Greeneville Seventh-day Adventist Church: Well, today we are in the book of Matthew again. We are starting in Matthew 20 verse 17. I'm very excited about this one. It was an interesting one to study. I definitely had to wrestle with it, but I pray that the Lord will speak through me. Let's do that now. Father, Lord, we say this time and time again, but we don't need to hear what I have to say, we don't need to hear what Pastor Kant has to say or or anyone else. We need to hear what you have for us. And so, Father, I pray that you would hide me behind the cross and let your word go forth with power. Open our hearts and prepare our ears to listen and to receive and to apply what you have for us today. This is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. So Matthew twenty Starting in verse 17, I think this is a really interesting passage, and and I've been trying to to find, you know, I'm learning as as we've been going through these these chapters in Matthew, Pastor Kent and I, that the way it's structured is important. You know, there's themes that are connecting, and it's really enhanced my study. A lot of times I would study each little thing, you know, like I would study the first little section here says Jesus foretells his death. And that would be something I study. And then the ambition of James and John and I would study that. And then blind Bartimaeus. But when you combine them and see their relation to each other, it's really interesting. The the way that they are put next to each other for a reason. And there I think the Holy Spirit had a lot of intention in ordering not only the the passages but the whole flow of the scripture there. So we're gonna look at that today and I'm very excited. First a little introduction. Have you ever been looking directly at something and yet failed to see it? My stepmom used to be cruel with me about this. She'd be like, Dawson, I need you to go in my room and find X. I'm like, okay. And I would go into the room and look for like 15 minutes. I'm looking for this thing, and I can't find it anywhere. And I'm looking high, I'm looking low, I'm opening cupboards, looking under the bed, I can't find it. And I come back and I'm like I don't think it's in there, I can't find it. And she goes in and within 30 seconds she points it out and she's like, Halaka, we can't find it, you're blind. Yeah, she's Filipino. I don't know if any of you guys have ever experienced that. I it was before I had glasses, so maybe I was blind. But apparently this is a real thing. In twenty thirteen some researchers conducted an experiment. And they used 24 experienced radiologists. And what these people were, they were specialists, they examined medical images for abnormalities in the lungs. And so they took these radiologists and they gave them a familiar task. They said, You're going to examine a bunch of lung scans and search for small cancerous nodules in the lungs. But in the final scan, there was a series of images, in the last image The researchers put a gorilla, an image of a gorilla, in the lung scan. And it wasn't it wasn't subtle. The gorilla was forty-eight times larger than the average nodule that they were looking for. Forty-eight times larger larger. That's big, right? But the the research shows, guess how many? Eighty-three percent of the radiologists didn't see it. That's not like a small amount. Eighty over eighty percent didn't see it. And they actually tracked their eyes as well, and the majority of those who missed the gorilla looked right at it with their eyes, and they just didn't see it. And so experts call this Inattention blindness. Inattention blindness. You can look directly at something and actually not see it because their attention was so fixated on looking for something else that they didn't see what was right in front of their eyes. And this is the irony of Matthew 20. I mean Matthew, sorry, Matthew, yeah, Matthew chapter 20. It's it's it's very ironic and it's the same kind of thing. And we're gonna look at that today. So first We're going to look at Jesus. Jesus once again tells the disciples what is going to happen in the near future. He's foretelling his death. In verse 17, Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the dwell twelve disciples apart in the road and said to them, Behold, we're going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and to the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death. And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock him and to scourge him and to crucify him, and on the third day he shall rise again. Now I don't know about you, but that does not sound very cryptic. This is the most blatant and detailed prophecy that Jesus has ever given about his death so far in Matthew. He says, Where he's going, who he's who's going to be betrayed by, right? What's gonna happen? He's gonna be condemned to death. They're gonna give him to the Gentiles, right? The Gentiles are gonna mock him, and then scourge him, and then crucify him, and then he's gonna rise on the third day. Very detailed. The disciples had no reason not to see this coming. But they didn't see it coming. They had inattention blindness. You see, they were so fixated on the Messiah coming for an earthly kingdom and having a a a reign and overcoming the