Who is the Greatest?

Who is the Greatest? The answer to that question is perhaps the most, or certainly among the most sought after above any other. Everybody wants to know, who is the greatest, and not only that, but also most want to be the greatest of whatever it is that they care about most. We can find out what the best car was of 2007. There are best musical artist awards, best actor awards, best film awards, best album awards, and greatest scientific achievement awards. There are T-shirts that say, “the world’s greatest dad, mom, grandmother, grandfather, or whoever.” We can get on the Internet and find out which school is considered to be the best in the United States. There are best books, best foods and restaurants, best athletes at every level of competition. There are best speller competitions for children.  There are top academic honors, best employee recognitions, biggest contributor of various charity programs. There is the fastest man, the strongest man, and even those minds that are considered to be the greatest of all time. What other activity or concern can bring so many people together from all over the world and so many different countries like the Olympic games can? Of all of the things that could be the instrument by which all of these nations could come together, what else can compare to this question: Who is the greatest? Who will be going home with the gold metal?

In a world full of competition, everyone wanting to know who the greatest is, why don’t we ever hear of anyone trying to be the greatest servant? Every now and then you might hear of someone who has excelled in his or her service to others, but not very often. It is a rare thing for a person to want to be great at serving others, but that is what this lesson is all about. If we want to be among the greatest in the Lord’s kingdom, then we will do it be serving others.

It’s not really that hard to find those who desire greatness in the world of religion, or to be seen by the world as something great. Not that there is anything wrong with wanting to be the greatest that we can be as Christians, but the problem is that the greatest in the Lord’s kingdom are those who are seen as being the least through the eyes of the world and not the greatest. The greatest are those who serve, not those who are served; the greatest are those who put others before and above themselves, not those who put others after and under themselves. But there are so many who, in an effort to be the greatest, have done exactly the opposite of what they should have been doing in order to be seen as great through the eyes of God.

Some See Preaching As A Way To Greatness

Now, there is nothing wrong with being able to fill an auditorium. If we were successful and thriving in the work here at Spring Dale or anywhere else, one would hope that a natural effect of that effort would be a full auditorium over a reasonable period of time. My grandfather’s last located work was with the Central Church of Christ in Winter Haven, FL. He was there for about 15 years before he retired. When my family moved to the area and I started attending the church there as a child, that congregation was growing and a new auditorium was being constructed to accommodate the larger membership. I don’t know what the numbers were when he first started the work there, but by the time he retired, that new auditorium was just about filled to its capacity. It was a wonderful thing. They were about to the point where they would have had to think about doing more construction in order to hold everybody. On any given Sunday, the bottom floor of that auditorium was absolutely stuffed, and the balcony was nearing its capacity. That is the kind of thing we like to see, but I can’t even imagine my grandfather, knowing what kind of person he is, thinking to himself, “well, just look at how great I am. All of these people coming out here like this to see me. Boy, I sure am something!” I have never heard him come close to expressing such a thing. I don’t remember talking to him about it specifically, but if I were to, I can almost hear the kind of thing that I think he would say already in my mind. Something more like, “the Lord sure has blessed our efforts here. God has sure been good to us. Just look at the power of the gospel of Christ when it is proclaimed in its simplicity.” There are many others whose work has been blessed in the same way, and they didn’t, and don’t see it as a token of their own personal greatness, but there are some who have, and do.

When we hear of brethren who started out so sound and firm in the faith, but then as they gained a following and it grew and they began to write books and became more popular they started to wander from the faith, you can’t help but wonder what happened to those brethren. Before they became so well known they seem so faithful, but then afterwards, something happened and they wandered away from the faith as the numbers grew. In cases like that, you can’t help but to think that their popularity had some kind of effect upon them. As if, maybe, they began to think to themselves, “look how great I am, just look at how many people love to hear the things that come out of my mouth. God sure is lucky to have someone like me working for Him. What would He do without me? I am just something else. What if I changed the message just a little bit so that it would appeal to even more people? Then, I would have an even bigger following and it would elevate me just that much more!” And before you know it, he has a huge following of thousands of people, but what he’s teaching is no longer the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There’s a preacher somewhere named Joel Osteen, I believe. He preaches in an old stadium that can hold thousands and thousands of people. He has a TV program that airs his preaching and things. Now, I don’t know all that much about him, other than the fact that someone recorded a handful of his sermons off of the TV and put them on a DVD and said, “listen to this guy, he’s great!” But I watched him, and the more I saw and heard, the sicker I felt. All of these thousands of people each week being led further and further into error by this guy. Maybe I just got a bad sampling of his lessons. I don’t know. I doubt it, but that’s a possibility. Those four or five sermons that I saw were all about how you can use Christianity, and through it, God, to make you financially successful, happy at your job, and cur whatever ails you. There was no doctrine, no gospel, no meat whatsoever, just cute stories and false promises and people were just eating it up. That’s the sort of thing that appeals to the flesh, but it’s pure fiction; it’s not true. Those people are being taken for a ride and if they don’t figure out what’s going on, it is going to end in destruction.

