The One Who is Least Among All of You, This is the One Who is Great

This morning we're going to be studying Luke chapter 9 for our sermon text. And it's a topical sermon of sorts. The topic is humility. And so that's what we're going to be talking about and around and driving at the whole way through. And I want to prep us a little bit for the sermon. Because talking about humility is something that, you know, if I asked you, are you humble, we'd all kind of say no. And then if I pressed you and said, okay, well, in what ways are you proud? You'd go, I don't know. I'm not really sure. And then if I pressed further and said, I actually think you're proud in these ways. And I think you're not humble in these ways. We'd all get very uncomfortable. We wouldn't appreciate that sort of poking and prodding. Speaking of humility, it's sort of like going to the doctor or to physical therapy. How many of you guys have been to physical therapy? You've hurt something and you've had to go to a doctor. And what do they tell you when you show up?

They're going to stretch out. They're going to fix the thing they just cut open. And what do they tell you? They say, it's going to hurt. And it's going to hurt such that you're going to not want to do what I'm telling you you need to do. And yet, if you want it to function well, if you want your shoulder to work again, if you want your knee to bend, if you want to be without pain and arthritis, you have to go through the pain of these exercises. And if you won't, if you decide the pain's too great, I know better than you, doctor, and I'm not going to do.

What you're telling me to do, you'll be without the benefit that the doctor has to give you. And when we talk about humility, it's the same. Because it gets down into our hearts. And we have to deal with the motivations of our hearts. Humility is something that's born in and lives in and is rooted in our hearts. It's not in our minds. And yet humility is the sort of thing that we want to interact with with our brains. Well, humility looks like this. And yet there's no humility if it's not born out of our heart. And so this sermon, Jesus dealing with his disciples here, is heart surgery. It's physical therapy after you recover. And what I'd ask you is that you, by faith, would trust God and that you wouldn't say at any point, you don't know what you're talking about, doctor. Because the words that I say are the words that Jesus said. And I want you to understand more fully what Jesus has to say about humility. Because humility is the hallmark.

of Christian faith, teachability, an ability to be instructed and to grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And only those who are humble will receive his teaching and come under his lordship. And so I ask you this morning to humble your hearts and to listen and to not at any point go, well, he can't, I think he might be trying to get me to think about this, but he doesn't know what he's talking about about that. You can't touch that over here. You can't speak to me there. No, that's exactly where I'm going to speak to you. That's exactly where I want you to be engaged because that's exactly where humility meets the ground and gets traction. This is where the rubber meets the road. And so I don't want you cordoning off portions of your heart and your lives saying, not over there. You can't talk about what humility looks like there. I don't want you poking over there, doc. I want you to humble yourself and I want you to listen. This is a very convicting sermon for me to prepare.

I want you to receive the same benefit that I did. Would you please stand for the reading of God's word from Luke chapter 9, verses 46 through 50. This is the word of the Lord and it is eternally true. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Now, to some of us, this may be a familiar text. We know that the disciples were... Heading down the road, and this argument, this dispute, this disagreement breaks out among them. Who's the greatest? Who's going to be the best in the kingdom of heaven? I want to give you a little bit of context, sort of a backdrop to what's going on to this argument. Because it didn't happen in a vacuum, it didn't happen in a void. And so the context is this. Jesus has just been...

engaged in a bunch of ministry. If you were to read all of Luke 9, you're going to find all kinds of stuff in there. You're going to find him casting out demons and healing people and preaching and teaching. You're going to find him equipping his apostles to do that very same work. And he sends them out with the authority to teach and to cast out demons. And they go out on this journey, this trip. They come back. They report to him. Here's what we did. And they're tired. And they're wanting rest. And so they get in a boat and they go across to the shore on the other side. And all the people know. And so the people meet them over in this place. There's no city. There's no land. There's nothing over there. And yet these crowds come to them. And the disciples are tired. And they want to rest. But Jesus, having compassion on the crowds, he teaches them. And at the end of that day, the disciples say to him,

Teacher, you need to send these people away into the towns and into the cities so that they can get food and they can get shelter. And Jesus rebukes his disciples and he says, you feed them. And the disciples are left going, we've only got five loaves of bread and two fish. How are we supposed to feed these 5,000 people? And Jesus says, you have them sit down in groups of 50. And he blesses the food and he multiplies it and all the people are fed. And they go away. And then Jesus goes on in ministering. And you understand that when these sorts of things are going on, the crowds followed them around and met Jesus where he was at.

