Free Grace Vernon

Pastor Ian Crooks preaching on Matthew 20:17-28. March 15, 2026. 

In Matthew 20:17–28, Jesus turns the world’s idea of greatness upside down. As He prepares His disciples for His coming suffering and death, He teaches that true greatness in God’s kingdom isn’t found in power, status, or recognition—but in humble service. In this sermon we explore how Jesus, the King who came not to be served but to serve, calls His followers to the same radical way of life. What does it mean to follow a Savior who gave His life as a ransom for many? And how should that reshape the way we pursue influence, leadership, and significance? 

📖 Passage: Matthew 20:17–28 
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Free Grace is Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Vernon, BC Canada. Join us for our Sunday service at 10:30 AM at 802 45th Ave, or tune in online through our Facebook or YouTube livestream.

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Host
Pastor Ian Crooks
Senior Pastor | Teaching Elder

What is Free Grace Vernon?

Free Grace is a Presbyterian Church located in Vernon, British Columbia. We believe it is the Gospel of Christ that has power to transform people’s lives. To learn more about Free Grace Church www.freegracevernon.ca

Pastor Ian Crooks:

Well, disciples, could say they weren't really very good listeners. Despite his repeated teaching about his coming suffering, his death and resurrection, they were fixated on greatness and places of honor in his kingdom. So what Jesus does, he takes them aside, they're on their way to Jerusalem, he takes them aside from the hustle and bustle of the crowds and he spells out to them for the third time, Matthew records it here, the details of his coming death, suffering and resurrection. You can see the details there in verses eighteen and nineteen. There's a new detail here, however, he begins to teach about the fact that he would die by crucifixion.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

He also teaches about the role that the Gentiles would have in his death in addition to the role that the Jews would have. There the role they would play in him being betrayed, condemned, mocked, flawed, crucified and raised. The details there verses eighteen and nineteen. But Jesus' 12 disciples, they weren't really listening. You could sense the vibe there.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

They're just saying, Enough of this talk about suffering, we want to talk instead about thrones. And that's what they're preoccupied with here. Jesus called to self denial, humility, service, they just seem to fall on deaf ears because what they want to talk about is position and power and greatness. Now, when you look at verse 18 there, the disciples needed to listen. Notice the word there what Jesus uses, we are going up to Jerusalem.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

He should have gotten their attention here because they are included with Jesus. They too will be going with Jesus to Jerusalem. What would they have to suffer? What would they have to endure? Now when we look at this teaching of Jesus, and again, you can follow the details here on freegrace.me, it's a place where you can find the Bible verses and some of the quotations, freegrace.me.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

But when you get to this teaching here on greatness, this is a teaching that you could say has fallen on deaf ears for probably the first twenty centuries of the church. We think about stories of abuse of power, whether that's within leadership of the church or the local people, we recognize this is such an important teaching. What is true kingdom greatness? What does it mean for you and I to be great in the kingdom of God? Well, if you have your Bibles open with me, let's look together at this passage that Emily read.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

We're gonna look at three objects here. First of all, a seat, secondly, a cup, and thirdly, a ransom. A seat, a cup and a ransom. Let's begin there as we look together at verses twenty and twenty one. It took courage, we could say for this mom to come to Jesus with her request for what she thought was best for her two boys, James and John.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

She came to Jesus, she has a very specific request in her mind, she wants for her two boys, you could call them preferred seats. You know, when you check-in online for a flight and you have an opportunity to pay extra dollars for seats in the first class perhaps, or just for me especially, what is the price for extended leg room? That's what I'm always kind of looking for. It's always out of my price range, but that kind of seating you could say is preferred seating. People want it, they were willing to pay a price for it.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

We see here the same request. Look at verse 21. Say, she's coming to Jesus, she says to him, say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your kingdom. Now this is a request fueled, you can go back to chapter 19 verse 28, it's a request that was fueled by talk about the 12 apostles with their 12 thrones. So now James and John and her mom pick up on this.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

She wanted seats with privilege and status and power for her boys, not for Andrew or Peter, not for Philip or Bartholomew, not for Thomas, not for any of the rest of the 10. She wanted seats close proximity to Jesus as King and she wanted them for her two boys. No one else, just James and John. Now before we kind of pile on to her here and say what kind of a request was this, we criticize her ambition. What we do see here is that she actually did believe that Jesus was the Messiah, he is about to enter his kingdom and he would reign, she believed.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

