Being A Slave of Christ

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about the very intimate relationship with the Apostle John and the Lord Jesus. So James and John, the sons of Zebedee, and I want you to see where in your

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Bibles you can get that. Go over to Mark, gospel according to Mark. Next gospel in order there, chapter 3.

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And as you guys get there, I'll go ahead and start Matthew chapter 3, or sorry, Mark 3, verse 13.

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And he went up on the mountain, Jesus, and called to him those whom he desired,

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I like that, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, so that they might be with him and might send them out to preach, and have authority to cast out demons.

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He appointed the twelve, Simon, to whom he gave the name, Peter, James and the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James.

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So this is where Jesus, the text says Jesus names them the sons of thunder.

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So these are the sons of Zebedee, Jesus gave them a nickname, the sons of thunder.

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Now in Mark chapter 3, there's really no explanation as to why Jesus calls them the sons of thunder.

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So there's no explanation there, he just gives them a nickname, Jesus gave people new names.

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It was Jewish custom that when you name somebody, it was essentially taking ownership of them.

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There was an affection there, a relationship there. So when Joseph, for example, in the gospel according to Matthew, names

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Jesus, that's actually Joseph taking Jesus as his adopted son.

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When he names his name Yeshua, for he will save his people from their sins. It was Joseph who named him

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Jesus, effectively there adopting Jesus, taking ownership as the stepfather, the adopted father of Jesus.

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So there's an intimacy in Jewish tradition with names. So giving somebody a name.

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So Jesus says, sons of Zebedee, James and John, you are the sons of thunder, right?

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Again, no explanation. But there is an interesting moment in the gospels, only one, where we can get an understanding as to why

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Jesus, knowing what was in man, knowing everything about them, why Jesus called

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James and John the sons of thunder. And I want to introduce you to it because I absolutely love this in Luke 9.

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Luke chapter 9. Gospel according to Luke is the moment we can see where Jesus appropriately called them sons of thunder.

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Luke chapter 9, gospel according to Luke chapter 9, verse 51.

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This is now where the disciples have to go through Samaria. They're going to Jerusalem with Jesus.

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You have to know during the time period that we're in here, the Samaritans were in a bit of a conflict with Jews.

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Because the Jews were actually highlighting the racial differences between Jews and Samaritans.

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They saw Samaritans as sort of half breeds, right? Really kind of despicable way of thinking, a very despicable way of thinking, not from God.

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There's nothing in scripture that gives us any justification whatsoever for highlighting the uniqueness and beauty and distinction of our own skin color or background.

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There is only one human race and we're all in that. But there was a conflict in this day and you have, of course, the

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Samaritans versus the Jews and now they're going through Samaria. And this is what it says,

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Luke 9, 51. When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem and he sent messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village of the

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Samaritans to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him because his face was set towards Jerusalem.

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They see that conflict now. And when his disciples James and John, these are the sons of Zebedee, the sons of thunder.

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When the disciples James and John saw it, they said, Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?

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I absolutely, I don't know why, I find this so absolutely amusing. They won't receive

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Jesus and so they're like, Lord, we'll just go ahead and call down fire from God. We'll destroy the whole city. What do you think?

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Is that good? I think it's absolutely amazing and of course, I think it's an appropriate title for James and John, the sons of thunder, because they want to call down the wrath of God upon a city because they won't invite

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Jesus. Now here's, here's what I love too, is that not only do I think it's amusing that they actually said, oh, they're not going to receive him, let's go ahead and burn the whole place down.

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Let's burn it down. Jesus' response to them is this, but he turned and rebuked them.

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And they went on to another village. So their desire is, God, let's kill them all. They don't want to receive you.

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Let's destroy them. And of course, God in the flesh isn't impressed by that, right?

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Isn't leaning that direction. He actually rebukes them for that kind of sinful thinking in terms of calling down the fire from God to destroy a city.

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That's not why Jesus came. That's not how we should see unbelievers. That's not how we should actually approach conflict as Christians.

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But here are the sons of thunder. Now we know why Jesus called them the sons of thunder.

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So let's talk. I'm going to get into the discussion about James and John in terms of details a little more in a moment when we get down to what

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Jesus says about them drinking the cup. I want you to hear about their lives and their stories.

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So again, back to Matthew 20, verse 20. Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons and kneeling before him, she asked him for something and he said to her, what do you want?

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She said to him, say to these two sons of mine are to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your kingdom, in your kingdom.

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So what's interesting is this, check this out. In Matthew chapter 20, Matthew records that it's the mother of the sons of Zebedee that goes and presents

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Jesus with the question. So capture that for a second. Matthew records that it's the mom that goes to Jesus to ask the question.

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But what's amazing is that you see even in Matthew, Jesus addresses the disciples,

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James and John, not the mother. You don't know what you're asking, do you? And then they respond.

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So they sent their mommy in to ask this question of Jesus. How do I know?

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Because if you look at the other synoptic tradition, the other account, you see more details in terms of who the question was really coming from.

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And so keep a finger in Matthew chapter 20 and now move over to Mark chapter 10.

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So Matthew, Mark, Mark chapter 10. So if you, again, compare the synoptics, synoptic means simply seeing together.

