WHERE DO YOU WANT TO SIT?

Religion

This sermon was preached at a Deacon Ordination service at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, Georgia on September 7, 2014 by Pastor Paul Mims. You can hear this sermon at www.csbccl.org

Mark 10:35-45The best seat in the house, of course!

At sporting events it’s the skybox seat, or the seat on the fifty-yard line or the seat directly behind home plate. These places command the best view and the highest price. They also carry the greatest bragging potential. (“I have bottom deck, front row seats to Saturday’s Georgia/South Carolina game!”). The best parking places are usually the ones closest to the front door. Sometimes, people nearly have a wreck, competing for that one open spot near the door!

At a concert, the best seat in the house is probably the one closest to the orchestra. When you invite guests to your house and ask them to sit down, do you give them the best chairs in your living room?
Where we sit often is connected to our desire for recognition. William James, the great psychologist, was ill and in the hospital and one day someone brought to him a lovely card and some flowers. He said, “As I studied myself I found that all of us have a basic need to be recognized and to be appreciated.” The child development specialists tell us that children need about twelve psychological strokes a day. I learned that as a young parent and I tried to stroke my children psychologically every day to tell them something good about themselves to make them believe in themselves. The Lord placed in all of us a need to be recognized and appreciated for who we are. It is very important that we receive this in order for us to be balanced spiritually and mentally.

We have to adjust this need to it proper balance within the family for if one child is favored above another it is not healthy. It also has to be balanced in the workplace. The most productive employees are the ones who are appreciated for their abilities. The same is true in the church. I am always grateful for you who give of your time and effort to make Cornerstone a vital and alive church.

We can learn from James and John about the right kind of ambition to be celebrated in the Kingdom of our Lord.

I. PURPOSE BEFORE POSITION
“James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, came up to Jesus, saying, ‘Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You.’ And He said to them, ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ They said to Him, Grant that we may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory.’”

Sometimes, our basic needs get warped and blown out of perspective when we try to do a human thing in a Divine context. The background of their request is given in Matthew 19:27-30 in the teaching of Jesus about rewards in the Kingdom.

“Then Peter said to Him, ‘Behold, we have left everything and followed You: what then will there be for us?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.’”

James and John were prompted by their mother to ask for the seats on either side of Jesus in the Kingdom. They were still thinking of an earthly kingdom. When the other ten disciples heard of this request, the scripture records, “And after hearing this, the ten became indignant with the two brothers.” (Matthew 20:24)

As this event occurred, the disciples had been with Jesus for almost three years. They were on their way from Galilee down through the Jordon valley and were almost to Jericho. They were headed for Jerusalem where Jesus would face the purpose for his coming to earth.

Jesus said to James and John, “You don’t know what you are asking.” (Mark 20:38) He had been trying to tell them that He was on His way to the cross to fill full the purpose of the Incarnation. But they did not hear that.

But we can see in their request a mixture of love for their Lord and as Macbeth said, I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting AMBITION, which o’er leaps itself, And falls on the other.

President Reagan had just been shot by John Hinckley and Washington DC was shocked and stunned. Vice-President George Bush was not immediately available. Even at the White House no one was sure what was going on. That’s when Gen. Alexander Haig, who was at the White House, stepped in & confidently asserted to the press–“I’m in charge here!” He’s never been able to live those four words down. What he thought he was doing was providing crisis leadership. What the country saw was a man hungry for power.

I’m in charge here!” Those words never fell from Jesus’ lips!

They didn’t have to. Something about Jesus made people know he was a leader.

PARABLE OF THE PENCIL—————The Pencil Maker took the pencil aside, just before putting him into the box. “There are 5 things you need to know,” he told the pencil, “Before I send you out into the world. Always remember them and never forget, and you will become the best pencil you can be.” “One: You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in someone’s hand.” “Two: You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, but you’ll need it to become a better pencil.” “Three: I will be able to correct mistakes you might make.” “Four: The most important part of you will always be what’s inside.” “Five: On every surface you are used on, you must leave your mark. No matter what the condition, you must continue to write.”

The pencil understood and promised to remember, and went into the box with purpose in its heart.

II. THE CROSS BEFORE THE CROWN.
“Jesus said to them…Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? They said to Him, ‘We are able.’”(v.38-39a)

Sometimes we pray for things and we don’t have the faintest idea what we are asking for. Jesus probed James and John with two questions: “Can you drink the cup that I drink?” The “cup” stands for the life experience that was before him. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” (Matthew 26:39)

Jesus could see what was before Him and also what was before them. He said, “The cup that I drink you shall drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized. But to sit on My right or on My left, this is not Mine to give; but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” (Mark 39-40)

During the persecutions of Herod Agrippa I, King of the Jews, in AD44, the apostle James was beheaded – ‘put to the sword’ (Acts 12:1-2 ff). Before his death, James the Greater as he is known to distinguish him from James, son of Alphaeus, preached in Jerusalem and Judea, modern Israel. A later Spanish tradition is that James preached the Gospel there sometime before his death.