She wanted her boys to share the Messiah's authority and preeminence when Jesus' kingdom would be fully consummated. What she and James and John didn't realize was that Jesus' kingdom wouldn't be consummated before his death, but after his death. Those seats of power and prestige and preeminence, they couldn't be reserved for their arrival in Jerusalem. Now again, we recognise, we all kind of like James and John and their mother, we battle with that same mix faith that is mature and then also ignorance as well. There's hope for us, we remember how James and John went on to become two of the pillars of the early church.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

We recognize that our desire for those seats of honor, they're real, it may be a little more subtle than this mom and the story here. Maybe we just want to have employee of the month or student of the month or a promotion, a nice office with a view out the window. There's nothing wrong with striving for excellence so long as it doesn't impede our service for the Lord and of our neighbor. This smaller's request might seem like a kind of a power play to you and if it does to you or me, we recognize it has here a warning because what's central here for these three people in this request is this idol of power. It's one of the great idols of our world today, that desire, that idolatry of power.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

Sometimes it is because we seek Jesus to advance our own particular concerns. We want him to provide us with that seed of power in our family dynamic perhaps. Maybe it's within our group of friends, maybe it's within even the church life and family too. So we guard our hearts, the danger of that seed, that danger of that desire for power that Jesus would provide. We come secondly then, let's read on verses 22 to 23, we come from a seat and now the image here is of a cup.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

Jesus turns to James, John and their mother, verse 22, listen to what he says, You do not know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? Think about it for a moment. If they really understood what they were asking and what was involved in it, they perhaps would have ran a mile to escape from what was coming. Think about it, they believed that they could reign with Jesus, but they failed to see that they would have to suffer with Jesus.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

That there is no crying without first a cross. So Jesus uses the word there, the cup. Now we know that Jesus would drink that cup in a very unique way. Think about Jesus, he is on Thursday evening before he dies, he's in the Garden Of Gethsemane, he is praying there, he encourages Peter, James and John, again those two characters, to pray with him. And as he prays, we hear those words in Matthew 26 verse 39.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

He says, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. What was that cup? Well, this cup that is referred to here was the cup of God's wrath that was due to us for our sin. Jesus would drink the most foul tasting drink of all on that cross.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

The wrath of a holy God due to us for our sin. Think about that cup for a moment. A cup of horror, a cup of suffering, a cup of sorrow, and yet one that Jesus willingly and readily drank to the very last drop so that you and I would not have to drink it, but that you and I instead would be able to begin to sip from the cup of his blessing. The great exchange again, he took the cup we deserves, we take this cup of his blessing. James and John and their mother, they didn't grasp the nature of this cup.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

We do admire their loyalty, but look at verse 22, they seem a little bit too quick to reply. Can you drink it? You said, we are able. Again, fast forward, it's the night before Jesus is crucified at Gethsemane, where's James and John? Well, they're there running behind Peter and Andrew, Philip and Bartholomew, all the rest of the 12, they all desert Jesus as he was arrested.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

We are able, they said. James and John obviously couldn't share the particular cup Jesus would drink there on the cross, and yet Jesus does promise James and John that they would drink from a cup, a cup of suffering as his disciples. Look at verse 23. They're promised a cup. James would drink that cup, he would die as a martyr at the hand of King Herod.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

You can go to Acts twelve:two, there's no detail given there, simply we read, He that is heard killed James, the brother of John with the swords. James would hear the step of the executioner and the sword would come down and remove his heads. John would drink that cup in his suffering and exile on the Isle Of Patmos. Revelation one:nine, here's the context, he says, I John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. So James would drink that cup, John would drink that cup of suffering.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

And again, it's a reminder that we are to be careful what we pray for. We've heard that phrase in life, know, be careful what you ask for. Well sometimes when we pray the Lord's prayer, it's just so easy to say, your kingdom come, your will be done. But what does that mean? What does it mean for you and I to pray, Lord, use me in your service?

Pastor Ian Crooks:

What does it mean for us to pray, Lord, make me holy? What will that involve? What will the Lord use to achieve his purposes for our lives? What will that cup look like for you and I? Might be loss, might be loneliness, it might be an illness, it might be suffering, maybe even family rejection.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

And yet remember that cup of suffering that you and I drink is a cup lovingly poured by the Lord Jesus. I love the quote by R. C. Sproul, the writer, he says, What spilled over from the cross landed on the heads of those who followed him, that is Jesus. Spill over from the cross, what is that cup, what will we drink?

