You can be seated. We'll dismiss our kids to children's ministry. Some explanation is probably appropriate for why I'm wearing a Hawaiian shirt this morning. I don't always wear a Hawaiian shirt, but when I do, it's from Walmart. I was thinking this morning about some little gal in a Chinese factory stitching together this large piece of fabric, knowing it's going to America, and just tons of judgment in that little person's heart toward me, and she didn't even know me, the fat American. Ben Nichols got this for me for my birthday because I accidentally let it be known that I was a huge Magnum P.I. fan. And so that's what— when you look at me, that's what I want you to imagine seeing, is just a thick Magnum P.I.
If you'll open your Bibles to the book of Acts 2, we're going to begin reading in verse 46. You know, if you were going to try to explain what's happening in Acts 2, I think you'd do pretty well to think through the idea of the before and after. That in many respects, Acts 2 is presented as an after image, while the first whole chunk of the Bible, the Old Testament and the Gospels included, is a before. Before and after advertising, or really just before and after storytelling, is profoundly informative in our hearts. It really does attract us. It makes sense to us. That's really what stories and movies and books and of course a lot of advertising are about. It's a before image and an after image. And the reason why that's so attractive to us is because we really do long for transformation. We really do get the idea of being one thing and then becoming another. And it's filled in our mythology and our storytelling and our advertising and even our consumerism It's all about this idea of an encounter that changes us. And in many respects, Acts 2 is the first solid afterimage that shows the state of a human heart after it has been transformed by Jesus.
The way that you were to show, if you wanted to show, who a person is and how they've been changed, you would show them around other people. Does that make sense? Like, to really show who a person is, You'd show them around other people because really what's going on deep inside your hearts gets exposed as you relate to those that are different than you or the same than you, those that have more than you, those that have less, people who are smarter or dumber than you or better or uglier, better looking or uglier than you. You know, knowing who you are really depends on being connected into a community of people so that you can kind of see who you are and how you relate to others, and that really shows what's going on. And so Acts 2, if it is an after image showing what a human heart looks like after it's been transformed by the cross, then it makes sense that a lot of Acts 2 takes place within the context of community. Because here we really see who people are, right?
By— this is, this is sort of how you know who you are. Go to church for 10 years with the same people and let them accidentally and sometimes intentionally step on your toes, and let them be kind to you and sometimes sometimes not kind and so forth, and see how you deal with living with a group of sinners for 10, 15, 20 years, and you'll know who you are. And I think what you'd see if you're a follower of Jesus is a progressive growth toward being a better neighbor, being a better friend, a better spouse, a better parent as a result of Jesus. If you were looking for a before picture, And it's really important. We're not going to understand this text unless we get the before picture clear. We're not going to appreciate it. If you're looking for a before picture, I think you could go back to the book of Exodus for a really good before picture. Let me read Acts 2:46 to you right now. Let me show you what I mean. So Acts 2:46, 'And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.' So that's an afterimage. It's sort of the after the transformation. What's a good beforeimage that shows what a human heart was like before the cross, before Jesus? Well, the people of the Exodus really sort of— there's some parallels between the Exodus and this Acts 2 account.
If you think about it, what's happening is that two different groups of people are being formed by being freed. That's the storyline of Exodus, that the people of God are being formed by being freed. They're being released from slavery to Egypt, and that constitutes their official formation as a people. And in Acts 2, people are being formed by being freed from what? From sin. And of course, in the Exodus story, you've got the sacrifice of the lamb. In the Acts 2 story, you've got the crucifixion of Jesus. And there's a lot of parallels there. What you'll see as these two different groups of people are being formed by being freed is that the kind of freedom they experience leads to wildly different results on the back end.
So when the people of Exodus are freed, they wind up being food grumblers. If you read the story of Exodus, that's going to be something that shows up time and time again. They wind up being food grumblers. They're never happy with the situation, the culinary situation that they find as they're sojourning to the Promised Land. But in Acts 2, you've got a group of people, they were freed from sin. They were freed from the sin nature, and now they're sojourning to the Promised Land, toward the eternal kingdom of God, toward the better country. But what we see here, because they've been freed differently and of a bigger thing, they've been freed at the heart level and not simply in their circumstances, that they're not food grumblers, they're food gratituders. They receive their food with grateful hearts.
