Your holy name is what we bless. Lord, we remember and we remind ourselves through song and through scripture of all of your kindnesses, all of what David says, all of your benefits to your people. Lord, we bless your name because you've forgiven all of our iniquities at the costly price of of Jesus' life.
And Lord, we know that you've forgiven all of those iniquities because of the resurrection. The resurrection is proof that the debt has been satisfied, that the payment has been accepted. Lord, we bless your holy name because you heal all of our diseases. Lord, maybe not in this life, but you heal all of our diseases.
We will be restored to health either in this life or the next, Lord. And it is your greatness that accomplishes that.
Lord, we bless your name because you've redeemed our life from the pit. The pit of sin, darkness, judgment, wrath. The pit of death.
Lord, we bless your name because you not only redeemed our life from the pit, you've crowned us with steadfast love and mercy. And that steadfast love is exactly that. It is steadfast. It, it, it lasts and lasts and lasts and will never change, will never be removed.
Lord, we bless your name because in you we have found satisfaction. You've satisfied us with your goodness.
And again, Lord, we look forward to the day when our youth will be renewed like the eagles. What a glorious day that will be when we join with the hosts of heaven and all those that you've brought into your presence before us, and we all join in song and we bless your name. For, for 10,000 years. And that's just the start. That's just the start.
That's the warm-up. Forevermore. We cannot wait for that day, Lord. We pray all these things in Jesus' name and for his glory. Amen.
Thank you, church. You may be seated. Um, if you're a guest this morning, we are glad that you're here. We welcome you, and, uh, we are We are— grrr. We're glad that you're here, and we only ask one thing of you: that you find one of the connect cards either in the seat back in front of you or online, crossofgrace.net/connect.
Fill that out. Let us know who you are, how we can serve you, how we can connect you to either community, fellowship, you know, some of the ministries within the church, whatever it is we can do for you. Drop that back off at the information table and we will do what we can to connect with you and serve you however we can. If you're new to Jesus, you'll find some resources about exploring Jesus and a free book on our website. You can click on the Jesus button there at the top.
If you're looking to get connected, you'll get connected to a small group or, you know, some other way that we live life together as a church. By clicking on the You button. And if you want to learn more about our church, maybe some of our doctrines, some of our theology, our polity, if you're interested in that sort of thing, you're a rare breed if you are, you can click on Us and learn about those things. You can also, from the website, give, or you can also give in person at the little back— there's a box back there. And we are very grateful for the way that you guys give, the way that you are faithful.
Like, the faithfulness of God is shown in your faithfulness to partner with us financially in gospel ministry here in El Paso and throughout the world. And giving is an act of worship. And since the pandemic, you guys have not ceased to worship the Lord through your tithes and your offerings. And we just want to say that that is amazing and good stuff. Kids ministry, man, you guys, if you weren't there yesterday, you missed out.
We were doing some hard work. Some of us did more hard work than others, like John Osmus. That guy is a beast. Me, I'm just— I'm like, my mouth is a beast. I pretty much blah blah blah blah blah yesterday.
Told a lot of jokes that weren't funny. You know. Stuff like that. Our first Sunday in kids ministry will be August 1st. And the week before that, July 25th, we will be giving tours and kind of have an open house there.
And right now, Teresa Fillius, our kids ministry director, is going to come and tell us about what? The Big Dig? Is that? Something like that. It's gonna be fun.
Good morning. So restarting kids ministry and building a new building wasn't enough, so on August 1st we're gonna have Vacation Bible Sundays. So it's not your typical 5-day Vacation Bible School, but starting on August 1st on the grand opening when your kids can go into the new building, we're gonna have snacks, crafts, songs, Destination Dig, where your kids are gonna be transported to present-day Israel where they get to uncover truths about of the Bible. It's gonna be super great. Obviously the gospel is super important and it'll be taught, but it's gonna be a lot of fun.
So this is a great opportunity for you guys to come. Kids ministry just reopened in second service today for the first time in like a year and a half. So we have some kids upstairs. So your kids can come to VBS on August 1st in the second service as well. So we're really pumped.
If you're a parent, check the parent emails that I send out for more information. If you have questions, feel free to talk to me, but we look forward to welcoming you to our campground on August 1st and Destination Dig on the same Sunday. So thank you.
All right, thank you, Teresa. All right, so August 1st, first day of Vacation Bible School, or Vacation Bible Sunday, sorry, whatever.
I'm bad with words sometimes. The main question is, what are you going to send your kids to What did you go to church with that day? Shovels and picks, right?
Okay, don't do that. It sounded good in my head. That's the problem with me. It all sounds good in my head and then it comes out of my mouth and it's like, tell him to shut up. All right, if you're new to attending the church on Sundays, one of the best things you can do as kind of a next step is to get involved with one of our community groups.
Get connected to people within the church who are doing that. And our group in particular, I'm just, you know, that's the one that I'm in close proximity with. It's so good to be back in person. They're toward the end of like all this whole lockdown stuff. We weren't even being that faithful and consistent online just because, man, we all had Zoom fatigue and it's like, another Zoom meeting, no.
But having people in person is so good. It's great to have people back in our house or in the Bustamantes. They are so awesome to host probably about half the time. And I just, I love us getting back together. We have a lot of young families and young families with kids.
And in the chaotic, you know, nature of life with young kids, a lot of the— what we hear a lot of times is like, man, this is exactly what I needed to hear today. And it's not like we're doing anything profound. We're looking at the Bible and having a discussion about, you know, the chapter of the Bible that we're looking at. And the Lord is just so kind to do that. We have a chance to point people back to the gospel and how the gospel informs our lives.