The crowds are growing. The miracles are catching fire. People are hearing about it. They're coming. They want to know who is this man and what is he doing and what does he have to say and can he help me? And they're all coming. And so then Jesus takes John and James and Peter and he goes up on the mountain and he's transfigured. And they see him and they see Moses and they see Elijah. But while they're gone, there's this fight that breaks out between the Pharisees and the apostles because there's this boy down there that they can't cast the demon out of. And the Pharisees are making fun of them. And so Jesus comes back down and he sees this big hullabaloo going on and he casts out the demon and he rebukes the crowds, the Pharisees, for not believing. And then when they get alone, the disciples go, why couldn't we cast out that demon? And he says, because these kind only come out through prayer. And so Jesus is ministering and he's caring for them. And all of these people, you can understand, this is just sort of like a huge party.

It's not a party, but there's all kinds of excitement. This is a huge tent meeting, if you will. People are coming from all kinds of places. They're coming with all of their problems, and they're coming to Jesus Christ and to his disciples. And in the midst of all of that, in our text that we studied last week, it says in all of the amazement, all of the wonder that all of the crowds were having, Jesus says to his disciples, the Son of Man is going to be handed into the hands of men. And what he tells them in the midst of all of this pomp and circumstances, they're going to kill me.

They're going to kill me. And his disciples wouldn't hear it. They wouldn't receive it. It says that they didn't understand. And because of fear, they didn't question Jesus. They didn't ask him, what do you mean? Because as they perceive things, they're seeing all of this excitement, all of this grandeur, all of this amazing power of God. And they're going, and here you are. You're the Messiah. You're the promised one. You're the one who's going to come and to set up God's covenant. You're going to establish his kingdom here. on earth. And look at what it looks like. Look at all these people. Look at this amazement. Everyone is turning to God. And in the midst of that, Jesus says, they're going to kill me. And the disciples are going, we don't, how? Why? Why? And the disciples didn't understand it. They didn't pursue it. And if you were here last week, I told you the reason that they didn't want that to be true. They had a misconception about what God's kingdom, being established and growing here on earth, they didn't understand what it looked like.

And you can see that ignorance being perpetuated on through, even to the point of Jesus' arrest and Peter's betrayal. They did not understand what the establishment of his kingdom would mean. And so Jesus says, they're going to kill me. And the disciples don't understand. And so then they leave this place. And they're traveling along, and this argument breaks out. Who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Now, why would they ask that question? Well, they ask that question because they see the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God being established and growing and spreading. And they're going, the victory's won. The battle's over. Who's going to be the greatest here? And for them to ask that question, I want you to see they have to disregard the fact that Jesus said, I'm going to be killed. Because they see what's going on around them and they go, this is how it's always going to be. This is our expectation. This is what we envisioned.

the Messiah's reign looking like. And they're at the after party going, what's it going to be like in the kingdom of heaven? Who's going to be the greatest? I'm going to be the greatest, not you. And if you were to think about it for a minute, in terms of an analogy, and let's say that you had a loved one, very dear one to you, whoever's closest to you and your family, your father, your mother, and you just got the news that they're going to die. They've got terminal cancer. And there's really nothing that can be done. They're going to die. And if you've been in that situation or if you've grieved with people through that situation, you know there are steps that people in that process that they go through. And one of them is denial. They say they just won't accept it. They've been given knowledge and they just leave it lay and they go, I'm not going to acknowledge that. I'm not going to engage with that. I'm going to go on with life as though that doesn't exist. And when you see people do that, do you think they're doing well?

You say, no, no, they're not doing well because there's a certain reality coming that they need to prepare for, that they need to interact with, that they need to allow their hearts to engage with. And yet they don't want to because of the pain associated with it. You've probably also heard in circumstances like this where a parent is dying, the children fight about the money. You hear about these sorts of things? Do you have this happen in your family? People fight about money. I want what's mine. Give me what's mine. Now, do they have those arguments in front of their parents? In front of the parent who's dying? No. I mean, when it's so awful, they'll have the argument in front of their parents, the parent who's dying. But no, these arguments happen in private. And why do they happen in private? Because it's disrespectful and it's rude. It's the height of selfishness to have this conversation in front of the one who's dying. Because what you communicate to them is the only...