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, fashioning themselves into apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for even Satan fashioneth himself into an angel of light. It is no great thing therefore if his ministers also fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. (2 Cor. 11:13-15)

 Peter says that they are

springs without water, and mists driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved. For, uttering great swelling words of vanity, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by lasciviousness, those who are just escaping from them that live in error; promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he also brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the last state is become worse with them than the first. (2 Pet. 2:17-20)

They are hailed so often as some great thing, when in fact, just the opposite is true when it comes to the Lord’s work.

The proper place for a minister is not up on some pedestal for everyone else to look up to, but he is a servant of those he ministers to. That is what the word “minister” means, it means servant. There were those in the Corinthian church who seems to have reversed the idea and Paul had to remind them,

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not with meat; for ye were not yet able to bear it: nay, not even now are ye able; for ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal, and do ye not walk after the manner of men? For when one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not men? What then is Apollos? and what is Paul? Ministers through whom ye believed; and each as the Lord gave to him. I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. (1 Cor. 3:1-7)

So if  the building becomes full here at Spring Dale, if we are to be so blessed in that way,  who is to be thanked for it? Who gets the credit? Daniel? No, I’m just the minister, or servant here!

To God be the glory, great things He hath done; So loved He the world that He gave us His Son, Who yielded His life an atonement for sin, And opened the life gate that all may go in. Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done, and great our rejoicing thro’ Jesus the Son; But purer, and higher, and greater will be Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see. (number 15 in our songbook)

Some Seek Greatness In Religious Titles

Well, what if I wear as special collar or some other sort of outfit that sets me apart from and above others? What if I were to start wearing robes and start being called of others “father” or “Pastor?” Jesus said,

And call no man your father on the earth: for one is your Father, even he who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your master, even the Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled; and whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted. (Mt 23:9-12)

Any preacher who truly wants to be great in the Lord’s kingdom won’t be doing things or allowing himself to be called things that are going to put him above and over others, but he will be a servant to others and humble himself so that he may be exalted by God and not by himself.

Some Seek Greatness Through Suffering

People have even mutilated themselves, starved themselves, and burned themselves as a way of showing their great devotion to God. It is as if they are showing how much they love God, and how spiritual and holy they are by how much suffering they are willing to inflict upon themselves. Some will use whips with leather straps on the ends of them to whip themselves over and over again. Some will pierce themselves with different things as a demonstration of their devotion. But again, Paul says, “that’s not the way to do it.” Colossians 2:20-23 says,

If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances, Handle not, nor taste, nor touch (all which things are to perish with the using), after the precepts and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh. (Col. 2:20-23)

Suffering for the sake of suffering does not make us any greater in the eyes of God.

Some Seek Greatness Through Hypocricy

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount,

Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: else ye have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee. And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites: for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee. (Mt. 6:1-6)

Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen of men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face; that thou be not seen of men to fast, but of thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall recompense thee. (Mt. 6:16-18)

Alms giving, praying, and fasting were all methods that people used to try and show their greatness as Jews, and Jesus condemns such practices. We are to give and pray, but not as a means of showing how great we are in the eyes of men.

Others use academics as a way of seeming greater than others.

There are those who have used the office of an elder of the church for, apparently, the same purpose.

As we consider all of these ways that people reach for greatness in the church, it should become evident to us that these are all self-serving. They are all the fruits of selfish ambition. They are not the fruits of someone who is genuinely striving to be great in the eyes of God, but to be great in the eyes of other people. Every one of these are just different ways of accomplishing the same thing. They all say, “I am great, because of what people think of me and the way that people see me. Not, because of the way that I am before God.” And they all have me, myself, and I at the very center of things, and not God. Paul said to the Galatians, “…am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? or am I striving to please men? if I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ.” These are all ways that greatness is achieved in the world. When someone wants to be the greatest in sports, business, or the arts, it is a competition that is set before men and to be seen of men as great. In the worldly arena, mankind is our audience. That is not true in the church. In fact, just the opposite is true. There is a saying that says, “Greatness is in the eye of the beholder.” In this case, when it comes to being the greatest in the Lord’s kingdom, He is the beholder, not man. So if greatness is to be had as a Christian, it will be done in the eyes of the Lord.

