The Kingdom No.3 Revolutionary Government

So again, Matthew 20 verse 20, I'll just wait for the rustling to stop and I know you've made it there, great. Then the mother of Zebedee's son came to Jesus with her sons and kneeling down asked a favor of him. What is it you want? He asked.

She said, grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other on your left in your kingdom. You don't know what you're asking, Jesus said to them. Can you drink the cup I am going to drink? We can, they answered.

Jesus said to them, you will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my father. When the 10 heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers.

Jesus called them together and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servants and whoever wants to be first must be your slave.

Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. May the Lord bless his word. Just before we come to that word, I would like us to use the Lord's prayer together.

Prayer which our saviour taught us, and I'd like us to sing this. At the end of the prayer or towards the end of the prayer, it lifts into a doxology. That means an anthem of praise and prediction.

It says, thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. And there's only one thing very often that keeps me going in terms of having any optimistic spirit at all. When one thinks of the circumstances in this country and around the world, and that is that ultimately his is the kingdom, the power and the glory, and our Lord Jesus Christ shall return and take up the government which will be placed firmly and confidently on his shoulders.

Let's stand for the Lord's prayer. Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. And Father, in the solemnity of these moments, we offer to you the confusion of our land and those who are so dispirited, those who have mortgages and have been forced to sell their properties and as a result are in debt, with no holding in terms of a house whatsoever.

We bring to you with infinite compassion those mining villages in North Derbyshire and South Yorkshire. Lord, have mercy upon us and help us not with words only but with action to try the best we can to help those who are in need and to pressure those who've got decisions wrong. Now, Lord, speak to us through your own holy and inerrant word.

For the Saviour's sake. Amen. You might like to have your Bibles open at Matthew in chapter 20.

We're always so glad when you do hear the rustling of the leaves of Bibles in the tab. We say many times, but then there are always people here who are in for the first occasion. Tim, Eric, myself, Nick, anyone else who helps lead our service in terms of the preaching really has nothing else to say but what is found in this book.

And our purpose is to make it clear, we buckle our minds and our wills to this book for what we have to share in terms of our own reasoning is fallible. But when we speak accurately from this book, then preaching the word of God, as John Calvin daringly argued, is the word of God. Here's the words of the blessed Lord in the 27th verse of the 20th chapter.

Whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. We're talking about the kingdom, the kingdom that our Lord Jesus came to set up that is already invisibly present in our world and one day shall be visibly manifest. We're talking about wrong attitudes that sometimes surface within the kingdom.

We're challenging one another with the bottom line, are you in the kingdom? And if you are, how goes it with you as a citizen of the only kingdom that is really worth belonging to? In the funeral oration as depicted by William Shakespeare, on the death of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony leads off with that famous speech, Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. He goes on to say that his advent on the stage at that time is not in any way to adulate Caesar but rather just commemorate the fact that he has passed from this particular scene of time. He goes on in the funeral oration to say of Caesar that actually he was quite a humble man.

He refused on three occasions the highest honor that Rome could profit to him. And Antony goes on, did this in Caesar seem ambitious? Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. And if I were to give a title in preference to the one that we've printed for me to speak on this evening, I think I would opt for that.

The sterner stuff of proper ambition. It says one Puritan, seek not great things for yourself in this world, for if your garments belong they will make you stumble. The man who spent some years in Hove, he had this to say, the itch to have the preeminence is one disease from which no natural cure has ever been found.

We're confronted in the Bible reading this evening with the story of a woman, a mother, who has a concern, an ambition for her boys. You can read a parallel account in the Gospel of Mark and in the tenth chapter. Here in the rendering that we get as far as Matthew is concerned, she actually is the spokesman for her two lads as she comes to the Lord Jesus on one occasion and she says, your kingdom, when you come to your kingdom, my two lads, fine lads they be, one on your right, the other on your left.

She's an interesting person is this mother. Actually Mark doesn't make any reference to her and some people have suggested quite curiously that maybe Matthew introduces her on the stage to make this request because well he's writing thirty years afterwards and by that time a halo has gone over the heads of the disciples and no disciple would be so pretentious as to bring to our Lord Jesus such a request as this asking for preeminence. The fact of the matter is that the writers who suggest that have an ingenious way of failing to comprehend just how concerned a loving mother is for the advancement of her boy, her girl, her family.

This woman comes to Jesus and she does so in a very striking fashion. Look at verse 21, verse 20. She actually kneels down.

She doesn't start to speak until Jesus pauses and says to her, as she shows the respect that she has for him, what is it you want? And then she discloses what her concern is for her boys. What's your ambition? What's the thing that you want more than anything else? In one sense it's not wrong to have a goal to which you're working. Every Christian should have a goal.