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You can line them up side by side. So Matthew chapter 20 is the account for Matthew.

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Mark 10 is the account in Mark. And here it is in Mark 35, 1035.

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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.

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And he said to them, what do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, grant to us, us to sit one at your right hand, one at your left in your glory.

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Now, again, when you look at the two accounts together, you see there's a bit of a difference. One has the mom coming to ask the question, but Jesus addresses the disciples.

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In the other account, you've got James and John coming and asking the question. So apparently

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Mark thought it was important to highlight who the question was really coming from, James and John. If you look at the accounts and you put them together, you can actually see that Jesus addresses

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James and John when the mom asked the question. And you'll note also this point in Matthew 20, go to Matthew 20.

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You'll see that Jesus actually talks to them when the mom asked the question. Jesus answered, you do not know what you are asking, are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?

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They said to him, so see the address now is coming back from the disciples. The question came from the disciples.

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They said, we're able, he said to them, you will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those to whom it has been prepared by my father.

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Here's where there's another interesting clue here in terms of where the question came from. And when the 10 heard it, they were indignant at who?

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At the two brothers, not the mommy. So what do we see here? James and John, sons of thunder, these courageous, powerful men of God that are saying, call down the fire and wrath of God upon this city who won't receive the king.

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They sent their mommy to do their dirty work. So much for the sons of thunder, right?

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So we can see in the accounts, Matthew 20, Mark chapter 10, two of them seeing together, you get more details.

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Here are James and John wanting power, wanting authority, wanting to Lord over people.

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Here's a unique thing to pay attention to in terms of their mindset. They see

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Jesus, Jesus from Nazareth. Can any good thing come from Nazareth? No, not in their minds.

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Nazareth wasn't even on the map. People used to think that Nazareth was a made -up place because they couldn't find it historically because it was a nothing little town until, of course, they discovered

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Nazareth. Here you have this humble Messiah coming and riding on a donkey, as the

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Scriptures predict. Jesus, a servant, Jesus washing feet, Jesus laying his life down.

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Here's Jesus, but they still see him as the ruler, the king that was promised.

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Remember the Old Testament said the Messiah was coming into the world to bring not just a ticket to Heaven one day.

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That's critical. The Messiah's, the promise of the Messiah of the Old Testament is that the

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Messiah was the king of the world. He was going to rule and reign, bring every nation back to worship

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God, Psalm 22. He was going to reign and sit at the right hand of the Father, putting every enemy under his feet.

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He was going to have Psalm 72, dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

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Genesis 49 -10, he was going to have the obedience of the nations. So here's

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James and John knowing this is the Messiah, the ruler, the king of the world, the son of David who's going to sit on the throne and bring the entire world back to worship

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God, all men from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. And so they want to know Jesus in your kingdom, let us sit at your right and at your left.

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They want authority. And Jesus actually cuts right past their question.

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And it's interesting how he says it, because you see, he came to rule in a kingdom, amen?

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He came to bring his rule and reign over the entire world to bring descendants for Abraham as numerous as the stars, as the sand on the seashore.

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And Jesus, who is that king, who is ruling and reigning now, who is bringing the nations back to God — by the way, if you question that to any degree at all,

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I want you to look around this room right now. Just take a gander. I know it's uncomfortable. Pastor, look at your neighbor and say something to him.

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That's so uncomfortable. I'm not asking you to do that. Okay. I want you to just look around the room for a second now.

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Look at all these different faces. The promise of the Messiah was that he was going to bring people out of every tribe, tongue, and language to God, all the nations returning to God to worship

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Yahweh. As you look around this room right now, you see all the different faces. You see all the different colors.

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And let's be honest, most everyone in this room doesn't come from an ethnically Jewish background.

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Most of our parents and ancestors were pagan ancestors. And yet here we are in Tempe, Arizona in 2018, worshiping and loving the

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Lord God of Israel because of Jesus the king. He is ruling, he is reigning, he is satisfying and fulfilling all the promises of God that were made about Jesus.

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But they say, we want to rule with you in your kingdom, in your glory.

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Jesus cuts right through their desire to have authority and to reign, and he goes right into his mission.

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He says this, Matthew 20, 22, you do not know what you're asking.

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Are you able to drink the cup that I'm to drink? You really want to rule in my kingdom? You want to rule in my kingdom?

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You want to, you want to take what I'm going to receive to purchase this kingdom, to purchase this world?

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You want to drink my cup? Jesus becoming king came with a lot of brokenness.

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It came with abuse. It came with torture. It came with death. It came with the wrath of God.

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All of that was wrapped up in Jesus sitting on his throne to purchase and ransom his people out of the world.

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And so he asked them, you want to sit at my right and my left? Are you able to drink the cup that I'm going to drink?

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By the way, that cup that he's talking about is the cup of suffering. The cup of suffering, that brokenness.

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And I love it. Sons of Thunder sending mommy in to do their dirty work, and he says to them, are you able to drink my cup?

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Are you ready for this, Sons of Thunder? And they say to him, they say, we're able.

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What a joke. We're able. He said to them, I love his mercy.

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You will drink my cup. But to sit at my right hand and my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my father.