6 · Transitions from the Exodus as 'before' picture to the more proximate 'before' picture: the disciples' own pattern of arguing over greatness throughout Jesus' ministry, setting up detailed exposition of this recurring conflict
So the before picture is important to understand this, and there's another place a lot closer to this text that that shows this before image, and that's just the way that the disciples argued amongst themselves throughout the course of the Gospels. I did some looking into that this week. There appears to be an ongoing argument amongst the disciples of Jesus that starts almost at the very beginning of their ministry together with Jesus.
7 · Personal parenting illustration establishing the psychological dynamic of hidden arguments and hierarchical disputes among siblings, preparing the listener to recognize this same pattern in the disciples' behavior
Pretty early on in Jesus' ministry, while the disciples are on their way with Him to the city of Capernaum, They were having a quiet argument. Now, have your kids ever had a quiet argument where it's sort of like they don't want you to know that they're fighting, but they're quietly fighting? I remember my kids would have these. Suddenly the house would be quieter than normal, and what was happening was there was a whisper fight going on. And the whole goal of the whisper fight was so that the parents wouldn't know and intervene. Now, usually Sorry, Sarah, usually that's the oldest child's doing. They're trying to keep things quiet so that they can take charge. And then eventually the youngest child or the middle child realizes they're not getting what they want from the oldest sibling court of appeal, and so they start getting loud, and that's how parents usually find out. The older child usually tries to contain the argument to work things out themselves for their own sake.
8 · Bridges from the parenting illustration back into the Gospel narrative, emphasizing that the disciples' argument was deliberate, shameful, and hidden from Jesus — the same dynamics present in children's whisper fights
So what's happening at the early part of the Gospels is the disciples are on their way to Capernaum. They are having a conversation. I don't know how they were walking together, but somehow they were having a quiet argument. And Jesus knows what's going on and He knows what it's about. But they're not including Jesus. They really don't want Him to know about it.
9 · Unpacks the Capernaum confrontation, revealing both the subject of the argument (who is greatest) and Jesus' response (greatness through servanthood), establishing this as a recurring pattern throughout the Gospels
They arrive at this house in Capernaum and Jesus says, 'What were you arguing about on the way?' And they're ashamed to say. But He knows what they're arguing about. What they were arguing about was who was the greatest. That's kind of the root of every argument, I think. And Jesus goes on to tell them this basic principle of the one who's the greatest is the servant. I say this is an argument that ran the course of their relationship together and the relationship with Jesus prior to the cross. It really is true.
10 · Documents escalation of the greatness argument through the incident of James and John's mother requesting seats of honor, demonstrating both the persistence of the issue and its connection to meal settings where hierarchy becomes visible
This is how bad it got in Matthew 20, so, you know, toward the middle end of Jesus' ministry. The mother of James and John comes to Jesus and gets down on her knees in front of Jesus. Now, I think what's happening here is they're eating a meal. I think what's happening in the house of Capernaum is they're eating a meal. That's going to be relevant in a moment. So she gets down on her knees, probably after serving Jesus his food, and she says, I want to ask you something. And Jesus says, ask it. And she says, say that my two sons may sit one at your right side and one at your left side when you are a king. Now, this will tell you how deep the argument's gone within these disciples. They're getting their moms involved. Like, this is how pervasive this conversation is within the dynamic of their relationship. They're actually— moms are getting involved now. They're going to Jesus and they're asking Jesus, would you make sure that my sons have the best seats at the table when you're king.
11 · Presents the most shocking instance of the greatness argument: occurring immediately after Jesus institutes communion in the upper room, intensifying the contrast between pre-cross competitive eating and post-cross grateful eating
Now, later on, this all terminates— or kind of doesn't terminate, but it escalates to the moment when— this is crazy, it's just so crazy. You read this so quickly you don't notice. It doesn't make sense. In the upper room, Jesus has just said, this is my body broken for you, this is the blood of the new covenant for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And immediately following that, Luke 22:24, it says, a dispute also arose among them as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. I want you to keep juggling in your mind— spin these plates with me, please— this sense of the difference between how the disciples ate together before the cross and how the disciples ate together after the cross. So Acts 2 is this image of people receiving their food with glad and generous hearts, and everything before then, like going all the way back to Exodus, is a fight to see who is the greatest.
