True Greatness Luke 9:37-50

Welcome this morning, Faith Bible Church. Welcome to those that aren't able to come, that are able to tune in every week, and some are not just locals, but they're in other parts of the country, so we welcome you even though you're not here with us, so in spirit.

I wanted to just, as a word of encouragement as well, yesterday was the biblical counseling class again, the pastor does every couple weeks, and Dexter, thank you gentlemen for leading that, that it was entitled

Renewing the Mind, and renewing the mind is important, and what does that mean?

John 8, 31 and 32 says, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, and the idea is that we saturate ourselves with the scripture, and we can saturate ourselves with really anything, but what is, what do you choose to saturate your mind with?

Is it things of the world? Is it the things of your job? Is it the things of, which are important and necessary?

Is it things of the world, or watching media, or listening to certain songs? What do we fill our minds with?

Because we, when we have, I used to have the expression in college, garbage in, garbage out, and I think

Carl X has probably heard that, and you know, in terms of programming and things like that, but so we want to put in what's good, what is right, and as this scripture says, we're to saturate with and abide, and that's to follow after Christ in his word, and we will truly be his followers, and we'll know the truth, and the truth will set us free, and if he sets us free, we are absolutely free, and praise

God for that, and that's what we're doing when we come together here in the morning, this in the mornings, on Sunday mornings, any time we gather together, we are saturating our minds with the songs that we sing, we're filling our minds with that, with the sermons, with hearing his word, we're filling our minds with that, so I just,

I guess, encourage all of you, and I encourage myself to saturate our minds with things that would please

God, and so that's what we would desire this morning to do for all of us, so please join with me in prayer.

Lord God, we thank you that we can gather together, Father, to hear your word, to lift our voices in song,

Father, help us to listen to the words of the song, so that they might impart the truth of your gospel,

Father, God, that we would saturate our minds with things that are upright, and worthy, and righteous,

Father, because you are worthy of our praise, you have shown us in your scripture abundantly, over and over again, that we are to walk with you, that we have a worthy

God to follow after, Father, so we thank you for the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ, Father, we pray this morning that if anyone has not heard the word, has not accepted you as their

Lord and Savior, Father, that you would touch their hearts, Father, that you would draw them to yourself today, that this would be the first day of the rest of their lives, knowing you, so God, we commit this service to you, and what we do, and all that we do, we pray that you would give

Pastor Added Grace, as he shares from your word, and Father, may we as your choir lift our voices, and that you would be praised,

Father, that there would be a sweet aroma of Jesus here this morning, thank you for loving us, thank you for giving us

Faith Bible Church to worship in, and we just commit all of our cares, and our hearts, and all of our desires would be committed to you,

Father, we pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen. In Sunday school, as we have been going through, one of the repeated phrases that we see is that our

Savior and our King is a righteous and a merciful King, and a

Savior, and a God, and you think about that, and we talk about filling our minds, we need to fill our minds with the fact that he is merciful, so let's stand together, and let's sing, and think about the words as we're singing, so this morning's passage is

Psalm 22, verses 12 to 21, Psalm 22, starting at verse 12, many bulls have surrounded me, strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me, they gape at me with their mouths like a raging and roaring lion,

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax, it is melted within me, my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue clings to my jaws, you have brought me to the dust of death, for dogs have surrounded me, the congregation of the wicked have enclosed me, they pierced my hands and my feet,

I can count all my bones, they look and stare at me, they divide my garments among them, and my clothing they cast lots, but you,

O Lord, do not be far from me, O my strength, hasten to help me, deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog, save me from the lion's mouth, and from the horns of the wild ox, you have answered me.

May God bless the hearing of his word. Again, as we sing a song sometimes like Amazing Grace, I think every one of us has heard it on TV and on movies, and so the point we just go, you know, and don't think of the words, but we do have an amazing

Savior and his amazing grace who saved a wretch like me. Thankful for that.

Stand together with me and let's praise our Lord. To Luke chapter 9 verses 37 to 50.

Luke chapter 9 verses 37 to 50. Now it happened on the next day when they had come down from the mountain that a great multitude met him.

Suddenly a man from the multitude cried out saying, teacher, I implore you, look on my son for he is my only child.

And behold, the spirit seizes him and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth and it departs from him with great difficulty, bruising him.

So I implored your disciples to cast it out, but they could not. And Jesus answered and said,

O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you?

