A Roadside Reminder and Reproof, Part 2

Today, from Chuck Swindoll, a bold word of advice to those who assume leadership in the local church. On Jesus' team, there is no place for self-serving ambition, personal promotion, shameless narcissism, presumptuous arrogance, or bold, even veiled pride.

Few things are more different from our world system than that. Whoever wants to be a leader among you, be known as a servant. Yes, the Bible teaches that we should respect those in positions of spiritual leadership. But there's a tendency in some of today's churches to elevate their pastor beyond appropriate levels.

So how do we strike the right balance? Well, according to the Bible, the tone is set by those in authority. And today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll is teaching from Matthew chapter 20. In this passage, we read Jesus' timeless counsel to anyone seeking leadership. He said, whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant.

Chuck titled his message a roadside reminder and reproof. Please enable us, our Father, to be able to remove from our minds all other distracting thoughts during the next few moments we're together. That we might be fully focused on the things you have written for us to read and then to apply. Help us in the reading to grasp what was meant in the days in which it was said and, of course, ultimately be able to bridge across the centuries and see how it applies to our lives in this century, at this time.

In fact, this very week that's before us. Thank you in advance, Lord, for the conviction you will bring as truth is revealed from your word. And as we grasp from the lips of Jesus, from the pen of Matthew, what it is you want us to hear and learn and put to use in our lives. Thank you for those people who have shaped our lives, who have been models of what Jesus taught, for mentors, for teachers, for parents, for friends, for colleagues whose lives have been marked by dedication and servant leadership in ways that made our lives richer and better and fuller.

Thank you for the things we learned from them. May we in turn model the same to others. Deliver us from seeing these things as being worth something another individual should hear and heed. May we realize you have written this for our learning, that we through the Scriptures might experience a transformed life. I pray for those who hurt today for whatever reason, those whose pain is intense, some physically, others just as real emotionally, and as a result, they're here to find help in order to go on and relief in order to survive.

Meet whatever may be the need, however deep it may be. We want you to know, Lord, that what the choir sang is exactly what we feel. We do love you. We love you with our whole heart.

We would not follow another like we follow you. We could be any other place today and we want to be here. And by being here, we want you to know, we wait upon you to minister to us. Touch us deeply, our Father.

Speak to us privately, down in the depths of our lives, in places dealing with things that no one else knows, but you know it all. Our lives before you are open books, and because of this, we trust you to minister to us. It is our privilege also, Father, from what you have allowed us to earn to give. We do it with delight today, and we do it with gratitude, because we are learning how to be like that through you and from your Son, who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give. May that always be true of us. Even in random acts of kindness, in gracious words, in apologies, in the kindest of expressions, may we help lift another's load and make that life easier for them to travel. We commit these words to you in prayer and these gifts to you in our offerings, through Jesus Christ our Lord. And everyone said, Amen. They're on their way to Jerusalem on the east side of the Jordan in an area called Perea.

They're making their way south, and the crowd is large. And Jesus, knowing there will not be another journey back to Galilee, because his death is imminent, pulls the 12 away from the crowd. We read, he took them aside privately, and he told them of what was ahead for him. What you don't know about reading Matthew 20 is that he's already told them this twice. In Matthew 16, he told them. In Matthew 17, he told them. In Matthew 20 now, he tells them yet again. And he will tell them again before he is arrested and put on trial. But look at what he says. Look at the seriousness of his talk with them.

Listen. We're going up to Jerusalem where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die.

They will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, flogged with a whip and crucified. It was as if he was talking another language to them. They weren't even on the same page. Though they had been told time and time and time and time again, I will die, I will be raised, I will be crucified, I will come back from the dead. Not on the same page. They didn't understand the significance of his word.

It was all hidden from them. So they're thinking about their position in that kingdom. And that's the change of subject when you get to verse 20. I mean, you're reading along and it is really in the depths of seriousness when you read the verses that I just read, 17 to 19. You get to verse 20 and suddenly the attention turns.

Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. She knelt respectfully to ask a favor. What's your request? He asked. Remember what he's just told him? You remember. He's just talked about his own death, his own suffering, his own resurrection. It's been all about that. And he said, well, what is it you request?

