Mark 10:32-45 Sermon Notes
The Example of a good leader
Mark
10:32-45
Introduction
Today's
message is a look at what a leader is, and more particularly what is a good leader.
What does a leader
look like? Answer can be as simple as someone who holds an office of
importance. Our mayor (Alan Andreani) is a leader. Ron is a leader, he is our
"Lead Pastor".
What makes someone
a leader? Many are in leadership because of the position they hold how much
money they have, or even what family they were born in to. Many people have
asked the question "who is a better leader" in regards to the current
presidential race. On Monday if you had nothing better to do you might have
watched the debate between the 2 candidates, they both are trying to prove they
are a good leader. Although it seems neither has really convinced
anyone they are a "good" leader but rather they have spent most of
their time convincing voters they are better than their counterpart. Politicians...
Good leadership is what we will be exploring today.
I did a
google search on what makes a leader "good" and a great many
contemporary sources cite confidence, delegation, trustworthiness and several
other points are the key to being a good leader. These points are important to
leaders personality and style. We see this in the leadership at Wellspring and
many other churches in this community. To lead a church the lead Pastor cannot fill
all the roles himself, they would end up exhausted and frustrated. A leader
must build trust with their team and delegate roles to accomplish all the tasks
to fulfill the needs of the people they are serving. Everyone can and does have
a role in the church and in the community.
What's the opposite of good? Bad leadership...
it really goes without saying. We can all tell stories of bad leaders we have
been around. In each of our stories we could probably determine similar thing
they were lacking; possibly communication, trustworthy, selflessness. What is
it simply that all "good" leaders need to have to be good at
leadership? It is a servants heart.
Let me show you, from our text today Jesus who
is our example of the ultimate leader, was the ultimate servant.
A good
leader is the greatest servant .
They were on the road going up to
Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them; and they were amazed, and
those who followed were fearful. And again He took the twelve aside and began
to tell them what was going to happen to Him, 33saying, "Behold, we are
going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief
priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him
over to the Gentiles. 34They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and
kill Him, and three days later He will rise again."
35James 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." 36And He said to them, "What do you want Me
to do for you?" 37They said to Him, "Grant that we may sit, one on
Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory." 38But Jesus said to them,
"You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I
drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" 39They
said to Him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, "The cup that
I drink you shall drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which
I am baptized. 40But 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."
1.
Jesus is the ultimate example of a
leader Mark 10:32-40
Jesus takes a moment and pulls his disciples aside and tells them some
pretty earth shattering news here. “We are going up to Jerusalem and there I am
going to be killed” This is craziness, if you knew something was going to kill
you wouldn’t you stop? If you stand in the middle of State Street you are going
to get hit! . Did Jesus have some death wish? No rather he states in verse 34,
“After three days he will rise” He end an end game in mind. He had his eyes on
the purpose of his life. While his disciples thought he was here to establish
his Kingdom. Jesus was here to serve all mankind by saving them. The Disciples should have knew it well because
this wasn’t the first time that Jesus had stated this to them. (Mark 8:31) And He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and
the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise
again. (Mark 9:31) For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, "The Son of
Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when
He has been killed, He will rise three days later."
Jesus was preparing them for what he knew was coming. This horrible thing
that was coming would turn their world upside down. Why didn't Jesus stop and
turn around and quit his mission of death? It was going to kill him, it was
going to disrupt the disciples lives, it was going to hurt Jesus's family too.
Jesus kept going towards this horrible end because of the positive impact it
would have. Knowing it was the hardest task that any man would have to
undertake. Only a servant would have this type of job to undertake. Not the
leader... right?
(Verse 35) James and John approach Jesus with a request. Apparently Jesus'
statement had made them very bold and they decided to get in on the action.
“Make us the most important underneath you Jesus they ask”. Now we all have
aspirations and goals in our lives, James and John saw an opportunity to make a move to achieve
their goal of leadership. However Jesus in says to them, “You do not know what
you ask”. Realize that Jesus had to die a horrible death to achieve his goal.
It is hard to tell what James and John thought Jesus was saying. But we can
gather they did not really believe him. Maybe the whole death thing was
"just something Jesus said, he's not serious... he tells a lot of stories,
this is just another story". Jesus
knew that James and John would have to suffer in great ways. It seems like
James and John thought they were going to march on up to Jerusalem and Jesus
would take the throne and set up his kingdom! So of course this would be the
moment to take their chance and ask for the heads of state position. What they
did not realize was there were no positions being given out, there was no government
to set up. " Do you have what it takes?" Jesus asks them. Jesus was
on his way to be killed, and there was no physical end game, servants like
Jesus do not give out promotions. There is only work, to do as far as Jesus is
concerned. Following Jesus' death and resurrection, there was to be more persecution,
more ridicule. There was no life of ease coming. In fact James was the first
one of the disciples to be killed. (Acts 12) John many believe lived the
longest of all of the disciples, and wrote a good portion of the New Testament,
however he had to see all of his brothers the Disciples (Apostles) be killed
41Hearing
this, the ten began to feel indignant with James and John. 42Calling
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. 43But
it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you
shall be your servant; 44and
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. 45For
even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His
life a ransom for many."
