First Baptist Church Litchfield
September 27, 2026

      • Proverbs 3:5–6ESV

  • Blessed Be Your Name
  • Amazing Grace
  • Trust And Obey

      • 2 Corinthians 5:6–10ESV

  • Be Thou My Vision
  • Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me
  • Blessed Assurance

  • Who Gets the Best Seat?

    There is something telling about where people want to sit.
    Go to a wedding reception and there is usually a head table. Go to an awards banquet and the most honored guests sit near the front. Go to a sporting event and the closer you are to the action, the more expensive the seat. Even at an ordinary dinner, sitting beside the guest of honor communicates something.
    Where you sit can say something about who you are. That is essentially what happens in Matthew 20:20-28. The mother of James and John comes to Jesus, kneels before Him, and asks: “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom” (Matthew 20:21).
    She’s mother who wants what’s best for her boys and at some level she knows being as close to Jesus as possible is the best thing-but that is not her only motive. She wants them to reign in power as much as they want themselves. Remember that James and John are participating in the request. Mark makes that clear. Furthermore, when the other ten hear about it, they become indignant.
    All twelve disciples are struggling with the same fallen understanding of greatness. They envision Jesus establishing His kingdom, and they want to know where they will rank when He does. They associate greatness with position, authority, recognition, and proximity to power, as the world does. And brothers and sisters, in our fallen nature, we understand that temptation.
    This morning Jesus is going to address that temptation. Moreover, He will give us a vision for greatness and we will see how he himself models for us kingdom greatness.
    Today we will see,

    Jesus turns greatness upside down: those served by His ransom become great in His kingdom by humbly giving themselves to serve others.

    Matthew shows us three ways Jesus turns greatness upside down, and it starts with embracing his cup.

    I. Kingdom Greatness Embraces the Cup of Christ Matthew 20:20–23

    Immediately after Jesus tells His disciples that He is going to Jerusalem to be betrayed, condemned, mocked, flogged, crucified, and raised from the dead, James and John approach Jesus with their mother. There is a possibility that their mother was Salome, perhaps the sister of Jesus’ mother (Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40; John 19:25). If so, James and John were Jesus’ cousins, which may help explain why their mother felt comfortable bringing such a bold request, and it was a bold request.
    She asks Jesus to allow her sons to sit at His right and left hand in His kingdom. These are positions of honor and authority. They believe Jesus is the King, and they want to reign beside Him.
    Their faith is the most remarkable thing in the text. They believe Jesus has a kingdom. They believe they will be with Him. Where they get off the narrow path is when they misunderstand the road by which Jesus enters His glory. Notice the contrasts. Jesus is walking toward a cross to be crucified, and they are thinking about sitting on thrones in the kingdom come. Jesus has just spoken about suffering, and they are thinking about their kingdom status. Jesus is preparing to give His life, and they are thinking about what they might receive.
    That is why Jesus responds, “You do not know what you are asking.”

    Christ’s Cup Is the Cup of Suffering

    Jesus asks, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?”
    Throughout Scripture, the cup can picture suffering and, particularly, the judgment of God. Psalm 75:8 describes a cup in the Lord’s hand from which the wicked must drink. Isaiah 51:17 calls it “the cup of his wrath.” Jeremiah 25:15 speaks of “the cup of the wine of wrath.” Jesus will later pray in Gethsemane, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39). The cup before Jesus is the cross.
    Jesus will drink a cup James and John could never drink in the same way. He will bear the judgment of God against sin. Isaiah 53:5 says, “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities.” 1 Peter 2:24 says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.” Jesus will drink the cup of divine judgment so that everyone united to Him by faith will never have to drink it.
    But although the disciples cannot share in Christ’s atoning suffering, they will share in the suffering that comes from belonging to Christ. Jesus had already told them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). The road behind a crucified Savior is necessarily a road of self-denial and suffering.
    Mark’s account includes another image Jesus used: “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” (Mark 10:38). Jesus similarly says in Luke 12:50, “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!” His death would be an immersion into suffering.
    James and John want the glory of the resurrected King, but they have not yet understood that the road to resurrection glory passes through the intersection of suffering and death.
    And that is the pattern of the Christian life. The cross comes before the crown. Suffering precedes glory. Paul says in Romans 8:17 that we are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” Peter says, “Rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 4:13).
    Kingdom greatness, therefore, is found by faithfully following Christ wherever obedience leads, even if drinking that cup is bitter at first.
    Knowing this, we may flinch at bit when James and John confidently answer, “We are able.” They have no idea how weak they really are.
    When Jesus is arrested in Gethsemane, Matthew tells us, “Then all the disciples left him and fled” (Matthew 26:56). When the cup gets close enough for them to taste it, they run. And if we are honest, that instinct is in us too. We like following Jesus when following Jesus is comfortable. But when obedience becomes costly, our fallen hearts instinctively search for an easier road.