It's that kind of response. And she replied, in your kingdom, see what they're thinking about? See what she's thinking about? Not on the same page. In your kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you.

One on your right and the other on your left. Who is this woman? She isn't even named here.

She is called by John, get this, Jesus's mother's sister, which would make her Jesus's earthly aunt. We're family. You've known us longer than you've known any of these other men. You grew up with us.

You know my sons, good boys. They ought to be one on your left and one on your right. Stop! What in the world are we doing thinking about who sits on the right or left of Jesus in the midst of a conversation about his death and resurrection? You do that when you are focused not on what is being said, but on what is on your mind.

And let me go a little further and tell you that they set her up. I say that because of what appears in verse 22. Jesus said, you do not know what you are asking. The you is plural.

She's singular. So he says as he looks at the boys and the men, James and John, you guys don't know what you're asking. You all don't know what you're asking for.

And then he goes a step further to bring them back to the subject. Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering that I'm about to drink? Do you realize what is ahead? Do you know what following me will include?

Do you have any idea the heaviness of what I'm facing? They not only have missed his point, they misunderstood the whole issue of kingdom promotion in his kingdom lifestyle. In kingdom greatness in Jesus lifestyle. It's not about who sits on the right and who sits on the left. It's not about title. It's not about who's on top. What they didn't get is there must be suffering before there can be significance.

There must be brokenness before there is usefulness. There must be humility before there is authority granted. There must be the bitter cup of pain to endure before there is promotion. They don't get that.

So he asks them, do you realize what it is you're asking? Are you ready to take this bitter cup of suffering? And look at their answer.

Look at how shallow. Oh yes, we're able. Oh sure, we're in. Yeah, whatever, just make sure we're on the right and left.

That's the idea. And then Jesus comes back with a very firm, you will indeed drink from this bitter cup. You have no idea what your future holds. The pain I have in front of me I've told you about, but you've no idea what you will have as a result of following me in the years that pass. And furthermore, regarding who sits on my right and left, that's my father's business. I don't walk with you along this road to Jerusalem trying to figure out who's going to sit where.

I'm wrestling with what is in front of me. I mean, imagine that, men and women. You have a crucifixion in front of you.

And all of the torture that goes with it. And they're talking about who's going to be first or second. By the way, in case you wonder if the other disciples are thinking, how noble of them to think like that. Look at the next verse. They were indignant. The other ten probably were thinking, why didn't we think of that?

You know, who do they think they are? So Jesus again calls them together to drive home a point. Now this is the part you cannot miss. You don't miss this.

Get on the page, stay there with me. Because it is here Jesus brings the whole thing out in the open that anybody can grasp if you will focus on it. He begins by describing the ethnos, the Gentile world. Look at it.

He called them together, verse 25, and he said, you know, you know this, that the rulers of this ethnoon, it's plural for ethnos, it means the Gentiles. We would call it the world system, let's call it that. The rulers of the world system lorded over their people and their officials, flaunt their authority over those under them. Stop right there, right there at that period. That's the way it is. That's the way it is in the corporate world. You begin at the, pretty much at the base. You get out of school and by the grace of God and the opening that's made available to you, you hire in and you start at, if not at, very near the bottom and you begin to work your way, we call it up, and you go up the corporate ladder, working your way toward what we call the top position.

That's the way it is in the system. In the military world, it's like that you begin as a buck private or as the lowest form of second lieutenant, whether enlisted or officer. You begin at the bottom and you work your way up, and the higher the rank, the greater the authority, and the greater the authority, the more you are able to, if you will, rule over those under you. And believe me, in the military, you're certainly under those who are in rank over you, and that's why you salute them.

They don't salute you. It's true in the medical world. I had a man come to me following the first service this morning, and he told me, I work with a group of medical doctors, and I won't tell you all the things he said, but he said, what I do is I work with those who are addicted. It's a whole other world. I said, I bet you run across this very thing.

He said, all the time. Nothing happens when a person gets a medical degree. Rarely does he become increasingly more humble and servant-hearted. There are exceptions.