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He says that's, that's the father's role. That's his will. That's what he determines.

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Here's Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, God in the flesh, submitted to the will of the father, the obedience of the father.

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He says that's the father's role, and we're going to get into that in a minute, but I'm going to talk about this cup for a second.

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They said, yes. He says, you will drink my cup. You're going to drink this cup of suffering.

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You're going to get it, and they said, we are. Let's talk about that. That's a prediction of their suffering, of their coming suffering.

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Let's talk about James for a moment now. So you have James and John, the sons of Zebedee, the sons of Thunder, James.

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We have recorded for us in Acts chapter 12, verse 1. Go there.

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Acts 12, verse 1. This is an amazing book,

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I pray that you guys all get into it. There's so many things we need to learn from God and the early church and the spirit of God moving in the apostles from the book of Acts.

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But Acts chapter 12, verse 1. This is the story of that cup of suffering that James drank.

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Jesus says, you're going to drink it. They said, we're able. In Acts chapter 12, verse 1, about that time,

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Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed

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James, the brother of John, with the sword. He killed

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James, the brother of John, with the sword. So the interesting thing here is there's a prediction from the

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Lord Jesus that the sons of Zebedee, the sons of Thunder, were in fact going to drink the cup that Jesus drank.

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You're going to. And in Acts chapter 12, verse 1, we have the account of James' death.

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He was killed by sword. He drank that cup of suffering. And the interesting thing here is he was actually the first apostle that was martyred.

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James, the brother of John, from the sons of Zebedee, was the first martyred apostle.

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So there's the account of James, first to die as an apostle. Now the interesting thing about John, the son of Zebedee, I'm going to talk to you about John and Nero.

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Now this is a powerful story. I think the apostle John is one of my favorite apostles because we actually know quite a bit about the apostle

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John from external sources outside of the Bible. We have the writings of John's disciples and their disciples.

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We have accounts of John's life from his disciples, and I love that. I think that's so powerful about our faith is that we have the words of God right in front of you, real history, but we also have all the sources coming up in church history from those disciples' disciples.

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We can learn about John and his life. Did you know that John, the apostle John, the disciple that Jesus loved, was the only apostle out of all the apostles that wasn't martyred for his faith?

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He wasn't actually killed. John died of old age in Ephesus.

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John started a Christian community in Ephesus. And interestingly, this is really amazing,

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John, according to church history, buried Jesus' mom in Ephesus.

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So you know, of course, the account of the cross, right? Who's at the cross? Mary's there. John's there.

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And you know, you have all of these sayings of Jesus on the cross, all of them important, all of them,

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I think, so compelling. They mean so much. Every little statement, of course, all of Jesus' words matter so much, but in the suffering of the

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Messiah and the passion of the Christ on that cross, there's very few things that Jesus says on the cross, but one of the things that he says is, behold your son, behold your mother.

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And so you have Jesus speaking to John about his own mother. Now this is, of course, not in the

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Bible, but I think it's compelling to think about. John was the only apostle that wasn't martyred, wasn't killed for his faith.

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But Jesus told John to take care of his mommy, and John actually fulfilled that and ended up burying

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Mary in Ephesus. So I personally believe that Jesus, as the sovereign, guarded and kept the apostle

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John's life to care for his mom, because he buried her in Ephesus.

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But John is unique because, I gotta be careful how I say that. When I say John wasn't martyred for his faith,

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I mean that he wasn't killed like the other apostles. He died of old age. However, it wasn't a lack of persecution, because what we know from church history is in the 60s,

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Nero was a corrupt, disgusting emperor. Caligula started really amped up, really amped up the worship cultus in Rome.

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And that is where the Roman emperors demanded worship, that you actually worship them.

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Caligula was with that. He amplified that whole practice.

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But Nero set it on fire. Nero demanded worship.

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Nero was a corrupt, disgusting beast. And Nero was known for killing people, of course, at random.

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Nero castrated a 10 -year -old boy and married him. Nero, of course, started the imperial persecution of the

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Christians in the 60s. The book of Revelation says in Revelation 13 that the beast of Revelation would, one, persecute the saints for 42 months.

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It's a matter of historic record that Nero's persecution of the Christians lasted, how long do you think?

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42 months. It says that the beast would die by the sword. How did Nero die? He died by his own sword.

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And it says the beast would demand worship. Nero demanded worship. Christians were killed not because they worshiped

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Jesus. Rome was pagan. They don't care what you worship. But the Christians were unwilling to say

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Caesar is Lord. They said that Jesus is

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Lord. They were unwilling to submit to that from Rome. And so Nero began that imperial persecution of Christians.

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He chased Christians down in the streets. He used to have Christians brought together, tied up to stakes in his garden parties.

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He would tie them up naked on the stakes. He would wrap them in pitch, set them on fire, and they would act as Roman candles for his garden parties, and he would ride his chariots through the

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Roman candles. Nero used to tie Christians up to stakes naked, and he would wear the fur or the skin of an animal like a lion or a bear.

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And while they were tied up to the stakes, he would attack them and try to eat them. That was Nero. Well, Nero did try to wipe out the

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Christian church. We know, of course, that the Apostle Paul was beheaded. We know that Peter was — and there's two different traditions.