Every person should have one dominating idea that commands their attention and to which they're inexorably moving. One of the problems of the twentieth century is that we have a mishmash of people who often don't really have any clear philosophy of life whatsoever. And as a result, there seems to be no purpose, no rhyme, no reason.

This mother, she has concerns for her children. She's described as the mother of Zebedee's sons, which seems to suggest that Zebedee, her husband, perhaps has passed away. If you check the narratives that refer to the womenfolk who often followed our Lord Jesus, were part of the silent entourage, so to speak, then you can make some deductions and come to the conclusion that this woman is none other than Salome, the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

That means to say that you've got Jesus' aunt kneeling down, waiting to speak. I have fifteen aunties. Not one has ever knelt down and waited for me to speak.

Aunties don't generally deal in such a fashion with nephews. But this is no ordinary nephew. And the sons of this woman are, by the application of pure logic, none other than the cousins of Jesus.

Nephew, when you come to your kingdom, John on the right hand, you think, and James on the left hand. Isn't it interesting that our blessed Lord doesn't get angry at this point? I've said on so many occasions, it's the patience of Jesus that wins me to Him. If there was nothing else in His character that would, that stood out as being unusual, this for me would be sufficient to act as a magnet.

Look at verse 20. You see, the problem is that very often we read Scripture a little bit too quickly. Then the mother of Zebedee's sons.

When? Then. Just after something else that He had said had lodged in the minds of the disciples. What had previously been the subject matter of Jesus' conversation? Well, the 17th through to the 19th verses will tell you.

He had been talking to them, and presumably the women folk as well, talking to the disciples about what was just round the corner for Him. As He got to Jerusalem, the Son of Man, His favorite title to describe Himself, will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They'll condemn Him to death.

They'll turn Him over to the Gentiles. He'll be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day, He will be raised to life.

Then? I don't award a prize for diplomacy this past week to our cabinet. It's not for me to get into the ins and outs of the economic situation. Though I've got some reasons which have been articulated already in prayer as to why we're in the mess that we are in.

But we deserved greater diplomacy. And those men in the north and Wales deserved the package delivered a little bit more skillfully. Then, the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus.

He's been talking about His awful death, which is just round the corner. The bloodiest way that man has ever contrived of to rob his fellow of life. And Jesus has said, that is what is in store for me.

Then, this lady comes and says, my two boys. Crass insensitivity. I was speaking from Jonah the other Sunday morning.

And I said that one of the heart aching things, hear me, that sometimes grips me as a preacher and it goes for other preachers too. Is that sometimes you preach from the depth of your being and you know. You know that what you have shared does come from the Lord.

That is not being immodest. That is stating a fact. And people listen without really hearing.

They seem to be absorbed without really concentrating. And occasions, especially on a Monday morning, you think, why did I really bother? Lord, I prayed as plainly as I could. He, she, they've heard this not once, not twice, not one month, not two months, not one year, not two years, ten years, twenty years.

But look Lord, is there really any point in preaching at all? You see, this auntie of Jesus, she's been around as a blessed Lord, has taken a little child, look at chapter 19 and verse 13, and stood one in front of the disciples and said, let the children come to me. Verse 14, do not hinder them for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. Our Lord has said in the 30th verse of the 19th chapter, but many who are first will be last and many who are last will be first.

He spelt out kingdom principles in the 20th chapter when he speaks of the workers in the vineyard and shown that the ethics of secular society do not belong here. Here is our blessed Lord and time after time, he's spoken this lesson of humility and spelt out the fact that the way up is the way down. And this aunt of his who he obviously respects, she slips alongside and waits for him to look at her and she says, Lord, my two lads in your kingdom, right, left, then, when, after he'd already told her and others that this was not the right way of approach, when, after he spelled out the horrors of the death that was just in front of him, when will they ever learn? When will we ever learn? But I don't just want to deal negatively with this aunt of Jesus.

I also want to deal positively with her. You see, there are some things that you can say to her credit. This is one of them.

She believes Jesus when he speaks. You see, our Lord has said in the 28th verse of the 19th chapter, I tell you the truth at the renewal of all things, that means the end of time, when the son of man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. She does believe Jesus.

When he spells out the fact of his death, she has the faith to go beyond the death and conceive of life afterwards. She has the faith to believe that what Jesus says will come about. And therefore, we can put that down on the credit side.

No sane woman would ask her sons to sit on the right hand and the left hand of a man who was destined to go to the gallows. And then, she does seem to feel some encouragement, I would have thought, in as much as Jesus had twelve disciples. Well, there were an inner three, were there not? And her two lads, they were part of the inner three.