JOHN, BROTHER OF JAMES and SON OF ZEBEDEE –
According to John’s Gospel (19:26-27), it was John who took Mary, the mother of Jesus as his adopted mother. He preached in Jerusalem, and later, as bishop of Ephesus, south of Izmir in western Turkey, ministered among the churches of Asia Minor. During the reign of Domitian (AD81-96), he was banished to the nearby island of Patmos, now one of the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea where he received the visions recorded in the Book of Revelation. It is thought that he was subsequently freed and died a natural death at Ephesus about AD100.

They did drink from the “cup” of Jesus and were baptized with a life of service to others in His name. They had their “cross” before the crown.

East Tennessee is Baptist country. Even the cats and dogs there are Baptist. There was a little Methodist church in which a lady wanted to be baptized by immersion like the Baptists – just in case they were right. She was a tall lady and wore her hair in a knot on top of her head. It was summer and she wanted to baptized in the river. The congregation gathered on the bank and sang, “Shall We gather At The River?”

The minister and she waded out into the river to a proper depth. He read scripture and prayed. He then lowered her into the water and she lowered her chin so that her topknot stood tall. As they started back up the bank she felt of the top of her hair and it was dry. She said, “We’ve got to do it again.” So back out into the river they went. Again, when the minister lowered her into the water she brought her chin down and the top knot stuck out of the water. When she stood on her feet and felt the top of her hair she said, “Do it again.” So the third time the pastor just grabbed the topknot and pushed it under.
The point is – most of us don’t want that much baptism. We want to leave some of our lives out from under the Lordship of Christ or out from under the “cup” and “baptism” of life experience that he wants for us.

So the lesson Jesus wants us to learn as we serve Him is – there has to be PURPOSE BEFORE POSITION and a CROSS BEFORE THE CROWN. There also has to be:

III. SERVICE BEFORE SUCCESS IN ACCOMPLISHMENT
“Hearing this, the ten began to feel indignant with James and John. Calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it not this way among you, but whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.” (vv.41-45)

There are some who just want the limelight, but I am convinced that most of the faithful Christians who serve in the Kingdom do so because of a love for Christ which constrains them. They do not want the best seat in the house. They do not crave recognition for what they have done for the Lord. They do not serve to glorify themselves but with a genuine desire to serve others in Jesus name. The twelve Apostles will sit on thrones with the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. These will be the twenty-four elders mentioned in Revelation 19:4.

Success is not measured by Divine standards by how much we have, but by how much we use what we have to serve others in Christ’s name.

George W. Truett, a well-known pastor, was invited to dinner in the home of a very wealthy man in Texas. After the meal, the host led him to a place where they could get a good view of the surrounding area.

Pointing to the oil wells punctuating the landscape, he boasted, “Twenty-five years ago I had nothing. Now, as far you can see, it’s all mine.” Looking in the opposite direction at his sprawling fields of grain, he said, “That’s all mine.” Turning east toward huge herds of cattle, he bragged, “They’re all mine.” Then, pointing to the west and a beautiful forest, he exclaimed, “That too is all mine.”

The man paused, expecting Dr. Truett to compliment him on his great success. Truett, however, placing one hand on the man’s shoulder and pointing heavenward with the other, simply asked, “How much do you have invested in that direction?” The man hung his head and confessed, “I never thought of that.”

Franklin Roosevelt’s closest adviser during much of his presidency was a man named Harry Hopkins. During World War II, when his influence with Roosevelt was at its peak, Hopkins held no official Cabinet position. Moreover, Hopkin’s closeness to Roosevelt caused many to regard him as a shadowy, sinister figure. As a result he was a major political liability to the President. A political foe once asked Roosevelt, “Why do you keep Hopkins so close to you? You surely realize that people distrust him and resent his influence.” Roosevelt replied, “Someday you may well be sitting here where I am now as President of the United States. And when you are, you’ll be looking at that door over there and knowing that practically everybody who walks through it wants something out of you. You’ll learn what a lonely job this is, and you’ll discover the need for somebody like Harry Hopkins, who asks for nothing except to serve you.” Winston Churchill rated Hopkins as one of the half-dozen most powerful men in the world in the early 1940’s. And the sole source of Hopkins’ power was his willingness to serve.” (Discipleship Journal, Issue 39, 1987, p. 5)
I read about a deacon who often prayed, “Lord, touch the people with your finger.” One day, he said, “The Lord said to me, ‘You are My finger!’” And so, he allows us to serve Him! To do so – we have to sit in His presence every day.

PRAISE BE TO HIS NAME

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