Greatness

“And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to Him and said to Him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to Him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to Him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And 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. But 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.” – Mark 10.35-45

In the beginning of this passage, it is clear that the disciples’ conception of greatness and how to attain it is still worldy. In this passage Jesus turns the disciples’ thinking upside down. He identifies that Gentiles treat status one way, but simply says “But it shall not be so among you.” And then Jesus defines what true greatness is for those who follow Him. “But 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.”

Humility. Servanthood. Selflessness. That is greatness. That is what will make us ‘first’. And even in the chance that we don’t understand what Jesus is saying, He provides His life as the tangible example. The Son of God, who deserves all glory and honor and praise, steps down from heaven to serve the enemies of His father, the sinners, the betrayers. Us. That is what Jesus spent His earthly life doing. Washing undeserving feet, feeding the hungry, praying for those who were nailing Him to a cross, and enduring death. He poured Himself out. He got down on the ground. He spent His life on us.

As people that are no longer our own, but purchased by the blood of Christ, we ought to examine our hearts and see what kind of greatness we are striving for. Theological prowess and elite scholarship, while hardly insignificant, are not the measure of greatness. Neither are the worldy lures of money, power, and fame. As the body of Christ, we should fight to be more than just teachers and friends to each other and the unbelieving world. We should fight, with every ounce of strength He provides us, to imitate Jesus and pour ourselves out and be humble servants to all. Think about what this means in your daily life. Are you being a servant to all, or just a few? What would it look like if you poured yourself completely out, and not just a little?

John the Baptist

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

~Matthew 3:7-12

This is simply amazing. John the Baptist, the messanger, a voice crying out in the wilderness, is telling the Pharisees about the coming of Jesus Christ. The thing that I want to write about today, that really stuck out to me, was the how John tells of Jesus with the winnowing fork. A winnowing fork is a type of pitchfork, which farmers use to throw wheat into the air. Now, the heavier wheat withstands the wind and falls to the ground, while the chaff gets blown aside. Think about that for a second. Jesus was there to seperate the the wheat from the chaff, to show the world the difference between His people and those that are of the world. His Words cut right to our hearts and show us whether we are the chaff or the wheat. Then, Jesus, image of the Father, full of both mercy and grace, and also righteousness and wrath, brings the wheat into his barn and burns the chaff. Those who are loyal, those who are born of God, come into the kingdom of God. God welcomes us into His barn because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Those who are not of God, are burned. See how beautiful Jesus is in this?

Christ Made Himself Nothing

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests 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 made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

~Philippians 2:1-11

So often we are told to be like Jesus Christ, and sometimes we don’t even understand what that means. When reading about Jesus Christ serving humanity, and being humble, it just blows my mind. I can’t even begin to understand how Jesus Christ, the living God in the form of a man, should be humble. He shouldn’t be humble, He has every right not to be. He is sinless, He created everything on earth, He has power and dominion over all of creation and it will all play out to His glory. Yet, Jesus Christ humbled Himself to the point of death on the cross. This is just simply amazing. Just think about God, who is all-powerful, coming to earth, serving humanity, and dying on a cross to erase the sins of those who rebelled against Him and spit in His face. Just try to imagine when Christ was on trial, when people were spitting in His face, when He was being whipped, when He carried His cross to Calvary Hill, and when He was crucified. He was innocent, the Lamb of God, dying because we sinned, because we turned away from God. Think of how much humility that took, how much obedience Christ had to the will of the Father.

But there was victory, Jesus Christ was raised, and as this verse says, He was exalted. He was given the name above all names, and all knees shall bow and all tongues will confess that He is Lord. He was low, but then He was exalted by the Father. It’s amazing and completely praiseworthy to see how Jesus Christ could be the humblest servent, and also be the name above all names and the Lord of Lords. Ponder His humility today, and see how short we truly fall, and beg God to make us like Christ.

God’s Righteousness

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it– the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

~Romans 3:21-26

What is righteousness? Righteousness is one of those “church words” that we all throw around, and many of us do not understand what it is. God being righteous can point most to Him being true, Him being right. It can be defined as morally upright, or in accordance to morals and laws. When considering God’s righteousness, the first thing that comes to my mind is that God created morals and law, so of course He has to be righteous. However, the way I am captivated by God’s righteousness is how He shows it to the human race.

In the old testament, we see God’s holiness and righteousness in the steps that the people of Israel had to take in order to approach Him. In order to come to Him with their sin and be clensed of it, they had to have a large number of animal sacrifices. Blood had to be shed for them to come before the throne room. Because God is righteous, He wouldn’t just let us off the hook, and it shows God’s faithfulness to His word and His righteousness.

