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Series finale from Matthew 20:17-34
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Before we dive into God's Word, I want to share something with you. I didn't prepare a sermon for you this morning. What we're going to do today is read God's Word together and let the Holy Spirit minister to us as we go. Some of you might think, "How can I come to church without a sermon?" But let me show you something Jesus did.
In Luke 4, beginning in verse 16, Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. As was his custom, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath. He stood up to read—not to preach, but to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled it and found the place where it was written:
The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor; he has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
He read two verses, rolled up the scroll, gave it back, sat down, and gave one exhortation: "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." So it is not unbiblical to just read the scriptures together.
In Matthew 20, beginning in verse 17, as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and on the way he said to them:
See, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged.
Flogging was a severe form of punishment. They would use a whip called the cat of nine tails—a pole with leather straps and metal or bone at the ends. When you struck someone with that whip, it would go into the skin, and when you pulled it away, it would rip the flesh off the person.
Isaiah, who wrote 700 years before Christ was born, tells us that Christ was so badly beaten when he was flogged that his face and body were unrecognizable. His flesh was torn so badly that they could not make out the appearance of his face.
I just want to remind you that he did that for your sin and for my sin. That's the price he had to pay for the sins that you and I committed. This is why we should not love sin. This is why we should hate sin. When we see it operating in our lives, in the church, in our culture—we should be grieved over sin.
As followers of Christ, we cannot stare at the brutal weapon of the Lord, at what he suffered on the cross, and then turn away and just enjoy the pleasures of sin. I'm going to keep talking about this until it gets tattooed to your heart—that we would be a people who learn to hate sin, hate iniquity, hate these things that grieve the heart of God. When sin operates in me, my heart is bruised and broken, and I keep running to him in repentance.
He will be crucified and he will be raised on the third day.
This is the Lord, for the third time, prophesying to his followers about his coming death, burial, and resurrection. What a powerful word.
They are raised—just remind them to have hope beyond the grave. I'm reminded that for all of us whose names have been written in the Book of Life, we have hope beyond the grave. Nobody has to lie at our funeral. They can speak with confidence that the believer whose body lays in a box has gone into the presence of the Lord.
One day we will leave this broken body, and people will mourn a dead shell. But we will say, "Don't cry for us too long, for we have left this earthen vessel and gone into the presence of God Almighty." I'm so thankful that the Lord was raised. We should always be excited about that word. If Christ is not raised, we have nothing to believe in at all. There is no Christianity if Christ is not raised. He is not only the progenitor of a religion—he is the only progenitor who's not in a grave.
Then immediately after his declaration, the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons and, kneeling before him, she asked for something. Jesus said to her, "What do you want from me?"
I find it interesting that this mother, immediately after the Lord testified about his death, burial, and resurrection, came to make a request. She said:
Say that my two sons are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left hand, in your kingdom.
When I first read this, I thought: this woman just heard that the Lord is about to be brutally executed, and her response is a request? You missed the whole point of what he was saying. You're worried about glory for your sons, and he's talking about suffering.
Notice in the text—she came and knelt before him with the two sons, which is an act of worship. Then in the presence of worship, the first thing she does is seek his hand, but not his face. She enters into worship and then uses worship as an opportunity to get to her vision board.
We do the same thing, don't we? And I just feel like something changes in our lives when we don't see the presence of God as only a means of getting stuff from him, but as the greater means of getting him.
I want to say something to some of you, and I know it might sound boring: the greatest thing you could get in prayer is Christ himself. It's going into his presence. Sometimes you just sit with him, loving on him. There are times I go into his presence and I'm not pleading with him for something—I'm just sitting there with him, enjoying him, being loved by him.
