Turn with me in your Bibles to Mark, the ninth chapter. If you would like to follow along today, we're going to be reading Mark 9, verses 33-37. Verse 33, And they came, that is, Jesus and his apostles, they came to Capernaum, And when he was in the house, he asked them, that is, Jesus asked his apostles, what were you discussing on the way? But they kept silent for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the 12 and he said to them, if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. What is greatness? What does it mean to be great? There are never-ending debates in the sports world about who the greatest of all time is. Endless debates. Is it Tom Brady in football? Is it Joe Montana? Who's the greatest quarterback of all time? Is it Michael Jordan or LeBron James or Magic Johnson or Oscar Robinson or fill in the blank. So many others. Who's the greatest of all time? This debate about the greatest of all time, it doesn't just live in the sports world, though. Who is the greatest musician of all time? The greatest cellist or violinist or singer? Who's the greatest and most successful businessman of all time? Who's the greatest president? Who's the greatest author? seems to me that we are always on the lookout for the greatest. It's almost like we're programmed to think that way or to look for greatness. But again, what is greatness? How is it defined? What does it mean to be great? What does that mean? Now, as with just about everything else, what we discover as we look to the Word of God is that the Lord's view of greatness is quite different from man's view of greatness. Very different. Not at all the same. In fact, I believe that one of the obstacles to godliness in our lives for anyone who wants to be godly, who wants to live a life of godliness. One of the greatest obstacles between us and that goal, one of the greatest obstacles between us and salvation is an understanding that God is different from us. The otherness, we might say, of God. He's unique. When He asks the question, who is great? Or when we ask Him the question, who is great? I think He would have a markedly different answer than most of us would have. Certainly the world would not judge it the way God judges it. We are made unquestionably in the image of God as human beings. Our great calling then as His creatures is to grow into a greater and greater reflection of Him. Can't deny the fact that in Genesis we are told very plainly in the first and second chapter that we have been created in the image or the likeness of God. But we also understand that that image, our image now, has been marred by the fall, by our sin, that until these bodies pay the penalty of sin, we will continue to have the impact of that sin in our lives, in our minds, in our hearts, our thoughts in this life, in our fallen condition, our thoughts here. They must ever be wrestled in the submission to the thoughts of God. Always and never. wrestled into submission to come more in line with what God thinks. God's mind on a matter must become our mind on the matter as well, if we desire to be godly. The need and the obligation in this arena is for man to begin to think like God, and not for God to think like man. That seems abundantly clear. But at the same time, I would like the testimony of Scripture to be brought into this discussion today of this otherness and the different way in which God thinks compared to the way we think. In Psalm 15, verse 21, God says, you thought that I was one like you. And of course, he goes on to demonstrate that he isn't. But we do, men do think that God is like us. We define God like we do. So when we ask a question like, who is the greatest and what is greatness? We often think in our terms and in our view and in a fallen view, rather than in the terms that God has prescribed to be great and to be something that can be called great. In Psalms, God says, you thought that I was like you. In Ezekiel, the house of Israel says, the way of the Lord is not just. And God says to the Israel in return, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? And then the very familiar scripture in Isaiah 55 verse 8, my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. I don't think like you. I am not like you. You are to become more like me, but in your fallen condition, you are nothing at all like me. And this difference between us and God, I think, I believe it permeates everything in life. every facet of our lives is impacted by the reality that God is so different from us. Happiness. What is happiness? What is joy? What is pain? And what is its purpose? And what is suffering? And what is family? What is love? What is prosperity? What is salvation? What is purpose? What is meaning? On and on we could go down the entire list of human experience. Our thoughts rarely, if ever, reflect accurately by ourselves the way God thinks about any of these things. Not until our minds are impacted by the working of Scripture and our hearts impacted by the working of the Holy Spirit do we become or begin to become a person who begins to see and to think like God does. This is important for us at the beginning here, because we're going to talk today about greatness. And if you write a title down for messages, it would simply be the greatest. What we wanted to bring to you today is the greatest. And in this scripture, we find out what greatness is. This passage of scripture tells us what human greatness is to aspire to be. And it begins in verses 33 and 34. He