I care about in this situation, your death is the money that you have. And so those conversations happen in private because they don't want to bear the shame publicly of having such a selfish, sinful conversation in the midst of such difficulty. And here we find the disciples having this conversation. Who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Never mind that Jesus said he has to die. Who's going to be the greatest in this kingdom you're establishing? They're not having this conversation in front of him. In verse 47 it says, They weren't having this thing in front of them. Knowing what they were thinking in their hearts, he grabs a child and he brings that child and stands that child beside him. And he corrects them. He rebukes them. Now the first thing I want you to know and I want you to see from this text is that nothing is hidden from God. Nothing is hidden from God. Not even your thoughts. Your actions are certainly not hidden from God. But even the things that go on in your head that never see the light of day.

Or come out of your mouth. Even those things, Jesus Christ knows. And he understands. And he addresses. We spend so much of our time in our own lives trying to conceal who we are and what we are. Trying to conceal what we think. Trying to conceal our motivations from people. And what I say to you is, go ahead and try it. You can conceal it. You can hide it from me. You can hide it from your spouse. You can hide it from your children or from your parents or whomever. You may succeed in getting to your grave without being found out by man, but God has always known. And he's the one that you have to deal with. He's the one with whom we have to do. He's the judge, not me. Not your mom, not your dad, not your children, not your spouse. Jesus Christ is the one with whom we have to do, and he sees perfectly. He knows our hearts. In 1 Samuel 16, 7, when...

When Samuel's out looking to anoint David, and he's at Jesse's house, and Jesse's bringing all his sons through, and he's going, surely it's this one. It's got to be this one. No, no. Well, maybe it's this one. No, it's not that one. What does God say to him? God said to him, God sees not as man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. The Lord looks on the heart. So why do we hide? Why do we hide? We hide because we don't want the consequences of our actions. We know that what we do has a right and just penalty, consequence, and we want to avoid it. And so we hide. You know that look that kids get on their face when their hiding failed? And they have this, look, your big eyes, like, thing. They do, oh no, you caught, it's not hidden. They go, oh no. Why are they hiding? They're hiding because they don't want the consequence of the action that they're doing. This is why we hide.

This is why the disciples are away, speaking about this. But Jesus knows what they're saying. He knows what they think. And he addresses it. He grabs a child and he brings this child over to him. And he says to them, he who receives this child in my name receives me and he who receives me receives him who sent me. If you were to look at the parallel passage in Matthew, you'd see that Jesus says, unless you become like this little child, you be converted like this child and become like him, you have no place in my kingdom. Now, what is that? That's a shot across the bow of the disciples because here they are talking about who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom. And Jesus says, unless you become like this little child right here, you don't have any place in my kingdom. Least, greatest, none of that, no place. You have to be converted. You have to become like this child. You have to receive them. Now, why does he pick a child? Why does he pick a small child? He picks a child because there are things that attend childhood that are universally true.

This is a small child. He stood the child next to him. So I'm thinking this is a two, three, four-year-old child. This isn't a baby. This isn't a child. This is a small child, and he stands next to me. Now, what is true of that child? That child is utterly dependent. That child is weak. That child is vulnerable. There is nothing that that child can do to prevent... Someone else's will being enacted on it. It can't run faster. It can't hit harder. It can't do anything. If something bad were to come to this child, the child is, in effect, defenseless. They're weak. And so when Jesus grabs this child, well, one of the things that's necessary for a child, given the fact that they're weak, is that they be humble. What do little kids have to do when they want something off the counter? They have to ask for help. Daddy, can you get me a drink of water?

And because of this child's weakness, their frailty, their vulnerability, their smallness, I say, yes, I will come get you a drink of water. Now, do any of you have children who will not ask for help? You do. Good. I do too. And what's that child do? They push the chair over, right? And they climb. And at some point in this whole process, they fall and hit their head because they're not big enough to do it. And then if they get on the counter, then the water's everywhere. Or they turn on the faucet because they're going to get a drink of water and it's like, oh, we're just playing in the water, we're squirting it all around. This is what little kids do. But this is what a little child that's not humble does. What a humble child does, what we teach our children to do, what you ought to teach your children to do, is not despise their weakness, but rather to say, Daddy, can you get me a drink of water? Those who are small, those who are young, those who are weak, they need to be protected and provided for. They need things done for them that they cannot do for themselves.