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When you hear people saying that Peter was crucified upside down, it's possible. There's two varying traditions.

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We know that Peter was certainly crucified. We don't know if he was really crucified upside down. It's possible that he was.

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But that persecution of the Christians ran, and he tried to wipe out Christianity from the

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Roman Empire. However, John, son of Zebedee, one of the sons of Thunder, was captured by Nero.

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According to church history, he was captured by Nero. He was boiled in a pot of oil.

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Nero boiled him in a pot of oil, but what church history teaches us is that when Nero boiled him in a pot of oil,

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John, the son of Zebedee, the son of Thunder, did not die. And Nero was so superstitious and so freaked out by this — he was a very superstitious man — that he sent

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John into exile to a place called Patmos. And John went to Patmos.

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I believe that's where John wrote the book of Revelation. But that gives you a little background of John, the son of Zebedee, son of Thunder, his life.

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Now, this is really interesting. There's a prediction, I believe, in John chapter 20, verse 15.

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Go there. John chapter 20, verse 15. Last chapter of the

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Gospel according to John. This of course is where Jesus restores Peter. You know the scene, right?

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Peter is there, he sees Jesus, jumps out of his boat, swims to Jesus, and then

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Jesus restores him. He asks him a series of questions. Do you love me? He says, yes.

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Do you love me? Yes. He says, do you love me? And Peter gets frustrated. He says, Lord, you know everything.

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You know that I love you. He says, feed my sheep. But after that, he tells Peter, Jesus tells

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Peter that he's gonna be martyred. And it's in John chapter 20, verse 18.

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Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted.

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But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.

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This, he said, to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God. And after saying this, he said to him, follow me.

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So here's Jesus telling Peter, you're gonna be killed. You're gonna be martyred. Follow me.

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Verse 20, Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. The one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said,

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Lord, who is it that is going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man?

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Jesus said to him, if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?

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You follow me. I think that you can demonstrate that Jesus here predicts the death of Peter, but he's telling

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John, if I will that he remains until I come. Come where? Come back in judgment.

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If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you, Peter? You follow me. You're gonna die.

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Now I love Peter's response. Peter, you're gonna die for your faith, essentially, is what Jesus says. And Peter goes, what about him?

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I love it, right? What about this guy? And I think it's interesting here that Jesus gives a prophecy of Peter's death, but not

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John's. If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. Don't you find it interesting that the apostle

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John was the only apostle alive during the fall and destruction of Jerusalem?

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He was alive during that time. I believe Jesus preserved his life as predicted here, and I personally believe, and I know

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I can't give you an explicit text from the Bible to demonstrate this. I think you can get it through inference that Jesus sovereignly controlled history and events to allow

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John to take care of his mommy. And that's where John built that Christian community in Ephesus.

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So that gives you a little background of the apostle John, the life and times of the apostle John. But we know that he buried

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Jesus' mom in Ephesus. There is a bathhouse incident that is pretty well known from history.

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This incident comes from Polycarp to Irenaeus. Polycarp was a disciple of John, son of Zebedee, son of Thunder.

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So think about the timeline here, if you like. You have John, the son of Zebedee, the son of Thunder.

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His disciple was Polycarp, and after that was Irenaeus.

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Well, we have an account from Polycarp to Irenaeus about something that happened later in John's life that shows you a bit about his character.

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And watch, you do see some of the son of Thunder still in him. It's still in him. And here's what happens.

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John, the apostle John, the apostle of love, the apostle that Jesus loved, was in a

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Roman bathhouse. It was common in that day. I actually grew up in Japan, and in Japan, my house was situated right on the street, and less than a block away was a bathhouse.

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And Dennis tells me they're not as common anymore. But growing up, we used to go every night to the community bathhouse, and I got in trouble there all the time because the

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American boys in the Japanese bathhouse, long, wet floors. You're supposed to sit on a stool, and you rinse yourself off, and you can go, and they have like a super hot, really hot tub that like can melt human flesh.

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I don't know why that's there. Does it still have that, Dennis? Is that still? Okay. And then they have like an ice bath that literally has ice floating in it, and then a normal one.

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Well, the American kids that were there, military kids, we used to wash ourselves off, no clothes, and we would put soap on the floor, and we would just run from one side and slide all the way to the other to try to slide into the water.

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So it's not uncommon for communities to have bathhouses. It's kind of weird to us, but in history, the

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Apostle John was in a Roman bathhouse, and again, this story comes from Polycarp, the disciple of John, to Irenaeus, and the story goes like this.

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John was in there bathing, and he saw through the steam in the bathhouse a well -known

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Gnostic heretic named Cyrinthus, Cyrinthus, a

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Gnostic heretic, an enemy of the faith. And as the story goes, the Apostle John, the son of thunder, saw

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Cyrinthus through the steam, and he goes running out of the bathhouse, screaming, warning everybody to flee the bathhouse because the wrath of God might fall, and that ceiling might fall on everyone's heads.

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John, the son of thunder, he never shook it loose. Of course,

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John is known as the apostle of love. If you read 1 John chapter 1, verse 7, you'll see what he said about love, and this is,

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I think, very important for us to look at. Let's go ahead and go there quickly. First John 1, 7,

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John talks about love constantly, and don't you think — watch, this is as you get there.

