online. Thanks for being here. We'll continue in Mark chapter 10. So if you've got your Bibles, you can open them to Mark 10 with me. And we'll take the next section as we continue in this study. Before we do that, let's pray and ask God to bless the time. Father, thank you, Lord, so much for this day. I thank you for the service this morning. I thank you for the baptism and the testimony that was given and the beautiful simplicity of the gospel. Please, Lord, be with us now as we continue to study your word together. I pray that it would be profitable to us, that it would speak to us in a real way, and may it be applicable to our lives and our hearts, Lord, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, Mark chapter 10, we're gonna start in verse 32. We're gonna talk today about servant leadership, which in Jesus' estimation is the measure of true greatness, true greatness. What does it mean to be great? And I know that word is probably overused, right, because, well, we had a great time, or that was a great show, or that was a great, you fill in the blank, whatever it was that you went to. If you didn't know this, I grew up in Canada, And at that time, everyone aspired to play hockey like Wayne Gretzky, who was known as the Great One, right? Here's some interesting information. Here's a quote from Malcolm Gladwell of the New Yorker. If you look at a grandmaster in chess, he can look at a chess board and he doesn't see 20 individual pieces. He sees a sequence. That's the same thing going on about Gretzky. He's seeing all other players in a kind of general pattern that he recognizes that he processes instantly. Gretzky was the most honored player in a team sport with nine MVP awards and the only NHL player to score more than 200 points in a season. He was voted number five among North American athletes of the 20th century by SportsCentury's distinguished 48-person panel. With his 50 goals in just 39 games, he demolished the record of 50 in 50 games set by Maurice Richard back in 1944 to 45, tied by Mike Bossy in 80 to 81. Gretzky finished with 1,072 goals as a professional One more than Gordie Howe his his idol if you will he scored 940 regular season goals and 132 in the playoffs the Hockey Hall of Fame waived the mandatory waiting period and Gretzky was inducted on November 22nd 1999 they said this guy's so good. We don't need to even wait. He's going right in And we can look at a life, we can look at a career and a skill and ability like this and we can agree, yeah, he got the right title in the hockey realm. He was the great one. But is that the standard for measuring greatness? Skill in whatever pursuit we might pursue? Is that the measurement, is that the standard we use to measure greatness? And so the question before you is how do you measure greatness? Who is great in your eyes? And how do you measure that? How do you quantify, how do you qualify greatness? The most important question we can be asking and need to be asking is what makes a person great in God's eyes? What is God's measurement for greatness? That's what Jesus is about to teach his disciples in this passage. We're gonna see God's perspective on greatness, the only standard that matters. So we have these three points this morning. Sacrifice is the path to greatness. Service redefines leadership. And slavery is the measure of greatness. We're gonna see that comes from the mouth of Jesus himself. So number one, if you're taking notes, sacrifice. the path to greatness. We see this in these first three verses here. Let's start in Mark 10, verse 32. And if you're following along, it says this, now they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them, and they were amazed. I'm gonna stop right there. They were amazed. As a point of reference, if you will, My desire is that this would be the number one takeaway from this entire series of the Gospel of Mark is that we would come away from this amazed by Jesus. That's the point of the Gospels. That's why we have this fourfold Gospel message in the four Gospels. That's why Mark wrote this was so that people would understand who Jesus is and be amazed by him. The Gospels are written as biographies. They're biographical literary genre. And it's how a first century biography was written. It's the same style. And it was written as if it was true, and it certainly is true. Historical narrative runs throughout this as we see Jesus' life unfolding. not every minute of it, but the parts of it that God needed us to know as the readers are written down for us, and we need to be amazed. The disciples' reaction was amazement. Why would they be amazed? Now, they're on their way to Jerusalem, which they had to do three times every year. All males were required to go to Jerusalem. Did Jesus obey the law perfectly? Yes or no? Yes, so wouldn't he and his disciples over the last three years have traveled to Jerusalem three, six, nine times, right? So this wasn't a new thing. Why were they amazed? Well, remember what Jesus has been telling them, something they're not really fully even understanding, but it will be that at Jerusalem