So why does the child have to get the chair and climb up on the chair and get their own water? Because they're not humble. Because they're not proud. Because they despise that weakness. Because they've got an older sibling that has made fun of them because they can't get their own water. Or an older sibling that despises having to get the water for them. They've been taught to despise that weakness. Or they have parents who despise that weakness and go, I don't want to get the water. You get it yourself. And then when they make a mess of it, you get upset at them. Why did you do that? Because you're three. That's why. Children, small children are humble. And Jesus says to his disciples, if you want a place in my kingdom, you have to be like this child. You have to be humble. You have to become dependent. You can't long for and yearn for the day when you're going to be the greatest. He who is the least among all of you, it is he who is great. You have to become like this child. And to become like that child, you cannot live a life of...

despising weakness, despising humility. Scripture has a number of things to say about children. Paul tells us in the New Testament that we're supposed to leave behind our childish ways of thinking and our childish actions. When I was a child, I thought like a child, reasoned like a child, acted like a child. But when I became a man, I did away with childish things. So that's not the sort of child-likeness that we're supposed to emulate. We're not supposed to become children in our thinking. He says, no, not children in your understanding, but children in your evil. Become ignorant of evil, but become grown men, mature men in your understanding. And what I want you to see is that no matter how old you are, no matter how long you've been a Christian, no matter what...

The accolades of faith that you have in your mind, what family you came from, what school you went to, what Bible knowledge you have, whatever it is, it does not matter. You have to be like a child and you have to remain like a child. To be a part of God's kingdom, you must become a child and you must stay a child. His child. In Ezekiel 16.6, when God's describing the nation of Israel, some of the most graphic language in all of Scripture. And he's describing them and their weakness and in their inability to do anything. He comes to them and he says, when I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, brand new baby, hasn't been cared for, hasn't been cleaned, but squirming in your blood, writhing, utterly dependent. If you've had children, you've seen this child. When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, live.

Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, live. And then it goes on to say how God became their father and he took them in and he cared for them and he rubbed them with salt and he dressed them and he clothed them. And you could characterize all of the Israelites' disobedience and turning away from God as them becoming proud and refusing to remain children in relationship to their father God. They would not stay, be humble under his hand, but they constantly sought to elevate themselves. They sought a position for themselves. They sought to become something more than God had allotted them to be. And that's what the disciples are doing here. They want to become more than who God has said they are. Whomever you are, however old you are, you must be a child. You must become like a child to be counted among God's people and to find a place in his kingdom. Those who refused to receive this child, those who despised the weakness of a child, it doesn't...

You've got to understand, in our society, children are despised differently, or yes, similarly to this and more. At this point, the weakness of children, as I just described, is a sort of thing that everyone would have known, and they would have said, you want that child provided for, cared for, grown up, matured. But we have a whole new way of despising children in our society. When we see children, we don't understand. understand their weakness and bear with it. We despise it entirely. You can't do that for yourself. What do you need me for? And then the kids go off and they figure out how to make their own way in this world and then we despise them for that. You see some little kid that's running through the supermarket tearing everything up and being a little brat and yelling and screaming and hollering. Know that no one loves that child and no one's cared for that child and protected them.

And what that child needs is someone to love them and to care for them and to acknowledge their humility of their station. They are a young child. And those who don't receive children in that way, who don't love children and don't care for them, they don't receive Jesus Christ. They refuse to receive him and they cannot receive his father. Condescension is a word that's strictly negative in our understanding. To condescend is to do something bad. If I were to condescend to you, you would say, who do you think you are? You think you're the greatest? You think you're better than me? If you were to condescend to someone, it just carries with it this understanding that you're dealing with someone who's inferior, who's not like you, and is therefore less valuable and not your equal, no good. And yet condescension historically has had a very kind and a very loving and a very careful, full of care, Jesus condescended to us. Did he come to earth and take on our flesh and live as we've lived and suffer every temptation that is known to man because he despised us? Because he thought, look at these poor, pathetic people who just can't figure it out on their own. And so, fine, I'll go down there and I'll tell them how it is and show them what they're supposed to do. No. No, this is not why Jesus came to earth. He came to earth because of his love.