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Don't you think that it's awesome that this apostle, who had such an intimate, close, deep relationship with Jesus, he was in the inner circle of the inner circle, right?

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He had such an intimate relationship with Jesus that the one thing that John is known for is love.

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Like what he wanted to emphasize the most about Jesus and what

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God wants for us is love. And in 1 John 1, 7, you see it, he says,

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Beloved, I'm writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning.

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The old commandment is the word that you have heard, at the same time it is a new commandment that I'm writing to you which is true in Him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

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Whoever says he's in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. I'm gonna say that again.

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Whoever says he's in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him there is no cause for stumbling.

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But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

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Isn't that powerful? He knows Jesus so intimately, he tells you this, look, you think you know God, you say you know

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Him, if you hate your brother, you're still in darkness, you don't know God. You hate your brother, you do not know

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Jesus. John had such a close relationship with Jesus, he's able to pick out the identification.

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I'll tell you how I know that you are in the light and whether you are in the darkness and it's a question of whether you actually love your brother.

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Do you love him? So John is known as that apostle of love but he is also known very clearly, of course, as the son of thunder for his condemnation of heresy and false teaching.

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Just go over one epistle to 2 John and you'll see exactly what

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I mean. In 2 John, John is actually addressing

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Gnostic, Gnosticism. The Gnostics denied that God took flesh, that He actually became man and took on human flesh and here you can see why

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John ran out of that bathhouse. He's addressing the problem in 2 John and if you see in 2

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John, verse 8, he says watch yourselves so that you may not lose what we have worked for but may win a full reward.

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Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the

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Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

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Here's John warning a church, do not let one of these

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Gnostic heretics into your church to disrupt your worship. When he says house, they met in house churches as the church was growing then.

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That's where they gathered together to worship. He says if one of these people who comes in, comes in who denies that God took on flesh, he says don't let them in.

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They do not know God. The only people who know God are those who follow the apostolic teaching of Jesus Christ.

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John says do not receive them into your house. There's the story of James and John, the sons of Zebedee.

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Back to Matthew 20. So you see that Jesus predicted that they would drink the cup and they did.

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Now I want to point to this next point here where Jesus says you will drink my cup but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant but it is for those whom it has been prepared by my

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Father. I want to touch this point just briefly. Here is Jesus, God in the flesh, saying something about the

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Father. This is not mine, it's the Father's. It's the Father's will, not mine.

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I want to point to this because this is another example in Scripture where Jesus demonstrates a distinction between Him and the

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Father. There is a well -known heresy that has been around since the second century of the church and Christians have fought against it since the very, very beginning of the church known as modalism,

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Sabellianism. It's a teaching that Jesus is just another mode of God, of the

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Father. So you have one God, one person. And God acts as different modes or think of it as masks.

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At some points in Scripture, He puts on the mask of the Father. At other points, the mask of the

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Son. At other points, the mask of the Holy Spirit. That is one of the oldest heresies that has affected the

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Christian church. You see countless examples in Scripture of the Father speaking to the

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Son, the Son speaking to the Father, the distinction between the Father and the

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Son. What does the Bible teach? There is only one God. Everyone repeat after me,

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Shema Yisrael Yahweh Eloheinu Yahweh Echad.

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There you go. Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4, Hear O Israel, the

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Lord our God, the Lord is one. Fundamental to true biblical faith is this, there is only one true and living

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God. Psalm 90 verse 2, From eternity into eternity, you are God.

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The Bible teaches, Isaiah 43 10, Before me there was no God formed, what?

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Neither shall there be after me. I am the first and I am the last. Besides me there is no

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God. Is there a God besides me? Indeed there is no other God, I know not one. The Bible teaches there is only one true and living

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God. And yet, the Bible demonstrates repeatedly that the Father is called

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God. And the Bible demonstrates that Jesus is called God.

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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word, what? Was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

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All things came into being through Him and without Him, nothing has come into being that is come to being.

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Jesus is the monogamist theos, John chapter 1. He is the one who took on flesh and walked among us.

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He is the unique and one -of -a -kind God, watch, John says, who is in the bosom of the

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Father. Jesus says in John 17, Father, now glorify me with yourself with the glory that I shared with you before the world was.

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Jesus always shows a distinction between Him and the Father. Jesus calls Himself Yahweh, John chapter 8.

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Before Abraham was what? I am, and they picked up stones to stone

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Him. In John chapter 10, He says, I and the Father are one. They pick up stones to stone

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Him again. He says, many good works have I shown you from the Father. For which of these do you stone me? And they say, for your good works we stone you not, but for blasphemy and that you being a man make yourself

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God. They knew what He was saying. Jesus says this, make no mistake about it. This is very important, so catch up.

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Jesus says, unless you believe, ego eimi, I am, you will die in your sins.

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Jesus, of course, is quoting from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament where there's the burning bush, and Moses says to God, what's your name?

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Who do I say sent me? And God says, I am. And that comes from the

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Hebrew verb to be, achia. It means, I am, I was, I will always be.

