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Christ Community Chapel is a church in Hudson, OH, that invites people to reimagine life because of Jesus. Learn more about us at ccchapel.com.
Mark 10:42-45
And Jesus called them to him
and said to them,
you know that those who are considered
rulers of the Gentiles
lorded 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.
Well, good morning again,
and welcome to Christ Community Chapel.
My name is Mike, one of our pastors here.
And really great to be with you.
I was convinced I would never sleep
through the night again.
This wasn't going to happen.
Our oldest son, Brayden,
he was five months old
at the time and two hours, three hours,
maybe four hours
stretches at best. This is it.
This is just how it's going to be.
Maybe you've had one of those moments.
Maybe you're in one of those moments
right now. Can happen at work,
you just feel stuck.
Happen in relationships,
they're just not going anywhere.
This is it.
This is just how it's going to be.
And I wonder how many of us have
that thought about ourselves.
We think this is just who I am.
This is just who I'm always going to be.
There is a building at the corner of State
Road in Portage Trail
and Cuyahoga Falls.
Cathedral Tower.
You're probably familiar with it.
It's been half built for 54 years,
and I wonder if that's our fear.
We are half built,
half made, half finished,
but really never going to change.
Never going to grow any more.
Scattered
throughout this year,
we're doing a six part series
called Six Steps to Growing More.
Over the course of this year
is six different ways that you can grow.
Part one was in January.
Pastor Ken did a great job on prayer.
Part two is this morning on serving,
and we're doing this series
for two reasons.
First is to remind us, to assure us
that God never says this is it.
God never looks at you and says, this is
just who you're always going to be.
God has more for you.
God has more for me.
And the second is to participate
with him, to take steps.
There are things that we can do
to actually grow.
Starts with prayer.
And now the second one is on serving.
So turn with me, Mark.
Chapter ten.
That's our passage today.
Mark 1042 to 45.
There's Bibles in front of you.
Page 806.
Or you can find it on your phone.
But three points as you're
making your way to mark chapter ten,
the life that we are vulnerable to,
the life that we are invited to,
and the life we say yes to,
the life that we are vulnerable
to, invited to, and say yes to.
Let's start
with the life that we are vulnerable to.
When I say vulnerable,
I mean a life that is comes easy for us.
It's not hard to find ourselves
living this way.
In the early 1960s,
there was a psychologist
named Solomon Asch, and he ran a study
that he would stage in an elevator.
So he would have five, six, maybe
seven people who would go in the elevator
and they would all turn around
and face backwards.
Right.
Normally you walk in
and you're facing the front and five,
6 or 7 people, they would turn around,
they would face backwards.
And then one poor participant in the study
would walk into the elevator
and he would see what would happen.
Would that person turn around
and join others
or stand in the elevator the normal way?
And almost every single time,
what do you think happened?
They would turn around
and they would be backwards.
And the I mean,
if you walk into this service and everyone
had their back to the stage,
what would you do?
Right. Don't lie.
You would also turn around
to have your back to the stage.
We are a vulnerable people,
to conforming to those around
us, to thinking and acting and living
just like anybody and everybody else.
That's what this passage is about.
Let me show you what I mean.
Mark ten, verse 42,
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.
Jesus is talking to his disciples
there, to them in this passage.
He's talking to his disciples
about the Gentile rulers and leaders.
Gentile, just a term for non-Christian.
And so he's talking to them
about the culture of that time,
the leaders, what they value, how they
think, how they live, how they operate.
And notice the emphasis.
Notice the way the leaders are living
the rulers of the Gentiles
lord it over them, and their great ones
exercise authority over them,
over them, over them, over them.
There are three kinds of relationships
that we can find ourselves in.
You can be in a relationship
that's side by side.
You can have a relationship
where you are under someone,
or a relationship
where you are over someone.
Side by side.
Under or over.
And Jesus is looking at the culture.
He's looking at those around
the disciples.
He's looking at the world and the culture.
And the world
celebrates, loves, encourages, desires.
One kind of relationship to be above.
That's the great life.
That's the significant life.
That's the important life.
