Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Several years ago, I met a main named Joe.

Unfortunately, the occasion for our meeting wasn’t the best.

I had come to pray with Joe prior to his having a long-shot surgery and what proved to be a fatal brain tumor.

But, that morning was extraordinary.

We laughed and told stories, and I felt like I had known Joe all of my life.

He was kind and put me at ease.

He was constantly making his sister smile as she was fighting back tears.

To this day, I don’t know that I’ve ever met a man that had a greater zeal for life.

It was contagious.

Everybody from doctors to other patients found themselves captivated by the magnetic joy that Joe couldn’t hide.

Joe and I began a friendship that day.

I didn’t know anything else about him, but I knew this man was my brother and this man had a lot of what I was missing.

Every Sunday morning at church, Joe would make a beeline for me, and he and I would talk about our weeks and Joe would always talk about how excited he was to be in church that day.

To this day, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a man sing with as big of a smile on his face than did Joe, tumor and all, suffering and all.

As the tumor progressed, Joe was able to come to church less and less, and I began to visit him more and more.

I remember being taken back the first time that I visited Joe at his home.

It was a modest mobile home in a less than affluent side of town.

While I was with him, I began to learn his story.

Joe was a lifelong roofer and had lived his life hard.

The man that he worked for, a member at my church at the time, had shared the gospel with him over and over again, and finally one day, Joe abandoned his life of sin and surrendered his life to the Lord.

And as Joe would say, “Nothing was ever the same again.”

When the Lord finally called Joe home, the family asked me to preach his funeral.

That day, we gathered in a sanctuary that could seat 2000 people, and I remember being stunned by how full it was.

We were there to remember a roofer, not a city councilmen or a prominent lawyer.

We were there to celebrate the life of a man that didn’t have a dollar to his name when he died and yet people poured in from all over.

Story after story I heard from these people and how Joe had told them about Jesus or how he had been such a kind influence in their life.

If I am to be ambitious, it is to be that kind of man — the kind of man whose life is not defined by the fortune or the inheritance that I can leave behind, but the impact and the love, grace, and joy.

This morning, we are going to see Jesus teaching his disciples about this true form of greatness.

And, on that day, I realized something: That is greatness in the Kingdom of God!

If I am to be ambitious, it is to be that kind of man — the kind of man whose life is not defined by the fortune or the inheritance that I can leave behind, but the impact and the love, grace, and joy.

This morning, we are going to see Jesus teaching his disciples about this true form of greatness.

God’s Word

Read

“Who is the Greatest?”

"Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?"

These guys aren't asking Jesus a philosophical question about greatness.

They weren't asking Jesus to define greatness in the Kingdom of God.

They were asking, "How great are we in the Kingdom of Heaven?"

Or, "Which of us are the greatest in the Kingdom of God?" We know this by Jesus' answer, and we know this because this has been their constant question.

In Mark's account of this same story, he tells us that they spent their entire walk that day arguing about who the greatest was in the Kingdom.

The disciples are wanting to know how they measure up with one another.

They want Jesus to settle for them how the compare to each other and who comes out on top.

They always want to know their rank in the Kingdom.

It's as though they are in the military and trying to see who's getting what promotion.

"Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?"

These guys aren't asking Jesus a philosophical question about greatness.

They weren't asking Jesus to define greatness in the Kingdom of God.

They were asking, "How great are we in the Kingdom of Heaven?"

Or, "Which of us are the greatest in the Kingdom of God?" We know this by Jesus' answer, and we know this because this has been their constant question.

In Mark's account of this same story, he tells us that they spent their entire walk that day arguing about who the greatest was in the Kingdom.

The verb that's used here is in the comparative form.

The disciples are wanting to know how they measure up with one another.

They want Jesus to settle for them how the compare to each other and who comes out on top.

They always want to know their rank in the Kingdom.

It's as though they are in the military and trying to see who's getting what promotion.

They always want to know "Who is the top disciple?

The question has become more urgent as Jesus has made it clearer that he is going to die; in that case, who is going to take the lead when he is gone?" (France)

I see this same pursuit, this same argument in my life.

Constantly, I'm always wanting to know how I'm measuring up.

I want to believe that I am in some way more acceptable to God than someone else, more devout than someone else, more committed than someone else, more insightful than someone else.

I find in my own heart this attitude that cries out to God, "Am I the greatest?

Am I the most useful?

Aren't you just especially proud of me?" Do you find this to be true of you?

For all of us who struggle with measuring up, let us remember the gospel this morning.

Jesus came because we could not measure up, and Jesus came so that we would measure up.

The cross reminds us that we could never measure up, and the gospel sings to us that we don’t have to.

Neither Pride, Nor Despair

The irony of this attitude is found in who we're following.

While the disciples seek to know who is the greatest in the eyes of Jesus, Jesus himself has humbled himself by leaving a place that proclaimed in greatness and coming to a place that would execute him as the scum of the earth.

While I seek to win the comparison game with other pastors and other Christians, the incomparable Savior I'm following has set for me an example of humiliation over glory.

While you are jealous that someone else is appreciated more or when you self-righteously view yourself as a better Christian than your brother or sister, Jesus himself is interceding for you before the Father saying, "Forgive him, Father, for I died for this sin."

APPLICATION: The comparison game, the measuring up game always has one of two ends: 1) It inflates your ego and fuels your pride because you perceive yourself as being greater than others.

2) Or, it crushes your soul because you never seem to measure up to the other mothers or the other men or everybody else at school.

And, whichever position you find yourself in, what I want you know this morning is that the Gospel is calling for you to put it down.

The irony of this attitude is found in who we're following.

While the disciples seek to know who is the greatest in the eyes of Jesus, Jesus himself has humbled himself by leaving a place that proclaimed in greatness and coming to a place that would execute him as the scum of the earth.

So, on the one hand, if you find yourself feeling like you’re measuring up, then I ask you why did Jesus have to come?

Jesus came because you cannot measure up.

And, if you find yourself always falling short and falling into despair, then I ask you: Is this not why Jesus came to begin with?

At the cross there is not room for either pride or despair.

At the cross, Jesus measured up for you because you never would, and that standard has been met forever!

Dear brother or sister, visit the cross this morning!

Particles of Pride

"unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" Jesus' response must've been stunning to his disciples.

In their minds, Jesus is going to solve the controversy.

And, Jesus tells them that the content of their controversy is the pathway to hell.

It, perhaps, seems like an overreaction from Jesus to say that they will go to hell or that perhaps He will tie a millstone around their necks and have them drowned, until we understand how evil this really is.

For we are seeing in the lives of Jesus' disciples the very essence of the oldest sin in the universe: pride.

Why was it that Lucifer, that angel of light, was cast out of heaven?

He wanted God's glory.

What was the sin that caused Adam and Eve to be cast from the Garden and face a certain death?

They wanted to know what God knew.

They wanted to be like God himself.

Why were the people at Babel judged and confused by many languages?

They wanted to reach the heights of heaven by their own power and wisdom.

What we see in the lives of the disciples this day and what we find in our own lives as we look is the sin of pride.

The disciples believed that they deserved status in Jesus’ court, and we believe that Jesus is better with us than without us.

I believe that if we were to boil down every sin in our lives to their most basic, atomic level that the very atoms that come together to form the wickedness in our lives would be none other than the particles of pride.

Pride the Abomination