I know that, so don't write me. I know that, but it's the fact that they're the exception that's the tragedy. Why don't we become, when we get more and more educated, more servant-hearted? What gives us the right to become more arrogant, more know-it-all? The right, if you will, or the freedom, not the right, but the freedom to flaunt it, to flaunt it. If you don't learn some of this about the world system, there's a name for you.

It's called unemployed. You better know the system, and you better know who's back to scratch. Now, you got it? So Jesus is a realist.

This is realistic 21st century information, just as it was first century. All of those people, look at the word over. They lord it over.

They flaunt their authority over. And look at the word under. Under them.

You're under me. I'm the one with the office on the corner, the top floor. I'm the one with the thicker carpet. I'm the one that has the bathroom connected to my office. I'm the one that has my own private parking place. I've got the perks. I'm there, says the one who flaunts it over the others.

And that's the way it is in the system. Look at the next sentence. If you see nothing else this day, look at verse 26. But among you, it will be different.

There are five words in the Greek language that are translated like this. Not thus is it among you. And the emphasis is on the not.

It's placed out of order for emphasis. Not so among you, disciples. Not so among you who follow Christ.

That's not the way it works in the family of God. Among you, it will be different. There will be no brash lording it over. There will be no flaunting of authority. On Jesus' team, there is no place for self-serving ambition, personal promotion, shameless narcissism, presumptuous arrogance, or bold even veiled pride.

Few things are more different from our world system than that. And if that isn't enough, Jesus goes one step further and describes the role of his followers. And he's talking to the 12 who have walked with him longer than anyone else on the planet. They've been his close followers. He has been their mentor. So he tells them, they must learn this if no one else. When I'm gone, this is what you must model.

And look at how he puts it. Whoever wants to be a leader among you, be known as a servant. And whoever wants to be first among you, be known as someone else's slave or helper. If slave offends you, don't quibble over the term. You know what it's saying. Be one who says, may I help you?

Can I be of assistance to you? Or when you have done wrong, I really owe you an apology for doing what I did. I was wrong. I was out of line. I spoke too quickly.

Or I came across like I was a know-it-all and I'm not. And on and on the way servants work. It's sometimes called random acts of kindness. Where you do for others without having attention called to it. Least of all by you. You're in it to serve and you're in it to give.

You want a good model? Last verse of our passage. Even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as a payment or a ransom for many. In a culture that puts leaders on a pedestal, the style of leadership that Jesus promoted seems backwards. Jesus said, whoever wants to be a leader among you, must be your servant. This is Insight for Living, and Chuck Swindoll is midway through a study in Matthew chapter 20.

He's titled today's message a roadside reminder and reproof. To discover the variety of resources we have available for today's topic, please visit us online at insightworld.org. Maybe today's teaching has inspired you to dig deeper into the book of Matthew on your own. If that's the case, let me remind you about the Searching the Scriptures studies that are easily accessed online. Feel free to print out the PDF and use the notes in your personal quiet times. And pastors and leaders can use these notes for teaching a class or preparing a sermon.

To access the Searching the Scriptures guide for Chuck's daily teaching, go to insight.org slash studies. And as we conclude today's program, I'm inviting you to become one of our monthly companions. The steady financial support from our monthly companions has accelerated our pursuit of an audacious God-sized dream, and that is to bring Insight for Living to all 195 countries of the world.

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Or go to insight.org slash monthly companion. You've heard him teach about the Holy Land, using word pictures to make us feel like we're actually strolling through the old city. Learning about Jerusalem is fascinating for sure, but seeing the land of Israel with your own eyes is life changing.

In fact, it's absolutely magnificent. And now you can see Israel with Chuck Swindoll and the gracious hosts and experts assembled by Insight for Living Ministries. Join us on an unforgettable 12-day tour, March 6th through 17th, 2022. At special sites along the way, I will teach from God's Word. We'll worship at the Mount of Beatitudes and share the Lord's Table at the Garden Tomb. In fact, we'll sail the Sea of Galilee together and we'll visit places where Jesus walked and taught.

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Now, from my friend Dave Spiker, I'm Wayne Shepard inviting you to join us again next time when Chuck Swindoll continues our study in the book of Matthew, right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, a roadside reminder and reproof, was copyrighted in 2017 and 2021. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.