That's when you've made it.
When you are here
and everybody else is here, and they love
that kind of life for the same reason
that we love that kind of life.
Because when you are here
and other people are here,
then life gets to be about you.
Your preferences, my desires,
your wishes are ways when you're here
and everybody else is here,
life is about you.
And Jesus was talking to his disciples
about this, not just because
it's a other people issue.
It's because it was a disciples issue.
It wasn't just the world around them.
It was the people that were following
Jesus.
You see, the passage today is it's
part of a larger conversation.
Right?
So we were in verses 42 to 45,
the conversation, it extends itself back.
And right before this passage,
two disciples, James and John,
they come to Jesus and notice
the way they come to Jesus.
Look with me a few verses up Mark 1035
to 36.
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,
at one at your left, in your glory.
What kind of relationship do you see?
Teacher, we want you to do for us
whatever we ask of you.
Disciples are here.
Jesus is here.
Grant us to sit one at your right hand
and one at your left in your glory.
Hey, we want to be here.
We want the rest of the ten disciples
to be here.
It's a me first, other
second kind of life.
It's we want to be above.
And other people should be below, right?
That is the tendency of the culture.
That's the tendency of the world.
That's our tendency, right?
That's my tendency.
A little embarrassed to admit this,
but when Brayden, my son, was struggling
to sleep, there would be nights
that I would pretend to be asleep.
He would wake up,
I would hear him wake up
and I would pretend to be asleep.
What was I doing?
I was telling my wife, I'm here
and you're here.
My sleep.
My next day is more important
than your sleep
and your next day.
When you think about your relationships,
where would you put yourself?
Do you operate really well?
Below on the side or above?
Where would other people say?
What would they say is your sweet spot?
Where do you most naturally find yourself?
And here's my guess.
There is pain and conflict
in our relationships
because we have told someone
you are not as important as me,
or they have told you
you are not as important as me.
It's like, it's like driving a car
with no brake pedal.
If you drive a car with no brake pedal,
you are just hitting the gas again
and again and again.
That's this kind of life.
You hit the gas pedal on what you want
and what you prefer and what you desire.
And if you're all gas and no brake, then
you're going to have collision
after collision after collision.
This is the life that we are
vulnerable to.
Thankfully, Jesus invites us
to a different way of life.
That's my second point.
The life that we are invited to see
Jesus is inviting.
And let me show you what I mean.
Mark 1043 and 44
but it shall not be so among you.
But whoever would be great among
you must be your servant.
Whoever would be first among
you must be slave of all.
There's a there's a strength to this tone,
but it shall not be
so among you, among me, among us.
The kind of life where we are here
and others are here.
It just shall not be so among us.
And then Jesus, he flips it, and he flips
it completely.
Right. You notice the language.
If you want to be great,
you must be your servant.
Whoever would be first among
you must be slave.
What Jesus is saying here is Christians,
your natural habitat,
the place that you were born to be
and the place that I saved you to
be and is not above people.
And it's not even side by side people.
The natural habitat for Christians
is to be here.
It's to be under.
It's to be a servant.
And that language really struck me.
He's not saying Christians
go and serve as an action.
He's saying,
go and be a servant as an identity.
Right.
There's a difference of how
we view ourselves, things that we do,
and then things that are central
to who we are.
Actions versus identities. Right.
Somewhere to ask you,
hey, are you a golfer?
If it's central to who you are,
you'd say yes.
But if it's just something you do, it's
just an action that's just kind of a part
of my life. It's.
It's different. Right?
If somebody asks you,
hey, are you a musician?
Right?
If it's central to who you are,
you say that's that's part of who I am.
I'm a musician.
But if you just play an instrument
from time to time,
that's just something that you do.
There's a big difference between an action
that you do and identity that you have.
So Jesus would
ask us, hey, are you a servant?
He's not asking.
Hey, do you serve a little bit here
and there?
But is it part of who you are,
how you see yourself that fundamentally,
as a Christian, you are a servant,
and that is such a different kind of life
that is so different.
That's not turning around in the elevator.
That's being the one person
who stands the other way.