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Jesus applies the name of Yahweh to Himself. So the Bible says the Father is

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God, the Son is God, and it says the Holy Spirit is God. If you look in Genesis chapter 1, who is active and present at the creation of the universe?

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It says the Spirit of God is hovering over the face of the waters.

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In the book of Acts, when the Apostle Paul is dealing with Ananias and Sapphira, they lied.

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And He said, when you lied, you didn't lie to men but to God when you lied to the

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Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God, Jesus says this. He says, the

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Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will guide you into all truth.

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He will convict the world of sin and righteousness. So watch, there is only one

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God. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. And yet, the

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Bible teaches the Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Spirit. The Spirit is not the

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Father or the Son. There is one God, three co -equal, co -eternal persons, namely the

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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And this is one of those sections where Jesus, who humbles

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Himself to the obedience of death, He says, this is not my prerogative.

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It's the Father's to give, not mine. And people ask the question, well, wait a second, wait a second.

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If Jesus is God, if He's Yahweh, if He's the eternal

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God, truly God, then how is there something Jesus doesn't know, and how is there something that's not

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His prerogative? So for example, in Matthew 24, He says, of that day and hour, nobody knows, not the

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Son, not the angels, but the Father only. If Jesus is God, how can there be something

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He doesn't know? And in this case, He's saying it's not mine to give who sits on my right hand and my left hand.

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That's the Father's only. And the answer to that question is Philippians chapter 2.

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This is what it says. You can write it down and check it out later. It says, Jesus, who is in the form of God, the very form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped or held on to.

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But He emptied Himself and took upon the form of a, what?

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Servant. And He became obedient even to death. So Jesus — this is the glory of — watch this.

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This is not so much a complicated contradiction as it is the glory of the

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Incarnation. That the eternal God, Jesus, the second person of the

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Trinity, laid aside His prerogatives as God to humble

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Himself, to take on the form of a servant, to tabernacle among us, to win you, to save you.

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Jesus laying aside His divine prerogatives to purchase for Himself a people that He would love and save and give eternal life to.

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So when you see Jesus, you don't see half God, half man. When you see

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Jesus, you see one who is fully God, fully man, and as a man laid aside certain divine prerogatives.

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And here you see Jesus saying, that's the Father's to give. But people often say, well, that can't make

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Him God. Well, I would say this, let's just go to one text just because I want you to have it. Go to the book of Hebrews, quickly.

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The book of Hebrews. Hebrews, we do not know exactly who wrote it, there's speculation.

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Some say the Apostle Paul, some say Apollos. Hebrews chapter 1.

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Check this out. We see Jesus saying, worship God.

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We see Jesus bringing, saying glory to God. We see Jesus calling the

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Father God. But we also see in the text here, the Father calling

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Jesus God. Someone says, well, if Jesus is God, why is He called the Father God? It's like this, that's not a problem because Jesus calls the

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Father God, the Father calls Jesus God. Because there's only one God, the Father, the Son, and the

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Holy Spirit. One being of God, three co -equal, co -eternal persons, and here it is.

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Hebrews 1. Long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days,

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He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also

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He created the world. Watch. He is the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of His nature.

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Jesus is the exact imprint of the nature of God, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power.

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You know what that means? You know what that means? Jesus upholds the universe by the word of His power.

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It's the same wording used to deliver something to its intended destination.

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He upholds the universe by the word of His power. It's that Jesus carries the universe along to its intended destination.

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That's what it means. He is the very nature of God, and He sovereignly brings the universe to its intended destination.

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Who? Jesus. And here's what it says. After making purification for sins,

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He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name

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He has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Now watch, for to which of the angels did

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God ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you? Or again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.

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And again, when He brings the firstborn into the world, He says, watch, catch it.

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Let all God's angels proskuneo

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Him, worship Him. Here's the father telling the angels to worship

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Jesus. Check it out. John, son of Zebedee, son of thunder.

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Remember what happened to him in the book of Revelation? There was one point where he's so stunned and so thrown by the glory of this angel that it says in the book of Revelation that John, son of thunder, fell down before the angel.

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What happens when a human being tries to worship an angel? The angel says, get up.

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He says, I'm a servant like you. He says, proskuneo God, worship

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God. And here in Hebrews chapter one, God tells the angels to worship Jesus.

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Now watch, it gets deeper. Of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire.

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But watch this, but of the son, he says, pause. This is huge.

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Come with me now. Don't lose this because it's big. But of the son, he says, who's the he here in the text?

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God, the father. It says this, but of the son, the father says, watch, your throne, oh

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God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

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You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.

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Here is the father calling the son God and telling the angels to worship

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Jesus. How you like them apples? Is that trippy or what?

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That is amazing. Powerful. Now go back to Matthew chapter 20. I wanted to make sure I addressed that because I think it's important for us as Christians to know not only what we believe, but why we believe it.

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And we need to know how to defend it. What's the Bible teach us in first Peter chapter three, verse 15,

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Christians are always to be ready to do what? To give an, uh, Oh, it's your church people,

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Apologia, okay. Christians be ready to give an

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Apologia and I'm doing that for Dr. White's benefit. If he watches this and Apologia right to give a reasoned defense for the hope that is within us.