Bring your son here. And as he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him.

Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child and gave him back to his father.

And they were all amazed at the majesty of God. But while everyone marveled at all the things which

Jesus did, he said to his disciples, let these words sink down into your ears for the son of man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.

But they did not understand this saying and it was hidden from them so that they did not perceive it.

And they were afraid to ask him about the same. Then a dispute arose among them as to which of them would be greatest.

And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a little child and set him by and said to them, whoever receives this little child in my name receives me and whoever receives me receives him who sent me for he who is least among you all will be great.

Now John answered and said, master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we forbade him because he does not follow with us.

But Jesus said to him, do not forbid him for he who is not against us is on our side.

This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we're thankful that we get to see clearly who

Jesus is and what he has come to do and how he saves us. Father, we pray that we would never forget the gospel of Christ who suffered and died on our behalf so that we may live in him.

Help us to always focus on Jesus and what he's done and who he says he is in Jesus name.

Amen. So Luke 9, 37 through 50, we get to see the misunderstanding of the disciples and how that impacts their mindset, even their words and their practice and ministry.

As you know, from Luke chapter nine verses 18 through 50, we mainly deal with who

Christ is. It's the revelation of who Jesus is. And this portion, this part, as I've mentioned, shows us how the disciples misunderstand him and how much they lack in understanding, right?

How much they do not grasp who

Jesus is. And before we give the disciples a hard time, we have to consider the

Jewish, uh, history in, in, um, in Jewish history and traditions and interpretation of the old

Testament, their view of the Messiah was a conquering king.

And in fact, the Psalm 72, which we read this morning during Sunday school, uh, shows a conquering king.

His reign has no end temporarily. And also he gets tributes from the

Northern most part of their known world and the Southern most part of their known world. So when they think of a

David King who has come to restore their kingdom, their main idea is there is a victorious

King who is going to be better than David and who's going to be more influential, wealthier, and more powerful than Solomon.

It's going to be the, it's going to be the glory days of Israel, but forever.

Now in the old Testament, there's another figure, and that's the suffering servant of Isaiah 53.

He dies for the transgressions of others. He is pierced.

He's wounded. He's mocked. There is no good to look at him.

Now as Christians, because we've had read the New Testament and we've heard many pastors preach, uh, the gospel.

We actually link the suffering servant and the David King together. However, in the

Jewish, uh, history, even now, actually in Judaism, they don't, and they haven't.

And that's the reason why the disciples don't quite understand what Jesus has come to do. Even when he clearly announces to them what is about to happen, right?

This is not that they're lacking intellectual prowess to understand Jesus' words.

It's not as if Jesus is speaking in a very, um, academic matter.

And these, uh, disciples are uneducated. That's not so at all.

It's that their, their conception, their perception of the Messiah, the reigning

Messiah, the victorious Messiah is not that of the suffering

Messiah. They do not link the suffering servant and the reigning

King together, even when they're told because their worldview has been so shaped by what they've heard from others.

And this, this makes sense as to why these disciples totally misunderstand

Jesus, even until they see the resurrected Christ. They actually don't.

It's not that they don't remember that Jesus was to be crucified because he said in multiple times, it's that he, they couldn't fathom the conquering

King who would be humiliated publicly on the cross for their sake.

They couldn't tie that together as that him dying for our sin and facing the wrath of God that we deserved as the winning move of the redemptive history.

They couldn't understand that until Jesus came back risen. So the main point of this text is that true greatness in Christianity is our commitment to the suffering

Messiah and the abandonment of any notion of self -importance. The great true greatness in Christianity is our commitment to the suffering

Messiah and the abandonment of any notion of our self -importance. First, Jesus compassionately restores despite his disciples in capability.

Jesus compassionately restores despite his disciples in capability. This passage picks up right after the transfiguration of Jesus up on the mountain.

And when God, the father testifies, uh, who he is, right?

He's the beloved son. He's the chosen son. And verse 37 sets the background now had happened on the next day when they had come down from the mountain that a great multitude met him.

Jesus did not stay up on the mountain like a hermit or a monk. He did not just remain in his glory up on the mountain.

His ministry was all about restoring real people and their needs.

He came down. He came down to them rather than to have them come up.

And that's really who he is, right? He's accessible to anyone who needs him.

He's accessible. He's there for anyone who calls out to him. Now, just as Jesus descends from the mountain, a desperate dad begs him.