that the Son of Man will be betrayed and killed. It is Jerusalem where the religious leaders are hate Jesus, they want to see him dead. But notice where Jesus' position is. You've got the 12, and then you've got Jesus. Where is he? Is he shuffling along behind them as if he's afraid and like a condemned prisoner on the way to the gallows? Or is he striding in purpose and confidence out in front? He's out in front, isn't he? He's leading his men, and they're watching this, and they were amazed by this. This was prophesied, this bold striding forward into the face of death was prophesied by Isaiah in chapter 50, verse 7, for the Lord will help me. It's a messianic prophecy. Therefore, I will not be disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. Jesus had set his face like a flint, that hard ore, if you will, that hard stone, and nothing was going to stop him. Nothing was going to move him off his course. He was set and fixed to go. He was showing us how we need to move forward. with the plans that God has for us. Does God ask us to sometimes go through and into places that are gonna be painful? Does God ask that at times? Does God ask us to walk through trials sometimes? Yes. Jesus is showing us how to do that. We are to stride forward in victory. Let's go on and read more of the verse. Notice, though, not only were they amazed, but they were afraid. And it says, as they followed, they were afraid. It kind of goes back to what we talked about a moment ago. Jesus' greatest enemies were in Jerusalem, and now he's striding forward, not under the cover of darkness, but with all the other crowds of people that are traveling into Jerusalem. to celebrate the feast of Passover. That's where they're going. Sometimes following Jesus will bring us to places where fear threatens to take over. Maybe you're there right now. It can be a fearful thing to follow Jesus. It was mentioned in this morning's message, count the cost. Consider the cost and understand though that the great benefit that awaits us far outweighs the cost. Sometimes Jesus leads us and we follow him into fearful things, fearful people, difficult and awkward conversations that need to happen. Situations where we are called to step forward, where we're called to lead others forward. And we're called to do that without flinching. And a lot of times the disciples are kind of an example of what not to do. Notice that the fear did not stop them from following. Do you see that? They were afraid, but what were they still doing? They're still following. They're still moving forward. It's exactly what Christ calls us to do. Even when we're afraid, we're supposed to move forward as we move on now. They were on the road, they're going to Jerusalem, Jesus is leading them. They were amazed, they were afraid. Notice what he does there at the end of verse 32. Then he took the 12 aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to him. So just to give you the picture, again, they're traveling to Jerusalem. Are they alone on the road? Most likely not. There's a lot of people going to Jerusalem. This is the big feast, the Passover feast. That's where they're headed. And so they're on the road, they're surrounded by other Jews making the pilgrimage to the holy city. So there's a lot of people around. So Jesus has to take the 12 out of earshot of the crowds. He has to take them aside and speak to them privately. This is not for public consumption, to tell them the things that would happen to him. Verse 33, behold, we are going up to Jerusalem. And of course, Jerusalem up to didn't mean north to, like we would say here in Wisconsin, we're going up north. It was up in elevation. Jerusalem sat high, and you had to enter it on a, there was an ascent to go up to Jerusalem. So he says, we're going up, up the hill to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes. Notice, Judah's betrayal is prophesied here. and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles." Not something that these men wanted to hear, not something that they were hoping to hear, but it's not the first time they've heard it. Here in the Gospel of Mark, if we go back to 831, He says, and it says here, he began to teach them. This was the first instance probably, at least in Mark's account. He began, so he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, notice, and after three days rise again. He did it, the next chapter happens to be 931. For he taught his disciples and said to them, the Son of Man is being betrayed. into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And after he is killed, he will rise the third day. And we come back now to our current text, verse 33 and 34. He adds more details. He's given them the general information twice already. And now he begins in verse 34, notice, and they will mock him and scourge him and spit on him and kill him. and the third day he will rise again. Now, do you think, let's remember, the disciples were what? They were amazed and afraid. Do you think Jesus knew this? Absolutely. So why would he tell them all these horrible things? Why would he tell them, oh, I know you're afraid, so I'm gonna give you some bad news. I'm gonna give you these things. The truth was, and if you haven't picked it up yet, He was actually trying to calm their fears, because he's being honest with them. He's not trying to be dishonest or make it sound better than it was. He's actually trying to make it sound amazing. Because remember, if you look through there, the last statement of every prediction of his death, notice, 831, and after three days, what's gonna happen? rise again. 