The Apostles Fell Into This Same Trap

And they came to Capernaum: and when he was in the house he asked them, What were ye reasoning on the way? But they held their peace: for they had disputed one with another on the way, who was the greatest. And he sat down, and called the twelve; and he saith unto them, If any man would be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all. (Mk. 9:33-35)

 A parallel passage says,

In that hour came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And he called to him a little child, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Mt.18:1-4)

The twelve at this time were thinking in worldly terms. They were still expecting an earthly kingdom like David had. So naturally, they thought that since there are appointed officials in an earthly kingdom and different ranks and statuses, and since they were the chosen twelve, then they would be great in this new earthly kingdom. This also reveals how very human these men were. They were apostles, but also very human. In fact, it was one of those, Judas, who betrayed Him with a kiss. But they had worldly ambition for greatness. The same kind of greatness that we have been pointing out so far in this lesson, greatness that is before man, worldly, and not before God, or spiritual. When Jesus asked, “what were ye reasoning on the way?” They didn’t answer Him. At least on some level, they knew better than to have such ambitions. Jesus told them that those who would be the greatest in His kingdom would have the very opposite attitude. Rather than becoming great by promoting their own interests, they were to be great by promoting the interests of God. Is it wrong then, to want to be great in the kingdom? No, but the question we may want to ask ourselves is “what kind of attitude is behind it?” Are we being motivated by selfishness and a desire to be seen by others as someone great, or are we being motivated by a selfless desire to please God and serve others? I think that that is the difference that needs to be made here.

Jesus Tells Us Where Greatness Is To Be Had In His Kingdom

“If any man would be first, [if we want to be great], he shall be last of all, and servant of all.” Instead of pushing our way to the front and thrusting ourselves into the limelight, we put ourselves last, after everyone else, and by doing so we will be great in the eyes of God. That is where true greatness is to be had, isn’t it? True greatness is in God’s eyes, not in those of men or our own.

Going back to Matthew 18:4 then, “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Most children are busy just being children. They are not rulers, self-made billionaires, or Nobel prize winners, they are just children. “…He that is the greater among you, let him become as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve” (Lk. 22:26).

Jesus Demonstrated What It Means To Be A Servant

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all the things into his hands, and that he came forth from God, and goeth unto God, riseth from supper, and layeth aside his garments; and he took a towel, and girded himself. Then he poureth water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. So he cometh to Simon Peter. He saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt understand hereafter. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith to him, He that is bathed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all. For he knew him that should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean. So when he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and sat down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you. Ye call me, Teacher, and, Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye also should do as I have done to you. (Jn. 13:3-15)

The most common mode of transportation in that day was, of course, a person’s feet. And, they didn’t have Nike’s or Keds, or whatever, they had sandals,  flat souls on the bottom of their feet with leather straps to hold them on. That being the case, their feet would become very dirty and so when they entered into someplace, they would normally take their sandals off at the door and their feet would be washed. In this case, in the upper room, they had all already come in and sat down around the table without washing their feet. It would seem that the reason was that there was no one to receive them and to do it for them, and they were all to proud to do it for each other. So, see as how they were all unwilling to do it, Jesus, humiliating for the rest of them, got up and went around the table washing their feet! The greatest among them humbled Himself to the point of a servant and was willing to serve the rest by doing the lowliest task of washing their feet. It was so humiliating for them, that Peter could not contain Himself and objected openly to it, but Jesus used it to teach them all a lesson. Just as He served them, they, and we, are to serve one another. The greatest isn’t the one who is always needing to be served, but the one who is always serving others! The whole reason for Jesus coming to this earth in the first place, was not for himself, but for us, and while he was here upon this earth, He filled His days teaching, helping, and serving mankind.

When We Stand Before Him On Judgment Day, It Is Going To Make A Difference

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? or athirst, and gave thee drink? And when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? And when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me. (Mt. 25:34-40)

If you would just listen to a sampling of what the Scriptures say about our obligation in this matter:

“And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Gal. 6:9).

“But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing” (2 Thes. 3:13).

“For so is the will of God, that by well-doing ye should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men” (1 Pet. 2:15).

“Wherefore let them also that suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithful Creator” (1 Pet. 4:19).

“Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 5:16).

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

“That they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to communicate” (1 Ti. 6:18).

“In all things showing thyself an ensample of good works…” (Tit. 2:7).

“Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works” (Tit. 2:14).

“Faithful is the saying, and concerning these things I desire that thou affirm confidently, to the end that they who have believed God may be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men” (Tit 3:8).

“And let our people also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful” (Tit. 3:14).

“And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works” (Heb. 10:24).

“Having your behavior seemly among the Gentiles; that, wherein they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they behold, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Pet. 2:12).

And that is just a small sampling of all that the Scriptures have to say about helping others and being full of good works. It is not enough to just look after our own needs, but we must also be concerned with the needs of others, both physical as well as spiritual! That’s why I, so often, at the end of a sermon will not just extend the invitation to come forward for baptism and public confession, but also for anyone that has a need that we can fill to let someone know about it before they leave the building so that we will have the opportunity to help them. I mean it in the most literal and absolute way. So many times, there are people that have a need but they don’t say anything about it, for whatever reason, but I wish they would say something about it. It’s not just for the sake of the one, or ones, who need help, but just as much for our sakes, so that we might be full of good works and benefit also in that. We ought to be looking for ways to help others, and ready to do well unto others. Those are they who are great in the kingdom of heaven!