says, they came to Capernaum, and when He was in the house, He asked them, what were you discussing on the way? Of course, we know Jesus knew the answer to the question. In His divinity, He knew the answer, but I believe even in His humanity, I believe this argument was noticeable to Him as they made their way to Capernaum. And it was an argument. It says in the ESV in verse 33 that it was a discussion, and in verse 34 they realize and they admit it was an argument. It wasn't just a discussion, a healthy banter back and forth. This was an argument. But Jesus says, what were you discussing? And they kept silent. for on the way they'd argued with one another about who was the greatest." I want to take a moment here at the beginning and point out once again the honesty of Scripture. The raw honesty of Scripture. It shows us the reality that men are indeed fallen. One might think that the writers of the Gospels would have let this particular scene out of their account. Don't you think? Don't you think you would have? This was an embarrassing situation to them. This was not something that painted them in a positive light. When they were confronted by Christ to share what it was they were arguing about, they didn't even want to admit it. But here, they write it down as an account and shared it with all that would read this letter. This was not a discussion for them to be proud of. And they were so embarrassed, they didn't even want to answer the question. Yet, they still wrote it. They still gave this record for all to read. Three of the four Gospel writers. Matthew did in chapter 18. Mark does here in chapter 9. And Luke does as well in chapter 9. And Mark and these writers, and here Mark is telling them about an embarrassing time for them. As they reflected, though, on the life of Christ and the things that He taught them, the things that they remembered Him teaching in particular, and that the Holy Spirit moved them to write down in their Gospels, this instance, this teaching left out at them, and they did not leave it out, but instead, they wrote it down for all to see. Their intention then, as we read Scripture, And this is a hint into the answer about what is greatness. Their intent in writing their accounts of the life of Christ, again, was not to make themselves out to be great, but to put on display for all to see the true greatness of Christ. Not them, Him. to point to the greatness of all that Christ said, and all that he taught, and all that he did, and all that he was while he was with them. It was not to paint a picture of greatness for themselves. They weren't writing this account so that others might look to them and say, Mark, boy, what a wonderful godly man you were. Mark is seen here as one who is, and others, as he records it, or the apostles anyway, as they record this, and Matthew, at least, at a minimum, records this through personal testimony. They're not pointing to themselves, they're pointing to Christ, to direct every man, every mind, every heart toward the greatness of God in sending His Son to die for the sins of the world, all of ours, yours and mine. These men, Matthew, Paul, others, they did not set pen to parchment to tell of their greatness, but again, to tell of the greatness of the only great man that has ever been, Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. To have written, I believe, of their own greatness, would have been to speak of the lesser light of the moon and the stars and ignore the greater light of the sun. To speak of themselves instead of Christ. And yet we, when we think about greatness and when we ascribe greatness, when we attribute greatness, we often give that to men and women who don't deserve it. There's one who deserves the ascription of greatness, and that alone, again, is Christ. And so, right away, we see that true greatness, when we ask the question, who is the greatest? Or the similar question, what is greatness? How is it defined? Right away, we see true greatness is hidden, if the focus is upon anything other than Christ. You won't even see it. You won't understand it. Everything will be hidden from view. Again, if Mark had been concerned about showing his own greatness, he would not have told you about this embarrassing situation of his fellow followers of Christ. I think he would have chosen something far different to say and to record. But think of these men for a second, these apostles. as they're walking down the road to Capernaum. Here were the men Jesus had chosen to be the first heralds of His gospel. These were the men who would take the gospel to the world. And here, on this particular day, we find them arguing with one another about who's the greatest. Who's the greatest? hope. So long as you search for greatness in man, in any man who's not Jesus Christ, whether that search is focused on you or on anyone else, your search will go on and on and on. There is one who is great. It is Jesus Christ. If you search for greatness in others that isn't a greatness that is a reflection of Christ, if you search for greatness in other people in this world, I believe that you will be searching for that needle in a field of haystacks when they've already removed the needle. You'll be searching and searching and searching and you will never find it. But perhaps, maybe you disagree. Maybe in your mind you're thinking of someone and you're thinking, well, this person is great in my estimation. I think this person is great. I think he or she is the definition