931, and after he is killed, he will rise the third day. Verse 34 of Mark 10, and the third day he will rise again. That's what they were supposed to have grasped hold of. Okay, there's all this bad stuff, really horrible, wicked, evil, I mean, betrayal. What's worse than that? to be betrayed. Maybe you've been betrayed by a loved one or a friend. There's nothing that comes close to that kind of pain of that knife in your back when someone betrays you and then to be spit upon and mocked and scourged and all of the things that happen to Jesus and his passion. What he's giving them here is hope. He's saying to them, You guys are missing this. Yes, terrible things will happen, but there's hope because at the third day, He will rise again. The path to greatness is paved with the stones of sacrifice. Here's the greatness. The greatness is the resurrection. That's the greatness. We see that really Jesus is the great one. He's the only great one, because he defeats, in that resurrection, he defeats death, he defeats hell, he defeats sin, he defeats Satan. His head is crushed under the heel as he's biting on to Jesus' heel there. The prophecy made back in Genesis 3, 15 is gonna come true, and there's going to be blood, and there's going to be suffering, and there's going to be death, but then he's going to rise again. And that's the hope. And that's what makes Christ great. There is none greater than Christ. There's none greater. No person will ever attain the level of greatness that Jesus Christ currently has and will always have. He was and is the true great one. And how is that measured? by the depth of his sacrifice and then his resurrection. That's how God measures greatness. Jesus gave everything when we had nothing so we could have everything. That is the measure of greatness. So his death, burial, and resurrection sets him apart from all others. I would submit that Jesus of Nazareth is the single greatest figure to ever step into human history, whoever will step into human history, and that is why, because of his sacrifice, the burial, and the resurrection. It puts him apart, not even comparable to the rest of humanity. There's nothing to even compare. Sacrifice is the path to greatness. Number two, service. Redefining leadership. Jesus redefines leadership. It seems as though, just like we do sometimes, the disciples had a hard time hearing, actually listening to what Jesus was saying. In verse 35, we have this account where James and John come to him and they ask him a question. So James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him saying, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask. Remember, Jesus had told them, whatever you ask in my name, I will give it, right? So maybe that was on their mind as they were asking him. And he said to them, notice, they're asking him to say yes before they even tell him what it is. You ever have your kids do that? Like, will you say yes? Mm-mm, nope, not till you tell me what it is. But of course, this is much more heavy than that. That's a little lighthearted view. They're asking for that. They're asking for the yes before they tell him what it is. And so Jesus said to them, verse 36, what do you want me to do for you? As if he didn't know, but again, he's living in that human form. So he's having conversations as a human. Verse 37, they said to him, grant us that we may sit one on your right and the other on your left in your glory. Now the parallel passage to this in Matthew involves the mother of James and John. Salome comes and she asks for them, but really, Mark, as he so often does, he cuts right to the chase. He cuts to the heart of it. It was really these men that wanted these positions of greatness. You see, in the Jewish mindset, the right hand of the king was the place of highest honor and prominence. The left hand was just second to that. Now, which one of them was asking for the right and the left? You see, and that's where this begins to fall apart. But they were desiring these positions of greatness. They didn't understand what greatness was. Jesus had just told them what greatness was. Death, suffering, and sacrifice, burial, and then resurrection. That's greatness. but in their minds, they were looking at it such a human, physical way, they were looking for that greatness in a social order. It's likely, it's at least possible, remember, the disciples didn't understand what he was saying when he's talking about the Son of Man's gonna be what? Killed? No, nothing was computing. It's very likely that they expected Jesus to set his kingdom up when they arrived