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Now let's finish the text here guys. So Jesus again prophesies their martyrdom, their suffering.

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We've explained now when Jesus says it's been prepared by the father, that's his prerogative. And we see of course in verse 24 now, and when the 10 heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers.

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But Jesus called to them and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their great ones exercise authority over them.

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It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

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And whoever will be first among you must be your slave. Even as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

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Let's finish up because this is the key issue. Jesus is addressing their desire to lord it over, to have authority, to have power.

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This is a typical human problem. We want power.

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We want authority, all of us, some way, somehow. Some fight for that power in evil ways.

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Some try to earn that right to have power and authority. But this is a typical human problem. It's not just a problem for the sons of thunder, it's a human problem.

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And Jesus addresses it over and over and over again in the Gospels. He turns our idea of authority and leadership and power on its head.

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He gives us the exact opposite. Now here's what's crazy about the whole scenario. Here's God, the ruler of the entire universe,

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God who created all things, God the eternal one, God the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power, carries it along to its intended destination, humbling himself, becoming a man, the perfect image of God, what we were intended to be, and he confronts our sinful desire for authority and power and he contrasts true leadership, true authority, true greatness with pagans.

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He says, you know how the Gentiles do it? They lord it over people. They lord it over people.

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They wield their authority over people. They're the boss. They're the chief. They wield that authority.

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You know how they do it. They try to rule with that authority. And Jesus says, it won't be like that with you.

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Here's what Jesus says about greatness. Here's what Jesus says about being a person of power and leadership.

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Jesus, in John 13, 1 through 17, humbles himself in a way that could have offended them, and in fact did.

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When Jesus kneeled down to wash their feet, they tried to stop him. There's a whole thing in terms of history there in tradition with feet.

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And for Jesus to kneel down and go down to what they would have seen as the darkest part, the dirtiest part of the human body, and to start washing their feet, it disrupted everything that they thought.

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This is God in the flesh. This is the great I am at my feet, washing my feet.

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You can't do this, Jesus. So Jesus shows us that he sheds human ideas about authority and power and leadership, and he goes down before the feet of his people and he washes their dirty feet.

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Of course, you have the great supreme example of Jesus laying down his life. He purchases his kingdom, he sits on his throne, he's the ruler of the world.

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But when he, before he ascended to that throne, what did he do? He laid down his life for the sheep. John chapter 10,

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Jesus says, I know my sheep, they know me. And he says, I lay my life down for the sheep.

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He gives himself up for us. He doesn't just call people to himself to rule and reign over.

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He gives everything of himself for their benefit. He makes himself lowly.

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He receives in himself what we deserve. The Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief.

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There was no violence, no deceit in his mouth, and yet Jesus takes our burden. He takes our sins.

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He's pierced through for our transgressions. By his wounds, we're healed.

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He's a supreme example of greatness and humility and sacrifice. He lays his life down.

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Of course, you know the account in Mark 9, go there quickly, where Jesus gives us another example of who's the greatest.

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In Mark chapter 9, verse 33, and they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house he asked them, what were you discussing on the way?

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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.

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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.

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So here's Jesus again, turning it upside down. They're wanting to know who's the greatest, who's gonna have the most authority, who is the greatest in God's kingdom.

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And Jesus says, if you want to be the greatest, you have to be the servant of all.

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Now, here's what I think we need to talk about just for a moment. This last section of Matthew 20, I want to hang here.

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It's in verse 27. And whoever will be first among you must be your slave.

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I appreciate very much that the translators of the ESV in this moment properly translated doulos.

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I am not a Greek scholar. I studied New Testament Greek, I took it in Bible college,

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I'm still studying New Testament Greek. Dr. White is committed to teaching the pastors here privately.

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So I'm not a New Testament scholar in terms of the Greek language. I can handle the

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Greek with all the right tools and apparatus. So I don't want to in any way act arrogantly, but I know that there are some instances in modern translations like the

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ESV where the translators have tried to soften the language of Jesus because of current sensitivity.

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And they've taken moments where the word is slave, it's doulos, that's what the word is.

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And they try to change the word doulos into servant so it's less offensive. Let me just say,

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I agree with many great theologians and Greek scholars that we ought to keep the word as it is.

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What does the word mean? It means slave. Don't rob the text of its intention.

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Now we know in the Old Testament there was a bondservant slavery, there was a slavery where you could pay your debt in terms of you were indebted to serve somebody.

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You were — listen closely — you were indebted to serve them, to pull yourself out of debt.

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It was a means of saving the poor from death. Note this, very important, this is so critical, please listen closely,

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I promise we're almost done. When the Bible talks about slavery, please listen, when the

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Bible talks about slavery, it is not talking about anything close to the wicked, evil, disgraceful slavery that we had here in the

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United States of America. When the Bible uses the word slave, it has nothing to do with slavery in Georgia.

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How does the Bible say to deal with the slavery that happened here in America? What's the

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Bible say that those slave owners should have received? Death, kidnapping another human being and enslaving them in the

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Torah, in God's law, is a crime punishable by death, and God says in His word, you shall not pity.

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That means we ought to not even have in the judicial system any pity for a person that kidnaps and enslaves another human being.