of great. Maybe you think that. Maybe they've captured your heart and your mind. And you, maybe even in the social media world in which we live, you've followed them on Facebook, and Twitter, and Instagram, and TikTok, and fill in the blank social media application. And you think of them, and you see them, and you think, they, they're just great. They're the best. They are worth emulating. Maybe you read and listen to absolutely everything they put out. and you hang on every word that they have to say. Maybe they seem to be all that you yourself want to become. And so you give yourself to them. I want to say this, I know this will sound cynical and it gives me no pleasure to say this, but at some point, if there's someone in your life that you think is the greatest, And it's not Jesus Christ. If there's someone that you think is just about perfect and you want them to remain that way. My advice to you is to keep your distance. The closer you get. And the better you get to know them. The less great they're going to become. That doesn't mean you love them less. I don't tell you this to tell you that we should not give honor where honor is due and thankfulness and to others that have been kind and gracious and helpful. I'm not saying these things. I'm talking about what is greatness. Where do we find it? And in whom most specifically do we find it? Even the scripture though, it does advise us, it encourages us, it commands us even to love one another and to see in one another the best and to think the best of one another, that love is kind, that it gives space and it gives place and love covers a multitude of sins. And I recognize that and I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about greatness. And if we put our trust and our hope in some other human being and not in Jesus Christ, We're going to find out one day. There's nothing great about them. They're just another human being that may be in our televised age and in our technologically advanced age that has been shaped very specifically and scripted very carefully to present something that isn't real. We're living in a time in which it's becoming more and more dangerous to believe anything that you see or hear about anyone if you don't know them well. People can be seen to be saying all sorts of things. But I will tell you this, if you're looking for greatness in someone other than Jesus Christ, you are, it's the spoon in an empty bowl scooping and looking for something to scoop up to give you nourishment and to eat. You won't find it. And I don't take pleasure in saying that. It doesn't give me some kind of morbid pleasure to disappoint you. And maybe again there's somebody in your life that you think is just great and you put your trust in them. I want to warn you about that. I want to discourage you from that path of life and to direct you to put your trust in the only one who is truly great and that is Jesus Christ. There is another thought I think to keep in mind and to keep in view here. which is not seen and is the ever-present danger of preaching or teaching scripture, and that is to remove the particular scripture that you're teaching or preaching about out of its context, and it can be easily missed if you're not familiar with the context. Jesus has recently begun to prepare his apostles for his coming betrayal and crucifixion. Just recently. I mean, it's in the 8th chapter. I believe the last section of the 8th chapter of Mark. And in other places, he'd been encouraging them with the truth that he was going to be betrayed and he was going to be crucified. It seems clear to me that his apostles here, they seemed to misunderstand. They did not seem to understand the mission of their Lord and Master. How could they? If shortly thereafter, they're arguing with one another, who's the greatest? John, are you the greatest? Peter, are you great? Are you going to be the greatest in the kingdom? Maybe it's James. Maybe it's this one. Maybe it's that one. Who among us is the greatest? And they're arguing about it. They're arguing with one another about who among them is the greatest. And within a short period of time before Jesus had said, I'm going to be betrayed and I'm going to be murdered. And here we find these men arguing about who among them is the greatest. When we rightly understand what Jesus came to do and what He did on the cross of Calvary, when we get that, when that registers when that hits the deepest part of our hearts and we understand that, surely all thoughts of our greatness or anyone else's would be set aside. How could we have such a debate in the light of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Son of God in the man Jesus Christ? How can we talk about the greatness of anyone other than His? How can we ascribe greatness to anything other than what He did on the cross of Calvary? We're too free with words like awesome and great and tremendous We're too free with those things, I think, when we put into focus who Christ is and what greatness really is. Our view of greatness will never be what it needs to be so long as we're not looking for that greatness in Christ. We look at greatness in man instead of Christ. But this seems to be exactly what we do, doesn't it? It seems to be what we do. We marvel at other men and often think so little of Christ. As I thought of that, a prayer came to my heart, and it was a very simple one. Father, heal us of this blind, sinful sickness to think of others and not Christ. And we do that