How the entailments of the gospel change our lives. And encourage one another in holy living. In serving each other, serving the church, serving our city. And we get to impact people in ways through our group and our gathering that they may not have been impacted without that meeting. So I would just encourage you, get involved, get together with a group.
They can range anywhere from 10 to 20. At one point our group was like 46 people, man. It was crazy. Like it was a small church in our house. It was insane.
But 10 to 20 is typically it. Most of them are meeting in person. And man, look, we love to eat, right? That's what the church does well together. We get together and we eat.
There's some good food, good fellowship. You can get connected at the information table or online as well. And, you know, sign up and get involved. Speaking of getting involved, it's time to get involved with Freddie the Moose.
Hey Freddy! Mr. Ricky! Listen, all right, listen, I want to make sure that we're both clear on the procedures for this new kids ministry thing. Okay, because we're gonna get in front of the church and explain it together, right? Okay, I'm ready.
So I'm gonna do rapid fire. I'm gonna make sure just you got everything ready to go. Okay, um, so here we go. Question 1: Where are you supposed to go check in and get your label? In the old shed!
The old shed? No, do not, do not go in the old shed. Do not go in the old shed. Uh, go in outside, through the outside to the new lobby in the kids ministry once it opens. That's where you check in.
All right, where do you drop off the kids? Well, at that big same white door. The big same white door? No, why would they go out and then come back? No, no, they, they go to the lobby and then they drop the kids off right from there.
It's going to look super cool. It's going to look like a forest. That's going to be awesome. Okay, when the parents drop their kids off, where do they go? Into their class.
Yeah, into their class. Well, sort of. Yet, well, they come back to the auditorium. They go in one way, come out another way to have one line, one flow of traffic. Anyway, we'll work on that.
Uh, what about the yard? They need to remember something important about the yard, right? Yes, to play in the mud. Woo! Yes.
Are you under The impression that the mud is the playground? Yeah, to roll around in. Okay, that— well, actually, that would probably be a moose playground. But no, we're gonna put a playground in there. It's not there yet.
So until we give the all clear, don't run in the mud. And last, I know you're gonna get this one, Freddy. This one's super easy. Okay, I'm ready. After the parents drop the kids off and church ends, the parents are supposed to go pick up their kids when?
When? Right after service. Right after service? Yes, that's right! Did I get it?
You got one right! Yes, perfect. I think you're ready to go. Okay. I think you got this stuff backwards and forwards.
Yeah. So, um, listen, only 2 weeks out. Uh-huh. We're gonna be there. Yeah.
And, uh, I think you're coming along, Freddie. You're gonna get there. All right. Okay, I'll see you soon.
My bad.
Awesome, guys. Well, my name is Ricky if you're new here, and it's a joy to have you. As we have been doing the last number of Sundays, we are gonna have somebody from the church come and read God's Word for us. And now, before Eric comes up— because Eric is here, right?
Okay, good. Before Eric comes up, I just want to highlight one thing about Eric that's awesome. Eric thought that he, years ago, could just come in, swoop in, marry a girl from our church, and then leave.
Who's laughing now, Eric? Who's back now? All right, let's welcome Eric as he comes to read God's Word to us.
You're good, you're good.
He said, I was married on this platform about 23 years ago. Oh, wait, rewind, man. They got to hear that. They got to hear that. Yeah, you're good.
There you go. There we go.
6 · Public reading of Mark 10:32-45, establishing the biblical text for the sermon
My name's Eric Gonzalez. As Ricky said, I was married on this platform almost 23 years ago to my wife Liz. Yeah.
So this church has been a means of grace, of God's grace, to definitely Liz and my— and our marriage when we were married here. And now for our family since we've returned in October. So I'm going to read the scripture for today. Today's passage is Mark 10:32-45. Will you please join me in standing for the reading of God's word?
Mark 10:32-45.
And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them, and they were amazed And those who followed were afraid. And taking the 12 again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles, and they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him, and after 3 days he will rise." And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, 'Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.' And he said to them, 'What do you want me to do for you?' And they said to him, 'Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.' Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism that I with which I am baptized?' And they said to him, 'We are able.' And Jesus said to them, 'The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized you will be baptized. But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those whom it has been prepared.' And when the 10 heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
But it shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. This is God's word. Amen. You may be seated.
7 · Frames the sermon's central question—what is true greatness and how do you achieve it?—and connects it to contemporary cultural obsession with achievement (Branson in space, Bezos, sports championships, Olympics)
Father, we pray that you'd bless the preaching of your Word and the hearing of your Word today in the house of God. Amen. Well, the message today and the passage today are straightforward, relatively straightforward, and they answer the question, "What is true greatness and how do you achieve it?" We see lots of examples of people pursuing greatness even today. Today, Sir Richard Branson, billionaire, became the first sort of billionaire in space, if that's a race that people are participating in. I guess all 10 of them are.
And you think, man, he went from here into space and back in private enterprise. That's amazing. Maybe you're watching the NBA Finals trying to see who's gonna rise to the top of the NBA. Maybe you're watching the Euro Cup, and if so, I love you. Or the Copa América yesterday, finally Messi pulled it out, right?