And Peter disgraced himself because Jesus said to him, Get you behind me, Satan man. Lord, when you come into your kingdom, you know, here's a good suggestion. My two boys.

Have you noticed how Peter, in the 27th verse of the 19th chapter, he reminds our Lord Jesus that he and the rest of the bunch have left everything to follow him. And here comes a question that is as modern and as contemporary now as it was in the days when it was uttered. What then will there be for us? Lord, following you, what's in it for us? You know, the greatest thing that our Lord Jesus wants from you is unqualified devotion.

Not because of what you can get out of him. But because of who he is. Lord, if your kingdom is going to be established next week or next month or next year, then think about my boys.

Jesus, he does not criticize the woman and the two lads are there. He does not criticize them for impertinence, but rather for ignorance. He says, verse 22, you don't know what you're asking.

In the Aramaic culture of our Lord's day, and indeed in Hebrew tradition, the metaphor of giving a person a drink had two interpretations. Jesus says, can you drink the cup I am going to drink? And there is a sense in which you can be given a cup which will be of great benefit to you personally, and indeed to all who imbibe it. For example, the 23rd Psalm, it gives you an obvious illustration of this.

You prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows.

There is the cup of blessing. There is also the cup of cursing. It's well illustrated in the 25th chapter of the prophecy of Jeremiah.

Here is some of the most fearful language in the Old Testament. It refers to the wrath of God being poured out against the pagan nations in those days. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me.

Jeremiah 25, verse 15, take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them. What does it mean? It means this, that this gracious and loving God who longs to pardon and show mercy is also a God who will not unendingly tolerate sin.

The Bible speaks about the wrath of God, which is revealed from heaven against all manner of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. You say, but all men have done that in some measure, and you're quite right. Then how can the cup of wrath be turned into the cup of blessing? Well, did you not know that when our Lord was in the Garden of Gethsemane, some days after this event, He was praying to the Father? He's got Calvary in mind, and there in the darkness, only tinged by a little light that came from the full moon, as He's amongst the olive groves, He says, Father, as He recoils from the punishment that is in store, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.

What cup was He referring to? The cup of God's wrath, which would fall upon Him instead upon people who had sinned against the Lord and deserved His condemnation. Jesus says to this woman, you don't know what you're asking. There is not a way in which a follower of mine can drink the cup that I am going to drink in terms of atoning for the sins of the world.

But someone who follows Me will discover that the road to glory also is the road to suffering. And that to be My disciple, you have to take up your cross. There is a sense in which you have to drink a cup which is, at the human level, unacceptable.

So Jesus says to these two men, can you drink the cup I'm going to drink? And all credit to them, they say, we can, we can. And yet, when they're put on test, when our Lord is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, James and John, like the other ten, are nowhere to be found. In one sense, they were right, inasmuch as eventually they came back.

And John, well, he is exiled. At the end of his life, he suffers a long period as a prisoner. And James, he is executed quickly.

One sword decapitates him. And the description is found in the twelfth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. But Jesus has to steady them at this stage.

He says, you will indeed drink from My cup. He perceives the way that they will ultimately die. But He goes on to say, to sit at My right hand, or at My left hand, is not for Me to grant.

These places belong to those who have been prepared by My Father. The other ten disciples, they hear something of this exchange, and they're very indignant. Look at verse 24.

When the ten heard about this, they were angry with the two brothers. And Jesus acts as an arbitrator, and He says, come together, fellows, and let Me set down the principles of the kingdom. And He starts to teach how what applies in the pagan, Gentile world is inverted as far as His kingdom is concerned.

He stands the pyramid on end, and He says, the way up is actually the way down. Or as one Puritan puts it, if you lay yourself at Christ's feet, He will take you into His arms. John Bunyan puts it, he that is down, they need fear no fall.

He that is low, no pride. He that is humble ever shall have God to be his guide. Jesus, in effect, is telling these disciples and the mother that ambition must be made of sterner stuff.

There is a different law that really obtains as far as His kingdom is concerned. It's not the law of the free enterprise market. It's not the law of the secular government which vie for the positions of authority.

You read the diaries of our politicians if you want illustration of this. Read what Nigel Lawson is having to say about the years when he was in the cabinet and the petty fogging disputes that existed there on the part of men and women who were so influential as far as the government of our country is concerned in the last ten years. He says, Our Lord Jesus, it's not like that.

My kingdom is not like that. The ethic is not like that. No, he says, if you want an illustration of how greatness comes about, then consider the Son of Man, verse 28.

Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Why did Jesus come into the world? Isaiah chapter 53 is what our Lord has at the back of His mind when He's making this particular comment. It talks about the suffering servant, one who would expire in a terrible way.