Because of his care. And yet, what he did was absolutely perfectly defined in saying he condescended to us. He came down to us. And he didn't despise our weakness. And that's what he calls the disciples here to do. Don't you despise the weakness of this child. And not only may you not despise it, you must become like them. You don't understand yourself. You don't understand your place. You think too highly of yourselves. You're over here arguing about who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom and you speak about that which you do not know. Those who are the least, they will be the ones who are great. And the disciples did not understand this. And then you have John's answer, which seems sort of like a, and now for something entirely different. Because you've got Jesus talking about with this child and caring for this child and becoming like this child. And then John says, we saw a guy casting out demons and we told him to stop.

Because he doesn't follow you. And yet it says John replied. John answered. He responded to what Jesus was saying by talking about this man. And so what's the connection? Why is he all of a sudden, Jesus has got a child and he's talking about the least and the greatest and becoming like a child. And John says, we saw this guy casting out demons. What's the connection? Here's the connection. What John is saying is that man is not worthy to do that work. That man, He's not like us. He doesn't follow you like we do. You gave us authority to cast out demons. You didn't give him authority and he hasn't done what we've done and he shouldn't be granted the privilege of casting out demons because he hasn't followed you. And what we would expect in our flesh is for Jesus to say, you saw a guy using my name without permission? I didn't authorize him to do that.

And I say to you, no, actually Jesus did authorize him to do it because he wouldn't have been able to do it if Jesus hadn't approved of it and hadn't given his blessing. The apostles didn't cast out demons by their own authority. They cast them out by the authority of Jesus Christ. And if this man had the ability to cast out demons, he had that ability because God in his wisdom saw fit to give it to them. And what you see here is the apostles, John representing the apostles. We tried to stop them. We despise that man. He's not like us. He's not worthy of the same privileges and honors that we are. We are greater than him. John's response shows his pride, his arrogance, his jealousy. When in fact, if you could go back, you know, you look at situations and we always say hindsight's 20-20 and so we look back at the situation and you say, well, what should have happened? What should John have done? Should John have just kept quiet and not said anything? No.

We learned last week that the disciples, because of fear and because they didn't understand something, when they kept quiet, it was to their harm. So should he have kept quiet? No. Well, he said, we're better than him and he shouldn't be allowed to do that. And that's not the right thing to say. So what should he have said? What would humility have said? Humility and faith would have come to Jesus Christ and said, Lord, we saw a man using your name and casting out demons. And we know that the only way he was able to do that was because You approved of it because you blessed him with that power and that authority. Can you help us understand? How is that? How does that fit together? Because we've served you. We've followed you. How is it? Help us understand that you've given him this same great privilege. How did he get that? Why did you do that? Help us understand. Jesus' response to John is he says, do not hinder him. You tried to hinder him. Do not hinder him.

Have you ever watched your children or remember when you were a child or you've been at work and you have this desire? And it's not the sort of desire that you act like you don't care about. It's like the kind of desire where you're like, no, I'm going to have it this way. I'm not willing to not have it like this. This is how it's going to be. And I'm going to come to you and tell you how important it is that you do it like this. That kind of desire. And you come to your parent, you come to your boss, whoever it is, the one who has the authority to say yes or to say no, and they hear your case and they look at you and they say no, no. And your response is, your temptation is to fight, is to argue, is to say, but you don't understand. Because if you understood, you wouldn't say no, you'd say yes. But the answer is no. And when you realize that there's nothing more to be said about it, you just get this knot in your stomach.

about how you feel like you've just suffered some sort of grave injustice because you've been told no. This is the sort of thing that's going on when John's talking about this man. He doesn't have the right. He doesn't have the privilege. He hasn't given what we've given. And yet he has the same power. It's not fair. At the very least, he shouldn't be allowed to do it. And Jesus says, do not hinder him. He puts John in his place. He humbles John. and the rest of the disciples. You understand? John's pride is rising up. His position is rising up. His understanding of who he is and what he deserves, here it comes. It's coming out of his mouth. And Jesus says, no, do not hinder him. He who is not against us is for us. We have other places in Scripture where this sort of thing happens. In Philippians 1, Paul's in prison. So he writes a book of Philippians in prison. And he's talking about how in places he's been, there are people who didn't like him.