It's being so different.
It's thinking different.
It's wanting different things,
desiring things in a different way.
The mindset of a servant
is just so different.
And the mindset of a sermon
I've summarized is just simply this
a servant thinks like this.
It is most important
not to be most important.
That's the narrative that a servant has.
That's the mindset of a servant.
It is most important
that my ways are not most important.
It's most important
that my wishes in my sleep and my desires
in my plans and my agenda
are not most important.
That's the invitation.
Jesus is calling us
to be different people, to be servants,
to say it's most important
that we are not most important.
And what he's actually doing in this
passage, he's inviting us to his life.
He's inviting us to how he thinks.
He's inviting us into his narrative
for Jesus more than anyone.
Live this life of saying it's
most important not to be most important.
That's exactly what he says
in this passage.
Let me show you what I mean.
Mark ten, verse 45,
the last verse in our passage.
Notice how Jesus describes his own life.
For even the Son
of Man came not to be served,
but to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom for many.
The key phrase there is the Son of Man.
It's a title for Jesus.
It's a title
that comes from the Old Testament Daniel
chapter seven speaks of this Son of man.
It's, verses 11 through 14
if you want to look it up later.
But this title is a title of someone
who's a king.
It's a passage
that just it's bursting with importance,
like a red carpet passage.
And it just highlights.
This is a king
who was greater than any other king.
He has a kingdom
that is greater than any other kingdom.
He has power and authority greater
than any other power, any other authority.
It's a passage that describes
Jesus as the most important person.
And notice the argument
for even the Son of Man,
the most important person,
considered
himself not to be most important.
He gave his life as a ransom for many.
The argument is from greater to lesser.
And this is what I mean.
I did a wedding a few years ago
that was going really well
until the end, right?
So the ceremony I think, went well.
Most of the reception went really well.
And then at the end of the reception,
things fell apart.
The caterer bailed completely, bailed
200 people.
All the food, all leftover food, all the
dishes, all the things at a reception.
And the caterer completely bailed.
Not going to clean up.
And so here we are.
Family and friends
started to pick up dishes in place.
He started to do things,
and I was looking around
and I kind of just wanted to go home,
you know, it was like 1030.
It was like an hour drive home.
I thought, we can just go home.
Family and friends, they got it.
But then I noticed it wasn't just family
and friends who were picking up
the bride
and the groom were cleaning up plates
and dishes from table to table.
They were doing the people
who were most important that day,
the people that were supposed to be serve
that day, they were serving.
And so who was I not to serve?
That's that's the argument.
That's the flow of this passage, right?
Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, he's here above us.
And he came to earth
not just to be side by side with us.
He came to earth to be under.
He came to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many.
And that's what he did.
Ransom is a term that he purchased
our freedom.
He served us in the most wonderful
and powerful way.
He gave us life.
He purchased our freedom,
our freedom from sin,
our freedom from guilt, our freedom
from death, our freedom from judgment.
Jesus Christ
the King came to serve sinners.
So who are we as sinners
not to serve like Jesus the King?
That's the argument.
That's the actually,
the invitation of this passage
is to be like Jesus, to serve
and be a servant like him.
The question is, well, will we say yes?
I mean, what would it take?
Right?
What would it take
for me to be a husband and a father
who doesn't pretend to be asleep?
What would it take for
you and us as a church to be people
that don't just serve a little bit,
but we become different people.
We become servants.
There are probably a number of reasons
we could talk about two
I want to draw attention to.
We will become servants
when we have hearts that are changed
and minds that are convinced.
Hearts that are changed, and minds
that are convinced.
Those are two reasons.
Let me start with hearts that are changed.
Right.
So let's just see where we are, right?
Our our world tells us right.
The narrative, the story of our world
is if you want to be great,
if you want to be important,
if you want to be significant,
you have to be one spot.
You have to be here, right?
This is where significance is.
This is where importance is.
This is where you know you really matter.
And so we want those things.
And so what do we do.
We work hard to get those things
to achieve and accomplish
and perform and be successful
so that we can be here.
But it's really, really hard
to be going here above people.
