Matthew 20:17-28 | David Thomas

[0:00] Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. I don't feel like that was very enthusiastic.! Good morning. There we go. Okay.

[0:10] At least someone's happy to be here. What time do I need to finish?! Okay. So, it wasn't, I did not choose this passage.

[0:24] So, it may take us a little longer. We got a bigger, like, Kent last week had like five verses, and the guy after me is going to have like two verses, and I got like 20 verses.

[0:34] So, I got more material to cover. You can thank the people who, I'm not going to name any names in the front row. And Brad, and Brad, and Brad.

[0:46] Now, turn with me if you would to the Gospel of Matthew. The Gospel of Matthew chapter 20. Oh, you said you turned it on. You messed it up.

[0:57] Oh, okay. That's all right. Oh, okay. Good deal. Thank you, sir. He's also single ladies. The only one is a.

[1:12] Move quick. Let's read the Gospel of Matthew chapter 20. And, and normally I don't tell people what version I'm reading out of, but I'm reading out of the King James Version.

[1:26] So, if it doesn't jive with what you got, that's why. I think the King James Version is a phenomenal translation. But, if you are reading it in the King James, you're like, well, you told me it was reading out of the King James.

[1:39] You're not reading it quite like the King James reads. That's because I will change some of the marginal readings at times. But, anyhow, the Gospel of Matthew chapter 20.

[1:50] And begin reading at verse 17. And it says, It says, And he said to her, What wilt thou?

[2:34] She said unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.

[2:45] But Jesus answered and said, You know not what you are asking. Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink? And to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized?

[2:57] They said to him, We are able. And he saith to them, And to sit on my right hand, and on my left is not mine to give, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father.

[3:17] And when the ten heard it, And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. But Jesus called them unto him and said, You know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, And that they that are great exercise great authority upon them.

[3:36] But it shall not be so among you. But whosoever desires to become great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever desires to be chief or first among you, let him be your bondservant.

[3:52] Even as a son of man came not to be ministered unto, But to minister and to give his life a ransom in the place of many. And the Lord will bless the reading of his word.

[4:04] Let's open in prayer. Our God and Father, we just ask for help as we look at this passage. Father, I ask that you give me clarity of thought, ease of speech, hide me behind the cross. I pray, Father God, that you would be glorified.

[4:15] But I pray that your saints here would be edified and built up in their walk with you. Father, we ask that we commit this time to you. In the name of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. So, I want to do one thing.

[4:30] I've spoken, I preached here this summer. And I ask questions, okay? So, what I'd like to do is, Can everybody who's medically and physically able to do this with their hands? Okay.

[4:41] All right. I know some of y'all didn't want to. That felt strange. On YouTube, they're going to be, Pentecostal night. It's okay to put your hands up in the air.

[4:52] Can everybody do this with their head? Okay. Can anybody do this? No. This one feels real good. I don't know. Okay. So, if I ask a question, just, you know, I mean, it's okay to put your hand up.

[5:05] If I say, have you ever done this? Yeah, I've done it twice, you know. And I won't thank your Pentecostal and the secret's safe with me. So, we have an interesting passage before us.

[5:17] And it was pointed out this morning in the Lord's Supper. Jesus is going to Jerusalem. And so, we would understand that Jesus is focused now on what is before him.

[5:30] This is the third time in the Gospel of Matthew that he has actually spoken of his crucifixion. Mark would tell us that they were afraid, that they were amazed when he gave them this information.

[5:48] But it wasn't new information that he was giving them. Luke would say they didn't understand. And perhaps there was a lack of understanding. And as Luke was, Luke is a very specific author.

[6:02] So, when he says that they didn't understand, they really didn't. And remember the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Emmaus there in the Gospel of Luke. He's talking with these two disciples on the way.

[6:13] And as he begins to explain to them, then their understanding's opened. And so it is with us. We don't understand everything all at once. Sometimes we're amazed. Sometimes we're afraid.

[6:24] But as we walk with the Lord, we will learn. And Isaiah would say this, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little.

[6:35] We grow in our walk with God. And there's times when we're going to be afraid. There's times when we're going to be amazed. There's times when we're not going to have a clue. And we're going to be ignorant of what's going on.

[6:45] But God is faithful. So, the Lord Jesus Christ is on this walk. He's going to Jerusalem. And Isaiah would tell us that he would set his face as a flint. And flint is hard.