Or maybe you're excited about the Olympics coming up like Todd, who's cleared his 2-week calendar to get ready for the Olympics. We seek out greatness. That's why somebody makes moves like Jeff Bezos leaves the CEO position at Amazon and it's a big deal. We seek out, we search for these examples of greatness. And the question over and over is, How high can you climb?
Who can climb the highest? The problem is that this passage will show us that often our way of pursuing greatness is not just a little off, it's totally backwards.
8 · Personal story about Cohen's upside-down treasure map illustrates how humanity's map to greatness is inverted, not merely calibration-off
A few weeks ago, my son Cohen got into a brief phase of making maps, like maps of the house, treasure maps. And so he made this one treasure map and gave it to his big brother Ford and said, "Hey, this is the map." And Ford goes, okay, so this way? And Cohen, indignant, rolls his eyes and goes, no.
And he takes the paper and he goes, not this way, this way, that way. And then, you know, as if it should be obvious, like based on this architectural wonder before you, it should be obvious which direction you're supposed to go. And so Ford goes, okay, I guess this way, you know, and wanders off. And Cohen's like, good. Like, finally, thank you, right?
This is how this passage functions for us today. Humanity is using one map to get to greatness, to pursue greatness, when in reality, it's not like it's a little off, it's upside down. And you can see this in the way that Mark lays out this passage. Mark is a master storyteller, and one of the things he does is he likes to sandwich pieces of meaning inside two larger sort of pericopes. So what happens, what that means is, Mark will state a theme, have the point in the middle, and then restate the theme at the end.
So here, what we have is him talking about going to Jerusalem, going to his death. In the middle, the disciples are squabbling about who's gonna be in charge and who's gonna be great. And then at the end, Jesus again points toward his death. What he's doing is saying this, the world's way of pursuing greatness is utterly broken, the bookends of this passage is how to pursue it. So, let's dive in.
9 · Exposition of verses 35-37 noting the disciples' recidivist status-seeking (echoing Mark 9) and the audacity of James and John's blank-check request
First, searching for greatness in the wrong place. Now, if this felt familiar to you, it's probably because in just chapter 9, the disciples had been arguing among themselves about who was the greatest and tried to keep it from Jesus. Jesus said, "What are you guys talking about?" "Nothing, nothing." Right? And he rebukes them. Undissuaded, we read that that did not stop James and John.
And in fact, Matthew records that they bring their mom along to make the request with them. Don't do that. Don't go to a job interview with your mom. "My son would be great." No, don't do that. That's what James and John are doing.
And verse 35, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, and their mom came up to him and said to him, listen to this, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." Okay, no. Jesus instead answers, "What do you want me to do for you?" which is a probing question. And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory."
10 · Explains the disciples' misreading of Jesus' third passion prediction, imagining political triumph in Jerusalem rather than suffering
Now, here's the thing. In this section of Mark, we just read the third sort of tolling bell of the impending cross that Jesus is foreseeing. So he predicts his death on the cross 3 times and it's kind of like boom, boom, boom.
Boom, boom, boom, right? These bells are tolling over the Gospel of Mark. And what these disciples are not picking up on— okay, that's where we're going. We're going to Jerusalem. The Messiah will suffer and die.
They're not hearing any of that. All that they remember is the great transfiguration and all the glory of a few chapters ago. And they're thinking, Jesus is going to take power in Jerusalem. He's going to be the king. He's going to rule it like a nation-state.
And we need to get in early on this. We're going to buy We're gonna buy stock early in this before the IPO. And once Jesus is on the throne, he's gonna need a right-hand guy and a left-hand guy, and that's us. And I'm sure they probably argued over which was the right hand and which was the left hand. They are imagining a comfortable life, a respected position, power, wealth, servants, et cetera.
They're thinking, how high up the ladder can we climb?
11 · Jesus' probing question exposes that James and John want to be great by being served, measuring greatness by how many people are under them on the org chart
But Jesus' question lays their hearts bare. "Lord, what do you want me to do for you?" Jesus can calm storms. He can create out of nothing. He can feed thousands with nothing.
What will they ask him for? Their answer reveals their hearts, and what's in their heart is they want to be great by being served. They were measuring their greatness, as we'll hear later, by how many people were under them in the organizational chart. They thought, "We're going to get there, we're going to get to that place of being served by serving ourselves and pushing people out of the way." Now, Mark is pointing out that the disciples have a real problem. This isn't just like a one-off, like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I shouldn't do that." No, it's like a consistent thing that keeps coming out of their hearts.
But Mark is showing this to us because the same thing keeps coming out of our hearts as well.
12 · Pastoral pivot from the disciples' hearts to the congregation's hearts, naming the gap between stated values ("I serve") and actual desires ("I want to be served")
If we were to hear Jesus ask us, "What do you want me to do for you?" So many of us, so many of the times, the answer in our heart is, "Well, I want to be great. I want to be served." Now, one of the problems, though, let me just say this up front, is that in church, obviously, you guys are in a church, right? And so when I say, "How do you be great?" and you just read the passage, in your heart you're going, "That's right, to serve others. I'm going to serve." The problem is, What we say we value is not often what we actually value.
13 · Illustration contrasting "greatest Americans" lists with "most famous/followed Americans" lists to show the gap between stated values and actual desires
Today, this week, I did a Google search for— contrasting Google searches for 100 greatest Americans, which is like Lincoln, Rosa Parks, people like that, 100 most famous Americans, right? 100 most followed Americans, 100 most prominent Americans, and it's not like the lists were like kind of similar, like Yeah, this person's, you know, on both. No, nobody's on both, right? It's just like opposite lists. And the same thing is going on in our hearts.