Romans. That literally, even though Jesus directly told them, I'm gonna be betrayed, I'm gonna be mocked and scourged and crucified, I'm gonna die, and then rise again, they didn't see it at all. Isn't that kind of crazy? He knows where he's going. Two points here. Number one, the disciples didn't know what was happening. They had inattention blindness. They were focused on the wrong thing and didn't see what was right in front of them. But I think what is equally, if not more remarkable, is that Jesus knew exactly what was coming, and yet still chose to go to Jerusalem. You see, this was not like an unexpected tragedy. This wasn't something like Jesus was being led helplessly along to his death. He intentionally walked that re path to Jerusalem. He knew the cost, he knew what was going to happen, and he still said yes. This was a deliberate choice. And I think that's beautiful. Because why did he do this? Verse twenty eight, that we're going to look at more in a little bit, he says, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Jesus knew his mission. He saw clearly he didn't have inattention blindness. He came and he knew why he came. He understood his identity and his mission, and he did not let anything turn him aside. And so this is the first section of this what we're going to be studying today. We see both the disciples' blindness. Well, we haven't really seen the disciples' blindness yet, but we're about to. And we see Jesus' clarity of purpose. Now we're gonna really see that the disciples don't see. Right after Jesus said, I'm gonna go and be betrayed and suffer and die. Literally the next verse, this is why it's so ironic. The next verse, James and John come to Jesus with his with their mom. And it says, Then came to him the mother of James and John, with her sons, and worshiping Jesus, desired something from him. And he said to her, What do you want? The title of our sermon today is What Do You Want? We're going to look at this more again. If you look in the parallel in chapter in Mark chapter eleven, it says more specifically, I'm sorry, Matthew 10, Mark 10. It says, What would you that I should do for you? What do you want me to do for you? So these people, close disciples of Jesus, James and John, we hear about them a lot, come up to Jesus with their mom and say, Grant us something. And Jesus says, What do you want me to do for you? Grant that these two children of mine may sit one on your right hand and one on your left hand in your kingdom. That's a bold request. We don't really have kings or kingdoms nowadays in the same way we did back then. But that was the position of honor. In the world's kingdoms, to sit at the right hand and the left hand was for the the most privileged, the most honored of all the king's subjects. This was a place of exaltation. Lucifer was the one who was at the right hand of God before he fell, one of the closest angels to God. And we see here this same desire that Lucifer had for self exaltation is mingled with this request of James and John. When Jesus asks, What do you want me to do for you? They say, Exalt us. Raise us up. Grant us a high position in your kingdom. This was the same desire that Satan had. Then we looked at this, I think last time I preached. We're covering the same issue. Again, the disciples have been constantly struggling with this desire for exaltation, this desire for position, for status, for greatness. And yet, it's not like they don't love Jesus. They do. And we have some insight into this. They love Jesus deeply. And yet it was. corrupted by their selfishness, by earthly channels. And I think that's an important point. We need to know deeply our motives and we need to understand that you can love Jesus and still have wrong motives. Right? I think this is important to understand. It's not like they didn't follow Jesus. It's not like they didn't give up everything to follow him. They they they gave up their livelihood to follow this Jesus. They listened to his teachings, they loved him, they were with him, and yet they're still struggling with these desires for self-exaltation and an incorrect understanding. They saw Jesus, but they didn't really see him. They saw Jesus. And yet they didn't see the whole purpose of his coming, the nature of his kingdom. Jesus had just described his humiliation. And yet they want exaltation. Jesus just described how he's going to the lowest place, the to be crucified. That would make people in that day shudder. It's disgusting. Crucifixion, and yet they want to be not on a cross, but to have a crown, to be on a throne. Jesus is thinking about these lives that he's going to ransom, and they're thinking about the great positions they're going to occupy. And so a principle we see here is that people can be physically close to Jesus, right? Intellectually acquainted with Jesus, and even love Jesus, and yet still be out of harmony with Jesus. They were following in his footsteps, literally, and yet not united with him in purpose. Their love needed purification. And this is what Jesus sought to accomplish in. in the discussion that happens next. He's not rebuking them for their selfishness. He sees their sincerity and seeks to purify them. He says, You do not know what you're asking for. He knew their their ignorance. You don't know what