I'll also going underneath people.
You can't be in two places at once.
In other words,
you can't be someone's servant
if you really want to be somebody's
king, right?
That's the problem.
And so we need a heart change.
We need something to change within us.
We need something of our significance
to actually change.
And I love how the Bible is put together.
You see, right after this
passage on serving,
there is a story about significance.
I think this is the key to our heart
change in the key to serving.
You see, right after this passage,
there's a story of a blind beggar
named Bartimaeus.
You can read about him later.
It's a wonderful story.
It's blind beggar named Bartimaeus.
So in first century culture,
he is as low as you can be,
as absolute low as you can be.
And Jesus is coming to town
and he is calling out to Jesus.
He is crying out to Jesus
to get his attention
just for Jesus to notice him,
to pay attention to Him and his friends.
The friends of Bartimaeus
tell him, be quiet,
be quiet.
You're not important enough.
You're not significant enough.
Why in the world
with Jesus, the Son of Man, stop for you.
Look at who you are.
You have nothing to contribute.
Your life is going nowhere.
You couldn't be any lower.
Why in the world would Jesus the King
stop for you?
And they couldn't have been more wrong.
When you read the story,
Jesus stopped, Jesus served,
and Jesus healed the blind man.
I wonder how many of us
have that voice in our head.
It just says, be quiet.
Someone has told us.
Or maybe we tell ourselves,
you don't matter enough to Jesus.
You're not significant enough
for him to stop.
Not for you,
not for your past, not for your issues,
not for your brokenness.
Look at who you are.
Look at what you've done.
Why in the world would Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, care about you?
You don't matter enough.
And if you are here and that's
what you think you are,
that's what's deep within you. I'm.
I'm really glad that you're here, because
I get to tell you that you were wrong.
You're wrong
because Jesus Christ, he stopped.
He served,
and he sacrificed his life for you.
He gave his life as a ransom for many.
He gave his life for you.
And you are not significant
because you climbed the ladder.
And you are not insignificant
because you didn't.
You are significant because Jesus Christ,
you climbed the cross
and there's a heart change.
The heart change comes when you believe
you are so significant to God
that he gave his own son.
And when you are so significant to God,
you don't need to go
chasing significance anywhere else.
A heart that's changed.
The second is a mind
that's convinced, a mind that's convinced.
This is what I mean.
When people talk about change
or influence in this world,
they usually say, hey,
if you want to change,
you want to be an influence.
Or in this world,
and you need to be here, of course, right.
That makes sense.
You need to be in the right meetings
with the right decisions
and the right power
and the right authority, all those things
right you need to be above
if you're going to change anything.
And I think Jesus would just say,
hang on a minute,
hang on a minute.
That's not how I change the world.
That's not how I changed you.
I did not change the world through
a display of power, but of powerlessness.
I did not change the world
through a display of my authority,
but laying my authority down.
I changed the world as a servant.
As a servant.
So I just wonder what I would look like
if our minds are convinced the best way
for you to shape your marriage,
your kids, your friends, your classmates.
The best way for us as a church
to continue to have an amazing impact
on our community and region
and the world around us.
It's not going to be as kings.
It's going to be as servants,
as when our minds are convinced
and our hearts are changed
at the best place for us to be
down here
and to say it's most important,
you know what?
It's most important that we or not
most important,
we are a vulnerable people.
We are living in a world
that tells us the only way to matter.
The only way to have influence
is to be above.
And Jesus says,
it must not be so among you,
or among me or among us.
He is telling us that he is
showing us a different life,
a life that's not above a life.
It's not even side by side.
A life that is beneath.
We serve because he first served us.
Let's pray.
Father in heaven, you know my heart.
In my tendency.
God, it is easy for us
to get caught up in the world's ways
and to be people who chase
after all kinds of things.
I thank you
that you are so different from us
that you came not to be served,
but to serve.
And I pray as we experience your love,
we realize how important
that we are to you, that we will be freed
from chasing it anywhere else,
and that we will join you
in realizing it's most important
not to be most important.
In Jesus name I pray. Amen.