    We Naturally Resist the Cup

    This pattern appears throughout Scripture. Moses asks, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” (Exodus 3:11). Gideon protests that his clan is the weakest and he is the least in his father’s house (Judges 6:15). Jeremiah says, “I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth” (Jeremiah 1:6). Even the great servants of God felt the weight of what God called them to do.
    Jonah takes that resistance even further. When God commands him to go to Nineveh, Jonah gets up and goes in the opposite direction (Jonah 1:1–3). And Jonah eventually admits why. He knew that God was “a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Jonah 4:2). Jonah did not merely fear the difficulty of the assignment; he objected to what obedience might accomplish, and if you have eyes to see it, all of us have Jonah’s heart when obedience costs us something.
    Sometimes we resist obedience because we feel inadequate. Sometimes because we are afraid. Sometimes because obedience interferes with our plans. Sometimes because we simply do not like what God is asking us to do.
    Whatever the reason, our fallen hearts want the kingdom without the cup of Christ. We want the resurrection crown without the crucifixion. And that helps explain why living out our faith can be so difficult.
    Everything we are called to do at FBCL requires costly faithfulness. Preaching is hard. Discipleship is hard. The school is hard. Strengthening families is hard. Reaching the unchurched is hard. Ministering to people trapped in addiction, poverty, broken families, and spiritual darkness is hard.
    Scripture never tells us to expect otherwise. Paul reminds us that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12). Peter warns us that our adversary “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Paul tells Timothy, “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3).
    There will be seasons when the work feels endless and the results remain invisible. There will be some good and some bad expectations that weigh on us. There will be people who reject our ministry. Disagreements about how ministry should be done will happen in and out of our church community. There will be times when we are misunderstood and even misrepresented by people who have no clue about the work God is doing in us and through us. Paul himself knew what it was to be “afflicted in every way,” “perplexed,” “persecuted,” and “struck down” (2 Corinthians 4:8–9).
    Yet none of that means Christ has abandoned us, or that we should abandon His work.
    Sometimes the difficulty is simply part of the cup that accompanies faithful discipleship.
    That is why Jesus tells James and John, “You will drink my cup.” And they did.
    James would eventually be killed by Herod because of his love for Jesus (Acts 12:1–2). John would know persecution and exile, describing himself as a “partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus” (Revelation 1:9).
    The men who ran from suffering in Gethsemane would eventually endure suffering faithfully because the risen Christ transformed them and the Holy Spirit empowered them so that their confidence could no longer be, “We are able.” Their confidence had to become, “Christ is able to sustain us.”
    And notice that Jesus still refuses to give them the positions they requested: “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.”
    That connects this passage to the parable immediately preceding it. In Matthew 20:1–16, the landowner freely distributes his generosity according to his own will. Here again, the Father sovereignly determines the places of honor in His kingdom. Kingdom greatness is not something we seize for ourselves. It is not earned through our ambition. It is received according to the gracious purposes of God.
    So, my question for us this morning is
    “Are we willing to drink from Christ’s cup? Are we willing to follow Christ wherever He leads?”
    As you answer that question, keep in mind the tension of your flesh and your faith.
    We often want to be useful to Christ without being inconvenienced for Christ.
    We want fruitful marriages without sacrificial love.
    We want godly children without the exhausting work of discipleship.
    We want a healthy church without bearing with difficult people (Colossians 3:13).
    We want the joy of ministry without the cup that sometimes accompanies ministry.
    But Jesus never offers us that kind of discipleship. He says,
    “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).
    In verses 24-27, Jesus is going to move from the cup we must embrace to the kind of heart with which we must serve. Kingdom greatness is not merely being willing to suffer. Kingdom greatness means stooping to serve others.