12 · Word study demonstrating linguistic contrast between the 'love of argument' characterizing pre-cross relationships and the multiple 'love of' virtues present in Acts 2, reinforcing the before-and-after structure through Greek vocabulary
That verse, Luke 22:24, it says a dispute also arose among them. And I was just curious about the Greek there, and I looked it up, and it's a Greek word that compounds the word philo with the word for for argument or provoked. And it's philonikos, and it's just this— a love of argument arose among them is the idea. A love of argument. There are all sorts of philo words in the New Testament where they connect the word philo with another word, like the love of this, the love of that. And Acts 2 is full of all the good ones. You've got philosophos, which is the love of wisdom. You've got philoxenos, which is the love of the stranger. You've got philotorgos, which is the affectionate kindness. You've got philotechnos, which is the love of your children. You've got philophronos, which is the love of being kind and affable. But there's this before all of that. The before picture is philonikos, love of argument. And the argument's always simple: who's the greatest?
13 · Applies the exegetical finding directly to the congregation's present experience, arguing that the 'who is greatest' question underlies virtually all interpersonal conflict, whether recognized or not
That really is It really is the root of all the arguments you've ever had or ever will have, all the sinful ones, which is most of them, 99.9%, you think. All the arguments your kids will have, it's all about this. All the dissatisfaction you feel when someone cuts you off or when someone at church is not as attentive to you as you desire for them to be, it all comes down to this. Who is the greatest?
14 · Warns that transformation is fragile and requires vigilance; those who don't recognize their ongoing vulnerability to competition for greatness are dangerous to the church community because they will revert to pre-cross patterns unknowingly
The thing is, is that this doesn't die easily. That before and after thing that you see in articles or in ads, it's like you see the fat guy before the diet pill and then after, it's like great. But the thing is, is like if that guy doesn't work all the time for the rest of his life, he's going back to the before. And as it relates to this issue, this tendency to wrestle for greatness amongst our brothers and sisters in Jesus, this tendency to compete, let me tell you, the most dangerous people in this room right now are those who do not understand that that is the default of their heart. If you don't understand that, quite frankly, you're a danger to yourself and you're a danger to others. If you don't understand how quickly in any given moment, in any given conversation, you can revert to the old way of things in which you are fighting for your glory and your greatness, if you don't understand that about yourself, you're like Sweaty Dynamite, which is my wrestling name. You're just a bomb ready to go off.
15 · Balances the warning with hope: the new way in Jesus is real and available, but requires ongoing awareness of how seductive and natural the old competitive pattern remains
You've got to understand that As we walk through this world, yes, we do have a new way in Jesus. We're going to talk about that today. You do have a new way in Jesus. You can set the competition aside. There can be a different way of living, but you need to understand how pervasive and seductive the old way is to our hearts, how natural it is.
16 · Documents post-resurrection persistence of the comparison instinct through Peter's immediate reversion to competitive thinking even while being restored by Jesus, proving the pattern continues beyond the cross without ongoing vigilance
It shows up again after the cross in the disciples. Acts 2 is a beautiful moment. But it sure shows up right quickly, actually. Another meal. Jesus is at the lake. He's there to restore Peter, among other things. And they're having a meal that Jesus Himself prepared. And Jesus is restoring Peter after Peter's betrayal. Does that, tells Peter, 'Peter, this is kind of a Cliff Notes version of how you're going to die.' When you were young, you went where you wanted. When you're old, someone will bind you and they will take you to a place you do not want to go. And what does Peter do? Freshly restored, freshly reunited with Jesus' love, what does he do? He looks over at John and says, 'What about him?' It's right there. It's always right there. It's always this way quicker journey than we realize to the competitive fighting for glory instinct.
17 · Extends the evidence of persistent competition through multiple New Testament instances, including Peter's ethnic favoritism in Galatia and the early church's widow-feeding dispute, showing the pattern's continuation throughout church history
It shows up in the New Testament. Peter again in the church of Galatia, he leaves the Gentiles, he stops dining with the Gentiles because he wants to appear great to the Jews. Of course, there's the the moment in Acts that we're going to hit not too long from now. Well, maybe it will be a long time from now the way I'm going. But shortly after this beautiful moment where they're receiving their food with glad and generous hearts, they're feeding the widows and that's wonderful. And even within that act of wonderful kindness, there becomes a concern or a competition. I don't know if it was perceived or if it was real that the Jewish widows were being fed more or first as compared to the Hellenistic widows. This thing keeps going. It's always right there.
18 · Shows Corinthian church repeating the Last Supper error by turning communion into competition, introducing Paul's 'devouring each other' language that will become crucial to the sermon's theological development
1 Corinthians, Paul's dealing with the church in Corinth. They somehow managed to do the exact same thing the disciples had done. They had turned communion into a competition, which is exactly what the disciples did in Luke 22. And so Paul's having to write to them and say, whatever you're doing right now, it's actually not the the Lord's table because you're just devouring each other. You're just in this for all the wrong reasons.