Teacher, I implore you look on my son for he is my only child.

Now this request is made even more dire as the dad shares that this child is his only son.

And Luke has tugged the heartstrings of the readers by disclosing, uh, this fact in two other miracles previously, right?

Luke chapter seven, the only son of a widow who died. And also Luke chapter eight, the daughter of the synagogue leader who is sick, but ends up dying as well.

Right? Uh, what this highlights is that Jesus is compassionate.

He just came back from his mountain, uh, testimony of giant really, uh, turning point in redemptive history that God, the father would testify who he is, but he's also the same king who's not stopped by a desperate begging of a dad who sees his son suffering.

Imagine that Jesus divine glory does not stop him from being present before an unknown kid who is suffering by a demonic oppression.

Now, as Jesus has just returned, there is someone who needs his immediate care and verses 39 to 40 described the condition.

First verse 39 shows his only son's torturous condition and behold, the spirit seizes him and he suddenly cries out.

It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth and it departs from him with great difficulty, bruising him.

The dad vividly describes a serious case of a demonic oppression. And, and this demonic spirit, it's not just spiritually tormenting the boy.

Uh, it affects him physically. There's a physical consequence.

There's a physical mark bruising to this demonic oppression.

Now, verse 40 discloses that the dad, in fact, previously sought help. So I am,

I implored your disciples to cast it out, but they could not remember from last week up to the mountain.

Only three disciples went right. John, James, and Peter. What that means is there were nine other disciples who didn't go up the mountain, who were present, whom the dad approached to find relief and restoration for his poor son to cast the demon out.

He's heard the report. After all, they'd been sent out at the beginning of chapter nine with all authority from Jesus to cast out demons and heal the diseases.

But for some reason they could not. And disappointingly to the father, he didn't get to see his son restored from the nine disciples.

So he implores their master. And the next two verses show

Jesus respond to his disciples inability to heal the poor boy. Oh, faithless and perverse generation.

How long shall I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.

At the dad's report, Jesus rebukes the crowd, which includes the disciples. In the end, it is the lack of faith and their crookedness that prevented them from freeing this boy of the demonic oppression.

Perversion here means straying from God's will, God's plan. The disciples still needed

Jesus to teach them and to guide them. Remember from verse 35, what

Jesus said, what God the father said, hear him, listen to him. And at Jesus command to bring the child, the boy starts walking toward Jesus.

And as he was still coming, so the boy is still approaching Jesus because Jesus said, bring the boy to me.

The demon threw him down and convulsed him. This is a violent last ditch effort by the demon to cause more harm to the boy before he is restored because the demon knows what's about to come because the demon knows whom the boy is approaching.

The demon does not want the boy to approach Jesus. The demon cannot stand the fact that Jesus will restore the boy once and for all.

Now, Jesus immediately responds to restore the boy. Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child and gave him back to his father.

Jesus' dire desire to see the boy healed is shown in his immediate rebuke of the unclean spirit.

Jesus only has to open his mouth and the spirit has no chance but to obey.

The child has healed. The series of events just happen quickly.

Remember the demon was more than just a spiritual menace for the boy. The boy was actually experiencing physical pain because of the demon.

It was a physical ailment as well as a spiritual oppression. And graciously,

Jesus heals and restores the boy back to his father. And similar to the previous miracles, the crowd marvels and they were all amazed at the majesty of God.

The crowd is amazed at Jesus' ability to restore despite his disciples' inability.

The crowd is amazed that God is working through Jesus because even the disciples couldn't do it.

There must be a bigger authority behind Jesus. Now, although his disciples may be unable to minister well, what this shows us is that Jesus will never fail to minister well.

And this is an important reminder for us this morning because Christians will let you down.

Pastors will let you down. I will let you down.

But Jesus is always capable of compassionately restoring. It is one of the saddest things to hear from former

Christians, someone who grew up in the church. And the reason why they left the church is not that they were tempted by the world and all the desires and promises that the world offered, but rather they left because of abuse, because they weren't welcomed, because they weren't loved, they weren't ministered to, they weren't discipled by the church.

And I'm not here to criticize the church here. The church is

Jesus' bride, but the reality is the church is still made up of pre -glorified saints.

We're still made up of saints who still struggle with sin, but day by day, we are getting better.

Day by day, we're being sanctified. But the reality is we're still fighting against sin.

