Please take your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew chapter 20. Matthew chapter 20. I'd like to read a passage and this will be where we'll be spending our time tonight, starting in verse 20. Matthew chapter 20, starting in verse 20. Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked him for something. And he said to her, what do you want? She said to him, say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom. Jesus answered, you do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? They said to him, we are able. He said to them, you will drink my cup. but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father." And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, 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, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." Let's now pray again before we enter into the passage. Let's ask the Lord for His mercy. Father, tonight we look forward to being in your Word, and Lord, we look forward to sitting at your feet. Help us, Lord, as we seek, Lord, wisdom, knowledge. Lord, we desire that we would be more like you. We desire, Lord, that you would impart to us truth. So that truth would become a part of us, not just our mind, but our person, body, mind and spirit, and that we would be more like you. And Lord, we would be less like the elements, Lord, that we don't want to be, those that are Self-serving, self-focused, Lord. We desire that we would be like the example you were for us, like the person you are tonight. Lord, we pray that we would see you and that, Lord, we would imitate you more and more until we see you face-to-face in heaven. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. There are times when Maybe you have moments of reflection where you start thinking maybe broadly or big picture instead of getting fixed in what you have to do in the next hour, in the next 10 minutes, or in the next week. You step back and say, am I headed the right way? Am I doing the right thing with my life? And I think it's a healthy thing for us to think about that from time to time. And it can happen at the, it doesn't require any poignant, you don't have to be on a mountaintop or by seaside to have that conversation with yourself. And it was one of those moments I had, I was reading Romans 12.1, I appeal to you therefore brothers, very familiar verse, we heard it this morning even, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. or reasonable service. And I was thinking to myself, so how will I know? What does it look like when we present ourselves as a living sacrifice? What does that look like? The context here, through a variety of verses, actually brought me to this passage in search of answers. to my questions. And this contest, you see it here, it's kind of interesting. The passage we just read is Christ is on his final journey. You may notice, right, it's Matthew chapter 20, so it's towards the end of Christ's life. And he's traveling down south from Galilee to Jerusalem. His final passage. You see it there. In Matthew 20, verse 17, you just look up a few verses from the passage which we read, And 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 scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. and he will be raised on the third day. And then if you look at the verse immediately after the passage, this interlude between the mother and Jesus, it says in verse 29, as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. So Jesus is traveling from Galilee up on the north and somewhere, he's traveling along the eastern coast there, the shoreline of the Jordan, and he crosses over somewhere near Jericho. And we don't know exactly when this happens, but obviously either he's in Jericho or right before they get to Jericho, and then they continue on from Jericho, which is just a few more miles to Jerusalem. So that's the context. Christ has the cross and Jerusalem in his vision, but the People traveling with him, they don't have that in their vision. And that's somewhat perplexing to me. That's why it's kind of interesting that they're not on the same page. In fact, you notice there that they're thinking this trip's going to result in some kind of political revolution. You might remember now, so the Romans are in charge of the world at this time, and they set up kind of a puppet government in Judea. They don't self-govern in Israel anymore. And somehow the mom's thinking, oh, well, when we get to Jerusalem on this travel, multi-day travel with Jesus, when he gets there, there'll be a revolution, it'll be a coup maybe, maybe he'll have a throne, and maybe each one of my sons can each have a place in the throne room, one on the right, one on the left, maybe symbolically, maybe actually, but they'll get the number one and number two positions. You can see they're far off their thinking about what's going to happen in Jerusalem. And what Christ already told them is going to happen. So let's walk through the passage, starting in verse 20. Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons. Kneeling before him, she asked him for something. And he said to her, what do you want? She said to him, say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one on your right hand and one at your left in your kingdom. In the parallel passage in Mark, you may recognize this word Zebedee, the name, but Mark tells us explicitly, we don't have to wonder which Zebedee this is. And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, this is Jesus, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. James and John want to be great. They want honor and they want distinction. They would like to have authority and responsibility and they want recognition. They want prestige. That's what they're seeking from Christ. That's what their mom is asking on their behalf for them. And notice how Christ responds to them. He doesn't tell them, Yeah, you guys, you shouldn't be asking that. Notice what he says back to them. He says, you do not know what you're asking. Are you able? Are you guys able to pay the price? Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? They say, we are able. And he doesn't say, no, you're not. You're overconfident. He says, you will. You will. You will. But those positions of honour are given to those whom my Father has determined. It's not up to me." And then, it's kind of humorous there, but you can imagine being there, or being one of the other guys. They're looking at their two buddies there very indignantly. They're angry. They're not happy. What are you guys trying to pull here? So Jesus has to pull all his disciples together and he uses it as a teaching moment. And this is what I think is most precious to us because we, like them, need to be pulled close to Christ and understand the bigger picture of life. And he's about to teach it to them. But Jesus called them to him and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. And the great ones exercise authority over them. And this word great, which is clear, that's what James and John, that's what they want. They want to be great. This is that Greek word megas, that we use mega. You can see it in the grocery store in bright letters on almost everything. Mega this, mega that. Megas, great in quantity or intensity or quality. And in this case it's used for honor or authority. Christ now contrasts, it shall not be so among you, verse 26, but whoever would be great among you, same word, great among you, must be your servant, must be your servant. And this servant word is diakonos, which is where we get our word deacon or diakono, deacon, must be your servant, one who executes the commands or the directives of another. It's more of an activity. What is your job? What do you do? I follow through on whatever someone tells me to do. It's often used as a term for a waiter, or a deacon, or a servant. And then whoever, Christ goes on to say, and whoever, verse 27, would be first or primary among you must be your slave. First in terms of, not in order of, of how you see something being counted, but first in terms of honor or authority. And this word slave, and you may have another word in your translation, it may be bondservant, it may be servant. That's really not the word. The word here is doulos. It's really slave. It means a person that's purchased and owned by another. It's not someone who's a resident employee. It's someone who doesn't get to self-determine. It's slave. Even as the Son of Man came, not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. These are the key words we have here. Servant, slave. Christ here has put himself as an example. He's not fuzzy on why he came. He's not fuzzy on why he's on earth. He says it to us point blank. I didn't come to be served. This is why I came. This is why I'm here on earth. This is the purpose of my life. I came to serve and I came to give my life as a ransom. And then it became interesting to me. I started looking at this word ransom. Ransom. What is a ransom? And there's basically two uses for the word throughout our scriptures. One is a price for a slave, a doulos. You pay the ransom, you get the slave. So that's what you give in exchange. It's a certain amount of money or a thing of certain value and you get the slave. You get to own the person. Or, in other cases, you get to set someone free who is a hostage. So you give whatever the hostage takers demand, you give them the ransom and you get the hostage. Those are the two terms that ransom is used. Jesus sets this contrast for us between earthly rulers that want to be great and us, and he puts himself as an example. That's what he's drawing the disciples in, and that's what we should be kind of paying attention to. What is he trying to teach the disciples through his examples? Christ is his servant, and that we see in many places in the scriptures. I'll take you just to one place. This is the first place that came into my mind. Where was it so obvious that he was There's probably many you could go to. John 13, let's go there. Christ as an example as to serve or to be a servant. We'll look at the ransom part in a moment, but just the servant. This is why He came. This is His life purpose. He has full clarity on it. John 13, starting in verse 12. This is the upper room. should be dear, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, dear chapters to any follower of Christ. When he had washed their feet, verse 12, and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, do you understand what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, this word came up again, same word, example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant, a doulos, a slave, is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them." Example. He's an example of a slave. This is why he came. He came to serve as a slave. And then the ransom part. This verse came to my mind. If you turn to 1 Timothy 2, Ransom's not used that much in the New Testament. There's another word that's used much more. Redeemed is used much more than ransom, but you redeem with a ransom. You redeem with a ransom. 1 Timothy 2, 5 and 6. For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, very familiar verse for us, who gave himself as a ransom for all, or as Christ said, for many, which is the testimony given at the proper time. He came to serve and he came to give his life as a ransom, a price to buy slaves, or as a price to set hostages free. So you can see Christ gives us a lesson puts on two sides, one, rulers of the world that want to be great, that have authority. And then he says, it shouldn't be that way with you guys. It should be like this. And I'm an example. Because I didn't come to be served, I came to serve and give my life. Serve and give my life. And I realized that Christ's identity is very clear to him. And I think when we think about ourselves, when I think about my life's work or my life's purpose, it really comes down to, do I understand my identity? My identity with Christ, do I understand that? Our identity drives our thoughts, our actions, our activities, drives everything. Drives more than maybe we like to admit. Our identity in Christ is the most important identifier we have in this life. It's more important than, I'm a spouse, I'm a student, I have a PhD, I come from this country, I eat this food, I speak this language, I'm from this time period. Our identity in Christ is superior to all, and Paul is telling that to the Galatians. More important, not that everything else about you isn't important, because God also gave you that. He gave us every part of our identity, but this part of our identity is the most important. And if you don't see it that way, you're missing what you are. I'm missing what I am. In Galatians 3.28, there is neither Jew nor Greek. It doesn't matter what your educational or ethnic background is. There is neither slave nor free. Same word here, by the way, slave. There is neither male nor female. It's not a gender issue. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. That is identity language. Do we see ourselves primarily in Christ as our identity? To help myself, I started going through the various elements of our identity in Christ. We were purchased. You see it there in Matthew 20, 28. Even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. And when you think about that, He gave Himself as a ransom. Okay, so He laid down His life. We see that on the cross. He laid down His life. He's telling us that's the ransom, that's the price. So what did He buy? He bought us. Right? So it's not like He just laid down His life and then the transaction doesn't get completed. He exchanged his life and he received back us. He bought us. We're purchased. That's part of our identity in Christ. Do I see myself as a purchased individual? Paul, writing to the Corinthians, said this is absolutely, literally true. It's not just symbolic. He said to them, in terms of being able to fight off and pursue holiness and fight off sexual immorality, he says to them in 1 Corinthians 6, you are not your own. That means you don't own yourself. That's your identity. You can look at yourself as, I don't own myself. So who does? For you were bought with a price. A price. What's the price? It's Christ. Christ's blood. That's the ransom that was paid to purchase us. I'm purchased. He says the same thing in 1 Corinthians 7. You were bought with a price. Do not become bondservants of men. You don't have the freedom to be somebody else's slave because the ransom was paid and you were already purchased. And now we are owned. We're purchased. This word is used a lot and we don't maybe recognize it that way when we see the word redeemed. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. We think, oh wow, that's a great line for a praise him whom he has redeemed from trouble. How wonderful that is. But the word is really about we're purchased. A price was paid and we were bought and now we are owned. For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, Micah 6, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and set before you Moses and Aaron and Miriam." The Lord, through history, is continually telling His people, let me explain your identity. I purchased you. That's how we should think of ourselves. That's how I should think of myself. When we're thinking about life purpose, do I think of myself as redeemed? that a ransom was exchanged for me, that I'm bought. We are Christ's servants, or more accurately, we're his bondservants. We are his slaves. 1 Peter 2.16 Live as people who are free. Free from sin, free from bondage from Satan. Not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living, now notice the contrast, live as people who are free, but living as servants We're slaves of God. That's our identity. We're purchased. We're servants. We're slaves. Christ is our master. That's part of our identity. If we're a slave or a servant, we have a master. And who is it? 2 Peter 2.1, talking about those who have denied Christ, he puts it in terms of master-slave relationship. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. And how do you know those people? He's not going to analyze their theology or what they teach. He's going to analyze their identity. Who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them? bringing upon themselves swift destruction. This is how you know who somebody's master is. Who do they own as their master? These false teachers deny the master as their master. Who bought them? And that's the same language. Redeemed, purchased, the price, bought them. Servants is consistent, or slaves is consistent, with every analogy the Lord gives to us about who we are. There's a lot of analogies. Children, children of God, it's consistent. We serve God as His children. Sheep, sheep follow and serve the shepherd. Branches, they get their energy, they produce fruit, and they are rooted in the vine. Members of a body serve the body. They serve the body and they are directed by the head. It's all consistent. We're ambassadors for a kingdom, for a king. That's not our own, but we act. in direction from the capital city where the monarch is. And we serve as ambassadors. It's all very consistent. You see, now we start to see our identity more clearly when we see why Christ wants us to use him as an example. And the details that he gives about his life as an example is, I came to serve and give my life as a ransom. So then it should come as no surprise to you, almost every epistle in the New Testament starts with the writer identifying himself as a slave. And they are honored to be identified that way. It's not something like they whisper or they say, yeah, well, yeah, that's true. Romans 1.1, Paul, a servant. A slave of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle. He puts slave before apostle, by the way. I find that interesting. Like the apostle comes second. The sent out one. Apostle. Set apart for the gospel of God. Philippians 1.1 Paul and Timothy. Servants of Christ Jesus. Or slaves of Christ Jesus. Doulas. To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and the deacons. And it goes through. Titus. James 1.1, James himself saying, James, second word, a servant, a slave of God. 2 Peter 1, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle becomes second, interestingly enough. You would think if I were writing, I would say, apostle, oh yeah, and I'm a slave too. I got to throw that in. But, you know, just because everyone else is doing it. But I'm really an apostle. He's saying, I'm a servant, I'm a slave. I'm a slave. Jude. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. Revelation 1.1, John saying the same thing. The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave Him to show His slaves, His servants, the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant, John. They weren't ashamed. to talk about their identity. They wrote it in the first verse when they're writing a letter, opening the letter to their brothers and sisters. So then the question is, if that's our identity, whose slave am I? Whose slave are you? That's really what it comes down to when it comes to life purpose. What's our identity? In Romans 6, we're told very clearly that we're the servants of whoever we serve. That's how we know. That's how we know. I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations for just as you once presented at one time, Paul speaking to them saying at one time, you presented your members as slaves to impurity. and to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness. So now, present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness." It's the same term Peter was using. He's saying, you guys were denying the Master. You're denying the Master. Christ is your Master. So you're slaves of sin. You're somebody else's slave. Christ told us very clearly, you can't have it both ways. We can't have it both ways in our identity. No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. See, we can't have it both ways. We can't pretend. That our identity is one thing, but really it's another thing. And we know that. God knows that. And the question is, who do we serve? That's whose slave we are. Very religious people got upset at Christ for this idea that we should think of ourselves as slaves. In John 8, So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ones who follow. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And it's interesting that the Pharisees at that time picked up on this word free. That kind of bothered them. Notice why it bothers them. They answered him, we are offspring of Abraham. and have never been enslaved to anyone. I wonder, you know, is that our attitude when Christ tells us, you are my slaves? Do we have that attitude? How is it that you say, you will become free? Jesus answered them. Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. There is no pretending. If we serve sin, we are sin's slave. That's the slave we are. That's the kind of slave we are. That's who our Master is. If we serve Christ, we're His slave. We should be honored along with all of his apostles, all his people, honored to be his servant, to be his slave, and to be following his example. Christ desires that we be just like him, that we live our lives to serve and to give our lives. That's really what he wants. He said that explicitly. I want you to be not like the rulers, seeking greatness and authority, to rule over them. I want you to serve and I want you to give. So it's in this context then I began to reflect on Romans 12.1 again and to start to think So maybe that's what it looks like to be a living sacrifice, is to serve and to give. It helps clarify what we do in our lives from day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year. Nothing done for the Kingdom is ever going to be forgotten. Our service, even if it's done in the quietest, most discreet way. One of my favorite passages in this to encourage me, and I hope it encourages you, is in Revelation 14. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, write this. I'm telling John, the servant, write this. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Blessed indeed, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, our slave work, for their deeds follow them. The Lord doesn't forget. Our slave work. When we get to heaven, it's not all going to be like nursery school or maybe elementary school. Everybody gets a star. Everybody runs in the race. Everybody plays on the team. The Lord says individually, all our works is going to follow us. when we are there with our Master. I pray for you often, brothers and sisters, and this is one of the things I pray for. That you will finish the race like our pastor said. You will serve faithfully to the end. You will help one another. You'll maintain peace and unity in the body. and that when you get to the end, you will hear the words that I want to hear and I want them heard for you. When Christ says, well done, good and faithful servant. Well done, good and faithful slave. That's your identity. That should drive our activity. That should drive our thinking. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your Master. Master. We'll be there with our Master. Nothing helps more in helping us figure out what are we supposed to do with our lives than knowing who we are in Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You, Lord, that we are Your slaves. We are Your servants. And You are our Master. For before that, we were slaves to sin. And Lord, we had no way out. Unless you came and bought us and set us free from the cruel master of sin, we would still be there tonight. Lord, we thank you for your goodness to us. We thank you, Lord, for the work you gave us. We thank you, Lord, that you are a kind gentle, wise master. Lord, we pray that we would see ourselves more clearly, more and more, and we would see your example and live by it, that you came to serve and to give your life. Lord, help us not to hold back anything in our lives, but that we would serve you as a living sacrifice until we see you face to face. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.