Allen Jackson - Great Ambition - Part 1
The topic for session three is «Lessons in Leadership». And in this session, I want to talk about great ambition. I want to start with this notion of good and bad leaders. You know, you can be a leader and not be a good one. You can lead people towards ungodliness and wickedness and the judgment of God. You can lead people away from godliness. All of us, God has extended influence to, and at the end of the day, leadership is about influence. It’s not about titles or positions or org charts. What are you using the influence of your life for? Are you using it for good or for bad? I don’t believe there’s really, like, some third category. And the ultimate evaluator of that will be the Lord himself, so when I ask you to consider good or bad, it’s not off your scale, it’s based on God’s scale. Don’t use a secular scale. Don’t use a personal set.
In God’s economy, when you stand before the Lord, are you using the influence of your life for good or bad? And how can we make course corrections if they’re needed? And they’re always needed. You know, to make a journey, you have to continually course correct. So please don’t imagine you’re a failure or you have failed or there’s some great condemnation. If the Spirit of God enables you to understand there’s a course correction needed, that’s a tremendous gift. It is a tremendous gift. We’re gonna look at two primary groups of people that were disciples that Jesus recruited and the leaders in Jerusalem. And you might think, well, that’s an easy call, but it isn’t always so straightforward.
We’ll start with the disciples in Mark chapter 9: «They came to Capernaum». It’s where Jesus has set up his ministry headquarters. And «when he was in the house, he asked them, 'What were you arguing about on the road? ' But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest». These are Jesus’s handpicked crew. And he’s called them out and they know it. But they’re not about to say a word. Human nature has not changed a lot. «So 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.' And he took a little child and had him stand among them. And taking him in his arms, he said to them, '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.'»
There’s a leadership lesson tucked away in there, in the awkwardness of the moment. Jesus’s closest friends, the ones he’s recruited, they’re gonna impact the world with his story, are arguing about who’s the greatest. Hm, and Jesus knows. And it’ll change your life if you will resolve in your heart that whoever you are and whatever you are, no matter where you are, Jesus knows. If you will establish that and begin to live as if that were true, it changes everything. Wherever you are, whoever you are, Jesus knows. There’s such freedom in that. So he calls them together. He has them sit down. And he said, «If anyone wants to be first».
Well, they all want to be first. They’ve been arguing about who’s the greatest. But you know, we read that and then I spend a lot of time with Christians, disproportionately so. And on this topic, I don’t think we’re honest to go, «Oh, Pastor, you know, I’d just rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord». Well, I’ve read the Psalms as well. And I share David’s sentiment in that. I don’t want to miss the kingdom. But I would submit to you, if your objective is, you know, «I don’t want to be first. I really, I just, I don’t. I don’t want to be first. I don’t wanna be great in the kingdom. I just wanna be a doorkeeper,» I’m concerned.
Now, we got this false bunch of baloney that we peddle. Because if we ever actually said, «I have a desire for significance in the kingdom of God,» it would imply something more than a passive approach to faith. And I would love to take a passive approach to faith and put it in the shredder. We don’t earn our way into…I know we don’t, no way. Wouldn’t suggest it. But the fact that you can’t earn it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t bring your best. Jesus said, «If anyone wants to be first, I will show you how to do it». He doesn’t condemn their ambition. Ambition for the kingdom of God, I do not believe is inappropriate. In fact, I would submit to you it’s necessary. «If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last».
Jesus said that significance in his kingdom begins with small things. You got to start at the back of the line. You’ve got to start with the assignments nobody wants, wow. And remember who said that. It’s a King of kings and the Lord of lords, the one for whom every knee will bow. He’s giving us some coaching, so please don’t just put this over, «It’s church, and that’s the polite answer,» and «Oh yes, we know». It worked out really well for Jesus. And he’s coaching his friends. And if we’ll allow him, by the Spirit of God, he’s coaching us. Significance begins with small things. We must be willing to start at the back. And then he said significance requires service.
«You must be the very last, and the servant of all». You’ve gotta be willing to serve. And then he throws in something that you really don’t expect. I mean, I know it’s Jesus and it’s in the book, but you won’t find this in very many… I’ve read a lot of books on leadership, been to a lot of seminars, you don’t hear this one very much. «Then he took a little child and he had him stand among them, and he took him in his arms and he said, 'Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name, welcomes me.'» If you want to be significant in the kingdom of God, your attitudes toward the children matter, wow. I mean, that’s just not in the training manuals. Significance requires a concern for the children, not just my children, the children. They have to matter to us. «Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me».
How do you think we’re doing with this one? Sixty million children aborted. Hundreds of thousands of children crossed our border in the last few months, and we don’t know where they are. They’ve just evaporated. Human trafficking at unprecedented, child trafficking at unprecedented highs in the United States of America. Smut in our school libraries. And the list goes on and on. You know, and for all of our talk and all of the prattling on, our kids aren’t safer. Kids used to walk to school without, like, armed guards. They could be in public places, and you weren’t afraid for them. We need some honesty, some integrity into the discussion. I mean, in our little community, when we were having those discussions about books in public schools and…where were we? Jesus isn’t finished.
