Scripture: Mark 9:30-37,  Matthew 4:18-22

This is definitely an exciting day for our church. A day set aside to celebrate the importance of Christian Education, a day to recognize the meaning of “Making Disciples for Jesus”. With that in mind, I want to say a huge thank you to all who have and continue to support the Education and Youth Departments. To the pastors, teachers, helpers, volunteers, prayer worriers, adults and of course to the families who faithfully desire to return to hear more about God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit.

One of the most noted childhood church songs is “I will make you Fisher’s of Men, if you Follow Me”, based on Matthew 4:18-22 where Jesus calls to those first disciples and instructs them to put down their nets and to follow him. I actually marched around the church this past Thursday afternoon singing that song. No, I wasn’t alone. I had 10+ little Young Followers! And it was FUN! Anyway, the scripture related to that song states: (From the NLT)

“ 18 One day as Jesus was walking along the shore beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers--Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew--fishing with a net, for they were commercial fishermen. 19Jesus called out to them, "Come, be my disciples, and I will show you how to fish for people!" 20And they left their nets at once and went with him.

21A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, mending their nets. And he called them to come, too. 22They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.”    

Just imagine someone shouting out “Hey, Follow Me!” and you being willing to drop everything and go. Some of us would have to check our calendars or PDA’s, ask if there was cell service and of course we would want to tell our families. I think most of us would have a hard time just going.

One commentator noted that “Jesus’ seeking out disciples himself represented a serious breach of custom-a ‘coming down to their level socially’.[Traditionally a disciple would seek out the teacher they wanted to follow.] This situation would be like an itinerant preacher going out to the unchurched instead of expecting them to visit our churches and appreciate our well-prepared sermons.” – Shocking… suggesting that we should look beyond our own walls.

Jesus’ call to leave ones profession and family was/is radical. It is the sort of demand that only the most radical teacher would make. And he did! He was suggesting a “servant-leader” style of life. That was radical discipleship! I want you to learn about me, I want you to learn about my Father, I want you to show others. A “Learn & Respond” theory.

Jesus made an offer to those he originally called and to those he continues to call.

“Follow me and I will teach you my ways so you can teach others.”

Be my disciples, spend time with me, hear the words I preach, feel the love and forgiveness I offer then go and teach others. Sounds easy enough? Spend time with God and be like Him. Sure it’s easy enough if that is all there is and life was only about you. But it’s not.

Jesus wants us to be “fishers of men”. He wants us to grow His kingdom!

Fast forward to today’s scripture, Mark 9:30-37, Jesus had been teaching/"discipling” his “radical” followers for sometime now and he knew that soon he would be called to die.

The New Oxford Bible put it this way. “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him and three days after being killed, He will rise again.”

I believe that Jesus felt an urgency to spend as much time with his disciples as possible while on Earth.” I’m sure most of us have felt that same urgency to spend time with someone close before they move or perhaps to stay with a dying loved one. The reason is we want every opportunity to experience love and to express care for our friend or loved one, we want more.

Jesus was the same way! The time was drawing near that the Son of Man must die. He was in an urgent way.

Unfortunately, like so many times before the disciples just did not get it. They were too busy wrapped up in their own issues to understand what Jesus was saying.

Vs. 30: “Leaving that region they (Jesus & his disciples) traveled through Galilee. Jesus tried to avoid publicity in order to spend more time with His disciples and to teach them.”

Except while walking along the disciples became self-absorbed = “Who’s the best? Who is the greatest? (And they meant amongst themselves!)

Jesus knew what was happening and after confronting them and receiving no response, Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all! I’m sure the disciples where thinking, “What does that mean?”

Radical – Servant Leadership! Radical Discipling! 

I have been so blessed these last few weeks working with our pre-school children.

(Thanks to all of you, a vision that was shared so many years ago is happening: your love, your support, your prayers, that’s what kept this vision alive and now I am humbled to be such an intrical part of it.)

Anyway, hanging out with the little ones puts that desire to “be first” to task.

When you ask children to line up they run to see who can be first in line. They don’t even know where they’re going or where they are being led they just want to be first!

For some reason even at a very young age we are taught that first is best.