in Jerusalem. And so they're trying to be ready for that. Hey, when we get to Jerusalem and you set up your kingdom, we wanna be in the places of leadership. We wanna be in positions of leadership. They didn't understand the definition of leadership in God's kingdom. God's economy is completely opposite of man's. They misunderstood the nature of the kingdom that Jesus came to establish. It was not a kingdom of men. That's what he told Pilate. He said, my kingdom is not of this world, right? Or my followers would fight for me. But he said, my kingdom is of heaven. You're missing the point, and that's what so many people missed, including James and John. The way to greatness in the kingdom is sacrifice and service and suffering. And these guys wanted to fast track to the seats of prominence. And Jesus continues to reveal this to them. Notice his questioning response in verse 38. But Jesus said to them, you do not know what you ask. You don't even know what you're asking here, guys. And it wasn't said in a sarcastic way. Well, you don't even know what you're talking. It was literally, you do not understand what you're asking. You don't get this. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? See, to sit at Jesus' right and left hand in glory would mean to suffer with him in this life. Because that's what he was going to go through. And if he had to go through it, wouldn't those on his right and left hand also have to go through it? Absolutely they would. Jesus used the cup and the baptism as metaphors to describe what was about to happen in Jerusalem and outside the gates on Calvary. He had just told them what the cup would be. What did he say? He said, I'm gonna be betrayed. I'm gonna be condemned to death. I'm gonna be delivered to the Romans. I'm gonna be mocked and scourged and spit upon and killed. That's my cup. Are you willing to drink that cup? That's what he's asking them. The baptism. would be the death, finally. And they would kill him. That was his baptism. And burial would be included, placed under, before his resurrection. The baptism of death. But these men had their eyes and their hearts on something different, their own glory. That's really what they're wanting. We want our glory. We want our places of prestige. And they say to him, in ignorance, we are able, We're able to take on, drink the cup and be baptized. We're right here with you. So Jesus said to them, you will indeed drink the cup that I drink. And with the baptism I am baptized with, you will be baptized. James would drink the cup at the hands of Herod. In Acts 12, it says this in verses one and two, now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church, then he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. James did indeed drink the cup and was baptized with the baptism of Jesus. John, his life story would be different. He was the apostle that lived probably longer than any other. As he writes to the churches there, in the book of Revelation, he says, I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, I have been drinking the cup and I am going to be baptized in the baptism. Now he got it, didn't he? He finally understood what Jesus said on the road to Jerusalem all those years ago. Where was he? On the island of Patmos. Was he there on vacation? Was that a pleasure island? No, he was there isolated. It was a prison island. Why? For the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. He's writing to the churches saying, I am drinking the cup. I am going to be baptized with the baptism that Jesus told me I would. Back to our text, Jesus says this in verse 40. You're gonna suffer like me. But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared." Jesus was always, always in total submission to the Father. Every statement Every action he made was in the power of the Spirit and according to the will of the Father. Everything I do, he said, I do according to the Father's will. And everything he did according to scripture was with the power of the Spirit. Why did he do that? Didn't he have power of his own? Of course. He's setting an example. That's how we're to live. We don't have power of our own. Submission. to the Father and submission to the Spirit. The seats of honor of the kingdom would be reserved for those whom the Father would choose. You see his submission, even though he's equal to the Father, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taken on the form of a man, taken on the form of a servant. He's living that out right here. By the way, who would be at Jesus' right and left hand in the very near future from this? Well, two men would be, Mark 15, 27. With him, they also crucified two robbers. And where were they? One on his right and the other on his left. Now, these are not the two Jesus was referring to. He was referring to his kingdom, which is what they were asking about. But these men suffered, and Jesus is telling them, you also will suffer. Now, we started at five till, which means I have until what time to be done? 40? Is that right? Get done when I get done? Excuse me. How about until my voice gives