Luke chapter 9. This is a recurring theme. Says, «An argument started among the disciples as to which one of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. And he said to him, 'Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you, he’s the greatest.' And John said, 'Master, we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he’s not one of us.'» What a happy group this is. «And Jesus said, 'Don’t stop him. Whoever is not against you is for you.'»
Now again, Jesus is inviting us back towards some very familiar themes by now. He wants us to be childlike, not childish. Big difference. He said that our attitude towards the children matters greatly. And the assignment towards children isn’t just to give them what they want. It isn’t to help them have every possible experience as soon as possible. The objective with children is to train them in righteousness and godliness and holiness. They don’t belong to us, folks. God knows them when they’re knit together in their mothers' wombs, and it’s a train and release program. They’re a sacred trust.
Now, parenting is extraordinarily difficult. I don’t want to add to that burden, but I do want to keep framing it because there is an enormous amount of messaging that cascades over us from our culture that is ungodly with regards to family and children. And Christians especially tend to want to be passive. I did an interview with the lead animator for Disney, and he said Disney has a very clear goal. He said they’re all trained in it. They intend by the time a child is 10 years old, that they have an affinity for a Disney character and a song. They said, «If we do that, we have them for life». He said when «The Lion King» was released, within two years he said almost every child in the world knew a character and a song.
It’s not necessarily evil, but I don’t want to be outpaced by Disney. We have the help of the Spirit of God. And then Jesus cautioned them not to be fueled by selfish ambition. «The least among you,» he said, «is the greatest». Ambition is not wrong, it’s what you focus your ambition upon, what’s the center of your ambition? What fuels it?
Now that requires the Spirit of God and it requires consistent course correction. And you can’t afford to take your cues from very many outside voices because those who oppose the purposes of God and stand apart from the kingdom of God will bring their voices of skepticism and criticism, and it’ll make it impossible. Jesus finally again he repeated, there’s a focus on the kingdom of heaven and helping others to be engaged. They said, «Somebody was driving out demons, but he didn’t have one of our t-shirts. So we stopped him». And Jesus said, «Listen, if they’re not against us, they’re for us». He’s continually bringing a course correction. Can you imagine he’s going to entrust, he has come to the earth. He knows at this point how it’s going to end. He’s gonna be tortured to death, and his message is going to be entrusted to these clowns.
And this is actually Passover meal. This is the evening Jesus is betrayed, the evening he’ll be arrested. So he’s late in the narrative. He’s three years…can you imagine all the emotions Jesus is wrestling with on that evening? I can’t. And in the midst of this, it says, «A dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest».
There’s a theme emerging here. «And Jesus said to them, 'The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you’re not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who’s greater, the one who’s at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who’s at the table? But I’m among you as one who serves. You are those who have stood by me in my trials. And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.'»
It’s worth noting that there’s a reward promised for those who have ambition for the kingdom of God. And I also think it’s worth noting that Jesus says to these people who can’t stop arguing about which one of them is better than the other one that there’s a reward for them. So there’s some understanding that we are cracked pots. But the order I think still matters and it’s consistent through all the Gospels and all these different passages. It’s a theme Jesus picks up multiple times because we need it multiple times. He said, «If you’re gonna be significant in my kingdom, you’ll have to be like the youngest».
The youngest amongst us are the best learners, the youngest amongst us are typically the ones that have to yield. They very seldom set the agendas. Oh, they try, but they don’t get to. And he said, «If you’re going to be significant, you’re gonna have to be like the youngest. You’re gonna have to be one who serves,» he says. You’ll never outgrow the requirement to serve. No matter how important you think you may be, how significant you may be, what accolades you accomplish, we are called to serve. You want to maintain a consistent expression of opportunities in your life where you can clearly say, «I’m serving the purposes of the kingdom of God».
And I’m not recruiting for anything tonight. There’s no cards taped under your chairs, although that’s not a bad idea. And then Jesus points out to them that he’s modeled this behavior. «I’ve served you,» he said, and this is three years in, they’ve seen him walk on water and raise the dead and do all the things. And he said, «I’m still serving you». In fact, this night he washes their feet. He’s modeled it for them while they argue who’s the greatest. Please don’t give that up. And then he puts in there, I love the way he keeps coaching them towards these kingdom principles, «If they’re not for us, they’re against us». And this one, he said, there’ll be a reward for you. You stood by me in my trials.
There’s this…what’s implied in that is not everybody will. Let’s establish in our hearts now that when there’s pressure or resistance or mocking, whatever, because of the cause of Christ, that you’ll stand. Settle it in your heart that you’ll be a person of the truth, that you’ll be a person who’s an advocate for Jesus of Nazareth. There’s a cost attached to that, folks. It is not free. I mean there’s no entry, there’s no cover charge, that’s been paid. But Jesus said, «If you want to be my disciple, you’ll have to be a cross carrier. Nobody gets through without that».