Pastor Ian Crooks:

For James and John and their mother, when we read it on there, it was a case of a request that was denied by Jesus. Those preferred seats were allocated only at the Father's discretion. There could be no reserve sign on those seats for James or John or any of the other 10 disciples. You can read the reaction there, verse 24, they were indignant at the two brothers. Now again, that's an understatement, indignant.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

Now try to picture Peter's face for a moment. Peter is one of the inner three Peter, James and John, Peter, James and John, and now he's a witness to James and John leaving him behind and looking for the places of power, the best seats in the house you could say, he is indignant, you are right. How could they make this request? It's not because they were horrified that they could be so ambitious, they were horrified, they were indignant that they were taking the seats that all of the 12 actually wanted to have. They knew there was no rosettes or medal for finishing third here.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

So what does Jesus do? It's teachable time. Draws them aside from the crowds again, he decides to teach them true greatness in his kingdom is not according to this world standards. And that brings us to our third word. We look at a cup and then finally we look at a ransom.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

Look at verse 28, Jesus teaches the 12 that kingdom greatness is measured by service and that service is seen most perfectly in Jesus sacrifice on the cross as a ransom for many. Look at that word for a moment, ransom. What comes into your head when you hear that word? Maybe it's a kidnapping story, maybe it's a briefcase full of $100 bills, million dollar ransom for someone who's been kidnapped and maybe in a far off place. No, the idea here is of a slave being ransomed.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

Someone paying a ransom price to attain the freedom of that servant or that slave. This is how we are to understand Jesus payment of ransom. We think about the story of the ex odus that we will be going back to again after Easter. We think about the story of how God by his grace ransomed Israel to bring his people out of Egypt to set them free. The ransom here paid to set us free from being captive to our sin.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

So how are we to understand Jesus' payment? What does this ransom mean? Well, look at three things there. First of all, each one of us here in this room or watching are slaves to sin and we are unable to set ourselves free. Not one of us can unlock that sheen.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

We are slaves to sin. That is your status today outside of Jesus Christ, that is who you are, we cannot set ourselves free, we cannot find a key to open the lock and set ourselves free, Jesus alone can do that. He sets us free from sin's penalty, from sin's power, from the consequences of sin, all that we contribute to redemption, it's really simple. It's our sin, there's nothing else that we bring. So first of all, we are slaves to sin.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

Secondly, as we read on, as we look at this message here, a ransom price was paid by Jesus. Here are the words of the Apostle Peter, one Peter one eighteen and nineteen describes his payments, not a briefcase full of $100 bills, but Jesus' very lifeblood. Peter writes, he says, knowing that you ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spots. Lifebloods. Christian, think about the price again, you were ransomed and the price was the very lifeblood of the son of God.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

His blood flowed freely to set you free from sin's penalty, from sin's power. Jesus Christ's death on the cross, we read there from Jesus, was for many. For, the word there means, in the place of all who will accept as payment for their sin, the ransom price you and I could never pay. Jesus paid, and here's a key word, as our substitute. We need to understand what's called the PSA, the penal substitutionary atonement.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

What does this mean? Well, it's the language of Isaiah 53, a very familiar passage picturing Jesus as a suffering servant. Isaiah 53 verse five, He was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Verse 11, He shall bear their iniquities.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

Substitutionary death of Jesus, the penalty for our sin is paid. This event on the cross, Jesus' death, his atoning death, it's not just his victory over death and Satan, although it is that, it's victorious. It's not only an example of self sacrificial giving of his life, This is the reality here. He died in our place. We read the words there for many.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

What's that word many mean? Well, turn again in Matthew's gospel to chapter 26 verse 28. Jesus, again, the night before he died, the institution of the Lord's supper that we will sacrifice, he used these words, this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. It's what's known in theological terms as a particular redemption, is the fact that Jesus Christ died for those who are his own people. Not for the world in general, but for the people set apart by God from before the foundations of this world.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

John Murray, the writer puts it well, Christ did not come to put man in a redeemable position, but to redeem to himself a people, a certain people. So secondly, a ransom price was paid. Firstly, we couldn't pay it ourselves, we needed someone to pay for us. Thirdly, we are redeemed by the blood of Christ and as we are redeemed, we have a new master. It's like that store with the sign under new management.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

Change has taken place, we have a new master, we are servants of the Lord. Again, the Apostle Paul writes in first Corinthians six verse 19, or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God's? You're not your own, for you were bought with a price, so glorify God's in your body. So again, we see greatness in the kingdom and it's revealed in Christ's sacrifice for our sin. His example of one also, look at verse 28, one who came not to be served, but to serve.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