Sometimes I'll say crazy things like, "Lord, would you just hear me for just a second while I'm here?" He may never do that, but I've said it. I've said, "Lord, even if I just see your feet, I'll take from the knees down and I'll be satisfied with that." And I'll say, "Lord, I just want you to know that I love you and I just want to be here with you." I lean into his presence, and then my prayer time is not boring. I'm not on a clock. I'm not just trying to get through five minutes. I'm actually going in there to sit with the person that I love.
I want to encourage some of you who struggle to pray. You go there thinking, "How can I talk to the Lord for fifteen or twenty minutes? I'm going to run out of things to say." Just practice his presence. Go in there and put on some worship music or instrumental worship. Sit inside and just feel his presence. Get visions of him raised and glorified. Get visions of fire in his eyes. Get visions of the fact that he's coming back to get you.
Just learn to sit there in his presence for a little while. Think about the person you're talking to. Think about where he sees you. Just sit in his presence for a little while and warm up yourself to him. Every now and then, when you go into his presence, get a flashback of where he has brought you from.
"Lord, you took me from dirt. You took me from the street. You took me when I was a knucklehead. You saved me when..." Just get a flashback of what he's done for you. When I was a hoe in the street, Lord, you came and got me. When I was in and out of beds, you came and got me. When I was whing out in the flesh, you came and got me. And just sit there and just love on him for just a little bit and feel his presence.
Then lean into your heart: "Lord, I'm struggling with shame and I'm wrestling with insecurities. I know I'll be posting things because I want attention, but help me to get delivered from the brokenness of not having my father or not being affirmed by my mother. Lord, I'm angry with this person because of the way they treat me. Lord, I had a tough week at my job." And you just start pouring out your heart. You haven't even asked him for anything yet, and you look up and you've been there for an hour.
You turn the secret place into your vice. So every time your heart is heavy, you keep running back there. So a bottle won't be my vice. A blunt won't be my vice. That China White won't be my vice. That boy won't be my vice. Jesus becomes your vice.
When you make the secret place your vice, Jesus, then when you think about all the hell you keep going through in life—because life is a conveyor belt of challenges—if the secret place becomes your vice, man, you look up one day and all of the hell has produced in you intimacy with Christ. In the shower, in the car, at the light, in the cubicle at the job, while you're walking in the park, when you're driving down the highway—you can turn any place into a secret place.
This is the highest activity any human being will ever engage in in this life. There is no activity you will ever engage in that's more important than just sitting in the presence of the Lord. My marital problems—my secret place. My insecurities—my secret place. Don't feel like a good father this week—my secret place. Feeling jealous—my secret place. Wrestling with thoughts in my mind that are unholy—my secret place. Got needs that I can't meet for myself—my secret place. I just keep coming up next to the Lord.
I enjoy walking into my secret place. I close the door and immediately I feel his presence. All the tears that we shed, all the pain that we're feeling in this life—I'm telling you something powerful happens deep in your heart when you make the secret place your vice. All of the hell of life keeps driving me to that secret place.
Sometimes I don't have to be going through hell to go into my secret place. Sometimes I, Philip Anthony Mitchell, I just want to slip away and slip away from responsibilities and just sneak away for just a little bit to go sit in God's presence in the secret place.
Jesus answered her: "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?"
The cup he's referring to is his suffering. He's saying: "You're asking me for glory, but are you prepared to suffer? You want stages, but are you prepared to suffer? You want my ministry, but are you prepared to suffer? You want platforms, but can you really pay the price for that? You want to be famous, but can you handle the heat that comes with that? You want to be known, but can you handle the heat that comes with that?"
He's talking to them about suffering while they're asking about glory.
They said to him, "We are able." And he said to them:
You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left hand is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.
Notice he said it's not for him to grant those two seats. The mother is asking for something for her children that's not God's will for her children. We who have children need to be careful not to try to manipulate a path for our children that may not be God's will for them.
This mother is trying to manipulate a path for her two sons that's not God's will. I think we as parents have to be careful of trying to force our children down pathways that we think is best for them that may not be God's will for them. Maybe a greater goal in our parenthood is not only to train them up as disciples but to also try to lead them down the pathways that God prepared for them.