And so what they were trying to do was cut in on his action. And so they're out there preaching the gospel, trying to get people to follow them instead of follow Paul. And Paul's in prison. Now, why are these guys doing that? Well, Paul tells us why they're doing that. He says, they're doing that to try to upset me. They're trying to steal my disciples away from me. This is what they think. They think, well, he's in prison and he can't do anything. What we're going to do is we're going to run out ahead. We're going to pick up all of his hot leads and we're going to turn them to ourselves.

And here's what Paul has to say in Philippians 1, 15-18. He says, Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from goodwill. The latter do it out of love. Those who preach Christ out of goodwill, they do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. The former, meaning those people. Thank you, young man. At some point, this will all go away. He says, but the former, those who do it from envy and strife, why do they do it? They proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. That's why they do it. They're trying to steal away disciples because they think it's going to upset me. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, in this I rejoice. Yes, in this I rejoice. Now how different is that from the apostles?

who are upset that somebody else is healing the weak people, the demon-possessed people. How different is John's disposition than Paul's? Paul says, so long as Christ is proclaimed, so long as good is being done, in Jesus' name, I thank God and I rejoice. But not John. John says, no, no, no, that's ours, that's mine. And you see pride and you see humility. Jesus says to them, do not hinder them for he who is not against you is for you. In effect, what he's saying is you're going to have enough enemies. You're going to have enough people who are directly and squarely in your face opposed to you and trying to do you harm. Don't be foolish enough. Don't be stupid enough to take those whom serve me by faith and turn them into your enemies as well because of your pride. You may not. He who is not against you is for you.

A practical example of this. I was recently talking to a father about his son, his child. And so in our church, one of the things that's important to us is that we help each other in every way that we can. And so in our marriages, with our children, with our finances, with our cars, with home improvement projects, with food. This is integrally connected to who we are and to the essence of our church. This is what we're about. If you listen to David stand up here and talk, what were all of his announcements about? About eating together, being together. And we have men's group too. And so we're about being with each other and helping each other. Now you realize that just like in your own family, when people get close to each other, sparks start to fly and there's conflicts, right? That's what happens. Put two kids in, you know.

Kids have separate bedrooms. They get along. You put them in the same bedroom together, and all of a sudden, where did the fights come from? But here they are. That's what happens when you put people close together. And so I'm talking to this father, and this father's not unique. He's me, and he's you. And what he was was offended that other people would speak to his wife about his child. He was offended. He was upset. And what he said is, this here? That's my territory. And if people want to talk to me about my territory, then they can come talk to me. And I sympathize with him. I resemble that implication and all of that. I understand that sort of guarding of territory. I also understand how foolish it is after eight children because I see the fruit of doing that. You need help. But that's another thing. And so I understand him. And what I said to him is I said, why are you threatened by the women of our church?

why are you threatened by the women speaking to your wife? And he said, I don't know if I'm, I don't, I've never thought of it that way. I don't know if I'm threatened. Pastor, I'm going to have to think about that because I'm not convinced that I'm threatened by them. And I said, well, you go ahead and think about it, but I can tell you when I wore those shoes, I was threatened. And I think that's what's going on. You're threatened by someone else pushing in on your territory. And I want you to consider this. Why are they pushing in? They're pushing in because they love you.

They're pushing in because they love your wife. They're pushing in because they love your children. That's why. They are seeking your good. What was this man who was healing people in Jesus' name doing? He was seeking their good. And how did John understand it? He's cutting in on our place. He's cutting in on our territory. This is ours. We're the disciples. We're the ones who follow you. We're the ones who left our families and our livelihoods and all of that stuff. This is our privilege. And if you were to turn around what he's saying, what he's saying is this. I would rather that those people went without than that someone else would help them. That's pride. That is pride. What is threatened? How is John threatened? How is his position, whatever it truly is at that point, how is his position threatened by this other man? It's not. It's not.