[6:56] He was not going to be turned away from that which he came to do. This was the hour that John speaks of. John, the Gospel writer who speaks of the eternity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal sonship of the Son, would bring it down in time to one hour.

[7:16] His hour had come. Finally, it was there. And he was determined to go to Jerusalem. And he knew everything that was going to happen to him. If I got on the plane Friday night, and knowing as I got on the plane in Dallas-Fort Worth, flying to St. Louis, that I was going to come to St. Louis, and so my wife, she might ask me what my schedule is, and I say, well, I'm going to go to St. Louis.

[7:42] Kent and Nicole are going to pick me up at the airport. I'm going to go to their house, and as is typically the custom, Kent and I get engaged in conversation, and then hours later, I'm going to go to bed.

[7:53] And then I'm going to get up in the morning. And then I'm going to go do this and this and this. But if I told my wife, I'm going to die at the end of this.

[8:03] I'm going to be arrested by the police, and I'm going to die, she'd probably tell me not to go. Who here, and I say that, you know, jokingly I would say, my wife would probably say, yeah, go.

[8:15] But, yeah, exactly, exactly. I can empathize. But if you knew that that's what's going to happen, at the end of your visit, your life was going to be lost, you were not going to be there, you were going to die, how many of you would really do that?

[8:36] You wouldn't. I wouldn't. But the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's giving specifics to his disciples. It's not, hey, I'm going to Jerusalem, and I'm going to die.

[8:47] He is fulfilling all the prophecies that are spoken concerning him. And if anybody is ever confused about the inerrancy of Scripture and the inspiration of Scripture, just look at the crucifixion.

[9:06] And to the minutest detail, it's documented what's going to happen to the Lord Jesus Christ. And his disciples should know the law, and they did know the law.

[9:17] They did know the Scriptures. But they just were still not believing. But he says here, he says, I'm going to be delivered up.

[9:30] I'm going to be delivered up. That word, I'm always intrigued by that word delivered up. It just, it resonates in my mind. The Greek word is paradidomai. This morning, we did, we observed the Lord's Supper.

[9:48] And Paul says this in 1 Corinthians, for I delivered to you. The same word for betrayed. Delivered up. But one has more of a positive connotation.

[10:01] We don't say, you know, Paul doesn't say, I betrayed you to the Lord's Supper. No, but the way it was handed over to us was the same way the Lord Jesus Christ was handed over. And it was a personal and an intimate thing.

[10:16] And the Lord Jesus Christ was going to be betrayed. Not just by anybody, but by an intimate friend. One who walked in the house of the Lord with him in sweet company with him.

[10:26] He's going to be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. The price of a slave. He says, I'm going to be delivered to the chief priest, to the scribes, and they'll condemn me to death.

[10:39] The Jews did not have the authority to crucify anyone. But they did have the ability to take them to Pilate, right? And to Herod.

[10:50] And under the authority of Caesar, condemn them to death. Well, it says, they're going to deliver him to the Gentiles.

[11:02] And isn't that what happened? You see, one thing that's interesting in Scripture is there's a verse. Who's heard the Psalm, this is the day that the Lord has made?

[11:14] Can anyone tell me the address? Psalm 118. Okay. The end of Psalm 118. Well, it says this.

[11:25] At the end of it, it says, bind your sacrifices with cords to the horns of the altar. Okay? The Lord Jesus Christ is the only other sacrifice, and I say the only other, there's two sacrifices in Scripture that we read of that were bound.

[11:44] And then delivered. The Lord Jesus Christ was bound and then delivered. Isaac was bound, an apt type of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[11:55] The Lord Jesus Christ was bound and delivered over. And not just delivered to one group of people. We read of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels being bound five times and handed over to each one.

[12:12] And the Lord Jesus Christ knows this. And He knows the Scriptures would be fulfilled. So He's bound. And so He's handed to the chief priests and the scribes and they know the Scriptures.

[12:26] And they come up with these insane accusations against Him. There was no truth to these accusations. They twisted the Scriptures.

[12:40] And when they didn't get what they want, well then they went ahead and they took them to Pilate. And Pilate sends them to Herod, the Gentiles. And this is a fulfillment of Scripture.

[12:52] Psalms chapter 2. Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine the vain thing? The kings of the earth have set themselves and the princes take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed.

[13:04] It's prophesied in Scripture. And then He says, they're going to mock Him and scourge Him. He was buffeted.