19 · Contemporary illustration showing the competition-for-resources instinct operating even in small children fighting over snack varieties, demonstrating both the universality and early emergence of the competitive pattern
You want to know how default this behavior is? Last week you may have noticed I had my dad and my mom, my brother, my sister-in-law, and my aunts and uncles and kids, and they were all here to celebrate my dad's birthday. And we were celebrating together and I noticed my sister-in-law, they have 5 kids, and I noticed my sister-in-law, they're all very young, I noticed that they were preparing for the drive home to Omaha, and I noticed her taking, you know, those little individual chip bags with Cheetos and pretzels in them, like the little snack version. She was opening all of them, so there was a Cheetos bag and a Ruffles bag and a Doritos bag and a pretzels bag, and she was opening all of them and dumping them all into one big bag, like a bread, like a bread loaf bag kind of thing, and she's shaking it up And then she's putting it all back into the individual bags. And I said, 'Marina, what are you doing? What kind of mom black arts are you up to in this moment?' I knew there was something very intentional happening there. She said, 'Because the next 2 hours driving home, I don't want to hear fights about who gets the Cheetos and who gets the pretzels and who gets the Doritos. And so this is gonna take care of that.' How do you receive your food with glad and generous hearts? Well, apparently, when you're a little kid jammed in the back of a Honda Odyssey with your 4 other siblings on a 2-hour ride, you don't. Like, you just don't. You're just not capable of being okay with Cheetos instead of pretzels. That doesn't sound right at all. But whatever. It's pervasive. It's just a part of us.
20 · Uses scholarly commentary to reinforce that Acts 2 represents an ideal requiring constant pursuit rather than a permanent achievement, tempering idealization of early church while preserving it as normative goal
And so this moment in Acts 2 is really sweet. It is an afterimage, but we've got to be careful not to think that it's just ours automatically and that we've just got it figured out and that it's just going to be ours indefinitely. One commentator wrote about this very issue, 'The subsequent narrative of Acts will show that it did not always remain so. Sincerity sometimes gave way to dishonesty.' joy was blotched by rifts in the fellowship, and the favor of the people was overshadowed by persecutions from the Jewish officials. Luke's summaries present an ideal for the Christian community which it must always strive for and constantly return to and discover anew if it is to have the unity of spirit and purpose essential for an effective witness.
21 · Introduces the theological principle that will govern the following week's sermon: humans are always feeding on something, and when not feeding on Christ, they inevitably feed on (consume/damage) other people, producing both harm and dissatisfaction
Truth is, we are just simply not freed at a practical level from the ugliness of competition and the battle for glory. And we saw that last week in the text we saw last week, which was Galatians 5. It shows up everywhere, but in Galatians 5:13, Paul says, for you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Now here's more of this meal, anger, competition language. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by another. Next week's sermon is going to be basically pivoting on this idea. If you aren't feeding on Christ, you're feeding on somebody else. And two things are going to happen: they're going to have bite marks on their arm, and you're going to get mad at them because they won't satisfy you. You're always feeding on someone. If you're not feeding on Christ, you're feeding on someone else.
22 · Major theological turn: the desire for greatness itself is not sinful but God-given; Paul's athletic metaphors assume Christians should desire victory and prize-winning, reframing the issue from whether to desire greatness to how to pursue it
So just because we're gathered together doesn't mean that we're assembling in the way that we ought to. This is one of those areas that we must watch for and pay attention to in all of our relationships, because the default, the reversion back to the struggle for greatness in the wrong sense is always right there. Now, what I want to be clear about today is that the struggle for greatness, the desire for greatness, is not the problem. The desire for greatness is not the problem. If you decided that Christians shouldn't desire to be great, then you've got to throw out a bunch of promises issued to Christians Like, there's just tons of them. So for instance, in 1 Corinthians 9, Paul writes, do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. To run to win the race. You should want to be great.
23 · Reinforces with additional Pauline text that Christians should aspire to be vessels of honor rather than common use, further legitimating the desire for distinction and excellence
2 Timothy 2: A large house contains not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some indeed are for honorable use, but others are for common use. So if anyone cleanses himself of what is unfit, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the master, and prepared for every good work. The desire is to be the vessel of noble use. The desire is to win. It's to be great.