A unique way Jesus gives his life as a ransom for our sin, but also we see here this example, a life of service, the one who had every right to be served, but who actually came to serve. Most famous example, again, in that upper room before he was, the night before he was crucified. John thirteen fourteen describes how Jesus lowered himself to the most menial of tasks to wash the feet of his disciples. Charles Chuck Colson has a really good quote here, he says this, The lure of power can separate the most resolute of Christians from the true nature of Christian leadership, which is service to others. It is difficult to stand on a pedestal and wash the feet of those below.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

That's an image. You're on a pedestal, you look down, you're trying to wash the feet of those down below. It's impossible. That idol of power that we seek, we can't be servants of the Lord with that idol in our lives. Maybe like James and John, we do seek positions of prestige and honor.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

Look at verses 25 to 27, Jesus teaches, our whole world is upside down as he teaches. Listen to his words there, he says, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 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 your slave. Jesus draws a contrast here between his world where greatness was measured by the number of slaves or servants he owned with life in his kingdom where greatness is measured by the number of people that we serve. I wonder people around you, family members, friends, they describe you as having a servant's heart?

Pastor Ian Crooks:

Do you hang up the towel? Do you load the dishwasher? Do you take out the garbage? Make the coffee? Do you put the milk away in the fridge?

Pastor Ian Crooks:

Do you clean the toilets? Whatever it is, those little things kind of reveal to others. Do they really have a servant's heart? Do they really get down and get dirty, you could say, and the local life of the church each Sunday? We live in a very dog eat dog culture, don't we?

Pastor Ian Crooks:

There's power plays or politics, it's a rat race in many different ways and yet this is the direct opposite of the humility of the self sacrificial servant of the Lord, someone who is under the authority of the Lord as our king and master. We're not to be in that worldly pattern of power hungry. Look at the words there again at verse 26, the NIV translates it simply, not so with you, he says. Jesus looks at the church today, looks at your life and mine, he says, not so with you. Be done with that power kick, he says.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

Forget about honor, forget about having others serve you, what can you do for the Lord? We follow Jesus' way. First John two verses five and six, by this we may know that we are in him, whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. So again, true greatness is found in service to our King. So maybe you say, well, how can I serve?

Pastor Ian Crooks:

What can I do? I don't seem to have a lot of gifts. I'm not good with children perhaps, I'm not good with seniors. What is it that I can do? Well, maybe it is something where the Lord is simply calling you to move out of your comfort zone.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

I was talking to one of my former elders last weekend at Presbytery and we were joking about the time where I decided that I would make coffee for the session members. Now those of you who know me know I have absolutely no knowledge of coffee or how to make it if I ever offered to do that for you. Please don't allow me. I made the coffee for the elders and at the end of it they very kindly but gently said, you may not ever do that again. Never do that again.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

So again, we're just looking at ways in which we can serve. Sometimes we will try something and that's not our gift. But we are stepping forward, we are volunteering. I wonder, did Jesus power hungry and jealous disciples really get it? Well, again, turn to one of the other gospels and we realize that they still weren't listening.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

Again, the night before Jesus died, the context of the Lord's Supper, Luke 22 verse 24, we read of what's going on there. A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. Just not listening. They just weren't listening, are we? Have you been rescued from God's curse upon your sin?

Pastor Ian Crooks:

Have you humbled yourself to receive Christ, the atoning sacrifice that he made, his ransom price that was paid? Have you received it by faith, resting your hope in Christ's finished work upon the cross. If you have then, the call is a call of life of service. We think of this mother's request, she is a lady who is identified in other parts of the gospel as a lady called Salome, and she was one of the ladies who was actually there watching Jesus being crucified. She was there near to the cross.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

There as she watched, she saw the ultimate sacrifice, the ransom price being paid by the lamb of God without sin or blemish for her sins, for your sin, for my sin. There she would learn true greatness. May we do the same, may we see greatness today in a life of service to the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is to be our true Lord, our master, and our king. Let's pray together. Lord God, we recognize the the challenge again of the scriptures before us this morning.

Pastor Ian Crooks:

Your call is, Lord, not to lord it over the people around us in our family or peer group or church, but to, Lord, be able and willing to serve as you would call us, as you would give us opportunity, Lord, that we would step forward and use the gifts that you've given us. We pray, Lord, for those who perhaps are not yet believers, that they too would buy before you humbly, Lord Jesus, and receive the ransom price, receive the life that you offer to them in the gospel. We praise you, Lord, that that ransom price secured the justice of a holy God, And Lord God, that we rest upon you alone now for salvation. Hear us as we pray in Christ's name, amen.