[13:17] Isaiah 50 would tell us. Not only did He set His face as a flint to go to Jerusalem, but He would get buffeted. He would get beat. The beard would get plucked out of His face.

[13:29] And I don't care if you're used to plucking your eyebrows or pulling your beard hairs. It's never fun. Nobody says, oh, I get to go get my eyebrows plucked. It hurts. But with the Lord Jesus Christ, they would pull His beard out of His face.

[13:47] And they would beat Him with their hands and beat Him with rods. And He's telling them this. this is what's going to happen.

[13:58] They're going to mock me. They're going to say, prophesy who smote you. The Lord Jesus Christ knew every hand that was laid on. He didn't need to prophesy.

[14:11] Those who would raise their hand up and smite Him on the face, those were the very ones for whom Christ would die. And the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, He would say, Father, forgive them.

[14:29] What a heart of the Savior we see revealed in Scripture. The Lord Jesus Christ is going to be crucified.

[14:41] The gruesome death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn't a comfortable thing. It's what they did to the most horrendous and heinous of criminals as they crucified Him.

[14:57] Anybody ever put a nail through their foot? Yeah, yeah, you step on a nail and it goes through your foot? I can feel it right now.

[15:09] And it happened when I was a kid. Yeah. You ever shot a nail through your finger with a nail gun? It doesn't feel good. But what they would do with the Lord Jesus Christ is they'd take this Roman gibbet and they would lay it on the ground and they would hold His hands out like this and they'd drive them nails through the palms of His hands.

[15:34] And then they crossed His feet and they would nail through His feet. And then they'd pick that cross up and it would thud down in the hole.

[15:46] And the Lord Jesus Christ said they're going to crucify. And the Jews and John and they say crucify, crucify. That is what they wanted to happen to the Lord Jesus Christ.

[16:00] They wanted this violent death. And the Lord Jesus Christ said this is what's going to happen. No wonder His disciples were afraid.

[16:14] But He says on the third day He shall rise again. Miracle of all miracles as we were reminded of this morning. The Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily yielded up His life.

[16:31] He says I lay down my life. No man can take it from me. I have the authority to lay it down and I have the authority to take it up again. This authority I've received from my Father.

[16:45] And the Lord Jesus Christ would be raised raised from the dead the third day. And as we're reminded in 1 Corinthians this morning of the gospel and the conciseness and clarity of the gospel.

[17:01] But He wasn't just raised from the dead. He was seen. There was witnesses to His resurrection. And these witnesses are with Him right now.

[17:14] Not knowing that they're going to be witnesses or not knowing that they are witnesses. And what happens next is beyond belief.

[17:25] we have the passion that we just looked at. But now we have this petition. The mother of Zebedee's sons she comes up and I would I would suggest that their mother and I believe it to be Salome was there.

[17:51] very close. I believe the Lord Jesus Christ took His disciples kind of over here to talk to Him real quick. But I believe that that these women were with Him as well.

[18:05] as she comes to Him and she begins with asking Him a question.

[18:18] I say that she begins really by worship. She comes to Him in worship and then she asked a question. And I think that's telling for us as believers.

[18:31] Who here prays? Okay. Okay. That was a trick question. The elders were back there with their notepads. How many of you have a prayer I need this right now God?

[18:47] Anybody ever do that? Like a split second prayer you know God this isn't going well. A test coming up and I can you help me with this test God please? I haven't studied for it but we've all done that right?

[19:04] Who here goes to God when things are good? Who here goes to God when things are bad? Yeah. And are we more prone to go to God when things are bad than when things are good?

[19:17] But when we come to God do we come to God in worship? That's what that what transpires next in this passage I don't think any of us would I think if we were the ten disciples we would all have been in indignation as well indignant can you believe that they asked we would have all done that but what she does do is she comes in worship this realization of who God is bowing if you will whether physically bowing and I believe that to be the case that she was physically bowing in worship but that she understood who God was and she she spoke highly of God's character and do we really understand God's character when we come to him with our request it's easy to say my God will supply all my needs according to his riches and glory in Christ

[20:23] Jesus but it's according to his riches in glory yes he'll supply our needs not our wants but our needs but his riches in glory the radiant manifestation of who he is and that should cause us to bow in worship before we even let it enter our mind our petition to God are we bowing in worship with who God is and if we understand then who God is I would suggest if our hearts are in tuned and fully surrendered to God and we really understand his character and it will take the eons of eternity to wrap our minds around his character but if we really understand the character of God and who God is I would suggest that there would be an exchange of wills and we wouldn't get to the situation that she's at but a lot of times we might say well God