We're like, of course Rosa Parks is my model, but also if I could have the fame and athletic prowess and respect of an NBA star while doing Rosa Parks stuff, that would be ideal, right? That's what's going on in our hearts. It's going on in James and John's heart. They're probably thinking, listen, we don't want to be in charge for a bad reason. You know, we wanted Tell people to do good things, but we'd also like to be in charge and served and valued and wealthy, if possible, at the same time, right?
That's what's going on in our hearts, even as Christians.
14 · Rapid-fire application surveying arenas where the desire to be served shows up: work (titles, degrees as means to be served), image (physical attractiveness), social circles (being the center of attention), social media (validation through likes), and even the negative version (not wanting to be at the bottom)
Think about work. Do we want to be seen as successful? Do we want to be seen as respected? Do we want this particular degree because finally that means that these people will serve us instead of us serving them, right?
This title, or maybe our image, we want to be seen as pretty or as beautiful or as cut or as, "Dang, look at that guy lift," or desirable. We want that image. Or in social circles, we want to be seen as the funny person, the popular person, the one everybody wants to be around, the buddy, the person holding court whenever we're around folks. Or on social media, a lot of these things come out on social media. We want to be liked.
We want to be loved. We wanna be followed, we wanna be validated. And I remember that recently Instagram introduced that new thing where you can like not see how many people like the post, which is supposed to help you not sort of be overly concerned about like, well, that person got 1,000 likes, I got 5, right? And so I remember thinking, yeah, I don't wanna know, I don't wanna know. And then I posted something recently, I thought, I wonder how many people like it, and I hit how many, and I was like, 1, 2, 3, 4, and I'm like, what am I doing, right?
So it's coming out of my heart.
Or maybe you're thinking, well, I don't wanna be the greatest or the prettiest or this or that, but in your heart of hearts, you're like, as long as I'm not the bottom. Right, I don't care if I'm the most, I'm the prettiest or the best looking, I just don't wanna be the worst. I don't care if I'm the smartest, I don't wanna be stupid, right? Whatever that is.
15 · Exposition of verses 38-41 showing Jesus doesn't rebuke the desire for greatness but redefines the path: cup = suffering, baptism = torment
So Jesus said to them, 'You don't know what you're asking. You don't know what you're asking.' He's saying, 'You want to be great? You don't understand it. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?' And they said, 'Yes, we are able.' And Jesus said, 'Oh, man, the cup that I drink you will drink, and the baptism I'm baptized with you will be baptized. But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it's for those who for whom it has been prepared.' And when the 10 heard it, they began to be indignant, understandably so, at James and John. Now, notice Jesus' response.
He doesn't say, 'You know what? Stop trying to be great.' He actually tells them, 'You know what? You will end up being great,' which should be like, 'Hey, hey, hey,' right? No, but how they will be great wrecks their paradigm. They will be— they will drink from the cup, meaning they will drink from the sufferings of Christ.
They will be baptized, meaning being plunged into torment and suffering. And the irony is that James and John would end up being great in the eyes of the Lord, but James would end up being great by being the first apostle martyred, and John would be boiled alive. How about that kind of baptism? "Right, this is the path that Jesus says you end up, you will end up walking, but it's not the path you think." Their path to greatness is so completely and utterly wrong that they can't even make sense of what Jesus is saying.
16 · Exposition of verse 42 where Jesus identifies the Gentile paradigm of greatness (lording over others) as the wrong map
And Jesus will actually tell them later that they're using the wrong guide, the wrong map to greatness. He says, "You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. So the Jews would have said, "Yeah, we don't— the way the Gentiles do greatness is terrible. Ugh, sinful, breaking laws, being arrogant. That's horrible. We just want to be wealthy and powerful and good-looking in a humble way, right?
That's— we don't want to be the ugly Gentiles." Pride's always easy to recognize in other people, not in ourselves. They're not seeing that they are using the same Gentile, as it were, map to greatness. Jesus is saying, you're using the same map. In fact, it's not just a Gentile map, it's humanity's map.
17 · Theological claim tracing the world's map back to Genesis 3: the essence of sin is the desire to be God, to be served rather than serve
Humanity has been following this map since the very beginning, since Genesis 3, where God lays out in generosity all before humanity, he's given them everything they need, and Adam and Eve, our first parents, and humanity essentially look at God and say, you know what, there's one problem, I don't wanna serve, I wanna be served.
I want to be God. I want your job. That's the essence of sin is saying, "I want everything, everyone, including God, to serve me." And that can't stand before God. Our hearts of selfishness and self-serving are laid bare. The secret thoughts we have in our hearts, our quick looks to Instagram to see how many likes we got, all that stuff is laid bare.
Bear before the Lord. It's not like it's— it's as obvious as James and John's sin is to us. Our sin is as obvious, even inwardly, to the Lord.
18 · Extended Titanic illustration showing the futility of the world's greatness-ladder: humanity is on a sinking ship, and arguing over who has the nicest cabin or who's higher on the deck is pointless because the trajectory is death and judgment
And all it ends with, all it leads to, is suffering and death. Pride ultimately leads to falling.
Pride ultimately leads to separation from God. It leads to justice. So in a sense, how high you can climb on the ladder of humanity is as pointless as having the nicest cabin on the Titanic, right? As the ship's leaving the dock, everybody's squabbling, "Why do they get a nicer cabin than me? Why is it gonna—" And it's almost like you wish you could break in, go back in time and say, "It doesn't really matter what cabin you're in." "But they got a stateroom.