But John is without humility at this point, and he can't see it. The rest of the disciples are without humility at this point, and they can't undersee it. They can't see it. They don't understand it. Their conception of God's kingdom is not what Jesus is telling them it's going to be. Effectively, when he tells them, he who is not against you is for you, what he's saying is difficult times are going to come for you. They're going to kill me, and it's enough for you to become like me. Don't make enemies who are rightly called friends. Don't do it. Now the disciples didn't persist in their ignorance. And they were ignorant. They didn't persist in their ignorance. You think of Peter being this sort of this zealous, impetuous man who jumps out of boats and walks on water but then sinks. Kind of guy who acts and then thinks later.

and who lops off the guard's ear, the guy who comes to arrest Jesus. And Jesus says, no, not like that. And he puts the ear back on. And you think of Peter saying, I'll never deny you. And Jesus says, you watch. Before the cock crows three times, you're going to deny me. And Peter's saying, no way. And then he does it. And then he weeps bitterly. And what's going on is Peter's being taken through his courses, through his steps. Because Peter's the man who at Pentecost preached, and he understood. And you know that he understood because the effect of his preaching was the men were cut to the quick and they say, brethren, what must we do to be saved? And he said, you killed him. This is who Jesus is. You knew it and you killed him. Jesus, Peter, through being taken through his steps, growing in maturity, he came to understand humility. Jesus' faithfulness to his father sometimes brought him all of this acclaim, all of this amazement, all of this wonder.

This is the immediate context of what's going on in our text. But these very same things, this very same teaching, these very same miracles, are what got him killed. It's what caused people to hate him, to release a murderer, a Brabus, so that they could kill Jesus. And when Pilate said, I won't do it myself, the Jews said, we will. Give him to us. Jesus' faithfulness to his Father in heaven put him in the crosshairs of his enemies. It created enemies for him. And he's telling his disciples here, don't create enemies that aren't enemies. Don't create enemies that aren't enemies. There are difficult times coming. And the apostles eventually learned, and God's people have learned, what his kingdom and the establishment of it and the furtherment of it here on earth actually looks like. And it looks a lot like the sort of things that Jesus endured.

It looks like difficulty. And it looks like hardship. Not everything is easy and not everything is comfortable. And if that's our understanding, if that's in our pride, if that's our desire, we want comfortable, we want easy, we want success, we want numbers, we want money. What do you want? What do you want your Christian life to produce? What do you expect it to produce? What would make you consider saying, I'm not going to do this if that's how it's going to turn out? What is it? Will you be humble at that point and submit your life and everything that it consists of to the will of Jesus Christ? Will you be humble before your Lord? The real danger in all of this is that when it comes to humility, we want to define what humility looks like in our lives. We want to bind it. We want to say, this far and no further. I'm willing to suffer this much. I'm willing to lose this much. I'm willing to give this much. I'm willing to go without this much.

But at that point, I'm done. And God, I just want you to know that that's the line, that's the boundary, that's it. And that line in most of our hearts is way this side of death. And it centers somewhere around our comforts and our own fleshly desires. This is how much I'm willing to give up. You remember when Paul became a Christian? He was converted. He went from being a persecutor of the church, a rabid persecutor of the church, getting notes to... from the Sanhedrin to go to other places and drag Christians back to persecute them. This is Saul. And so he's on the way to Damascus. Letters in hand. Going to give Christians a miserable time. And along the way, he meets Jesus Christ and he's changed. Now, Saul, Paul's reputation has preceded him. Everyone knows who this guy is. He's the guy you don't want to mess with. He's the guy you don't want to get near because he's going to do you real harm. So Paul is converted.

And then the Lord comes to Ananias in a vision, and he says, you need to go to Paul. And Ananias goes, isn't that the guy who, isn't he the one who wants to kill us? And God says, yeah, you need to go to him. You know, effectively, essentially, I've changed him, and I want you to tell him this. This is what the Lord said to Ananias. He says, go, for he, Paul, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel. And that's like, oh, wow, he got a promotion. He's doing well. I see you've changed him. But what does it go on to say? It goes on to say, for I will show him how much he has to suffer for my namesake. That's what you're to go tell him. And you have Paul later on in the book of Acts talking about his suffering. When he's with the Ephesian elders and he says, this one thing I know, I'm never going to see you again. I know that I'm going to Jerusalem and I know I won't get out.

