Who’s Greatest?

Series on Luke

III The Initiation

D The Activities of His Ministry Revealing that the Kingdom Is:

17 Foremost in Humility

Text: 9:46-50

Introduction

Corrie ten Boom tells the story of a woodpecker who was tapping away at a tree. A thunderous storm came up and lightening hit the tree and totally demolished it. The woodpecker said look what I’ve done. Most of us are smarter than the woodpecker but we may still have a problem with pride. The disciples of Jesus were arguing about who would be the greatest in the kingdom, and according to Matthew they came and asked him this very question. Jesus knew the real question was, “Am i not the greatest?” After all our Savior himself had singled out Peter saying, And I tell you that you Simon are Peter and on this rock i will build my church and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it. And when he went up to the mount of transfiguration he only took three of the 12, James and Peter and John. Are we so different from them? Don’t we deal with this issue? in our minds don’t we entertain the idea that there are more important and less important people in the kingdom of God? Consider with me the conflict of life, the concern of the Lord, and the compassion of love.

I The Conflict of Life

The basic conflict of life was decided long ago. Our forefather Adam received his value and importance from God, but when he decided to disobey God he lost his sense of worth. He could only find his value in what other people thought of him. Thus success became the source of our self-evaluation. This is what drives the disciples of Jesus here in verse 46, An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. They need to know who is the greatest only because they have no other gauge of their value as persons. Pride is not some unfortunate little trait and humility is not some attractive little virtue. This is the conflict of life. If we think that we are free of this we are fools indeed. It infects our functions, our families and our fellowship. It is so radical that as C.S. Lewis reminds us in his book, “The Screwtape Letters,” we can even be proud of our humility. I need to ask myself what my real standard is. Is it what other people think of me, or is it what God thinks? Most of the tensions that occur in my relationships to others occur because I am concerned about what people think. When I was a little boy I got my first telescope and was amazed at how it magnified things, but then one day i turned it around and was even more amazed to discover how it made everything look very tiny. Our problem is that we have the telescope reversed. We are big and everything else is tiny. Sin makes us do this, and what is worse, it even obscures the fact that we think we are big and the heavens are small. This is the conflict of life.

II The Concern of the Lord

What did Jesus do about this in verses 47 and 48? Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then he said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest.” The genius of this illustration does not rest in the innocence and humility of the child, and it is a mistake to look for it there because children are just sinners waiting to blossom and they’re not all that innocent and certainly not all that humble. The key is found in the disciples opinion of the child. To them the child is nothing. Somebody to be seen and not heard, incapable of making a meaningful contribution to the kingdom, unimportant, insignificant, negligible, inferior, and trifling. What Jesus is really aiming at here is not children per se, but our brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus is thinking of people whom we might regard as falling into that same category. The disciples must have been astounded after arguing about their importance. A modern parallel would be to go to general assembly and take all the great missionaries, pastors of the biggest churches, erudite professors, heads of agencies and committees, moderators past and present stand them up and place a little child beside them and say, “Now who’s important.” I believe they would catch on and say the child, but that’s not the way most of us act! We think that great men are important in the kingdom. and great men are important, like Martin Luther, John Calvin, Hudson Taylor, Billy Graham, D. James Kennedy, and others, but only because like the apostle Paul they labored abundantly and then said I am the least of the apostles, less than the least of all saints, and I am what I am by the grace of God. We need to say this about ourselves and then act accordingly. Christ is the great example in Philippians 2:3-8, Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!

III The Compassion of Love

Our text ends with a seemingly unrelated event but actually it is an illustration of this principle in verses 49 and 50, “Master,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.” “Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.” Perhaps the apostle John is feeling guilty about what they said, because he recognizes what Jesus is talking about. A man was casting out demons in Jesus name and they forbid him. Jesus says do not stop him for whoever is not against you is for you. The implication is that this is a brother. Later on in Luke 11:23 Jesus seems to say the opposite, He who is not with me is against me and he who does not gather with me scatters. But the context there is the work of Satan. Jesus says any kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Therefore he is talking about non-believers and enemies of God there, but here is he is talking about the friends of God. I know that in the worldwide network of Christ’s Church we regard some people as childlike and unimportant. This is a sin of pride, and it becomes even more aggravated when it infects a local assembly of believers. My first church was an independent church of God. It had an unusual constituency. In one family the grand father was a leader on the official board, the in laws were on the official board, the grand mother was the organist and choir director. The first pastor was her father, and the second pastor was her brother. He died young and his wife and children were still in the congregation. They were a very dedicated, faithful, helpful, hardworking family but they viewed themselves as indispensable. They really thought the church revolved around and depended on them. I left and thirty years after I left that church I met with a man who was converted under my ministry there and who left the church but still lived in the community. The update was that for thirty years to a greater or lesser extent the work was impeded by pride, and finally closed. On one occasion when I was still their pastor a visiting evangelist invited people to accept Christ and the deceased former minister’s children responded to invitation. I took it to be an indication of a spiritually sensitive family with good training, and a need to make a commitment. I was met at the church door by the grandfather who was livid with rage, saying it was an insult to his family. Do you see what this kind of pride can do? This is why Jesus warns us to be humble and to become like little children so that we do not offend others and treat them as unimportant.