Satan thing that you said to Peter last week… well deserved.

You’ve got to know that MY BOYS would NEVER make you say anything like that.

Why don’t you let them have a seat next to you on your throne.

One could be on your right… one can be on your left… which one is totally up to you… but yea… I mean, I can just go tell them right away that those seats are theirs… I mean… you agree, they’re the best you’ve got… right?

Now… I don’t know if you’re like me or not… but when I read the Bible, I try to picture how things might’ve actually went happened.

How things were said… what tone was used… that sort of thing.

Well here… Jesus has a moment… and I can’t help it… I just picture him going into a Jack Nicholson kind of voice…

*SHOW VIDEO*

Jesus says… You have no idea what you’re asking here… You haven’t really grasped it yet.

And Jesus turns to James and John and asks them… are you willing to drink this cup?

The cup being a metaphor for His destiny of suffering… the awful and unimaginable suffering that He’s going to experience on Good Friday as He goes to the cross.

James and John seem to have this bravado moment… and they say… yeah Jesus, we can we do this… we want those seats.

Jesus’ response in verse 23… in the original language means… This cup is coming your way even though you don’t even understand what it is yet.

It’s a way of acknowledging that they’re telling the truth… although they don’t understand what they’re saying.

Jesus says… Because I’m going to suffer… my followers are going to suffer too… even though you don’t understand that yet.