I should," you know, "It doesn't matter." Or even worse, perhaps, the Titanic begins to capsize and people keep trying to climb higher and higher and going, "Yeah, well, at least I'm a," I'm above Fred, you know. It's like, we're all going down, man. This ship is sinking. That is the futility of this map to greatness used by the world. It leads to ruin.
19 · Structural pivot from the problem (wrong map) to the solution (Jesus' map) with sermon outline signpost
So Jesus offers something better. Point number 2, finding greatness in an unexpected place.
20 · Exposition of verses 43-44 showing Jesus' total rejection (not tweaking) of the world's paradigm
Jesus said, it shall not be so among you, for whoever would be great among you must be your servant, whoever must— "Would be first among you must be the slave of all." Jesus, notice this, completely rejects the world's paradigm of greatness. He doesn't tweak it. He doesn't say, "You know, your compass is pointed in the right direction, but it's a little wobbly.
You know, it's a little off. You just gotta— it's not over here, it's over here. It's not south-southwest, it's just southwest. That's where you're headed." No, he says, "Your compass is broken and pointing the wrong way." rejects the paradigm completely, and he uses this escalating illustration to reinforce that point. He says, "If you want to be great, you must take the position of a servant." Now, for them, that would be surprising.
So imagine in the ancient world in the first century that if you were powerful and wealthy and had many servants, perhaps you throw a big feast for your wealthy friends and family, There you are seated kind of in the center of the action at the head of the table, kind of holding court and talking to people. And the disciples would say, "But that's where greatness is." And Jesus says, "No, no, no, no. Look off to the side. Look off to the shadows. Look behind them.
There's a servant running the meal. There's a servant saying, 'Okay, now bring out this. Now bring out the fish. Make sure the wine is— you know, do this and do that.'" Off to the side, unseen, that's greatness. That's where greatness is found.
And then Jesus escalates it further. He says, "Whoever would be first among you must be a slave." Now, this was often a bondservant serving a number of years in order to gain their freedom. So Jesus takes the image further. It's not the guy sitting at the head of the table. It's not even the head servant managing the meal.
It's the doulos, the slave, the person all the way in the back mucking the stables. It's the person scraping bits of food off the table trying to be unseen. It's the person in the front washing people's filthy feet. Jesus says that is where great people are found.
21 · Clarifying theological claim: Jesus is not commanding pursuit of the lowest job title but the posture of the servant/slave
Now, don't misunderstand this. Jesus is not saying that what's virtuous is finding the lowest possible ranked position in every occupation and and occupying that is what's commendable. It's not as though you're interviewing for a mid-level manager position and you say, "No, I'd rather be the cashier, the lowest pay, whatever the lowest paid job is, the janitor, that's what I want." Like, "Sir, this is for a mid-level manager position." "Janitorial for me." That's not what Jesus is saying you have to do because he's not pointing to the position, he's pointing to the posture. And he points to the orientation of the servant and the slave. So what he's saying is this: for the master of the house, everyone is there to serve him and he knows it. For the servant, his posture is, "I'm here to serve you.
I'm here to serve your guests. I'm here to serve others." For the doulos, they have to serve everybody. Everybody can tell them what to do. So they have to serve this one and the servant and the master and the guest and everybody, right? I want you to see this in today's sort of language.
22 · Visual illustration using organizational charts to show the paradigm shift
So show that first slide here. This is an org chart that sort of we're used to seeing in our world today, right? The CEO is at the top, then the vice presidents, then the directors, then the supervisors, then the employees, okay? Just insert whatever your job is. Maybe it's school district superintendent, whatever, okay?
And if you're all the way down here at the employee, you know, bottom of the employees, it's like, okay, all these people are here to serve the principal and those people are here to serve the superintendent or whatever. The direction of service is this way. Now, show the next one. This is essentially what Jesus is saying, that if you were to apply his model, that the CEO, the person who everybody reports to, is actually the person it's supposed to be serving everyone. And so if you're an employee at the ground level, well, you've got it easy.
You just gotta serve your direct supervisor. But if you're the CEO all the way at the top, in fact, it's upside down and you end up having to serve all the vice presidents, all the directors, all the supervisors, all the employees, all the customers, all the students, all of everybody. And that's the point here. Look back at the text. It says, whoever would be first among you must be A slave, be slave of who?
Of all, meaning that everybody on the org chart is somebody you're serving. That's the posture. No matter where you are on the org chart, everybody above you, everybody below you, everybody to the side of you, that's who you are meant to serve.
23 · Illustration from a business article on servant leadership identifying two problems: (1) hard to motivate beyond self-interest, and (2) impossible to do perfectly
That's the posture Jesus is trying to illustrate. Now, I read recently an article on servant leadership as a business strategy.
It's funny, Jesus' model of servant leadership has recently had like a resurgence in the last few years, and you see articles written in business, sort of, you know, Fast Company or whatever, on this strategy of servant leadership. And it's fascinating because people are like, yeah, this is great, this is amazing, you know? And you think like, man, I'm so glad somebody came up with this. No, it's like 2,000-plus years old. Jesus came up with this.
But it has, according to this article I read, two problems with it. The first problem is that it's hard to motivate people beyond self-interest to serve others, right? James and John could have told you that. Like, that's gonna be a problem. Everybody is motivated by themselves.