you're asking for. Are you able to drink the cup that I'm about to drink? And to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? You see, their request was based on a false view of Jesus. They believed that nearness to Jesus meant occupying a high position. And so Jesus says, It's not really do you want to sit beside me? Do you want to become like me? Do you want my position or do you want my character? Do you want my throne or do you want my cup? Do you just want me to elevate you or do you want me to transform you? Jesus wanted them to see the experience that he was about to go through. To drink the cup that Jesus drank was the cup of our sin, the cup of suffering and agony and self-sacrificing love. His baptism was a baptism of blood. Not a fun path. You see, before Christ stood this cross. This is the path he was treading. And the people that were about to be on his right and his left hand. We're two criminals. One on the thro one on the cross to his left and one on the cross to his right. Isn't that crazy? The king of the universe The one who's usually on a throne, with the most exalted people beh beside him, is about to be on a cross with some of the worst criminals at his right hand and his left hand. And yet I think that's the irony of the gospel. Because someone will be on Jesus' right and left hand. We don't know if it'll be James and John, we don't know who. But someone's gonna be there. And those someones are gonna be human, right? Do you know any humans besides Jesus who haven't sinned? Who haven't been criminals against God's government? Who haven't done wrong again and again and again? I don't. And so to think that truly the irony of the cross with two criminals beside him is that when he is in heaven, it's going to be redeemed criminals, sinners saved by grace, that are going to sit at his right hand and his left hand in heaven. Isn't that crazy? That's the glory of redeeming love. And that's what he's trying to point them to. He says, To sit at my right hand. And my left hand is not mine to give. But if you want to be close, you have to understand, can you drink the cup that I'm going to drink? To sit at my right hand and my left hand is not about authority or position, it's about character. Are you willing to suffer, to sacrifice, to live a life of love like me? And they said to him, We are able. That's just like the Sons of Thunder, isn't it? Yeah, we can do it. And Jesus said to them, You shall indeed drink of my cup. And you will be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with. I can just imagine him looking down the streams of time. As all twelve of the disciples suffer brutally trying to spread the gospel in the book of Acts, eleven out of the twelve disciples were murdered for their faith. Martyred is a better word. He says, But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give. It shall be given to them for whom it is prepared by my Father. Those who sit closest to Jesus will be those who have drank the most deeply of his self-sacrificing love. And when the ten heard it, verse twenty-four, the other ten disciples, when they heard what James and John asked for, they were moved with indignation. against the two brethren. Why? Jealousy. It's not like they were indignant, like, how dare you ask a question about exaltation while Jesus is talking about suffering and death. No, they're like, what do you mean you're gonna be up there? I'm gonna be up there. And you see that all all twelve of Jesus' disciples were infected, corrupted by this desire for exaltation. And I think we have to watch out. These ten were blind as well. They also had inattention blindness. They were all seeking the highest place. They were all operating from the same worldly vision. They all measured greatness by position, recognition, status, authority, their personal advantage. And so Jesus addresses them all. Verse 25 Jesus called them all unto him, and he said, You know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. In the world's kingdoms, greatness is measured by authority, oppression, the ability to say, You go do this and they do it, to be served, to be great, to be indulged. To have everyone under you. And yet Jesus says, It shall not be so among you, but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister, whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life as a ransom for many. You see, this makes me think of Jeremiah chapter forty five. There's a guy named Baruch. I don't know if you've ever read about Baruch. He's a scribe. And Baruch is here while Jeremiah is basically prophesying all these horrible things. You know, Jeremiah is the weeping prophet. And God has a message directly for Baruch, and he says to Baruch, Do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them. And I think it's such a profound sentence. Because Baruch sees that Jerusalem is about to be destroyed, all these things are about to fall apart, and yet he wanted a life of ease, a life of prosperity, a life of status. And God says, Don't seek those things. This world's falling apart. Your your your your entire kingdom, your nation's about to fall apart. But he says, But I will give you your life. That's what really mattered. And so the question comes to us, you know, do we see great things for ourselves? Are we