Now, as it says in the aformentioned passage, the righteousness of God is manifested apart from the law. Gods righteousness is manifested in us coming to Him through Jesus Christ. God’s righteousness was shown brilliantly through the shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross. This is because we are unrighteous, we cannot come before God, but the righteous one, Jesus Christ, died on the cross, which is seen as the punishment for our sins, if we believe. Therefore, God’s righteousness and wrath was poured out on Christ. It says in 1 Peter 3:18 that Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.

This allows God to be both just, as He is still punishing sin, and to be the justifier of His people, allowing them to come before Him, and it is all through Jesus Christ. The Cross of Jesus Christ shows us so many things about God, His mercy and grace, His power, and as we have seen through this passage, His righteousness.

Make Ready

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.”

- Matthew 4.1-11

“I have stored up your word in my heart,that I might not sin against you.”

- Psalm 119.11

As believers we are not tempted by a visible and audible Satan, as Jesus was in Matthew 4. But we know of the devil’s continued and active ravenous nature, and as such we are commanded to remain steadfast in our spiritual vigilance (1 Peter 5.8).

So we are to practice vigilance. But in our watches what are we to do when the devil shows up and temptation knocks on our doors? How can we successfully resist? I would not say that the manner of resistance is wholly dependent upon the circumstances or the individual. We see Jesus, the perfect example, perfectly resist temptation. And while we cannot know the exact processes of the heart and mind of a hypostatically united God-man, we can see external evidences of how He successfully and perfectly rejected Satan’s lure. You will see a pattern in all three of Jesus’ temptations: He responds with scripture. If temptation is a question, then that is His seen answer. If it is an attack, the Word of God is His spoken defense.

Satan prowls. It is his desire that we be devoured and hindered. Temptation waits around every corner. We need to be ready with our answer and our defense. We see in Psalm 119.11 that God’s Word, stored in our heart, is a means of averting sin. So let’s memorize the Word with passion. But not just to store it in our head – to store it in our heart. Let’s be prepared to fight, relying always and only on Him for strength.

What We’re About

He (Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

~Colossians 1:15-20

This blog’s purpose is for David and I to lift up Jesus Christ with our words to help people see Him more clearly.

This particular passage of Scripture paints a very clear picture of Jesus’s preeminence and authority over all things. Every single thing outside of the Trinity was created for Him and through Him. The universe is held together by Him. Jesus Christ is everything, the fullness of God, and His blood reconciled the world to Himself.

This powerful God-man came to earth, was killed for our sins and raised for our justification. The One who is preeminent over all things also died so we could be reconciled to God the Father. This should simply make us fall down in amazement before Him, that Jesus Christ, the one who controls all things and holds all things together died for us. Do we even understand this concept? I think that if we understood Jesus’s majesty and what He did for us, we would never stop praising Him for His glory and His mercy.

We are going to try to be about Jesus Christ.

Epic

A warm welcome to you all. To restate: Mark and I are using our grace-gifted abilities to write in order to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ so that our readers would see Him more clearly. Moving on.

How short we fall of true living. You see it in yourself, day after day as you fail in the way you spend time, use money, treat others, persevere in prayer, read the Word, and so on. You witness it in a human history that overflows with war, hate, tears, and famine because our race is incapable of coexisting as a people. As we rise from bed we affirm each morning that this is a life which must be lived. It must be lived (it requires our participation and activity), but do we know how to live. If some curious human being asked you how to live, what kind of answer would you give him? Hopefully not a human one. Because our very lives and the human history which preceeds them are certain proof that humans do not know how to truly live. In fact, we suck at living. At different but all too frequent times, we find ourselves infested with despair, plagued by depression, teased with dissatisfaction, filled with regret, and drowned in guilt, amidst many other things. We, who live out life, are in desperate need of example.

But what if the designer of life Himself came to us and lived truly and perfectly, that we might find infinite example in Him of how we ought to wake up in the morning and how we ought to be and hope and rejoice and face conflict and persevere as humans? Take joy and rejoice that the glorious and almighty God made it so, which we see here in these words that He breathed out:

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1.14

The King of glory, Creator of the world, and Upholder of our rebellious existences came down and walked beside us for a little while. God was, in fleshly person, on earth with us. He lived, here. We have much to learn by hearing His teachings and looking at His life. But before we go there, we need to muse and fight to capture the epic nature of Christ Jesus’ incarnation. Ponder John 1.14 this week.