It's funny, sometimes even in our adoption of servant leadership, it's like the pitch is, you know, serve this way and your employees will people will be so responsive. Adopt this mindset and your customers, man, your sales will go through the roof. And so what is it doing? It's just a more roundabout way of being self-interested. It's just, I'm gonna serve you because I know you'll serve me, right?
It's just like the person that's like, oh yeah, I'm loving and doing everything I possibly can for my spouse and they're the center of my world, but you do it 'cause secretly you want them to affirm you and love you in return. That's where the world's model is broken, and the world can't figure out a way around this But Jesus actually helps us see around this. He— notice what he says in verse 40. I think it's in verse 40. Yeah.
He says, "It's not for mine to grant who's gonna sit at my right and left, but it's for those who have been prepared." And Jesus has this theme throughout his ministry of being submitted to his heavenly Father, of serving the purposes of his heavenly Father. And again, he's modeling that here. And so what happens is this: Jesus shows us that The way you break out of this self-interested circle is to say, "No, ultimately, I'm here to serve the Lord. Ultimately, God's opinion is what matters far more than anyone else's." Right? God does this throughout Scripture.
He calls his people to love him and then love their neighbor as themselves. And we can only do the second when we do the first. When God's opinion of us is what matters most, then that frees us from from caring too much of what people think and frees us to serve them. And what does God model in the Old Testament? He helps, he's called the helper of Israel.
In a sense, you could say he serves his people and in return, his people are to serve him by serving others. That's ultimately the scriptural paradigm. And second, there's a second problem with servant leadership according to this article. It's impossible. You're like, "Oh, thank you.
Glad I read this whole article." And what the guy says is, "Look, you can never do this perfectly. No CEO is ever going to do this perfectly. Just try to do the best you can because, you know, there's always going to be some self-interest going on." And he just kind of, like, shrugs, "Eh, what can you do?" Jesus does something far better. He gives us a perfect example of what servant leadership looks like.
24 · Extended exposition of Mark 10:45, called the skyscraper verse of the Gospel
Look at verse 45.
'For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.' Now, I have to tell you, among all the verses in the Gospel of Mark— we've read some great verses— but this towers over the verses in the Gospel of Mark. If the Gospel of Mark is a cityscape, this is a skyscraper in the Gospel of Mark. This is a purpose statement hanging over the entire book. It is why he came. But notice where Jesus drops it.
He drops it in, he drops in why he came as an illustration of service. Now, it contains two pieces of theological dynamite that are insane when you look at the scope of Scripture. First thing, this should be theological dynamite to us. First, Jesus himself came to serve. Now, if you aren't shocked by that, then you don't understand who Jesus was.
God himself came in the form of a man and came to humanity, a humanity that had turned away from him, that had devolved into selfishness and self-interest, perpetuating injustice after injustice, And the King has finally come. God himself has finally come. And what does it say he came to do? To serve. That's insane.
Right? The CEO of a troubled organization where every level of it is shot through with sin and injustice and self-interest does not show up. But in our world, he shows up and he fires everybody. Jesus shows up and he says, "I'm here." to serve. That's insane.
Second insane thing is the way that Jesus serves.
It says he came to serve by giving his life as a ransom for many. Not only did he come as a servant, not only did he come to serve those who were opposed to him, but he came to serve them by laying down his very life. Now, this word ransom is incredibly important. It does not mean, side note, as some have taught or thought, that somehow Jesus paid a ransom to Satan. Satan had us and he had to pay him off, and, you know, like, little, you know, mordida there, like, "Hey, you know, let me get these guys out here." No.
God's in charge. The ransom is actually not to Satan but to God himself. This is laid out in beautiful detail across Scripture. I want to read a quote from a book by John Stott called "The Cross of Christ." This is from chapter 7, "The Salvation of Sinners," a chapter that I don't exaggerate when I say changed my life as a teenager as it helped me understand the cross of Christ. This is what Stott says.
Let this land on you: "The imagery implies that we are are held in captivity from which only the payment of a ransom can set us free. But we are not just bystanders on the Titanic. We are chained to it, going down into judgment, right? That's what Stott is saying. He continues, the ransom is nothing less than the Messiah's own life.
Our lives are forfeit. His life will be sacrificed instead. Buxell is surely correct in saying that— correct that the saying undoubtedly implies substitution. The death of Jesus means that there happens to him what would have had to happen to the many. Hence, he He takes their place.
Church, this is glorious. This is glory dripping off the pages of Scripture, that the King of all would come to rebellious subjects and come to serve them by laying down his life to ransom them. Right? He looks at James and John, these self-interested, selfish disciples, and does not turn from the road to the cross that he knows he must go down to save them.
25 · Extended historical illustration about church bells tolling for funerals, leading to John Donne's "for whom the bell tolls" meditation on universal mortality
Look, I'm going to use an illustration here that you have to stick with me on, but I think will be helpful if you can hang in there. As I mentioned before, these three statements of Jesus predicting his death kind of ring out over the Gospel of Mark, and I imagine them like these big ringing bells, like, "Doom, doom," like the bells tolling. In the old countries, often, like in places like Spain or England or whatever, the church would be built on a hill, right? So if there was a town, the highest point is probably where the chapel was, and at the top of that would be a bell tower. And at funerals, they would ring the bell tower, and so even if you were not attending the funeral, even if you were working out in the fields, you would hear the bell toll and know, oh, Oh, it was for our neighbor.