like the disciples? Sometimes we can condemn someone else's selfishness while we're controlled by the same selfishness. That's what the disciples show us. They're condemning James and John, and yet they want the same thing. So the world says, dominion, authority, this is greatness. How high you can rise. But Jesus measures greatness by how low you're willing to stoop. The world says, How many people are serving me? How many people are under my authority? But Jesus asks, Who am I serving? How many people can I bless? The world uses their strength or their advantages to advance their own agendas, to to get a leg up on someone else. But Jesus uses strength to bear the burdens of the weak. The world understands authority or leadership as a privilege, but Jesus points it as a responsibility. See, Christ is establishing a kingdom governed by totally different principles. Totally different principles than these of the world. He does not call us to authority but to service. Greatness is not something to be sought, but a position of sacred responsibility. Power, position, talent, education, influence, whatever it may be, they do not place us under a greater Authority, but under a greater obligation to serve. Privilege does not mean that others owe us more. It means that we owe them more. And that's what Jesus is trying to show us. And he says himself that he is leading by example. He is the revelation of true greatness, the God of the universe, the king of heaven on this sin-torn planet, ministering to a bunch of fishermen. Tax collectors, prostitutes Doesn't sound like a cool king in or in a worldly sense, right? What king is gonna do that? But that's our king. That's our king. The Son of Man. He possesses all power, but he uses his power for good, to serve, to love, to minister. He deserves all of our service, all of our worship, all of our praise, right? And yet he is the one who serves. He is the Lord of the universe, and yet he stoops to hear my prayers and your prayers. This is our King, the one who does not desire the life of his subjects and service, but who gives his life for his subjects. The entire plan and ground of salvation is this love, this self-sacrificing love that moved the Son of God to go on a cross for us. And this is the danger of of the disciples' desire. It totally overlooks that kind of love. It's a totally contrary principle. And I posit to you today that this happens because of inattention blindness, because we see the wrong things. I'm gonna say that what we believe about God shapes what we value, right? How we see God shapes how we see people, how we treat them, what we consider as success and the kind of people that we become. Right? And Jesus says that himself wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The things that we value are what directs our heart, and out of the heart flows the streams of life. And so now the the irony continues in the story of blind Bartimaeus. Right after Jesus corrects their blindness, two real blind men are on the road. As they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed them. And behold, two blind men sitting by the wayside. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord. My bad, thou son of David. And the multitude encouraged them. They rebuked them. you gotta love water. They rebuked them. Because they should hold their peace. But they cried out more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David. You see, the title Son of David was a messianic title. Son of David, they were saying that they understood that this was the Messiah. They can't see. They're blind, physically blind, and yet they see more of Jesus' true mission than the disciples did. They're sitting beside the road, they have nothing to their name, just like the disciples gave up everything. And yet they perceive more about Jesus' mission and character than the disciples who'd been with him for years. And also, I think the more important part is they also saw themselves correctly. The disciples, I think, saw themselves as privileged. Honored, right? They were they were the disci they were the the disciples, the apostles of Jesus, the Messiah, right? They the the Messiah asked them to be the twelve. They're pretty cool, pretty great. But these blind men, right? Who are they? It doesn't even tell us the name of the other one. They don't even have a name. Nothing to their name. Nothing when they try to ask for mercy, they're they're rebuked. Rubbish. On the side of the road. Something to just be passed by. Unworthy of notice. And yet they knew, they saw themselves correctly. They saw themselves as sinners in need of a savior. And Jesus did not pass them by. Verse 32. Jesus stood still and called them and asked, What do you want me to do for you? The same question he asked James and John, but a totally different response. That our eyes may be opened. And Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him. The difference between the disciples and these blind men is twofold. They s the disciples didn't have a correct view of Jesus' mission and purpose, and they didn't see themselves correctly. The blind men did. They understood who the Messiah was, and they understood who they were. And even though the crowd tried to silence them, they persevered. You see, when a person really