Each of us has our own lot in life. Each of us has our own difficulties and our own burdens, and they are different. There are things that I struggle with that you don't, and there are temptations that you face that I don't. But each one of us, every single one of us, has been brought to the place where we are at by the will of God. And it is required of us, demanded of us, provided to us, that we would honor Jesus Christ exactly where we are. If you're proud, You say, I've got to have all my stuff. I've got to have my comforts and my good things now. I've got to have my ease. I've got to have my reputation. I've got to have money. I've got to have, what is it? What do you have to have? What do you have to have? What do you get mad about when you see something getting close to you not getting it? What is it? You can have your good things now or you can have your good things later. But you won't have both. You won't have both. God won't abide you having both because he doesn't receive glory that way.

You can have your good things now like the rich man, or you can have your difficult things now like Lazarus. Lazarus got good things, and he got good things that far surpassed the good things of the rich man. When the rich man was in Hades and calling out and saying, some water, please, and Abraham says, no, there's this big chasm, and besides, you had your good things. And the rich man says, okay, well, if I can't have my good things, will you at least go tell my brothers so that they don't end up here? And Abraham says, no, see, we can't do that either. They've got Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them. But if a dead man comes back, they'll listen to him. No, they won't. No, they won't. Their pride won't allow it. Their pride won't allow it. So what does true humility look like? Two things I want to tell you about it. One, humility works from the inside out. Humility works from the inside out. If you are concerned about what people think of you and you try to project humility, know this. You're not humble. That's not humility.

Do we have to work to be humble? Yes. Do we define what humility is? God does. Humility works from the inside out. You won't despise the Lord's giving and taking away in your life. And you'll find submission and even joy, not just in the good things and the blessings and the kindnesses that you perceive in your own life, but you'll find joy and God's love in the hardships of life. And only humility can perceive it. Pride can't. Pride just despises the weakness, despises your childlikeness. Think of humility like a frost-resistant plant. When do you know that you got your money's worth in buying a frost-resistant plant? You know you got your money's worth when the frost comes, and the plant's not all shriveled up the next morning. That's when you see humility, is when hardships come. We project humility in the good times, and we may well be humble, but the test, is when the hard times come. Are you humble under the will of God when the difficulty comes? If you are, it'll have been because it was inside of you and it's working itself out. You ever think, I don't want to say that because that's not humble. Does anyone ever have those thoughts? I have those thoughts. I shouldn't say that because that would reveal my pride. And I wouldn't want to reveal my pride. I just want to hide it. I don't want to get rid of it. I just want to hide it. What a miserable state. What a miserable state.

Trust Jesus Christ and say what you think. Those of you who don't know how to speak, get asked a question and you sit there and go, you know what? You're trying to posture. Because you're having thoughts. You're thinking things. You're reacting. Your heart is going, no! So I say if your heart says no, then let your mouth say no. Because then you'll have the mercy of Jesus Christ coming to you and saying, you may not say that. You may not hinder him. And that's God's kindness to you. That's how he humbles us. You want to hide your pride? The disciples wanted to hide their conversation. You want to hide your pride? You aren't hiding it from Jesus. He knows. Let him deal with it. Do you trust him to deal with the most intimate details of your life and the things that you care most about, the things that are dearest to you, the things you're scared most about? Do you trust Jesus Christ to deal with them faithfully? Or are those places off limits for the Lord? Lord, you can't go there. You can't take that.

You can't keep that away. Humility trusts Jesus Christ at every point, especially the most difficult. I'll leave you with this. Micah 6.8 says this. He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? But to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. Let's pray. Father, forgive us for our pride. Strengthen us by your spirit and give us the grace of humility. Cause us not to despise the weak things, the painful things, but rather to embrace them by faith, trusting you to see us through, to bear us through, to give us your spirit to persevere. Father, and I pray that you would not only give us perseverance, but that you would give us joy and that you would increase our faith. Father, build your kingdom. Help us to be ready in season and out of season to do what you would require of us.

And we ask, Father, that the work that we do would not be in vain, but that it would produce a harvest, that it would produce godliness and repentance in our own hearts and in the hearts of others. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.