out? Then we'll be done. Which could happen at any moment. Number three, slavery is the measure of greatness. When we see words like slavery or the word slavery in our culture, what kind of images come to mind? Just slavery here in 21st century America. What are we thinking of? Okay, no rights. Civil War, that's where I was going with it. Yeah, we think of the Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation. We think of slaves being brought over to America in ships and sold at auction and mistreated, treated like property, treated like animals, worse than animals, really. And that certainly is slavery. The sad thing is, has the world increased in slavery or decreased in slavery since the Emancipation Proclamation? What do you think? Major increase. There's more slaves on planet Earth today than there ever has been, they say, in the history of the world. When you consider slavery for working, you consider the sex slavery trade, child trafficking and all of that, you add all that together. So when we see this word in the Bible, it's uncomfortable at least, right, to our culture. It's even at times it feels shocking to the senses because we have this view of slavery. And it was no different, I don't believe, for the disciples. They didn't know all the things that would happen that we see today. But slavery was not something that was honored even in the first century. So Jesus takes James and John's request, as we can look back on it, if they were sitting here with us, they would say, yes, that was immature. Yes, that was self-serving. It wasn't right. Man, we missed it. When Jesus told us about the true measure of greatness, we were missing it. But Jesus takes that opportunity. He doesn't strongly rebuke them or cut them down. He takes it and turns it into a teaching moment as he does so often in the scripture, because it was upsetting to the rest of the men. If we continue on in verse 41, and when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John. Who do you think you are asking for the right and left hand? I mean, Peter's the one that's the rock, or he's kind of the leader, or they could go through the list, and maybe they all thought of themselves as someone that should be there, and what is your problem, man? Why do you two guys think that you get to pick or that you should be sought out as those that have the higher honor than the rest of us? What makes you so much better than us? So there was this infighting. They'd been arguing about this issue of greatness, remember, for some time. If we go back to the previous chapter, Mark 9, 34, Jesus asked them, hey, what were you guys talking about on the road? Of course he knew, but they kept silent. because they knew this wasn't right, yet there was that struggle. Just like we have today, it's no different. For on the road, what had they been doing? They had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. And now this is another kind of upsurge, if you will, of that self-service that they were seeking. So now James and John make this request They essentially vaulted themselves, at least in the minds of the men, up to the two greatest positions in the kingdom besides Jesus. Do you see where their focus is? Is it even on Jesus at this point? Not at all, not really. I mean, he's kind of this figurehead. Well, because we don't want your seat, we just want the ones next to it. but they're not thinking about him. They're not thinking about his seat. He has no sooner told them, I'm gonna be mocked and spit upon and scourged and betrayed and killed, he's no sooner got those words out of his mouth. They're going, hey, we have a request. We'd like to be on your right and left hand. Did you guys miss all of that horrible stuff that's about to happen? There's nothing in their minds that's focused on Christ. They're completely self-absorbed in this moment. And Jesus is quick to draw them back to himself, verse 42. Notice, Jesus called them to himself. He's bringing their attention back on him where it needs to be, just like he does in our lives at times. He draws our attention back to them. He says, you know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It's like this political chain of command, and everyone's clawing and striving to be greater and stepping on the ones below. It's no different than the way that governments and even some organizations work today. It's the same self-serving attitude. And he uses here the government structure of the Gentile world, mainly the Roman world. He's saying, you guys are being just like the Romans that you despise. You're acting just like them. in this moment, focusing on yourself. Verse 43, yet it shall not be so among you. Stop living like an unbeliever. Start living like a Christian in our vernacular. But whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. Notice that the desire to be great, it's not wrong in itself, the desire to be great. The question is, great in whose eyes? Because our flesh says great in my eyes. I wanna elevate self. I wanna get first in line. I wanna have the best seat. That's what Jesus talked about the