Die an awful death. But that death would bring about the salvation of not the world in total, but the many who believe. How do you become a Christian? By placing your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.

How did Jesus make it possible for us to become Christians? And the answer is this. By taking upon Himself the role of a servant. By giving His life in the interests of others.

You see how diametrically opposed is the example of our Lord to the request of His auntie. To the request of the rest of the disciples. They vie for positions of authority.

Jesus says, no, you've got it wrong. Don't you appreciate the example of my life? The Son of God, I come into the world. I've every right to assert my rights, but I never do.

I give my life as a ransom in the interests of other people. The way to please the Father, the route to glory, is a road marked humility and self-crucifixion. Now don't you understand, here in the 20th century, that's exactly the same.

This is the life to which the Lord Jesus is calling you and me. Not assertion. Not in it for the main chance.

Not to say to the Lord Jesus, what am I going to get out of this? But rather, to respond to John chapter 3 verse 16. And then live your life by 1 John chapter 3 verse 16. What does John 3 verse 16 say? For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

What does 1 John chapter 3 verse 16 say? Almost the same. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

That's the stuff that biblical ambition is made of. Stirner stuff than Rides Supreme in the Houses of Parliament. Stirner stuff than the pivot on which so much of European civilization swings.

This is the stuff that says, as for me, my life I dedicate to Jesus Christ and I serve in the interests of others down the years of my earthly pilgrimage. This is the ethic of the kingdom. The inversion of the pyramid.

The 3, 2, 1. To which Steve Chalk made reference in that brilliant program that the BBC put out. They do put some good stuff out. Last week when Steve was saying and teaching that most people live their philosophy of life.

Me, others and possibly God. The inversion is God, others, me. In Yorkshire we put it like this.

The Yorkshire type who prays to the Lord. Lord bless me, my wife, our two boys, us four, no more. The inversion of that.

Lord I live for you in the interests of others and I come last. It's the foot washing principle. It's the life example of our Lord Jesus that you and I are to follow.

Because there the King gives us an illustration of kingdom principles. So I ask, is your ambition of the sterner stuff that Jesus demonstrates? Let's pray. And just a moment for you to examine your life.

To ask what your ambitions are. Do they have any eternal consequence? A house, a car, a couple of kids, assuming you're married. A job, good health, long life.

Nothing wrong in any of those taken on their own. But if that's your ambition it's not made of stern enough stuff. One day you won't have your health because your life will come to an end.

One day you won't have your partner, she will have gone or you will have gone. One day you won't have your job. At the end, what will you have achieved? Remember the graveyard in Paris? The gravestone to which I've made reference on so many occasions.

Which has as the epitaph, here lies the remains of a man who went out of the world. Not knowing why he came into it. What a sad thing.

To come to the end bankrupt. Because you had no ambition of sterner stuff. Why not now? Make a peace with the blessed Lord Jesus.

Ask that his precious blood, that cup that he took which was so awful. That that may be the means of cleansing you from your sins. And then promise him by the power of his spirit that you'll go the way that he went.

Living your life for God and in the interest of others. And the Lord Jesus will gladly take you into his kingdom. And own you as his.

And promise you, perhaps not the right hand or the left hand. When he comes as king. But at least that you will be a citizen.

In that unending age. When Jesus shall reign. Father, receive the responses of all within this sanctuary this evening.

Deliver us from the meaningless ambition. And help us to live lives of quality. For your honor and for your glory.

Amen. Remind me of the number of the last hymn, please. 162.

Speaks of our beloved Lord. This great hymn of Graham Kendrick. From heaven you came helpless babe.

Entered our world your glory veiled. Not to be served but to serve and give you a life that we might live. We're going to take an offering as we sing this hymn.

And then after we've taken this offering there will be an opportunity for you. To give an additional sacrificial offering. Especially for people in Somalia.

We're going to help fund the relief project. Mounted by tear fund colleagues. In that troubled part of Somalia.

Christian people need to put their money where their prayers are. And so I challenged you last week to take out one day's food. And give the equivalent.

Certainly one meal. Give the equivalent to Somalia. I don't do a transfer now robbing Peter to pay Paul.

That doesn't count. A sacrifice for folk who are in need. Well there will be buckets around the church.

And that's what those buckets are for. As you leave. But this offering is for the work of the Lord here.

And mission work abroad. 162. Let's stand.

From heaven you came helpless babe. Entered our world your glory veiled. Not to be served but to stand behind him.

This is our love. The stars that speak of sacrificial space. To cruelness surrender.

This is our love. The stars that speak of sacrificial space. This is our love.