24 · Demonstrates Jesus' rhetorical method assumes and leverages the desire for greatness; warns that denying this desire produces false humility, one of the most wicked forms of self-deception because it perverts the beautiful virtue of true humility
I mean, Jesus himself repeatedly appealed to the built-in desire that God put in your heart to be great. He says in 9:48, whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you is the one who is great. He's assuming you care about greatness. The structure of that scripture is aimed at the heart that cares about greatness. And a moment ago I said, like, you're dangerous to yourself and others if you don't realize that you have the capacity toward an evil competition for greatness. But maybe you're even more dangerous to yourself and others if you think somehow you're above the desire to be great. Because then you're lying to yourself and you're probably engaged in one of the most wicked forms One of the most wicked forms of deception there is, and that is false humility. It's wicked because humility is beautiful. It's Jesus, it's glorious, and false humility is a perversion of it.
25 · Direct pastoral confrontation: the desire for greatness is universal, legitimate, and God-given; the only question is whether it operates rightly or wrongly
And if you think you're above wanting to be great, or if you think you don't care about being great, you're deceived. It matters to you, and it should matter to you. It just should matter to you the right way.
26 · Reframes the disciples' error: their mistake wasn't desiring greatness but misunderstanding the path to it; Jesus promises great reward for costly obedience, validating the desire while correcting the method
In Luke 6:35, Jesus says, 'But love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.' It's actually not entirely surprising, given what the disciples thought about Jesus, the nature of his kingdom, and the very words he said. It's not entirely surprising that they would think that it would be reasonable to have a conversation about who is the greatest. It's really not the problem. The problem is they just didn't understand how you get great. They didn't understand the true path to greatness.
27 · Defines Acts 2 fellowship as people who retained God-given desires for success and greatness but had those desires filled with Jesus' own desire for greatness, producing transformation without desire-elimination
So Acts 2 is not the story of a group of people who abandoned the desires that God placed in them. It's not a group of people who have abandoned the desire to do well in business. Right, to succeed in their work. And it's not a group of people who have abandoned the desire to be great. It's simply the story of a group of people who were filled with Jesus's desire to be great.
28 · Establishes that Jesus himself desired and pursued greatness through the cross for eschatological reward; the transformation consists in abandoning worldly definitions and tactics while retaining the legitimate desire, cataloging false metrics of greatness
Jesus himself desired to be great. He endured the shame of the cross for the joy set before him. Philippians 2 tells us the joy set before Him was a crowning, a winning of the nations, the name above all names. Acts 2 isn't about people saying, 'I don't really care about being great.' Well, that's just dumb. Of course you do. I just stopped using the devil's definitions for greatness and the devil's tactics for getting greatness, they stopped asking, they stopped using ways of thinking like this. Who gets the most attention? That's the greatest. No. Who's invited to the most things? That's the greatest. No. Who gets the most public recognition? No. Who has the best stories to tell? Whose feelings are validated? Whose stories are heard? That's true greatness. No. No, that's not it.
29 · Interactive diagnostic exercise using rapid response to reveal operative definitions of greatness; the first desired self-change reveals what the listener actually values as success
Here's a fun experiment. I want you to please participate if you would. Let's figure out what you think is greatness. Don't hedge, don't cheat, don't pursue false humility right now. I just want to ask you one question. Please answer it quickly to yourself in your head. What's the first thing you'd change about yourself if you could? What's the first thing you'd change about yourself if you could? So change. What would that be? What'd you come up with? If you trace that out, I think you'll know what kind of economy of greatness you're operating in.
30 · Unpacks the diagnostic, showing how the desired change reveals operative values and can be tested by examining emotional responses to others who possess what you desire, exposing functional economies of greatness
Let's assume that you really do want to be great and I asked you change, One thing about yourself right now. What you're showing in that moment, that unguarded, quick decision, that quick response, hopefully, was, is what you think of as greatness. So, I mean, not to say that anyone here thought this, but you know, like maybe I thought initially when I asked myself this question, you know, I wish I was thinner. Well, let's track that out. If that's my heart response, then what I'm saying is that physical appearance or physical health is greatness to me. What I'm saying is that those things are success. So the next question would be like, well, let's test this out a little bit. If that was your answer, do you feel yourself feeling less 'Less than' around others who are thinner, healthier. Well, you know that proves the point, right? It proves the point. The point is that this is your economy. This is your version of greatness.