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No pity, you've forfeited your right to live, you die. But when the

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Bible talks about doulos, slave, it is about a particular context of a person being indebted to serve another human being.

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This could have been a voluntary doulos slavery where you wanted to serve a good master.

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This person cared for you, and you put yourself voluntarily under their care, indebted to serve them, to work for them.

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There was that kind. There was also the slavery that was a means of protecting the poor from death, getting people out of death where you were indebted to pay back a debt, and you worked for that person in that way.

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But know this, slave is a person, watch, please listen closely, who is indebted to serve another.

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Indebted to serve another. So Jesus says, using that context, this, whoever be great among you must be your servant, and whoever be first among you must be your slave.

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So here's the context of Jesus in our relationship. He says this, you want to be great, you want to be first, you have to be slave to everybody around you.

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That means that in a context of Christian fellowship and unity in the church, the call of Jesus is this, you need to live in such a way as you act like you are indebted to this person, to be their servant.

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Not that they serve you, it's not about what they can do to serve you, what their obligations are for you, it's about your obligation under Christ to serve another.

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My life is not my own, I've given myself up, I've taken up the cross to follow

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Jesus, to follow him to his death and resurrection, but also to follow him in how he lived as the servant of all and gave his life as a ransom for many.

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Jesus gave himself up. You might say to yourself, how can I actually live my life in such a way that I act like I'm obligated to serve the other?

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I don't think I should, I don't think this person deserves it, I don't think that I have to do that sort of a thing. Really?

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What kind of arrogance is that? That we can think as sinful, fallen human beings that we don't have any obligation to serve the other.

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Jesus had no obligation to lay his life down for you, none. He had no obligation to be your servant or mine.

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He had no obligation to get down and wash their feet, none. That wasn't obligatory for God.

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He owes us nothing but his wrath and his justice, amen? And here's where God demonstrates the heart and mind of God.

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He takes on human flesh and he acts, watch, like he's obligated to serve you.

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So as redeemed, purchased, loved children of God, Jesus says, want to be great?

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You want to be first? You want to sit here? You want to sit here? Then you be a doulos, a slave to all.

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You live your life as though you are obligated, under obligation to serve the other.

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Man, I'll tell you, that challenges me to my core. It does. We're all growing, amen?

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Jesus isn't done with any of us. He that began a good work in you will complete it in the day of Jesus Christ.

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Maybe you've been in Jesus for 30 years, 40 years, 50 years. You've been in Christ for a long time.

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Maybe you think, well, I've heard this before. I know what that says. I've passed through that text a number of times.

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I've even had it preached to me. Let me ask you a question, does it cut you today? Does it actually reveal sin in you right now?

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Because it does to me. I try my very best as a pastor to lay my life down. I try to sacrifice to the degree that I'm affected physically by it, of course.

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But you know what? I see in myself, in a text like this, so much selfishness, so much, so many little hidden areas where I don't act like I have an obligation, that I'm obligated by God to serve this person like a slave, that the community of Christ, the community he's purchased with his own blood, that he's ransomed us.

01:00:09

He calls us, each and every one of us, right, not strive for greatness in terms of authority and lordship and power, but says, you want to be first, strive to live in such a way as you are obligated to serve the other.

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Now that's going to look different for each and every one of us, because we're all in different contexts. We all have different careers.

01:00:33

We have different family contexts. Maybe we're single. We have different ministry desires and passions and ways that we want to serve

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Jesus. So, I can't give you a generalization of what that looks like. I can only give you this.

01:00:45

Jesus says, be the slave of the other, slave, obligated to serve the other.

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I pray that God challenges us. Last word I'll say here, little play on words. Did you notice it, the last section there?

01:01:00

Let me read it to you, see if you catch it. Let me read it to you, just tell me if you catch it. He says this, and whoever, verse 27, will be first among you, must be your slave, doulos, even as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

01:01:23

So you have in that little section there, doulos, slave, obligated to serve another, and then

01:01:30

Jesus says, son of man didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

01:01:37

Do you notice there you have slave and ransom put side by side? Ransom is the price somebody paid to purchase a doulos out of their slavery.

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So he says, you be the slave of all, you be obligated to serve all, because I came to ransom all of you.

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I came to purchase all you slaves. Slaves to what?

01:02:04

Our sin, our passions, our desires. You might say, I don't like being a slave to everybody.

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I don't like the obligation of doulos to the other. Well then you shouldn't like the ransom part either.

01:02:19

Don't like being a slave? Brothers and sisters, you are slaves to sin outside of Jesus, but no longer slaves to sin because of the ransom, the purchase that Jesus made to buy you out of your slavery.

01:02:39

What's the word that Jesus gives on the cross? What is it? Tetelestai. What's that mean?

01:02:46

It's finished. What was that word used for? It was used to purchase something and the transaction is finished.

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Transaction's complete. It's over. It's done. Written down. I've got the purchase paperwork.

01:03:02

Jesus ransomed people for God. It's finished.

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Transaction complete. I pray that God changes the heart of our church and that we feel it.

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We sense it. We know it. That at Apologia Church, God has changed us in such a way that we are a church of slaves to one another.

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A church of people who act and live and love in such a way that we know that we are obligated to be a servant to all.