Leading from Below

James 3:13-4:3; Mark 9:30-37                                        September 21, 2003

Intro: Leadership is a hot topic today. Offers for seminars are received in the office almost every day. Books about leadership flood the shelves of every bookstore. Some suggest leadership is a quality you are born with, others say leadership is learned with specific skills, still others are certain leadership is a set of characteristics that develop as you pass through trials. People try to package leadership, they try to sell leadership and many try to force their leadership upon an unwilling constituency.

         To be a powerful leader, does not mean you are a great leader. Great leaders do not need power or force, to lead. Rather great leaders effect their world by changing it in some way.

         The apostles of Jesus became some of the greatest leaders our world has ever seen, yet they did not do it through force, or coercion. Jesus and the apostles learned leadership through relationships. And that is where great leadership always begins.

I.       Jesus Standard of Relationship

Mark 9:30 They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, [31] because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise." [32] But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.

   [33] They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" [34] But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

   [35] Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

   [36] He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, [37] "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."

         A. The Scene

                  When I read this passage, I become convinced that Jesus had to be the most patient teacher ever. Think about this, the disciples had just been with Jesus at the transfiguration. They had seen His glory and heard the Father’s blessing of Jesus. As they traveled to their next town, Jesus talked with them about his own death. This was so important to Jesus that he did not want anyone to know where they were, he did not want to be interrupted. He wanted them to understand, but the talk of death and rising from the dead, left them completely confused.

         At that point, apparently, Jesus walked on ahead of disciples in silence. The burden of the message, the weight of the vision of his death and rising, and the longing to return to the glory of the Father was overwhelming. He walked ahead, thinking, and longing for someone to understand.

         And while he was walking, the disciples had their own conversation behind him. And it was quite an animated conversation. They were arguing and the argument went something like this. “Jesus took us up onto the mountain, he likes us better!” ‘Yeah, well He trusted us to do miracles while you were out climbing the mountain.” “But we saw Moses and Elijah, clearly we are more important to the mission than you!” And it went on like this until they arrived.

         And it broke Jesus’ heart. “What were you talking about?”

         B. The Teaching

                  Then Jesus used that moment to redefine what it means to be great, he gave new meaning to being a leader.

         Leadership in Jesus’ day was just like it is today. The person with the most power, the person more charismatic, the person most convincing would be the first. We are getting a picture of that in California this month as hundreds of candidates vie for the office of Governor, each of the candidates is trying to convince the state that they are the best, the most qualified, the most effective. Jesus will hear nothing of that, instead, he told the disciples, if they really want to be first, then they need to go to the end of the line. If they want to be the leader, they need to be a slave. In essence, learn how to serve and get along with one another. That is why Jesus did not choose to use the strongest or most influential people of his day. He did not choose priests or Sanhedrin officials, he did not take army commanders or leaders from the Roman Senate. Instead he chose fisherman, rebels, and turncoats to be his followers. Jesus was looking for people who needed help, not people who could do the work. He was not looking for the most qualified, but for the ones who would be the most needy of his love. And that is who Jesus is looking for today as well.

         C. The application

                  John Piper wrote, “The difference between Uncle Sam and Jesus Christ is that Uncle Sam won't enlist you unless you are healthy and Jesus won't enlist you unless you are sick. What is God looking for in the world? Assistants? No. The gospel is not a help wanted ad. It is a help available ad. God is not looking for people to work for him but people who let him work mightily in and through them.”

         If we think our gifts or skills are what Jesus needs, if we expect to do great things for God, then we are terribly mistaken. Paul made it clear that God does not seek out the greatest, or the wisest, or the strongest, rather he makes himself seen through our weakness and our poverty and our foolishness. In fact, if you would be the greatest, become like a child.

II.      What Jesus’ Standard Looks Like

         What will that look like? Let’s turn over to James 3:14-4:3 and ask that God’s word would be heard.

   But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. [15] Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. [16] For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

   [4:1] What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? [2] You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. [3] When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

         Is that not a picture of our world today. Listen to the democratic candidates for president, listen to Rush Limbaugh!, this is the wisdom of the world, selfish ambition, bitter envy and boasting. Instead of building relationships, the leaders of this world are building themselves and their own interests. The result is disorder and every evil practice. We fight with one another, why? Because we are not following Jesus call to be last. James lays it out when he declares that the fights and quarrels in the church grow out of our desires to be first, they grow out of our covetousness, they grow out of our greed. They grow out of our selfishness. Our prayers are not even answered because all we care about is ourselves.

         Owen Chadwick wrote, “Sometimes we excuse relatively minor flaws in people, especially if they have done something extraordinary for God. But God doesn't just want extraordinary good works from us, but obedience in small things as well. Agatho, a desert monk of fourth-century Egypt put it this way: "If an angry man raises the dead, God is still displeased with his anger."

         God longs for us to give up the first place that we so often covet. What’s the answer? It is in God’s wisdom, it is in new relationships. Let’s continue with James.

   [3:17] But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. [18] Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

         And this is the heart of true leadership, the wisdom of heaven. It always begins with purity of motive. Almost everything we do is characterized by mixed motives. The classic example is of the child who steps forward to complement his mother on her beautiful new dress after having broken a window in his bedroom. Purity of motive is hard to find even in ourselves, and so the result is suspicion in everyone else. If we are going to live for Jesus, then we must begin filtering our motives through his heart. The wisdom of God begins with purity of heart and motive.

         And that displays itself in our relationships, peace loving, considerate, submissive. These three characteristics alone will change our lives. When Merrill Streep recently was nominated for an Oscar recently, she said, "It's sort of exhausting, this self-congratulatory atmosphere in which the movie community lives. It's unbearable. We're not that important in the world, but we certainly all think we are…I shouldn't talk about it, I mean I'm really grateful that my work is recognized…but boy, we've gotten a little bloated. It's so grand and the outfits are so incredible and the critique of how everybody looks and the desperation of people to make an impact—it really gets to me."

         And these are the people we set up as our models for life. They are idolized, but even they can see the hollowness of it all. The Wisdom of God, the way to be first according to Jesus, is to minister to and care for the people around us. We can not hold on to our own sense of self importance and be a lover of peace. We can not focus on getting things to keep up with the neighbors and be considerate. We can not insist upon our own way and be submissive. Self importance and discipleship are incompatible.

         That does not mean you fall into self destructive behavior where you beat ourselves over every failure you perceive. It does not mean you walk around with a sort of false humility that keeps saying, “Oh, I’m nothing.” While hoping everyone else will assure you that you are great! But it does mean you will, in the words of Paul “not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”

         So how do we break out of the pattern that the world has established? First, we simply admit our need. Jesus is looking for people who know they have failed. Admitting that need is the first step to repentance.

         Second, we come to know the heart of Jesus. He is revealed in Scripture, he reveals himself through other believers and he reveals himself through prayer and meditation.

         And third, we practice Jesus’ call to serve. The opportunities abound in our families, in our church, in our neighborhoods and at our places of work. Service may take the form of listening, or sharing chores, or helping with a need, but it will always mean putting the needs of another before your own.

         "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." May we be known as people who are leading the way to the end of the line.