And then Matthew 23. This is right before Jesus’s lengthy prophetic passage. «Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 'The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’s seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they don’t practice what they preach.'» That’s pretty awkward right out there in public in front of God and everybody. «Don’t do what they do. They don’t practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, and they put themselves…but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them».
What he’s describing is the antithesis, the opposite of what he’s been coaching the disciples towards. He said, «If you want to be significant in my kingdom, go to the back of the line. If you want to be significant, serve. If you want to be significant, be like one of the youngest, not one of the most entitled». And then in the end of Matthew now, he’s flipping the script and he’s pointing at the teachers of the law and the Pharisees and he said, «Don’t do what they do. They put burdens on other people that they themselves won’t carry. That’s not leadership,» he said. See, leadership isn’t just delegating everything. I understand we can’t do everything, that we need one another and I get the role of that. But there’s a difference in delegating and dumping and a lot of times in the kingdom, we dump the stuff that we don’t want to be bothered with.
Verse 11, «The greatest among you». Now, this time he’s initiating it. Let me tell you who the greatest among you will be. «The greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you’re hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces and you yourselves don’t enter, nor will you let them enter who are trying to».
Jesus describes the criteria for greatness. He gave them to us. You wanna be significant in his kingdom? He said you’ll be a servant. He said we have to maintain a focus towards the kingdom of heaven and helping others to enter it. It has to matter to us. Doesn’t matter what our gifts are, our day job is. We have assignments and responsibilities and we engage in work in order to help accomplish whatever those assignments are and to meet the obligations of our responsibilities, but underlying all of that, we are citizens of an eternal kingdom and we want to facilitate anybody anywhere at any time not only finding their way into that kingdom, but to flourish in the kingdom of God. That’s the deal. If you want a pathway towards significance and great rewards in the kingdom of God, Jesus has given it to us in the simplest, plainest of language.
Now I want to stay in Matthew 23. We’re gonna change audiences a bit. Jesus up to this point has been predominantly talking to his disciples. And in Matthew 23, the balance of that chapter, he talks to the religious leaders. They’re in Jerusalem. And he’s gonna make seven statements of warning. They all begin with woe. And they’re similar, but they’re not the same. They overlap a bit. There’s some interconnectedness to them, but if you take the seven together, it creates a pretty detailed picture of what you want to avoid if you want to be significant in the kingdom. And if you don’t want to be significant, have the guts to say it.
We need an honest conversation on this point because most of us, if you, particularly if you lived in the South, you’ve had enough exposure to Christianity that you’ve heard the notion of the sinner’s prayer or being born again or being… I believe in that, folks, with all of my heart. But if your notion of the kingdom of God stops at that point and you think you’ve signed the contract and therefore you’re free to do whatever you want to with the rest of your life, you’ve been misinformed.
Jesus is talking to a group of people who have a covenant with him. They’re the covenant people of God, the chosen people of God. They’re the creme de la creme. They’re at the center of God’s purposes, and the group he’s talking to are the leaders of the covenant people of God. They fast on a regular basis. They tithe of the spices they buy in the marketplace. They are rule keepers. Everybody looks at them and go, «Wow, they’re the ones».
And Jesus is about to speak to them. It’s Matthew 23 and verse 11. We’re just gonna tag these seven woes really quickly. I’m not gonna stay long. «The greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted». There again is that pattern to greatness. Serving, humility. And can we talk, you know, God will give some of you, he will give you significant assignments. God gave Moses a pretty significant assignment. Can we agree? To walk into Pharaoh’s palace and say, «Let these people go. And I’m gonna keep rocking your world until you do».
I mean, it’s a very assertive confrontational kind of a dialogue. And Egypt’s decimated, and now there’s hundreds of thousands of people who’ve been slaves their whole lives, and Moses says, «Walk this way. This is the way we’re going». That takes some chutzpah. It’d be much easier to go, «Well, you know, just follow peace». And he led them right to the Red Sea where they got trapped. God parts the Red Sea and three days later, Moses led them to Marah. Marah in Hebrew means bitter. They couldn’t drink the water. They’re gonna die of thirst and the people start to grumble, and they said, «We don’t like your leadership. You’re 0 for 2, big guy».
It took some courage and determination. So humility in a servant’s heart does not mean you are absent initiative. Moses couldn’t feed those people. Moses couldn’t provide enough water for all those people. Moses couldn’t part the Red Sea. But nevertheless, God said, «I need you to do this,» and God will put you in places to do things where you can’t deliver the outcome. And it isn’t humility. «Well, you know, God just will be God, and I don’t», yeah, you gotta be willing to say, «I believe God can do anything».
This isn’t a call to passivity. Jesus said, «The greatest among you will be your servant». I pray you have a desire to be significant in the kingdom of God. I pray your desire to be significant in the kingdom of God is greater than any athlete stepping towards anything this year, or any professional person stepping towards anything or any ambition in the heart of any student that’s graduating. Surely those of us that imagine there is an almighty God, a creator of heaven and earth, have a desire to give him our very best. Surely we can do that.