31 · Extends diagnostic to multiple potential answers including wealth, social skills, and even sin-freedom, challenging whether any of these — even moral perfection — constitute Jesus' vision of greatness, problematizing seemingly righteous answers
What if immediately you answered, 'I wish I was wealthier.' Or even, 'I wish I was more affable.' 'I wish I had better social skills.' Why? Well, there's what you think is great. Whatever having that thing would unlock, there's your economy. There's your monetary system. That's what you value. Whatever that change would lead to, that's a pretty good indicator of what you think is great. I mean, even something like, 'I wish I would quit sinning in this way.' I mean, that sounds good. I think it's better than, 'I wish I was thinner.' It sounds good, but again, is the vision that you have for your own greatness, your own moral perfection, Like, let's suppose some of you did say, when I asked, 'What do you wish would change right now?' and you said, 'I wish this sin would go away.' Okay. Do you imagine that having that sin gone is the version, the vision of success that Jesus has for you? Do you really think it's just that? Do you really think just— in other words, I think you may be thinking that true greatness is moral perfection. True greatness is blamelessness. Eh, maybe. I don't think that's how Jesus sees true greatness. We'll talk more about this next week.
32 · Returns from application to theological claim: Acts 2 transformation occurred through receiving Jesus' own desires and vision; exposes how all relational posturing — including claimed indifference — is actually competition for greatness
Acts 2 isn't a group of people who gave away the desire to be great. They just realigned— well, actually, the desires of Jesus were placed in their hearts, and they began to see greatness as Jesus saw it. You know, one of the things that's happening when we compete for greatness in relationships is we're trying to sound like the smartest person in the room, or the funniest person in the room, or the cutest person in the room, or even the nicest person in the room. Or maybe we just tell ourselves we don't care as a way— because we don't feel like we can play the game at all very well. Which is kind of saying like, I'm the most insightful person in the room. I know this is all a joke.
33 · Identifies scarcity assumption underlying competition: the false belief that greatness is limited; gospel belief exposes this assumption's foolishness
When we're playing these games and we're competing against each other, it's really as if we believe that the greatness, the true greatness, there's only a limited amount of it. We've all got to clamor for it. So one of the things that true repentance and true belief in the Gospel does is it makes you realize how dumb you've been about this stuff.
34 · Childhood illustration demonstrating that winning by worldly standards may constitute losing at a deeper level; visceral memory of defeat produces sympathy while questioning whether the victor truly gained anything valuable
You know, when I was in grade school, we played a lot of musical chairs. And man, the knives came out on musical chairs. And I remember at least for one year, and I think maybe it was two, there was a girl who absolutely dominated musical chairs. Nobody else ever won. If she was there, you might as well not even play for the day. She was the Mike Tyson of musical chairs. But the thing is, she won every time because she had a really big rear end. And she was weaponized. Like, she used that thing like a wrecking ball. And we're all like, you know, knobby skinny little 9-year-olds, you know. And it's just a thing. There's no— I couldn't withstand the the hip power and so kids were just flying. She won every time. It's like, but did she really win? Did she really want to be known for that? I don't know. I don't remember her name. I remember her rear end hitting me and knocking me off a chair. Is that winning?
35 · Applies illustration to the cross: worldly competition for greatness is revealed as foolish and self-defeating when viewed from resurrection perspective; Jesus' refusal to compete proved the alternative path
It's like, what if most of what we do in life will wind up looking like a very foolish, very foolish, short-sighted, playing of a game in such a way that winning makes us losers? Like, what if we're really just embarrassing ourselves by the way we play the game? That's exactly the feeling that all of Jerusalem, most of Jerusalem, had after Jesus rose from the dead. Because if there was anything going on at the cross, it was a competition for glory and greatness. It was a bloody, nasty, satanic game of musical chairs. And Jesus just refused to play.
36 · Explains Jesus' non-participation in competition: he trusted the Father's provision of greatness, rendering competition unnecessary; those who competed won only shame as their trophy
The feeling is, related to this fight for greatness, the feeling is if you don't get yours, it won't get gotten. The feeling is like, I've got to play the game. Because if I don't play the game and strive for glory and credit and honor and notice or whatever, then like the The chair isn't going to be there for me. But Jesus refused to play the game. And what we see is how foolish— now from this perspective, immediately following the resurrection— what we see is how foolish it was for all of these different characters to throw their weight around to try to win a prize. And that prize, that trophy, winds up being idiot, fool, sinner, rebel, insecure, vainglorious, jealous Pharisees. It's like no one wants that. Who wants to win that game? Jesus refused to play. He simply would not get into the middle of a glory match throwing elbows because, because He had it already from the Father.