And what's sad is these people who have been hurt often have left the church or were driven out of the church even for no fault of their own.

But what's most tragic is that they've left Jesus. They've actually left

Jesus who can truly restore when the pre -glorified saints can't.

They look to the wrong deliverer. However, this text shows us even when the disciples fail, even when the apostles, remember, they're actually the apostles.

They spent time with Jesus. They actually did more miracles than you and I can ever witness now.

But even they were lacking in their ability here. But Luke shows us who doesn't lack, and that's

Jesus. So I don't know if one of you may have experienced pain in the church, or I don't know if you know someone who has left the church, but encourage them to return to Jesus.

Encourage them to return to Jesus. And over time, hopefully, they'll be able to forgive the church and return to the church too, because that's the true way of experiencing

Christ's presence. Second, how does

Jesus respond to the amazement of the crowd? In response to the crowd's amazement,

Jesus clearly reminds his disciples of his death, which they do not understand.

Now, not only in response to the most recent miracle, but all the miracles that we've seen so far, 13, if you've been counting them, they marveled.

Of course, they probably saw more than 13, but Luke gives us only 13. So, but while everyone marveled at all the things that Jesus did, so this includes not just the last one, but all of them, really, feeding of the 5 ,000, raising the dead twice, right?

Casting out demons by the thousands, right? Calming the storm by the rebuke of his mouth, right?

Casting out the fever from Simon's mother -in -law, all of those things, and they marvel.

Who could this be? God must be really working through this guy. Jesus' influence and popularity are through the roof, could be all -time high at this point, and it is precisely at this time

Jesus needs to remind his disciples of his true messianic mission.

Let these words sink down into your ears. Translation, pay attention and retain it.

Remember this well. For the son of man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.

What Jesus tells them is not any new information. After all, he has predicted that he was to be rejected and also killed by the leaders and then rise from the dead, all in chapter 9.

This is not new information. However, it is a new context, which

I will explain in the next verse. Now, there are two layers of gloom here.

First, the son of man who represents all men will be, in fact, betrayed by man.

He will be killed by those he came to save. Second, the crowd may be cheering and applauding now.

Ironically, these people will turn against him later. The current popularity will not prevent his death, but in fact, will drive it.

But they did not understand this saying, and it was hidden from them so that they did not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

Here, the disciples could not possibly fathom how this could be possible.

Jesus has been performing powerful miracles. Jesus is the Messiah who came to restore his people.

Jesus has the popular backing of his people. How is it that Jesus will be betrayed, betrayed and put to death?

It just doesn't seem like even a potential. Jesus could feed a whole army if he wanted to.

We've seen the feeding, and look at the crowd.

They'll die for him. They love him. They follow him everywhere.

How could he be betrayed? And this is an important reminder today because the temptation to focus on Jesus' power to bless your life and forget the crucifixion is still there.

Every Sunday morning, there will be thousands gathering in stadium and conference halls, and they'll leave never hearing about what

Jesus has done on the cross for them. They'll leave happy and elated by false promises that Jesus would love to buy them a new car.

Jesus would love to get them the house of their dreams. Jesus would love to introduce you to the wife of your dream, husband of your dream.

And they would say, oh, well, you know, God loves you. True. God wants you to be happy.

Okay. And Jesus will provide that. But what are they doing?

They're forgetting Jesus' core mission. What's the core need that Jesus provides?

Well, the crowd thought he's here to rule. He's here to restore. No one's going to be hurt.

No one's going to be sick with this guy around. Everyone's going to be provided for with this guy around.

But what Jesus reminds them, especially the disciples, is that the very need that I'm here to fulfill is not your wants.

It's the need that you need to be delivered out of your own sin, because without it, you will have to face the judgment of God yourself.

But I will do it. I will be betrayed. I will be rejected. I will be put to death so that I will experience the wrath of God on your behalf, on the cross, and rise from the dead on the third day.

That's the reminder that the disciples needed when the crowd was cheering and the influence level was at its highest.

Don't get comfortable with this. This is not my main mission.

Yet they did not understand. And that's because that was not really in their worldview to tie the suffering servant and the ruling

Davidic king together until the New Testament. Now, how does

Jesus correct his disciples wrong view regarding following him? How does Jesus correct his disciples wrong view regarding following him?

Following the suffering Messiah requires abandoning any sense of self -importance and completely committing to Christ.