But that’s not true in God’s Kingdom. It’s not “I’m first. It’s God first.”

With the very excitement that the little ones run with to be first, Jesus wants us to put Him first. He even used a little child to make his point.

 “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

Jesus wants us to be connected to him, welcoming others and to show or teach His ways.

Recently I was privileged to read two testimonies from two very faithful members of Christ’s family and each of them, in their own way, made it clear that spending time with God in Worship was a major part of their “peace” and that extending themselves to others was a huge blessing.  By the way, both of them are involved in the Education Department. And I too can speak from experience that I am energized when I am in service for the Lord yet equally if I am not in Worship or in quiet time that inspiration can turn to selfish desire. I need to be connected to God and his people to be a connection for him to others.

I am always looking for the Lord’s teaching and leading so I can teach and lead others in that same Spirit. I truly understand that the sacrifices I make in serving the Lord are more of a blessing and that I am rewarded by His promise that in believing and following I will have eternal life.

That same offer is extended to you as well!

Let’s go back to those original disciples. They paid a huge price economically and

in their deaths to follow Jesus. Remember Jesus did not call professionally trained Rabbi’s to follow Him, He called artisans, regular people making a living and encouraged them to believe that the skills they already had were serviceable in the Kingdom.

Jesus continues to make that call. He wants people from all walks of life, teachers, social workers, doctors, nurses, musicians, business people; He wants us all to be connected to Him and His Church and to extend that connection to those around us both inside and outside this building. (and we even offer good sermons!)

Stretch yourself, Respond to God’s calling and make time to be with him in Worship, in prayer, in fellowship, in your family, in sharing your gifts. Go and be a servant-leader connecting to Him and to all His children. Serve Him with your words and actions. You will be blessed. AMEN.

Mark 9:33-37

³³After they arrived at Capernaum, Jesus and his disciples settled in the house where they would be staying. Jesus asked them, “What were you discussing out on the road?” ³⁴But they didn’t answer, because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. ³⁵He sat down and called the twelve disciples over to him. Then he said, “Anyone who wants to be the first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.”

³⁶Then he put a little child among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷”Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes my Father who sent me.”

We can just imagine the sudden silence and the averted eyes among the 12 disciples on this late afternoon in Capernaum.  The day’s journey was over, they were all now settled in to their rooms.  Most likely, a fire in the central courtyard had been stoked, and the evening meal was being prepared.  They were probably not alone, but they were surrounded by people who were busy at their tasks – coming in from the fields, doing whatever was expected of them to participate in what was often a common meal for the extended family that made up all the inhabitants of that little grouping of dwellings.

And there are the disciples, sitting back, resting after a long journey; maybe thinking that they got away with something, as Jesus never got involved in their rather heated conversation on the road that afternoon… and then Jesus asks:  “So…what were you all talking about out on the road today?”

The NLT simply says next, “But they didn’t answer”. Eugene Peterson in “The Message” gets a little closer to what was actually happening, by rendering it: “The silence was deafening”.  Why? Because they had been arguing over who among them was the greatest. He does know! How do we explain ourselves?

But, instead of chastising them, Jesus taught them. He went and sat down somewhere, and ‘called the disciples over to him’ – maybe they were moving to a quieter place, somewhere out of the evening traffic.  They probably went into a private room. And there he told them what it really means to be great – not in the eyes of the world, but great in the economy of the Kingdom: What is greatness to God?

Then he said, “Anyone who wants to be the first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.”  ³⁶ Then he put a little child among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷ ”Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes my Father who sent me.”

Jesus here presents a lesson that he not only repeated in words on numerous occasions, but one that he lived out by his example: in the Kingdom of God, human values are reversed. If you really want to be ‘great’ – you must become a servant of everyone else. 

Now, that statement is just as shocking and radical, and counter-cultural today as it was back in the day that Jesus said it first. Because this is hard! A servant is not only someone who serves – that’s obvious. But it is certainly possible to serve others without ‘being a servant’.  A servant is not only someone who serves, but it is someone who serves with no expectation of recognition or, payment for their service.  They have no reward. In fact, in a passage I alluded to two weeks ago, Luke 17: 7 – 10 Jesus says

⁷ ”When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, he doesn't just sit down and eat. ⁸ He must first prepare his master's meal and serve him his supper before eating his own. ⁹ And the servant is not even thanked, because he is merely doing what he is supposed to do. ¹⁰ In the same way, when you obey me you should say, `We are not worthy of praise. We are servants who have simply done our duty.’”