[21:26] I know you love me can you help me do good on my test can you help me with this situation but are we really enthralled with the fact that God is love that God is faithful and it's because of his faithfulness and his mercy that we're not consumed and as we come to a realization of who God is in our prayer life and we pour out to God how great God is that's what Paul did in Ephesians chapter 1 bless me the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ I'm going to tell you about my God and he goes on in chapter 1 and tells us how great God is before he even gets to the depravity of man he tells us who his God is are our hearts enthralled with worship at the person work and worth of the

[22:29] Lord Jesus Christ before we go to him with our petitions and I'm not saying we're getting in the car to drive down the road and we want to have a safe trip but he's our shield and our buckler and are we approaching him in that manner that he will protect us as we go down the road that's what John and John and James mother did bowed into worship but but as we understand the character of God our hearts are exchanged with God our wills are exchanged with God's will and then we have the ability and the wisdom to ask God for what he wants us to ask him for and we don't get into this situation but I would venture to guess that each of us have been in this position here of selfish desire of our own pride our own arrogance

[23:32] God I need you to do this for me and we're concerned with position and we're concerned with authority who here does not like to be recognized for doing something anybody it's natural even if it's a thank you anybody ever do something and didn't want to be recognizing I can't believe they didn't thank me for doing that it's natural and I'm not saying that some of us are more skilled in this area than others or have more of a servant's heart than others or whatever it is but it is the human nature to be appreciated it is the human nature to have ambition to do things for our own self and our own selfish desires and that's where they're at well the Lord Jesus Christ he asked this pointed question he says first he says you don't know what you're asking but then he says can you drink of the cup that I'm fixing to drink you know what lays before me here and I don't think any of them were able and why do I think that because they all forsook them and fled they didn't have that desire to be crucified that changed later in life

[25:03] James was murdered Peter was murdered Paul murdered John the Baptist I'm sorry John the apostle John bold and old exiled you're laughing at how I said bold and old didn't you we bull our crawfish did they learn to be partakers of his suffering but Christ asked them are you able are you able have we all done yeah I got this I got this Jesus I can do it we do that and Jesus tells well yeah you will they didn't get it right here they didn't get it believe it or not at the

[26:14] Passover they still didn't get it it says in Luke chapter 22 that they were still arguing over who was going to be the greatest it didn't didn't faze them a bit oh yeah we can be crucified we can be whipped we can be beaten but the Lord Jesus Christ you'll get there this is actually going to happen to you not the divine judgment if you will of God was never upon any of the apostles the Lord Jesus Christ himself personally bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes we are healed but the physical sufferings they were baptized with the baptism of the cross with that cup of suffering they were beaten by men

[27:16] Paul beaten stone left for dead and he did it for the sake of the gospel well the Lord Jesus Christ he says this is going to happen to you you're going to suffer for my sake but I can't give you this position I can't give you what you want but what he does do is says this in verse 25 he talks about the power he says the Gentiles they exercise lordship and they that are great exercise authority upon them whether it was princes or dukes or lords or ladies these various positions of authority he said that's what the

[28:26] Gentiles do anybody here ever want to go flip burgers at Burger King and that's all you want to do nobody okay just want to make sure okay you have Burger King up here right okay okay McDonald who here has ever started a job and said you know I just want to stay in the entry level position the rest of my life here anybody so what I'm going to submit to you is that every individual has a desire to move up somehow I'm not talking about pride or arrogance right but we have goals in life you know we're staying we want to improve ourselves we want to get better and that's the way the Gentiles function and the Lord Jesus Christ says that this is natural for them and not only do they exercise lordship not only do they want position they use that position to force others to do stuff how many of you have ever said because I said so okay okay and now that's not necessarily a bad thing but you're exercising dominion authority over a situation and some people get carried away with authority anybody ever work for the person who gets carried away with that authority yes okay

[30:07] I'm the boss and that's the Gentile mentality that person who started at that entry level position it was just a soldier you know a Martian soldier in the Roman army well they wanted to be a centurion and then they wanted to be a general and then they wanted to be the emperor right and then once they get to that emperor position then they can exercise their lordship and they can force people to do stuff and that's natural but the lord Jesus Christ didn't come to lord stuff over people to force anybody to do anything he is very god he is king of kings and lord lord but he came for a purpose and his purpose was this that if I be lifted up