Following the suffering Messiah requires abandoning any sense of self -importance and completely committing to Christ.

Now, after the disciples' misunderstanding of Jesus' future betrayal, we see the consequences rising from their misunderstanding.

It is only natural when we have a wrong view of Jesus' mission that we'll have the wrong practice of following him.

Wrong belief of Jesus will lead out to wrong practice of obedience.

First, verses 46 to 48 show their dispute over their greatness. Then a dispute arose among them as to which of them would be great.

Naturally, fueled by the crowd's popular response and Jesus' growing fame around the

Galilean region, the 12 begin to discuss their future in the kingdom of God.

After all, in their minds, why not decide who's going to be the secretary of state and who's going to be the secretary of defense?

Who's going to be the right -hand man? Who's going to be the left -hand man? Well, I got to go up the mountain with Jesus.

Oh, but I've performed the most number of miracles. These are just speculations of what they might have thought.

Now, the irony of this dispute is that the king himself just reminded them of his betrayal that will lead to his death.

Yet, they want to focus on how important they are. While their master will be utterly humiliated, they debate on their significance.

Now, Jesus, although not part of the debate, perceiving the thought of their heart, right?

Although his disciples did not voice their misunderstanding out loud to Jesus, Jesus knows their incorrect belief.

He knows their hearts. And instead of just lecturing them on what true greatness is,

Jesus shows it to them. He takes a little child and set him by him.

Remember, in Middle Eastern culture, and this is also true in East Asian culture too, like Korea, Japan, and China, age actually links to social status.

The older you are, the more respect you get. Right? In these cultures, in these cultures, you do not dare interrupt a man in his 80s.

And for some of you, you might want to visit these countries. But that's the point, right?

In Jesus' time, the elders, the leaders were actually older.

They had to be. That's how they gained the respect. Now, what's shocking is that Jesus, when he's about to teach about greatness, takes an unnamed little child.

He takes what society would consider the least important.

Right? And said to them, whoever receives this little child in my name receives me.

And whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all will be great.

Greatness, what Jesus is saying does not depend on one's status or accomplishment in Jesus' kingdom.

Rather, it only depends on one's relation to Jesus. Greatness is not about you, but it's about Jesus.

It's how, now, how is one made great according to Jesus? Well, he says, if you receive a child, someone who cannot pay back, for Jesus' sake, this is important, for Jesus' sake.

What Jesus is not pushing here is just, um, just be nice to all the orphans.

That's kind. And that's taking care of the orphans, which is in other passages.

But that's not the point here for this passage. It's to receive someone who cannot possibly benefit your social standing at all, for Jesus' sake.

You do it for Jesus. You don't do it to be paid back.

You do it because you have Jesus in mind instead. The focus is not about you.

The focus is not about the reward you'll get from receiving this child. Oh, I don't know.

Maybe this child is actually the son of the ruling king. Hefty reward after that.

No. Someone who cannot possibly pad your resume, who cannot increase your network, your influence.

Now, if you receive that person for Jesus' sake, you receive

Jesus. Your reward is not more influence. Your reward is the king himself.

Oh, but it's more. If you receive Jesus, not only do you just receive him, you receive

God the Father. Your connection to God does not depend on what family you come from, or your great accomplishments, or how many people like you, how many people look up to you.

It's purely dependent on how you respond to Jesus. Greatness in Jesus' kingdom is not about self, but about your relation to this king.

And the next verse shows that the previous lesson against self -importance and the importance of one's commitment to Christ was not understood that well.

The apostle John approaches Christ and says, Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we forbade him because he does not follow with us.

This comes from the idea that Jesus' ministry has to be closed off to those who are outside, those whom

Jesus doesn't know personally, those whom Jesus has not met personally, rather.

This unknown man lacks any association, in fact, with the disciples. The apostle

John says it. We saw someone. He doesn't know who he is, but he's casting out demons, but in Jesus' name.

Well, you don't have relation with me. You don't have relation with the other 11, do you?

Well, stop that. He's a stranger to them.

However, Jesus corrects John's exclusivity. Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side.

What Jesus is stressing here is that in Jesus' ministry, there is no elite circle, right?

There's no elite circle. There's not a committee that needs to approve you before you join

Jesus' side, right? In Christianity, there's no application you fill out in a resume that you have to submit and references.