    II. Kingdom Greatness Stoops to Serve Others Matthew 20:24-27

    In reading this passage, I had to ask myself,
    Is it sinful to desire to be great?
    I don’t think Jesus says that it is. He does not rebuke His disciples for wanting to be great. He corrects their fallen understanding of what greatness is.
    Verse 24 says, “When the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers.” At a first reading, you might think this is righteous indignation, but that is not the case. They are not upset because James and John have dishonored Jesus. They are upset because James and John have tried to get ahead of them.
    We know this was an ongoing struggle among the disciples. Earlier they had asked Jesus, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Matthew 18:1). Even on the night Jesus was betrayed, “A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest” (Luke 22:24).
    The disciples are measuring greatness the same way the world measures greatness. So Jesus calls them together and contrasts greatness in the kingdom of this world with greatness in the kingdom of God.

    Kingdom of God Greatness Becomes Service

    Verse 25: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.”
    That is the world’s understanding of greatness: climb the ladder high enough so that other people are beneath you. Accumulate enough power, influence, authority, recognition, and status that other people serve you.
    Then Jesus draws a proverbial line between His kingdom and the kingdoms of this world: “It shall not be so among you.”
    Paul tells us in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world.” In Philippians he says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). Peter says, “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another” (1 Peter 5:5).
    The church cannot simply baptize the world’s definition of greatness. We cannot measure greatness by who has the most authority, the biggest ministry, the greatest recognition, the loudest voice, or the most influence. Jesus gives us an entirely different measurement.
    Verse 26: “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant.”
    The word translated “servant” is diakonos. It refers to one who ministers to the needs of another. This word is at the heart of our deacon ministry. Our deacons and deaconesses, along with our elders, should set the example of greatness by the way they stoop to serve our body.
    Jesus goes even further in verse 27 with your new identity as a leader: “Whoever would be first among you must be your slave.”
    The word is doulos—slave. Do you see how Jesus turns greatness upside down? You want to go up? Go down. You want to become first? Become last. You want to become great? Become a slave.
    The world says greatness means having people beneath you. Jesus says greatness means willingly placing yourself beneath others for their good.
    Paul says, “Through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13). Peter says, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another” (1 Peter 4:10). Paul says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).
    Maybe this sounds extraordinary to you, but there is nothing spectacular about our service in the Kingdom. Greatness often looks remarkably ordinary.

    Kingdom Greatness in the Church, Community, and Home

    In the home, it looks like a husband who comes home tired and still gives himself to his wife and children. It looks like a mother who quietly and faithfully pours herself into her family day after day. It looks like children learning that the family does not exist to satisfy their desires, but is a place where they learn to love and serve one another.
    In the church, it looks like noticing the lonely person everyone else walks past. It looks like bearing with difficult people, forgiving one another, praying for one another, and using whatever gift God has given you for the good of the body (Colossians 3:13; 1 Peter 4:10). It looks like holding fast when everything in you wants to run away from the ministry God has called you to.
    And in the community, it means moving toward people who can do very little for us in return. Jesus tells us, “When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,” precisely because “they cannot repay you” (Luke 14:13–14). Kingdom servants move toward the overlooked, the weak, the broken, the needy, those on the periphery of society because that is the kind of love Christ’s kingdom produces.
    That is kingdom greatness. It is often hidden greatness and sometimes nobody except Christ even knows your commitment to kingdom greatness, but the King sees, he rewards, and he equips you for greatness.
    What I love about the gospel and kingdom greatness is that Jesus knows that simply telling proud sinners to become humble servants will never be enough. We cannot manufacture this kind of humility by trying harder. Our hearts are naturally turned inward. We cannot simply obey commands.
    We need a Savior to ransom us, and we need His grace to transform us. So Jesus does something remarkable in verse 28. He grounds His command to serve in Himself. If you want to understand why kingdom greatness stoops to serve, you have to look at the King who stooped first.