[31:14] I can draw all men unto myself his purpose to come was to minister and as you read through the gospel of Matthew up to this point you see that the lord Jesus Christ as he walked this earth he was moved with compassion he looked at the sheep he said they don't have a shepherd they need a shepherd and being a shepherd wasn't an easy task and those who are shepherds in this church it's not an easy task and you can testify to that but being a physical shepherd taking care of the sheep is hard look at Jacob I was out in the cold I was out in the heat look at David a wolf come along or a bear come along a lion come along I mean it's me or the sheep right it's not easy sheep are dung you have to make them lie down it's work it takes a heart of service and that's what the

[32:18] Lord Jesus Christ did he understood that there were sheep out there and that the children of Israel were sheep and they didn't have a shepherd and they needed someone to take care of them and that's what the Lord Jesus Christ came to do is to serve and throughout the scriptures he's called a servant and he gives his life he takes care of the sheep and he says here not only did the son of man not come to be ministered unto he didn't just wait for people to do stuff for him he did stuff for them he didn't have a house he didn't have a place to lay his head but he did minister and he was very intentional in his ministry he had to go to Samaria in John chapter 4 it says I must needs go there it's not an option I have to do this and he was intentional in his ministry to the point where he says

[33:23] I didn't come just to be ministered I came out to not be ministered unto but to minister and not just minister but to give my life as a ransom in the place of many God a means whereby those who are bound by sin who are captives of Satan could be loosed from the power and penalty of sin and that ministry that he delighted to do the service that he delighted in the selfless demonstration that he gave was to give his life and the Bible says this scarcely in Romans chapter 5 would a righteous man die perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die but

[34:24] God he he sets Paul sets man apart from God but God demonstrates his own love toward us that while we were still sinners Christ died for us I would ask you two questions if you're here today and you're saved you're born again you've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ what are you aspiring to be what are you aspiring to do are you aspiring to serve is that your focus and everyone needs to be a servant in the body of Christ and I think it's been the ladies conference has been mentioned at this point with me mentioned it now like a dozen times today already but it was just mentioned that everybody just pitched in and just seemed so seamless in the body of

[35:25] Christ we don't have people to do this work in business oh yeah we got people for that bathrooms are dirty we got people trash needs to be taken out we got people the church we don't have people the people are the people does that make sense and we need to serve and it's not about who's the better servant who ministers best but to see the need and to apply oneself to the need and to do it for the glory of God that should be the heart and aim and desire of every belief if you're here today and you say David I don't know what this is all about I've not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ I have no desire to serve well I want to tell you this dear friend all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God everyone there's not a person in this room who's not a sinner we're born sinners by nature and practice we're bound by sin there's a penalty that needs to be paid the wages of sin is death the soul that sins it shall die but Christ

[36:51] Jesus came into the world to save sinners the Lord Jesus Christ left heaven became a man went to the cross died on the cross for my sin he died on the cross for your sin and the Bible says this in Acts 16 31 believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved so if you're here today and you've never believed on the Lord Jesus Christ again a penalty needs to be paid the Lord Jesus Christ paid that penalty if you do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ the word of God is clear in Revelation 20 15 whoever's name is not found written in the book of life is cast into the lake of fire it's not my word it's the word of God you know the Lord Jesus Christ is your savior so as you leave!

[37:48] am I willing to serve like Christ served and how can I serve like Christ served and the other question you can ask yourself is am I born again if you're not born again you're dead in your trespasses and sin you will spend eternity in hell in the lake of fire the solution is easy the cost was expensive the person of the Lord Jesus Christ but the solution believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved let's close in a word of prayer our God and Father I thank you for this passage of scripture that brings before us the supremacy of Christ the servant attitude of Christ the sufferings of Christ the glory that should follow but Father we're also reminded of our own selfish desires I pray oh God that you would just work in our hearts as we look at the person work and worth of the

[38:51] Lord Jesus Christ that our hearts that our minds that our lives would be changed that we would have a desire to serve as Christ served and Father I pray if there's any here that are lost that they would realize that the Lord Jesus Christ came to give his life to loose them from the power of sin to loose them from the penalty of sin I pray Father that the Spirit of God would work in their heart to convict them of their sin of unbelief that they would come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ before it's eternally too late Father I pray that you would part us with your blessing I ask this name your son the Lord Jesus Christ Amen