Rather, it is one's faithful response to Jesus. Remember, it doesn't say how this unknown exorcist heard about Jesus or has ever met

Jesus, yet he is doing ministry in Jesus' name. Somehow, somewhere, at some time, at some point in his life, he heard about Jesus' authority to cast out demons, and he believed him.

He believed that Jesus' name, who Jesus is, has authority in himself to cast out all the demons.

This stranger believed Jesus, and Jesus here says, don't exclude this man, but rather consider him one of his ministers.

Now, one point I want to warn against is this is not about ecumenism, right?

Ecumenism is this idea that we all join hands with anyone who worships a god, anyone who, you know, does good, anyone who pursues justice, anyone who fights against evils of the world, whatever that could mean.

Let's all join hands, and we say that we're all together. We're one big family, right?

We're one religion, right? And we worship the same god, even though there might be direct contradictions depending on which holy book you're looking at, but we'll ignore that for now, but we're all meant to be together.

This text is not saying that, nor is Jesus saying that at all, right? Notice the context here is that the unknown exorcist actually has heard about Jesus and used

Jesus' name in his exorcism, right? He actually believed in Jesus' authority to cast out demons.

To this man, Jesus does not exclude, right? But rather, he considers him one of them, right?

This man was not a random pagan guy. He was a follower of Jesus despite never having met him in person or his disciples.

Even without seeing Jesus personally, what this tells us is that you are on Christ's side solely by your faith and commitment to him.

That's it. You heard about Jesus not from one of the 12 disciples, one of the 12 apostles.

You heard about Jesus possibly from someone that you don't even remember, someone who's probably insignificant in our society, someone who no one really knows, but you heard the gospel that Jesus died for your sin and is risen, and you believed him.

You belong to Jesus. Congratulations. That's all it takes. Why this is important is because we do not have hierarchies in the church based upon anything.

We don't have hierarchies based upon wealth. Just because you have more wealth and more influence in society doesn't mean you would be expected to be treated any differently.

There's no exclusivity based upon age. Just because you are a younger believer doesn't mean you're less of a believer than someone who has been a believer for seven decades.

We also don't exclude based upon family background. Oh, I come from a family of pastors.

It goes back at least five lineages. Doesn't matter. We also do not discriminate nor exclude based upon education level.

Oh, he went to the seminary and has multiple advanced degrees. Doesn't matter.

They're all Christians. They're all sons and daughters of Christ, sons and daughters of God through Christ.

We don't have elite circles. When John tried to make it that, Jesus rebuked him.

And in fact, it is unfortunate when churches do either implicitly or explicitly adopt elite circles.

Oh, this Bible study is for certain people who do give a lot to the church.

Well, we'll take them out to golfing. Have a nice dinner at the church.

That's implicit. Explicitly, when you have a priesthood where the lay people have to go to the priest in order to access

God, in order to access Jesus. Certain churches make that a requirement that you have to confess to a priest in order for your sin to be forgiven.

That's exclusivity that Jesus is rebuking. Certain churches even have even higher archies, right?

I guess that's the Catholic church. There's the priest, there's the bishop, there's the archbishop, and then there's the pope who's supposed to be, quote unquote, vicar of Christ, who made this elite circle here.

Nowhere in the Bible. Jesus tells

John, and John is an apostle. He's higher than any of the popes that come after John.

If John wasn't able to create an elite circle, what gives the papacy the legitimacy to continue that?

For Christians, the only thing it takes is to commit your allegiance to Christ, your faith in Christ, which naturally means, really, you abandon any sense of your self -importance.

How can we find ourselves important when we stand next to the suffering

Messiah who died for our sin? We have no self -importance.

Nothing but the death of the Messiah could save us from sin. That's not something, our sin is not something we can boast about, but we can boast about our

Savior whom we're committed to. And that's the only thing, that's the only requirement for you to belong to Christ.

Let us pray. Father, we're thankful that we get to see clearly the reality of the suffering

Messiah, what He's come to do, and what He has done on the cross for our sin. But not only that, what that means for us in Christian ministry.

Thank you that it is not about an elite circle. Thank you that it is open to anyone who commits himself or herself to Christ.

And thank you that it is not about us, but it's about your Son, Jesus Christ. And we pray that as we go out that we would remember at the center of Jesus' ministry is the cross and we may never forget that.

In Jesus' name. Thank you for worshiping together.

Hope you can linger about to fellowship and we will all see each other next week.