What if college is not in God's will? What if he's calling them to be a missionary? What if he's calling them to do something that we don't think is right? We got to be careful not to manipulate a will for our children that's not God's will. We could be unnecessarily disappointed at them if they don't go to the school you want them to go to, when God may be calling them to do something different.
He said that these two boys would drink his cup, and we know that they did suffer for the Lord. James was one of the first apostles martyred by King Herod Agrippa in the 40s AD. John was boiled in oil and survived, and was banished to a prison island called Patmos, about twenty miles off the coast of Ephesus.
We know that they did suffer. They did drink of that cup. And all of us who are followers drink in the same cup right now. We are suffering. We are going through hardships. We are going through trials.
Let me just say this: these last two months have been hell for my wife and me—for things I won't say across the camera. I found myself loathing and complaining the other day, and my wife came to me and encouraged me. I had to repent and wring out my heart from all of my complaining.
I began to say something crazy in my prayer time: "God, thank you for all the hell you're allowing Lena and me to go through. Thank you for the suffering you're allowing us to go through. You are drawing me closer to you in my suffering." When I thought about the struggles we have as a ministry with building and the city, I said to myself, "Who, man? This is light work. I ain't resisting to the point of shedding blood."
I said, "Man, all these trials we've been through, this is light and momentary afflictions that it's not going to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed." And I had to wring out my heart from complaining before the Lord.
Maybe you're doing something in me in my suffering. Every time we suffer, our prayer should be: "Lord, do something in me while I'm going through this suffering."
When the ten heard this, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called them and said to them:
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant.
If we would be great, we must seek to be great servants. We will seek to be great servants at our jobs, in our businesses, in ministry. If we really want to be great, I am not great because I have a big Instagram following. I am great if I make myself a great servant.
What I'm doing right now is serving. The more we serve, the more we pray for others, the more we go the extra mile. For those of you who work under employers: if you have a second-mile attitude, if you go the extra mile, if you're the first one in and the last one out, you make it hard for them to fire you. You make yourself so valuable because you're a great servant. That second-mile service—Chick-fil-A didn't create that. Jesus created that right in the first century.
They had something called conscription. A Roman soldier could walk up to a Jew, take off his armor, hand it to the Jew, and say, "Follow me for one mile." But the Lord told us: "Don't only go one mile, but go an extra mile." When that Roman soldier saw that follower going the extra mile, they would be blown away. "What kind of people is this?" That's where that second-mile service came from.
Then he said to them:
The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
As they went out from Jericho, a great crowd followed him. And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the road. In another gospel, we're told that one of them was named Bartimaeus. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out:
Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!
They had no physical sight, but they had more revelation than the people alive in that day who had natural sight. They knew Jesus was the Messiah. The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent. But they cried out all the more.
This is powerful to me because it shows that you must be persistent in prayer. Sometimes you could be going through something very traumatic, and we don't just pray about it one time or ten times. Man, we keep seeking the Lord to give us strength and grace, mercy or answers. These men were persistent.
Jesus called them and said:
What do you want me to do for you?
Every time I see something like this, it's hard for me to read because I love the scriptures, man. The Lord is asking them what they want from him. It's like he's giving them an opportunity to exercise their own faith in this miracle. People say, "Why do I have to pray if he already knows what I want?" But he wants you to be dependent upon him. He wants you to partner with him in prayer. He wants you to lean in.
They said to him:
Lord, let our eyes be opened.
That's what I pray for everybody—let our eyes be opened.
And Jesus, in pity, having mercy, touched their eyes. And immediately they recovered their sight. You can only recover what you already had before. This means these men probably were not always blind. They could see at one time, and at some point they lost their sight.
This reminds me of those times when I feel like I'm having a good season spiritually, and then I stumble into a bad season spiritually. I feel like I can't see. I can't hear from God. I feel like he's not listening to my prayers. I feel like, man, I'm feeling cold on the inside, like I've lost my sight.