recognizes who Jesus is, and when a person really recognises who they are, it's hard to keep them from coming to Jesus. And that's what I want to encourage you. If if if you don't see your need to come to Jesus, maybe we're like the disciples. Right? Maybe we're a little too privileged, maybe we think a little too highly of ourselves, or maybe we think a little wrongly about Jesus' mission. Because when we see our need and when we see our Savior, it's hard to stay away. And that's something that I'm trying to to get in my head more deeply, right? It's hard to stay away from a Jesus that's that good. And so the same question to both groups elicits a different response because they had a different vision, different eyesight. What do you want me to do for you? One sought exaltation, the other sought restoration, healing. One was seeking greatness, and the other's confessed need, dependence. The one believed that their greatest need was a higher position, and the others knew that their greatest need was vision of the Messiah, to see and to follow. And I think it's beautiful. It doesn't end when when it says, you know, their eyes were opened. It says they followed him. And I think that's how it really should be. But when when we receive from Jesus, then that's truly when we can follow him in discipleship. I want to look at the Mark, Mark chapter ten again, because it gives a little more detail about this story. It says in Mark chapter ten, starting in verse 49, same story. Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. They called the blind man, saying to him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calls you, and he casts away his garment, he rises, he comes to Jesus, and Jesus said to him, What do you want me to do for you? The blind man said, Lord, that I may receive my sight, and Jesus said to him, Go your way. What is it add in this one? Your faith has made you whole. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. What does Jesus call that? Seeing Jesus for who he is, even though he's blind? Faith. Believing that Jesus could do what was impossible. It's faith. And yet, what was the thing that the disciples were rebuked for most frequently? Unbelief. Lack of faith. You see, everything depends on how we see God. We can't follow a Jesus that we can't see, truly. This is why spiritual sight matters so much. The disciples' false view of Jesus produced ambition, competition, jealousy, self-exaltation. But the blind man's faith, his view of Jesus, produced a f a a humility, a faith, a dependence, a perseverance, a prayer and a miracle. And w especially when you when you frame this in the the light of the great controversy, it's it's really insightful. The entire great controversy is about how we see God, right? Is it? Satan changed people's perception of God. He said, no, God's not really good. God doesn't really love you. God God's out for himself. God's selfish, he's harsh, he's arbitrary. And that led to our fall, ultimately. God told E I mean, God told Eve, don't eat this fruit. God presented all this evidence that he was a loving creator, and yet Satan comes and says, No, God's lying to you. He's hiding something from you. He doesn't really want your best interest. And so how she saw God changed in that moment. And since how she saw God changed, how she reacted changed. Satan's work has been to distort the character of God. But when we see God as he really is, as he's revealed in Jesus, as a self- sacrificing, merciful, compassionate, patient Father, one who's willing to bear our burdens, heal us of our sins, restore us to his right hand, then our hearts can be drawn to him in trust and surrender and love. One of my favorite authors, I'm sure you guys know her, she says that the knowledge of God, as revealed in Christ is Is the knowledge that all who are saved must have. It is this knowledge that works the transformation of character. Received into the life, this knowledge recreates the soul in the image of God. We become like the God we worship. I'm gonna say that one more time. We become like the God we worship. If we see Jesus as a means of Of merely obtaining our own things, if we see God as as ultimately self serving, are we not going to be ultimately self serving? The one who's nearest to Jesus is the one who's most like Jesus. And the one who's going to be most like Jesus is the one who allows themselves to receive the greatest revelation of Jesus into their hearts and lives. And as we wind down, I want to especially highlight that for us in this church, in the Adventist Church, the danger of our spiritual privilege. You see, the disciples had a lot of spiritual advantages over the blind men. They were with Jesus all the time. They had more truth than the crowds, right? They had a closer access to Jesus at all times. They had witnessed miracles that others had only heard about. They had been personally called by Jesus, taught by Jesus, commissioned by Jesus, sent out on mission journeys for Jesus. And yet, because they possessed so much. It was easy for them to assume that they saw things rightly. It was easy for them to assume that they were right. And yet the more we possess outwardly, the easier it can become to incorrectly assume that we possess inwardly what only Christ can give us. God has given us