Pharisees. They want the best seats in the synagogue, right? They want the seats of honor and on the street corners. for people to honor them. That's what they're seeking. And what did he say about them? They've got their reward, they've already got it. And they had it. So it's not wrong to strive for greatness, but if we strive for human greatness, to be great compared to each other, we failed. That's what he's saying here. But if we desire to be great in God's sight, If we desire greatness in God's point of view, and really that's the only opinion that matters, that is success. That is true greatness. We've already arrived. We're there. God's criteria for greatness will not be found in the self-help culture of this world or any kind of executive business manual that you might read. God's criteria for greatness is service and slavery. This is the real revolution. We talk about Jesus being revolutionary. This is the revolution because it completely goes against counterculture to everything that the humanity lives like. This is true revolution. Service and slavery equal greatness. The word servant here, diakonos, it's one who renders service, an attendant, a servant. Literally, these are the servants that waited on tables. These were table waiters. It's where later the word deacon would be taken from. Now what does a table waiter do? What do they do? They serve. Do they get to pick what they want to bring to the customer? Do you ever go to a restaurant and the waitress or waiter comes up, here, I picked this for you. I hope you like it. Has that ever happened? No. What do they bring? The thing that the customer ordered, right? They serve them. I need more water. I'd like a refill on my coffee. Make sure it's decaf. Make sure it's not decaf. I want this kind of dressing. Oh, could you take this back? This meat's not cooked. There's an unending list of things that servers in restaurants deal with every day. And if they're a good server, it's going to be a smile. Oh, I'm so sorry. Oh, yes, I'll do that right away because they want a nice tip when they're done. And I hope as Christians, we're good tippers. I think that's a great testimony. It's just an aside. But the table waiter brings whatever the customer asked for with courtesy and kindness and gentleness and generosity and diligence. And they focus and they pay attention. The best servers are the ones that remember where each plate goes, what person it goes in front of. I'm always so impressed by that because I would really struggle. I struggle with names and things and I think I would struggle with that. But I know there's little mnemonic devices they use to try to remember that. But when you have someone that says, hi, I'm so-and-so, I'm here to serve you. And they actually remember when you have a large group. Who gets what? That's impressive to me. And that's the idea of this willingness to serve, to work long hours for themselves? No, no. For others, for others, always others. So others' needs are met before their own. Slave, doulos, literally is slave, it's the literal translation. Another one would be a bond slave or bond servant. That's probably the closest thing because the root word, the root word of this, see it says from 1210, that's a Strong's number if you wanna get a little technical for a moment. And that 1210 number literally means it's the word to bind or tie is what that means. So someone that, a servant that is bound, that is tied, that is shackled to another person. That's the literal meaning. Now, the bond slave, it's different than the servant. Both are important. The bond slave is someone, a slave, that had either earned their freedom or been offered their freedom. In other words, they had paid their due. That's a lot of times how slavery happened in first century. It wasn't like the plantations and the things that were pre-Civil War in the US. It was perhaps somewhat more dignified. It was at least more understood that someone might go into slavery, and that doesn't mean they were treated well, but they went into slavery for a reason. They couldn't pay their debt, so they went into slavery to pay their debt. And this amount of money equaled this amount of years of servitude. And when they had done those years, they were free to go. Some, because of the long years of spending time in this master's household, even though they had the freedom to leave, they said, but master, I want to stay. My wife, my children, our family, I love serving you. You're a good master. And I don't want to leave. And I want to serve you for the rest of my life. And that became a bond servant. the bondservant would allow his ear to be placed on the threshold of the door and they would pierce it and the ring would be there and that would be the symbol that kind of like what we think of with the wedding ring and the promise of I will serve you for the rest of my life. I'm choosing to do that, it was a choice. And that's what Jesus is calling the men to, it's what he's calling us to, service and slavery Jesus has now completely reversed the narrative. The men had requested, think of this, the