But man, I got hope that I could recover. I feel that in my spirit. I got hope that I can recover. Man, I don't know who this is for, but you can recover. You can get back your sight. Back your zeal. Back your fire. Back your sensitivity.
I feel that in my spirit. You are not too far gone that you can't get it back. Your prayer life is cold? You can get that back. You feel distant from God? You can get that intimacy back. You feel like he's not here in your prayers? You can get that back.
You've lost things that you think you can't get back. You can get your zeal back. You can get your fire back. You can get your intimacy back. You can get your prayer life back. You could get your ministry back. You could get your confidence back. You could get your holy swagger back.
I know what it is to be on fire one season and cold the next. And to feel self-condemning—like, "Lord, man, I ain't been talking to you. I haven't been reading my word. I have not been faithful on this team." And then you beat yourself up as if he did not know you would slip into that cold place, as if he doesn't have enough pity to be compassionate and merciful.
Just the other day I had to remind myself from the Psalms that his love is steadfast. His mercy endures forever. He's quick to forgive. He's slow to anger. He's just waiting for you to run back into his arms.
Yes, your prayer life feels cold and wood. Yes, he feels far away. He's as close as a prayer of honesty. "Lord, I feel like I have lost fill in the blank." Sometimes the best prayer you could pray is just "Lord, help." Just "Lord, have mercy on me, Son of David."
Let me tell you what happened this week. I got up that morning discouraged, telling the Lord I feel like I've been a failure for two months. Lena and I went to the mall at South Lake, and we had a meeting at one o'clock coming up. We went to the food court to grab something to eat.
I was standing there minding my own business, keeping my head on a swivel like I do when I'm in the streets, keeping that head on a swizzle. Lena was standing right there, and I was right behind her. This guy walked by me, real close, and he stopped and turned around and locked eyes with me. Yeah, and I locked eyes with him. He walks up on me and he dabs me up real hard.
He said, "Keep preaching, man of God. My name is Elder so-and-so. I know people are persecuting you, but the Lord says to you: keep preaching that word, man of God. Don't come down off that wall. Don't stop talking. Keep preaching that word, man of God."
He was squeezing my hand. And as he's talking to me, man, I began to cry. Tears started falling from my eyes. I had told the Lord that morning I got up discouraged, feeling like I've been a failure for two months. And here comes a stranger sent by God to tell me:
"I know how you feel about yourself, but let me tell you how I feel about you, my son, my daughter. You are my beloved. And even when you don't feel good about yourself, my love for you has not changed. Even though they persecute you on social media, my assignment for you has not changed. Be faithful, son. I love you, son."
It's crazy because fifteen minutes before that, I bumped into a stranger in the mall who ran up on me and said, "I watch you. My mother's gotten saved from watching the church, and she's going into open heart surgery." We stopped right there in the mall, Lena and I, and prayed for her mother, whose name was Lisa.
In my own pain, I'm encouraging somebody else. And before I get out of that mall, in my own pain, God is sending somebody to encourage me.
I just want to say this: I struggle sometimes. Like, I understand love in my mind sometimes, but it's hard for that to drop to my heart. We know that, yeah, but if you struggle like I have with being self-condemning, sometimes it's hard to just receive. I'm a much better giver than I am a receiver.
I know the pain of self-loathing and being self-condemning, feeling like I'm always messing up. Sometimes this is the struggle of insecurities from not being affirmed, not hearing somebody say, "Well done. You did a good job." When a mother or father falls short, there's a part of you that's crippled right there.
Whatever you've lost spiritually—your sight, your vision, your fire, whatever light you've lost—you can get back. I don't know who this is for, but stop condemning yourself for your stray. Just recognize you strayed and cry out like these men:
Lord, Son of David, have mercy. Have mercy on me.
That's good enough.