Position does not make you a leader Mark
10:41-45
The rest of the followers hear James and John’s great idea to be the top
guys and they become upset because, well they want to be top guys. They have
not gotten the point there is no government to set up. And Jesus takes a moment
to tell them about true leadership. Many people reach for leadership, maybe
because they believe that by having position will make them better. However
they are not willing to do the work. They want to say “I’m in the band”, but
they never showed up to guitar lessons. What
would happen if the leader of any rock band never learned guitar It would a
pretty quiet band. It goes deeper than that though. You have to serve others,
to be the band leader you have to be willing to teach and maybe do a one on one
lesson with the keyboardist so you can make the band better. It requires hours
and hours of commitment to be a professional band. What you see in concert for
1 hour takes 1000s of hours of prep. Practice, meetings, travel, setup, loss of
sleep ect. What Jesus tells them that whoever wants to lead has to do the most work!
Consider what Jesus had to do to attain the status of Savior, He had to leave
glory, (the best place ever) and come to this sinful world and become a person
which in comparison to what he had is not that great, then he had to suffer
like no other has, be rejected, beat, called names and ultimately suffocate to
death. And then have the power to revive! That’s what it took to become the
savior of the world.
We are all leaders. You’re a mother, you’re a leader. You’re a janitor
you’re a leader. You’re a student you are a leader. We are all leaders!
How do we lead?
If I’m a leader what’s my position?
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but
to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
Jesus did not come to take a position, that is meaningless. He came to
serve you!
Application: Leadership Is it for
you?
The greatest
leaders are the greatest servants
James and
John had it wrong they wanted the
position. However what they missed was the point that the position was
meaningless. What’s it take to be the leader? You have to be the first one in
to unlock the door and turn on the lights and the last one out. You might have
to mop a floor, clean a toilet or sweep a floor. Not because you are looking
for a position but rather because it needs done.The greatest leaders work
harder than any others around, and they look at the needs of those around them.
They find ways to help others serve. They are the ultimate servants just like
their Christ.
You may have
sat here through this whole message thinking this is not for you. You are not a
ministry leader, you are not a supervisor at work, and you are not a parent.
How can this even apply to you? Well it does! Leadership begins with service,
Jesus our savior began by serving remember he did not gain the highest office
of spirituality by birthright (even though he could have). Rather he did it by
doing the most selfless thing ever, giving up every comfort and lovely thing
and got himself on death row so he could help all people! You are a leader in
training and you are a leader, everyone has someone looking to them to move.
Your talents and abilities have been given to you for a reason, not to attain a
high office rather to serve others.
The last
couple of weeks there have been a big blow up at Wells Fargo bank. I have a
personal interest in this story because I worked at a bank and I have quite a
number of friends who are bankers. What happened is a large amount of accounts
were opened by bankers without customers consent. How would you like it if you
found out there was a savings account opened in your name that you had no idea
about. This happened to thousands of people. Now in most retail bank branches
where you would think about going into and doing your banking the bankers most
of them do not manage people, but they are leaders. How? They are leaders to
their customers. You as the customer look at these banker to be about their best
interest. So what happened at Wells Fargo was a lack of leadership in the
bankers, they selfishly opened accounts to help them reach their goals. The
goal was to open more accounts and receive more bonus. Instead of doing it honestly they opened bad
accounts and proved they had bad leadership. Do you have what it takes? Jesus
followed through he didn’t stop when the ridicule got too much, he did not
complain about walking too much. He carried on! Jesus died, his death was not
unexpected, he knew for over 30 years he
was going to die. If you knew something was going to kill you would you keep
doing it? Sure people do that all the time. Usually it is for selfish reasons, because it makes YOU feel better. But
would you do something that was miserable and awful that you knew would kill
you? Jesus did because he knew it would give the opportunity to save each and
every one of us from eternal damnation? What about you? Can you selflessly take
leadership and do what it takes to serve your neighbors your community? Let us
decide for a moment that you are going to come and serve with the Halloween
Trick or Treat here at the Mall at the end of this month. Great thank you! You
get no title or position rather have a responsibility to serve here passing out
candy, to possibly dress up in a ridiculous costume. You're not doing this for
the position you will get rather because you are a good leader.
Conclusion
Let me leave
you with this story
One wet and miserable morning in Source: Reported in Los Angeles Times Syndicate.
Are you
willing to be like Ray? to put aside your best interest and go serve someone in
need. Ray did not ask "What's in it for me? Ray was awarded a medal, but
he probably did not even know that existed. He saw a opportunity to serve, not
an opportunity to attain greatness. Asking "What's in it for me? , or what
is my title?" that's not smart it is selfish! If Ray asked these question
the little girl he saved would not have survived. Like Ray I challenge you to
jump into your storm drain and take action. Go serve others, just like Jesus,
not for your glory, but the glory of God. I commit to hold you to the same
accountability I intend you to hold me, to serve with no intentions in mind. Let's
go jump in a storm drain!
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