37 · Contrasts human weight-throwing with Jesus' confident silence; his non-competition flowed from assurance of the Father's provision, not from false humility or weakness
So we are all tempted to throw our intellectual weight around, if we have any, or Some of us throw our passive-aggressive weight around, or our Bible knowledge weight around, or our moral goodness weight around. It's like, great, good job, you're smarter than me. What did you win? Did you win anything? And then there's Jesus, who is silent like a sheep before the slaughter. And he isn't silent because he's falsely humble. He's silent because he is confident that the Father will give him his greatness, that there needs to be no dispute or wrestling match.
38 · Illustration of scarcity-driven eating behavior in large families, analogizing to disciples' pre-cross view that greatness was scarce and required aggressive competition
Sometimes large families with limited grocery budgets will produce kids who eat a certain way. And I've noticed this, and sometimes kids just eat this way, but I've noticed that it's the forearm in front of the food and then the shovel with the eyes looking around, trying to get as much casserole in your body as quickly as possible. Disciples were doing this with greatness up until the cross. They had this view of greatness that it was this limited-sum game, that it was a scarcity, and that they had to compete for it because if you didn't get yours while the getting's good, you wouldn't get it.
39 · Identifies evolutionary/naturalistic worldview as cultural reinforcement of scarcity-driven competition; this story traps people in despair because everyone eventually becomes weak in some competition, producing a worldview hostile to the vulnerable
Now, this is the basic story. Now, not only are we just naturally inclined to this because we're humans, but this is the basic story that's been reinforced socially in your education, both formally and on Netflix, for your whole life. And that is that everything in life comes down to the competition for resources. That's the narrative. That's the story. That's the origin story of the prevailing cosmology. The prevailing worldview is that the whole behavior system of all creatures, including humans, comes down to the competition for resources. And that explains why we do what we do and why we've always done what we do. Which means, apart from Jesus, you're trapped in a story in which your whole life is competition for a small pile of scraps on the floor, and you must be stronger or more brutal, and you must fight that way and think that way and act that way because that's the only way you're gonna get yours. But guess what? Eventually, you aren't strong enough and you see it and you know it. And all that's left for you is despair because in some competition you are the least. Maybe in many. And the prevailing wisdom, the prevailing message to you is, 'Well, that's just the way the world works.' If you are frail, if you're an unborn child or an old person or whatever, you're just not going to get yours. Because this, you see, is a struggle, a competition for a limited amount of resources. And whoever gets the most of them winds up being great. It's just musical chairs.
40 · Contrasts biblical origin story with evolutionary cosmology: Scripture begins in abundance (Eden) and ends in abundance (new creation), showing that human sin isn't explained by scarcity since Adam and Eve sinned despite lacking nothing
But the Christian origin story, Christian story, is just very different. It's very different in that one way, maybe more than anything else. The prevailing wisdom related to the cosmology of the world, the universe, the way that we all came about, the way that this whole world is ordered, the way we act, the reasons we do what we do, it all gets back to this concept that resources are scarce, We must compete for them, and whoever successfully acquires the most resources then has successful opportunities to successfully send their genes out into the biological universe, and you're just continuing your species. And so it's all about competition for resources and continuation of species and so on. You know the story. The Bible doesn't fail We don't fail to acknowledge that there are moments in history when scarcity of resources is the dominant story. But strangely, perhaps to some, we actually believe that our story as humans began in abundance and that it ends in abundance. We actually believe that the original story for humanity occurred in a place where there wasn't lack, scarcity. And we believe that it's heading to a place where there isn't lack or scarcity. So one of the ways we differ in the way we think about human behavior is we have a secondary view of why people would do things, and it doesn't have anything to do with lack, because we see the very beginning of our Bibles, a story of a group of two people didn't lack anything but still screwed up. So our explanation for what's going on isn't necessarily about scarcity.
41 · Central image: Jesus is the only one who knew the Father has unlimited resources and glory, making competition unnecessary; his path to the throne ran through non-competition at the cross
But the bigger thing going on, I think, in a Christian way of thinking about this is that we just keep seeing Jesus refuse to play the game. Jesus doesn't claw along with the rest of humanity, for a seat at the table of glory. At the cross, the music stopped, and on Resurrection Sunday, Jesus wound up at the throne of God. You know, he had the one seat, and it was because he didn't play the game. It's as if in the history of human beings, Jesus is the only kid at the table who knew his dad had unlimited groceries. And not only unlimited groceries, but unlimited glory.