men had requested to be elevated. Jesus had just brought them down to a lower stage than even they were currently at. These men were fishermen and tax collectors and had other jobs. They weren't slaves. They were above that. They probably weren't wealthy men, but they weren't slaves. Now Jesus is calling them to go below their station, if you will. God's economy, so different from this world system. Notice who's servant and who's slave. Does it say God's servant and God's slave? Who's servant? Your servant. And slave of who? All. That's important. Because we have to understand, God doesn't need anything. He's self-existent. He's pre-existent, he's always been. He needs nothing, he's complete without us. That's what makes him God. But we're not so, we need one another. So Jesus is saying the way you're great in my kingdom is how you love the people around you. Because I'm God, I don't need anything from you. God doesn't need our money. He doesn't need our talents and our time and all of the things that we're supposed to give. He doesn't need them, but the people around you need them. And that's the difference. And so he's saying here, look, if you wanna be great in God's kingdom, you're gonna be a servant of others and you're gonna be a slave of others. We're called to serve God by serving others. were called to be a slave for God by being a slave for everyone else. Back in 935, as we conclude here, we'll wrap up. Remember, he'd already taught them this. He'd already laid this groundwork out, and now he's teaching it again. Back in Mark 935, he sat down, he called the 12, just like he did in our passage today. He said to them, if anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all, and what? servant of all. He had already been teaching them this. And then we come to the key verse of the entire Gospel of Mark. This is the climactic statement. That's the entire theme of Mark's Gospel is Mark 10.45, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Jesus served us and was a slave to us by obeying the Father. He stepped into that place on our behalf. He took upon him that pain and that suffering. Notice we have past, present, and future. Jesus came in the past tense not to be served, but to serve in the present tense, and to give his life a ransom, which was gonna be in the very near future. So if Jesus, who is God himself, who one day we will all bow the knee to, has 100% authority in the universe, he is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, yet he did not come to earth to be served, but to serve all and die. What an astounding truth. What a powerful truth. We mentioned this verse earlier. We'll close with this. We've got one more after this, actually. Philippians 2, six through eight, speaking of Christ, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, that willing volunteer coming in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. And you see that whole passage is these stair steps down, down, down, down. If you read the next verses, it starts to come back up. Because every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. One more verse. Isaiah 53, he shall see the labor of his soul, speaking of Messiah. and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servants shall justify many. Why? For he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great, the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong. Why? Because he poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors, the servants and the slaves and the low, low-ranking people, and he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. So how do you measure greatness? Based on this text, we need to rethink greatness, especially here in America. We have a very wrong view of greatness. This world is constantly pressuring us to conform, to one-up each other, to compare to each other instead of comparing to Christ. So as we conclude, yes, Gretzky hockey-wise was the great one, but Jesus Christ, he's the greatest one. There's none greater. There's none greater. Let us strive for true greatness as we serve one another and as we are slaves. to one another, that's our calling. That is true greatness. Father, thank you, Lord, so much for this text. Thank you for this passage. Thank you, Lord, for the challenge. My, what a high calling you've given us, Lord, to be your servant and your slave, not to you specifically, although it is to you, but to each other. Lord, that's hard sometimes because the one another's in our life can be annoying and frustrating and irritating. They can be downright rude. It can be hard to love, difficult to love. Will you please help us, Lord, to follow your instructions here? Will you please help us to keep our eyes on greatness the way you define it? so that when everyone is served and everyone has been slaving for each other, everyone's needs are met. You designed the church to function that way. So Lord, help us to be faithful to that. Please encourage us, Lord, it's hard to do. So please give us grace and strength, Lord. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you all, have a great day.