extraordinary privilege, has He not? We've been given wonderful truth, wonderful blessings, the everlasting gospel, the three angels' messages, the Sabbath, the sanctuary, the great controversy, the state of the dead, the judgment hour, the second coming, the millennium Need I go on. We have a lot of wonderful truths, and yet it is possible to possess the truth without being possessed by the truth. It's possible to know all the prophecies and yet not know the one of whom they talk about. It's possible to defend the Sabbath and yet not fully enter into the rest that Christ has provided. It's possible to proclaim the judgment hour while not being ready to meet it. It's possible to identify all of the right doctrines and yet not be changed. And this is the message that we see in Laodicea, in Revelation chapter three. The same message to Laodicea could be applicable to the disciples here in Matthew twenty. You say that I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, but you do not know, you do not see that you are wretched, miserable, poor. Blind and naked. Lacea did not lack a profession, they lacked their perception. They couldn't see. They did not know that they were what they were. They thought they were rich because of what they possessed, but Christ said that they were poor because of what they did not possess. They thought they could see because they had all the light. But Jesus is saying that they were blind because they didn't let the light transform them. And so, specifically for us, it doesn't mean that we have no need. Just because we have all the truth. Just because we have so much light doesn't mean that we're healthy. Doesn't mean that our eye is single to the light. Spiritual privilege should not lead us like James and John to say, give me a higher position. It should make us more humble, more dependent, and more solemn, realizing that. These truths are not given to us to be self serving, but others serving. The truth makes us responsible, not privileged. You see, I would rather pity not the Baptist, the Anglican, the Presbyterian, who may not have all the same truths that we have, but who lives up to the light they have, rather than the Adventist who has all the right truth and yet does not live up to it. The disciples had such privilege but they didn't see their need. They were seeking the wrong kingdom. And the blind men had nothing, but they knew exactly what they needed and where to get it, and they did not go away unhelped. And so the same question comes to you and to me today. Jesus still asks, What do you want me to do for you? And we have to ask ourselves, What do we want? Do we want to be right? Do we want him to bless our efforts, to make our lives comfortable, to increase our influence or our success or our prosperity? Do we want him to make our lives comfortable or happy or easy? Or do we want him to open our eyes, to reveal our condition, to heal our hearts, and to change us into his likeness? So which group do we fall into? Are we like the disciples? We know Jesus, we follow him, right? We we know what he he teaches us and we walk with him. We possess great light. And yet are we still blind in heart? Yes, we love Jesus. I believe hopefully everyone here loves Jesus. And yet we saw that it's still possible to to love Jesus and yet have the wrong motives, to have distorted things. And Jesus does not rebuke us. He wants to deepen, to purify. And so he asks us, like he asks them, are you willing to drink the cup that I am drinking? To be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? Are we willing to lay aside our lives? To join him on the cross? Are we like the blind men? Do we recognize that we have nothing to our name? Do we call out? With persistence and earnestness, O son of David, have mercy on me. Lord, let me see. That's my prayer. If that's your prayer today, if you want to say, Jesus, Lord help me. I want to see clearly. I want to have the faith to see you as you are, not so that I can be greater, Lord, but so that I can be with you. And that with you I can share. In your spirit of self-sacrificing love, to reach and save those who are still struggling and suffering in sin. If that's your desire, I ask that you raise your hand with me as we pray. Father, thank you for the gift of your Son. Thank you for giving us such a wonderful Savior, a perfect Savior. God, I pray that you would help us, Lord, even though we are so privileged, even though we have such great light. Let us walk in the light while we have the light, lest darkness overtake us. Let us humble ourselves before you, and dare not think that because we're close to you that means we're right with you, that because we have we know so much that we live so much. Do not allow our privileges to hide our poverty or our knowledge to hide our blindness. Open our hearts to see you more clearly. Give us a simple faith like those of the blind men on the side of the road, Lord. Help us to see our need and to see that truly you can meet that need, that you are exceeding you're willing and able to do exceeding and abundantly above all that we ask or think of you, and that if we ask we shall receive, if we seek, we will find, and if we knock that the door will be open to us. We ask for these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.