    III. Kingdom Greatness Flows From the Ransom of Christ Matthew 20:28

    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.”
    Think about who is saying this. Jesus is the Son of Man—the King of Daniel 7:13–14, to whom God gives an everlasting kingdom and whom all nations will serve. Yet this King says, “I came not to be served but to serve.”
    That does not mean we do not serve Christ. It means Christ does not need our service as though He lacks something we can provide. Acts 17:25 says God is not “served by human hands, as though he needed anything.”
    Jesus is not a needy King looking for servants. He is a sufficient Savior who serves His people. And the greatest expression of that service is He came “to give his life as a ransom for many.”

    Christ Serves Us Through His Ransom

    A ransom is the price paid to secure someone’s freedom.
    Our greatest problem is that we are enslaved to sin, guilty before God, and unable to pay the debt we owe. So Jesus pays it for us: “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5). “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). That is substitutional atonement. Jesus gives His life in the place of sinners. He takes our guilt, our condemnation upon Himself and gives us His righteousness.
    That is the gospel. Jesus serves you. His Grace comes before your service. His ransom comes before your obedience because Christ’s ransom produces redeemed ransom shaped love.

    Christ’s Ransom Produces Ransom-Shaped Love That Serves

    Those who have been ransomed by this King begin to resemble their King’s greatness.
    1 John 3:16 says, “He laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”
    We cannot ransom anyone from sin, only Jesus can do that. But His ransom produces a ransom-shaped love in us. Having received His sacrificial love, we begin sacrificially loving others.
    We serve our spouse because Christ served us. We disciple our children because Christ patiently loves us. We carry one another’s burdens because Christ carried our greatest burden. We move toward the weak, broken, and overlooked because Christ moved toward us.
    Because Christ gave His life to ransom me, I can give my life serving others so that they may enjoy Him. That is kingdom greatness.
    But, we must make a note on kingdom greatness and service.

    You Must Serve From Grace, Not For Grace

    Jesus says, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Peter says that whoever serves should serve “by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11).
    Some of us become exhausted because we are trying to produce in ourselves what can only come from abiding in Christ. You cannot manufacture Christlike humility. You cannot continually carry the burdens of others in your own strength.
    So abide in Christ. Rest in His finished work. Depend upon His Spirit. Then serve with the strength He supplies. We do not serve for grace. We serve from grace.

    Be Great.

    And now we can see the whole passage.
    James and John wanted to know how close they could sit to the King. Jesus showed them what kind of King He is.

    Greatness Drinks the Cup of Christ.

    Greatness Stoops to Serve Like Christ.

    Greatness Ransoms their Life For the Joy of Others.

    Jesus is the King who drinks the cup. He is the King who stoops to serve. He is the King who gives His life as a ransom.
    That is kingdom greatness. It does not begin with how much you can do for Jesus. It begins with what Jesus has done for you.
    The King served you. The King ransomed you. The King supplies you.
    And by His grace, be great. the ransom your life to reflect the greatness of God’s kingdom.

      • Matthew 20:20–28ESV

      • Matthew 20:20–28ESV

  • Lord I Need You
First Baptist Church Litchfield
pastorjason.fbcl@gmail.com
217-324-4232
http://www.firstbaptistlitchfield.org/
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