when we have a wrong view of greatness. Our misinformed view of greatness then sends us down a path of life seeking what we think is great in ourselves and others, which in truth is small and insignificant. So let us then learn what is greatness, and we'll move along hurriedly here. What then is greatness? Jesus teaches in verse 35. He stops. So what were you arguing about? And in Matthew, and I believe in Luke, it records that they told him we were arguing about who among us was greatest. Maybe you could say it this way. Who's your favorite? Jesus takes this opportunity to correct his apostles' thinking. He sets them down, and in one simple phrase, in one simple phrase, Jesus turns the idea of greatness upside down to the way we typically think about it. I want to point something out that I hope will keep us from reaching, though, the wrong conclusion here. about what Jesus teaches about greatness, and particularly here, human greatness. We think poorly of the apostles here. They're not witnesses to follow, to believe here in this example. And that's true. We think poorly of them to a degree, and perhaps that's right. But just think this through for a minute. I want you to think through the question, who is the greatest? I want you to think about the question just on its surface. Clearly they're misinformed, their thoughts are not in the right place, but let's just examine the question that was asked, or the question that here is at hand. Greatness in the kingdom of heaven. Their attitude, their mindset, it was wrong. But think how incredible it is, how incredible it would be to be considered great in the kingdom of heaven. Is there anything, is there any other greatness that we should seek than that? To be great in the kingdom of heaven. What we sometimes do with this passage of Scripture is make Jesus teach that there is no such thing as greatness, and we should dismiss ourselves from the idea of it altogether. And I don't think that's what He does. He just defines greatness correctly. We are to seek greatness. We're just not to seek greatness as we so often think about it. Is greatness in the kingdom of heaven not worth far more than greatness of any other kind? Would it not then be right to pursue such greatness? Not selfishly, but if you're seeking it selfishly, you're not seeking greatness in the way that Jesus is describing it here. I don't think Jesus is teaching here that there is no such thing as greatness in the kingdom of heaven or the Christian life. He clearly teaches a different kind of greatness, but He does not condemn greatness or the aspiration to be great in the kingdom of heaven. He, in my opinion, infers and encourages that very thing. You want to be great? Well, then I will tell you how to be great. He does not say, you want to be great? Oh, well, that aspiration is wrong. He says, I will tell you how. It is not the absence of greatness that we are to pursue. We're not to say, well, I guess I'm not supposed to aspire to anything. If you really want to dissect that really closely, that kind of thinking, it's Buddhist more than Christian. There's nothing I have to seek. There's no greatness that I am to strive for. The Christian life is not meant to be a life of mediocrity or emptiness or complacency. Christian life is not meant to be absent of a striving for greatness. The issue is not that greatness is wrong. The issue is that we misunderstand what it actually is. And so Jesus tells us what it is. We look at human achievement and the way the world tells us how to behave and think and live as being great, when in reality, these things are usually small and provide little, if any, eternal good. And so really, they're not great at all. Not really. Consider two people. One of these people is a wild success in the world, influences millions and millions of people in this temporary life. I mean, his reach is as far and wide as it can be. Everyone knows his name. Everyone knows what he has done. And he has just impacted even in a positive way. Let's just imagine this man for a minute is one who somehow, and I don't believe we're ever going to get here, somehow fixed world hunger. And there is no one in all the world is hungry because of something he invented. And impacted just billions of lives in this temporary life. But made no impact on them for eternity. And then the second person who touched maybe dozens of lives, just an infinitesimally small number compared to the other man, but his dozen impacted lives, it was for eternity. Who's greater? Who's done a greater thing in the light of eternity? I pray that we would remove from our minds any thought that we are not to seek greatness, we are. But may our idea of greatness be rightly formed in our minds and hearts. And Jesus tells his apostles and us by extension what that greatness is. You want to be great, he says, then you must be last and servant of all. Last. I think God gives us in Scripture the best clarification of His own idea here. Philippians 2, 3-7, Paul writes, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. You want to be great? I think Jesus gives us the path. Then you must be last and you must become the servant of all. You must become perhaps the one in the room that no one notices. No one puts on stage. No one writes your name on the program. No one thinks of you as they go through their day, but you are the one who is serving. You are the one that in the eyes and in the definition of God himself here is great. You want to be great? You