If this doesn’t make us uncomfortable when we hear it, then I’d say, we’re probably not hearing it… because while not impossible, this is a difficult mindset to live by; this is not a way of life that comes naturally. (Or is it just me?)

Then Jesus calls a child over.  (The fact that children were so ready to come to him says a lot about his character, doesn’t it?)   It actually says, “He put a child among them.”  Again, “the Message” turns that into more of a visual picture by rendering it “He put a child in the middle of a room”. Then, it says, “Cradling the little one in his arms he said, ‘Whoever embraces one of these children as I do, embraces me – and far more than me, God who sent me.’”

Now, think about this with me:  Jesus’ illustration was intended to provide a mental picture of what he meant when he said that the greatest among us were to be servants.  And I think that the illustration was not simply that he held a child in his arms – that’s just part of it.  Because remember, Jesus first put that child on the ground in the middle of the room. Why did he do that? That, actually, was the beginning of the illustration. The heart of it, I think, was when he walked over to that child, picked him/ her up, and hugged her.

You see what I mean?  Do you think Jesus is saying to us that part of a true servant mentality is seeking out the person who would receive our acts of love?  That child didn’t just appear in his arms.  Jesus went and found him. And embraced her. And he said, “That’s what it means to be a servant.”

There’s a guy by the name of Bradford Cohen, who was a contestant on Donald Trump’s TV ‘reality show’ The Apprentice, who turned down his exemption from getting dismissed from the show a couple seasons ago. He did this as a gesture of support for his team leader, assuming his performance would protect him from hearing the dreaded words, “You’re fired.” Well, he was mistaken. Accused by Trump of “making a stupid mistake”, Bradford was sent packing.

Although it might seem shocking to some, but a Dr. Stacy Blake-Beard, of the Simmons School of Management, says that the episode accurately reflected the highly competitive nature of the business world. “The message of The Apprentice is that to the extent that you look out for yourself above all else, you will be rewarded. In that sense, the show is a microcosm of the real world. Organizations talk about teamwork, but few of them promote it. They promote the star.”[1]

This is one example of what most of you know is the truth (of the world!)  A servant is going to be an anomaly in our culture. People are going to wonder what is going on.  They’re not going to get it. We’re going to get frustrated.  We’re going to ask ourselves why we are even bothering sometimes.  We’re going to struggle with resentment against people who seem to be doing really well and don’t give a hoot about anyone other than themselves.  We’re going to feel overwhelmed at times because the needs in the world are so intense and huge that – like that man that Pastor HeyYoung talked about last week, they can easily crush us if we’re not careful.

But this is who we are – all of us. 

Today we are recognizing one group in our community of faith who are on the front line of servanthood:  people who are involved in the great work of forming disciples.  Teachers, helpers, youth workers, education and youth staff… you are the ones within this church who have the incredible task of passing along the teachings of the Bible to others, we have the job of forming the character of Jesus in others – children, youth, and adults.

As Karen pointed out, we can’t do that unless we are connected to Christ ourselves – connected strongly.  In what we have come to call ‘The Great Commission”, when Jesus gives marching orders to the church at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, he says this:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

We who take on the responsibility of teaching are servants who are responding directly to this command. And the end of the “Great Commission” tells us how to do it.  Remember: “Surely I am with you always…to the very end of the age.” You’re only going to be able to do this because of my presence with you.

The only way that we can be servants, the only way that we can specifically demonstrate servanthood as teachers of the faith is by allowing the Lord Jesus to speak through our words, to be in our touch, to lead us, to empower us, to fill us.  Constantly. Jesus said that apart from the vine none of us can bear fruit.  The only thing we have to give anyone – and this is especially true of our students – the only thing we have to give is what Jesus has given us.  Himself.

May all of us live with that focus.  And wherever we are placed in ministry, may we serve with the knowledge and presence of Jesus Christ in us.