42 · Interprets the wilderness temptation as offering greatness through worldly competition; Jesus desired what was offered but refused the devil's method, choosing instead to trust the Father's provision
So Jesus was tempted, and we'll see this next week, Jesus was tempted in his temptation in the wilderness to pursue greatness the way the devil and us, we do pursue greatness. Like, that was the offer. Worship me, give me what I want, and I'll give you all of this. And Jesus didn't say, I'm not interested in all this, because he was. He just wasn't going to play the game. He was going to trust the Father.
43 · Signals conclusion of current sermon and previews next week's application to parenting and failure-to-launch, pivoting to sacrifice as the final theme
So let's wrap up with this for today, and then we're going to come next week and talk about why this whole concept is key to the idea of growing up, how the whole concept of failure to launch with our, with our, with our kids and their young adulthood, why that matters as it relates to this. Let's talk about sacrifice.
44 · Introduces 'sacrifice sets the table' principle: every meal requires death; the old economy assumes you either feed or are eaten, never both; Jesus revolutionizes this by becoming both sacrifice and victor simultaneously
One of the phrases we'll use next week is, 'Sacrifice always sets the table.' So let me talk about that for a minute. And I'll introduce communion through this. Every meal involves life and death, right? Something dies so that something else can live. Things we eat are killed so that we are given life. So the old way of thinking assumes that you can't get stronger and be the sacrifice at the same time, right? That's the scarcity argument. The thing— something else has to die so you can live. See that in the gospel, right? But the old line of thinking was simple: you either feed or you give yourself as food. It's never both. You either eat or you give yourself to be eaten. It's never both. But Jesus comes and he changes this. He lays down himself as a sacrifice to feed the nations, and he, as he becomes a sacrifice, is himself exalted and strengthened and established. And he both feeds and consumes the nations. That's the basic Twist of the gospel. The one who sacrifices is actually becoming stronger.
45 · Applies the sacrifice principle to practical Christian living: Jesus enables believers to be simultaneously sacrifice and strengthened, resolving the disciples' confusion about greatness through servanthood
And you throw that into the conversation about greatness and you wind up with what Jesus kept telling the disciples every time they would argue about this. If you want to be great, give yourself up as a sacrifice. Be a servant. Lay down your life and you will be great. They're saying, well, that wouldn't work. Because if I'm offering myself to be food, I'm dying. How can I be fed? How can I grow? It turns out that you can indeed, and it's always been true. Jesus just proved it, and now he's in you, in your heart. If you're in Christ, he's doing this. He's making this make sense to you in a practical way, in the way you parent and the way you relate to your friends and spouse. Jesus is telling you, you can be both the sacrifice and the person who is strengthened. That's actually how it works.
46 · Traces Acts 2 fellowship to practical sacrifices made by believers who sold possessions and gave themselves away, setting the table for generous-hearted community by trusting Jesus' paradoxical promise that sacrificing leads to being fed
When Jesus would catch the disciples devouring each other to get stronger, he would tell them, if you want to get stronger, give yourself away. It's no harmony if It's no coincidence that what we see in Acts 2— and we haven't read this verse, but we've read it a bunch last few weeks— this generous-heartedness, this shalom we see at the table for the first time amongst the disciples, where does it get its start? Well, you could say it gets its start from the cross, and you'd be right. But the cross sets a chain reaction of heroic events throughout the future, into the future, and they're still happening, and they'll still keep happening. And so what we really see is the cross and then a bunch of people who sold their possessions. And it was the sacrifice. Some people offered themselves up as food. They offered their futures up as food. They offered their comfort up as food. They became the sacrifice. They set the table. And now the sweetness of fellowship we see in Acts 2:46 is flowing out of people having the faith to do what Jesus did, to trust that somehow, but only by the promise of the Father, you can offer yourself as a sacrifice and be well fed.
47 · Concludes by framing communion as perpetual proof that Jesus' sacrificial math works and always will; invites congregation to ask Jesus for his vision of greatness and his sacrificial strategy for attaining it
And that's what we see at the table. The Lord's Table is Jesus' constant reminder that that math always adds up. He who gave himself 2,000 years ago to save you is still being rewarded for that sacrifice with praise and glory and honor, and it will always be so. So when you partake of the table today, ask Jesus to do this for you. Jesus, would you give me your view of greatness and your plan, your strategy for getting it? Would you help me to have your view of greatness, and would you help me to see your strategy for pursuing it? Let me pray.
48 · Closing prayer (content not provided in transcript)
Let me pray.