Oh, it was for their child. Oh, it was for my cousin, right? It would ring out over and over. And John Donne, the poet, has this famous, famous poem with this line that you've probably heard. He says, "Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." Meaning, John Donne's point was this, that every time you hear funeral bells, It's a reminder that you are headed there as well, right?
Every funeral bell is your funeral bell, 'cause that is the trajectory of every person. Every man, woman, and child is on the Titanic. We are headed to our own funeral. And yet, this is what's amazing. Jesus knows that James and John, their selfishness will end in their own funeral.
Their own death, their own separation from God and judgment. And Jesus does the extraordinary. He, even in the face of their sin, says this: "I will march to your funeral." He says, "Those bells meant for you are now for me." And he is walking the road to Jerusalem to the funeral of his people, so that he might, by laying down his life, pay their ransom and free them forever.
26 · Hemingway illustration showing even in a famously self-interested author's work, the hero's self-sacrifice is the climax—because substitutionary sacrifice is the deep longing of every human heart
You probably know that phrase, "For Whom the Bell Tolls," because of the famous book by Hemingway that you were supposed to read in high school, but you probably just read the SparkNotes for, or you probably asked your smart friend, "Okay, what am I supposed to write on this paper?" Like, okay, if you remember that book, Hemingway takes that theme about how all humanity is interconnected, all humanity is going to end kind of in sorrow. And he was a famously individualistic kind of self-interested person, very— had a very high opinion of himself.
And yet the main character at the end of For Whom the Bell Tolls does something utterly out of character for a Hemingway character.
Many consider it his best novel. The end of the novel is this. The main character wounded, says, "Leave me behind. I will let you escape, and as the army comes to attack me, I will delay them and take as many of them as possible. I will lay down my life for you so you can be freed." And you think, "That's not very Hemingway-ish." That is the longing of every human heart, even famously self-interested hearts.
It's why in stories over and over and over, it often ends with the hero trading his life for others, that's why we tell the story again and again and again, because we dare not ask what we really need. If Jesus asks us, "What do you want me to do for you?" We dare not ask Jesus, "What I really need from you is the only thing that only you can do. It was the thing that only you can do, and that is to lay down your life for me, but I can't ask that." And Jesus says, "I will do it." Without us asking, he walks into our funeral, into our casket, into our death for us, for the ransom of his people. That, Jesus says, is what I came to do.
27 · First application, counterintuitive: be served by Christ
So then, friends, where does that leave us?
Where does that leave us? Well, there's an applic— a twofold application today. The first application is counterintuitive. The first application is: be served. And as I was studying this text, I had a whole section on Serving right here and did not have this, and I ran across a sermon by Pastor John Piper, and he said this super weird thing.
He said that this text in application is first about being served by Christ. And I thought, "Oh, Dr. Piper's getting old, you know, he's just— I mean, God bless him, you know, I'm pretty sure it's about service, you know." And I start to read, and as I read, I just— It's like the Lord undid me. He pointed to this phrase, "The Son of Man," Jesus says this, "The Son of Man came not to be served by us, but to serve by giving his life as a ransom for many." Right, every other religion and system of philosophy can tell you, "Be more virtuous, serve more people, try harder, try to be better," or as the Buddha would say, strive without ceasing, but only Jesus says this, "No, first you let me serve you." Rather than the message of the gospel being, "Be better," the first message of the gospel is, "Be served by Christ." And that is the hardest thing, right, for a proud human heart to hear, to hear that we can't get our way out of this. We can't virtue our way out of this, that we are on the Titanic sinking, we are— the bell is tolling, we're headed for our funeral, and there is nothing we in ourselves can do to climb out of that hole. The hardest thing for a proud heart to hear is that the only way out is utter humility at the feet of Jesus, saying, "Jesus, you must serve me.
I can't do it myself." But that is exactly why Jesus came. Friend, if you are not a Christian, or maybe you've even grown up around Christian stuff, religious stuff, lots of people in our community have grown up with a religious backdrop of one kind or another. And I bet you, when you heard the passage being read today, you even, if you've been around church a couple times, you probably thought, "I know what the message is gonna be. You gotta serve others." Don't hear that first. That's not the first thing the text says.
The first thing the text says is Jesus came as the Son of Man to lay his life down as a ransom for you. That's what Jesus offers.
And if you will bow the knee, if you'll humble yourself, Jesus will serve you today. You can be ransomed and set free today, not after 10 years of good deeds, today. Believe in Christ, friend.
28 · Application to Christians: being served by Christ produces profound humility
And if you are a Christian, this should profoundly humble us. This puts us in a posture of utter humility, right? We often drift back into pride, but nobody can be proud at the foot of the cross. Nobody can be proud at Mark 10:45 that he came to give his life as a ransom for us. Nobody stands proud, "Yeah!" No.
I had to be ransomed, but he laid his life down to ransom me. There should be the profound presence of humility. John Chrysostom says, that the foundation of our philosophy is humility, meaning the starting place for Christian growth must come from a place of humility, not, "Yeah, I got this." No. Jesus got what I could not get. That's where we start.
29 · Second application: serve
Second, then, yes, serve. This should have an effect. This should have an effect of producing a radical posture of service that looks like Jesus, right? And then think about— I'm not going to have you show the org chart, but just think I want you to think about that org chart for a minute. I want you to populate it with your own life.
Maybe you think, okay, these employees, they serve me. These kids, they should be serving me. This spouse, they should be serving me. Why isn't this neighbor serving me? They're keeping— they've got weeds in their yard.