must become last. This, of course, is in direct opposition to the way the Jewish mind and even the pagan mind in this time would have thought and what the way we think today. Today, if you want to be great, then it must be your name in lights. It must be your name in the headline. It must be your name next to the 10 million subscribers. It must be your name that the world knows and sees. But Jesus says, no, that isn't greatness. Greatness is when you become last and you become the servant of all. This is the call to true greatness that we are given to forget ourselves. set ourselves aside, not to take that to a place of self-hatred or a lack of dignity and self. That's not what the scriptures teach, but it is to be, I'm going to be all that I can be so that I can serve others, so that I can serve them. I don't want to be the king on the throne. I want to be the no-name servant with white gloves holding the tray so that when it's time for me to serve him, I'm ready. And beyond that even, I want to be the servant of the servant. I want to be the one in the servant's hall who's serving them. I don't want to be known. I want to set myself aside to be humble this great calling of the Christian life, to consider others more significant than ourselves here in Philippians, to be concerned about the interest of others. That's greatness. To become a servant and in a twist of divine irony, thus become just like your master, who was servant of all. Mark chapter 10, Jesus called them to Him and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you. Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. What is greatness? What is it to be great? It's to live a life of service, not to be served. You talk about a 180 degree different way of looking at greatness than the way our world looks at it. This is it. Matthew 18, truly, Jesus says, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. There's the greatest one who's like a child. Who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? The child, the one who realizes they have more to learn. The one who realizes they are under authority. When did we forget that as adults? The child, the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, as a child, the one who understands they can't take care of themselves. You want to be great in the kingdom of heaven? Jesus says you need to be like this child. And he's got a child right there in front of him as an example. This one who's got so much more to learn. He doesn't have all the answers that he needs. He doesn't understand all that he needs to understand. But what he does know is that he's under authority, that his parents are responsible for him, and his responsibility is to obey them. You want to be great in the kingdom of heaven? Be obedient to your heavenly Father. Who else is great or how else is a child great? And as an example for us, the one who understands, again, that they can't take care of themselves. One who knows that if it weren't for their parents, they would not be able to eat, have clothes, go to school, to learn, to be educated. Not the one who thinks they know it all. have no authority above themselves or believe themselves able to care for their own needs. This is not greatness. This is not greatness in the eyes of God. Greatness is to depend upon Him as a child and to be a servant of all others. And he finishes this brief but enormously impactful teaching. No doubt he elaborated on it, and no doubt they discussed it further in ways that are not recorded in Scripture, but in Scripture this brief teaching in 36 and 37 is concluded. He took a child and put him in the midst of them and taking him in his arms he said to them, Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me." Jesus makes his point, I think, dramatically clear when he says that receiving a child, which is the least in the eyes of the world, the Jews anyway at the time, is greatness. not to receive some earthly king, not to be in the presence of others that people might ascribe greatness to incorrectly, but to be in the presence of God and to receive all others in the same manner. This is the kind of greatness to which we're to aspire. Not greatness as the world would judge it, Not greatness as the world sees it, where we receive other great people, but where we receive all as we receive a child in the name of Christ. High station or low, rich or poor, powerful or impotent, gifted or common, we receive them in the name of Christ as a creature created in the image of God for his honor and his glory, and we a servant to them What is greatness? Do you know what greatness is? Have you touched it in your life and found the contentment and the joy that is found in godly greatness? And maybe I ask a similar but opposite question. Have you tasted the bitter taste of worldly greatness, thinking that if you obtained it, that all would be well. And when you obtained it, you found it empty and hollow and not helpful, but hurtful. Are you seeking godly greatness in your life? I pray first that you understand what greatness is. and that you would seek it diligently in your life, and that God would help us to understand what it means to be great, and that when we live our lives and we then lay it down, that our legacy of greatness will be a reflection of God, not something that men say, well, he put his life to something and now he's left it. He was great while he was here, did some great things, but now, We don't know. I pray that's not the case for you.