They're coming over to my yard and they're never, you know, and all that stuff. This, you know, coworker, they should be serving me. We think we're at the top of the org chart. Everybody should be serving me. And Jesus just flips it upside down and says, No, you serve all of them.
Your spouse, your coworkers, your neighbors, your friends, your community. What would it look like to flip the org chart in your life this week? What would it look like for you to adopt Jesus' posture of service? And by the way, notice this, remember this, that Jesus' posture of service is not just he serves us because he's hoping to get our affection. He serves us because he wants to glorify the Father.
We serve others regardless of their response to us. They may not even love being served. They may not appreciate being served, doesn't matter. We serve them to glorify the Father just the way Jesus did. And so what would it look like to adopt this at home?
30 · Concrete application to parenting: embrace the dying-to-self realities of parenthood
What would it look like to embrace the realities, the dying to yourself realities of parenthood? I remember years ago we had this one guy, I don't even, I'm gonna tell the story. We had this one guy that was like, yeah, he was a single guy and he was like, man, so tell me this, like a lot of people have kids, it just seems so selfish. You know, they just want little versions of themselves running around. So weird, you know.
And they want little servants to help them. And I was, like, eating and I looked up at him and I said, "You don't have kids, do you?" Right? You can't— to be a parent means to be forced into the paradigm of Jesus in many ways. But what would it look like to embrace that? What if it looked like to say, "Yep, I'm going to serve you, 2-year-old." when you scream at me, I'm gonna serve you, teenager, when you don't love me, right?
I'm gonna serve you the way I've been served.
31 · Application to church life: American Christians often show up as consumers wanting to be served (critiquing song selection, evaluating kids ministry aesthetics)
Or what about our church? So often we as American Christians often take the posture of being consumers, being, "I wanna be served here. Do I like this song? Why did Neil pick that song?
I'm done with that song. That was my song of 2000, you know, whatever. Not this year. Why didn't you do this song?" Right? "Oh, the kids' ministry, oh, that looks nice.
Oh, it's a forest theme." Oh, forest, you know. So often that's what we do, even without realizing. We walk in as consumers. What would it look like to flip that and think, who's in this room that I can serve today?
32 · Application to work: instead of resenting Randy's promotion, flip the posture—Jesus served me when he didn't have to, how can I serve Randy?
What would it look like to do that at your job rather than being begrudging the fact that Randy got promoted over you?
Ugh, Randy's the worst, right? You go, okay, like Jesus served me, he didn't have to, how can I serve him?
33 · Application to city/community: we often relate to our city as consumers (critiquing baseball teams, water parks)
And last, let me just point out the city thing. Often we think of even our city, even our community, as a consumer thing. We're like, "Okay, do I like this neighborhood?
Do I like this place?" Why do we only have a AAA baseball team? Ugh, why don't we have a, you know, major league team? Why don't we have this? Oh, the water parks are built. Oh, they're smaller than I thought, right?
Like, this is how we think about our city. What would it look like to adopt the posture of Jesus? How can I serve this neighbor? How can I serve this community? What are the needs here?
34 · Conclusion contrasting the world's fascination with Branson's ascent into space with the Christian's fascination with Christ's descent to save us
And let me just end by saying this. The world today is— I was even watching between services, was captivated, is all over the news. Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic went up, and I love space stuff. I love it. It's so fun.
I love space stuff. I'm a nerd. Everybody's fascinated today by symbolically how high one man could climb into space, building an entire company to bring him into space.
In Mark 10, we should be far more fascinated with how low one man stooped to save us. Our trajectory, Christians, is downward, and in finding the trajectory of Christ, we find our hearts postured upward in glory to God. Would you stand and let's pray?
35 · Closing prayer of confession and petition: we are like James and John, asking for help to see our selfishness honestly and cling to the amazing grace that the Son of Man came to serve people like us
Lord, we just, at the end of the message, God, we just confess that we are more like James and John than we want to believe many days. We can see their problems, their issues, but, Lord, you see ours right before you. Lord, I pray that you would help us see if we've been selfish or self-interested in a way that doesn't glorify God, be honest about that. But, Lord, I pray that as we end, you would help us cling to the amazing grace of Jesus Christ, that the Son of Man came to serve people like us. It is amazing.
It is unthinkable. And yet it is reality. So God, help us to be postured with humility and gratefulness toward you. And then as we're sent out, to be postured in humility and servanthood toward others. In your name, amen.
36 · Congregational singing of "Amazing Grace" as closing worship, reinforcing the sermon's themes of being saved by grace, being led home by grace, and eternally praising God
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, In that faith was my what now I see.
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved.
Thou precious love and grace of me, dear, I thirst thee.
Through many dangers, toils and tears, I have already come. His grace hath won me safe thus far. And grace will lead me home. If he've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun.
Amen.
37 · Final send-off with concrete action step (serve family/friend and serve someone who doesn't know the Lord) and benediction from Mark 10:45, commissioning the congregation as those who have been served by the Lord and are now sent to serve others
So here's, here's one thing we can do today. Find one way to serve your family or a close friend this week, and then one way to serve someone in your life that doesn't know the Lord. Our benediction is from Mark chapter 10, what we've just heard. For even The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Cross of Grace, you are sent, having been served by the Lord, to now go serve others.
38 · Closing song fragment echoing the sermon's themes of death and redemption, serving as final doxological note
Death was arrested and my life began.
Ash was redeemed, only beauty remained.