Who Is the Greatest?

Mark 9:33-37
Gregory Perry | Sunday, November 15, 2020
Copyright © 2020, Gregory Perry

³³ They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” ³⁴ But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

³⁵ Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

³⁶ He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.” (Mark 9:33–37)

“Who is the greatest?” is the question of this passage. The boxer Muhammed Ali famously repeatedly shouted, “I am the greatest.” While most of us do not have the audacity to go around shouting this, this is far too often the silent shout of our hearts. Meanwhile, Satan plays on all our sinful natures to tempt us to consider ourselves the greatest, even in spite of all the clear evidence proving the contrary.

Desiring to be not just great but the greatest is a serious problem. Wanting to be great can be argued for, but wanting to be the greatest—you have to think about this—there are two things that are necessary for you to be the greatest. One, you have to build yourself up, and two, you have to tear others down. In fact, to be the greatest, I don’t even have to be great. I just have to be greater than everyone else. The one bent on being the greatest is certainly not rooting for others to be great.

By definition, only one can be the greatest, and there is an answer to who is the greatest. The greatest is God. Any claim we have to being the greatest necessitates putting ourselves above God, the One whom we are to praise for his surpassing greatness. Psalm 145:3 says, “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.”

In our passage in Mark 9, the disciples of Jesus are quietly arguing among themselves about which one of them is the greatest. Jesus uses this occasion to instruct them and to instruct us on how to be truly great in the eyes of God.

This evening we will look at three points from this passage. We will see, first, who is the greatest; second, we must be the servant of all; and, third, how to welcome Jesus.

1. Who Is the Greatest?

Verses 33 and 34 say, “They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ But they kept quiet, because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.”

When Jesus asked what the disciples were arguing about, it was somewhat of a rhetorical question. Though he expects an answer from them, it is rhetorical in the sense that he already knows the answer. In fact, Luke’s version explicitly tells us that he knows the answer because he knows all things. In the parallel passage in Luke 9, we read, “An argument started among the disciples about which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him” (Luke 9:46–47).

The fact that Jesus knows all things points to the fact that he is God, for God alone knows all things. We are told about God’s omniscience all throughout the Scriptures. Consider a few clear examples we see in the Scriptures of God knowing all things. Probably most famously, Psalm 139 begins, “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O Lord” (Ps. 139:1–4). There is a kind of knowledge that only God can have. And in Luke 16:15, Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts.” In Hebrews 4, beginning in verse 12, the author speaks about the word of God being living and active, sharper than a double-edged sword. He says that the word of God “judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Then he says, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.” He sees and knows all things. “Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:12–13).

The fact that Jesus, in his divine nature, knows all is repeatedly asserted throughout the gospels. We are told frequently that he knew what people were thinking. In Matthew 9:4 the teachers of the law were saying to themselves that Jesus was a blasphemer. “Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, ‘Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?’” Again, in Matthew 12:25, when the Pharisees said to one another that Jesus was working miracles only in the power of Beelzebub, the text says, “Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined.’”  Jesus knew their thoughts. And if Jesus knew their thoughts, he is doing what only God can do. So Jesus, as God, knows all things.

It will transform how we live if we are conscious of the fact that our risen Lord listens to our very thoughts and he knows perfectly the conditions of our hearts. It will keep us from superficial externalism. It will keep us from thinking that heartless obedience will somehow be accepted in God’s sight. No, he sees the heart behind our obedience, and he knows our thoughts. And he knows our words even before we speak them.

We are told that Jesus was the great heart-knower. Only God can know the hearts of men, and Jesus, being God, knows men’s hearts. We read this in John 2:24–25, and this is even when people were coming to believe in him in Jerusalem as they witness his miracles. Yet the text says, “But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.” And, in fact, later on in John 5:42, Jesus says, “But I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts.” Only God can peer into the heart to see if there is the love of God in our heart.

But there is something more going on in this passage that we may not recognize at first. This argument about which one of the apostles was the greatest did not just come out of nowhere. The disciples were arguing about this because Jesus had just spoken about his own imminent betrayal and death. In other words, they argued about who was the greatest because they were wondering which one of them would replace Jesus when he was gone. It was an argument over their status. They were fighting for preeminence because they wondered who his successor would be.

This phenomenon happened more than once. Whenever Jesus spoke about his death, it would inevitably lead to some sort of dispute about who was the greatest among them. Have you ever noticed that when you read the passage? For example, in the very next chapter, in Mark 10:32–45, Jesus again speaks to the Twelve about his coming death. He says, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.” What happens next? The apostles James and John, along with their mother, approach Jesus and request to be recognized as the one on his right and the one on his left. The other ten become indignant over this request because they are convinced that they should be the ones to be given such honor. This is just another form of arguing over which one of them is the greatest.

In John 12, Jesus again speaks to the disciples about his coming death, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed” (John 12:23–24). It is no coincidence that in the next chapter, John 13, it begins with the disciples refusing to wash one another’s feet. This was another way of silently arguing with each other about which one of them was the greatest. In their minds, to wash the feet of another disciple would be an open admission that they were not the greatest among them. All, I am sure, were willing to serve Jesus, but none were willing to serve one another.

This even happens after the Lord’s Supper, as recorded in Luke 22. Jesus speaks of the broken bread representing his body given to them and the cup of the new covenant representing his blood poured out for them. And how do the disciples respond? It is shocking. In Luke 22:24, right after the great Lord’s Supper, he was going to pour out his blood, and his body was going to be broken for them, but what are they saying? In Luke 22:24 we read, “A dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest.”  This was not a one-time deal. This was an ongoing dispute about who is the greatest.

To be thinking of who can replace Jesus shows a fundamental lack of understanding on the part of the disciples about who Christ truly is. They at least failed to realize consistently that he is the unique, one and only Son of God. It is the same confusion seen in Peter earlier when, in the one minute he is declaring that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and then in the next minute he is rebuking Jesus, who he just called the Christ, the Son of the living God.

It is true that Jesus calls his apostles and he calls ministers to represent him. They are to deliver his message, and those who receive them will receive Jesus. But while God’s apostles, who are his sent ones, represent him, they certainly do not replace him, for we know in Acts 4:12 Peter said correctly, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” No man, no apostle, no minister was ever meant to take the place of Christ. He is the one Lord, the one Redeemer, and he will not share his glory with another.

Moreover, the disciples arguing over who is the greatest was evidence of the strife and disunity that existed among them. We should make clear at this point what is only implied in this text. They were not arguing about who is the greatest in the sense that John was saying that Peter was the greatest, and Peter was saying, “No, no, no, Thomas is the greatest,” and Thomas was saying, “No, Simon the Zealot is the greatest.” No, who were they saying was the greatest? “I am the greatest.” They were all making their own case for being the greatest.

This is why the issue had become so divisive. Each man campaigned for himself. He looked to his own interest. He was out for himself. And in doing this, we see the hand of the devil, who is always at work to divide and conquer God’s people. Through their argument, they gave the devil a foothold.

As the people of God, we are called to be united in Christ. We are one body. Paul calls us in Ephesians 4:3 to “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” And because the powerful devil opposes such unity, it takes ongoing, Holy-Spirit-engineered effort to maintain this unity.

When we celebrate Holy Communion each Sunday as we did this morning, we are declaring that we are one with Christ and we are one with his people. We are the one body of Christ. So ask yourself—this is a challenging question: Am I making every effort—the text says, “make every effort”—Am I making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in this church? Or am I someone who contributes to division? Do my words and actions promote unity, or do they sow seeds of discord? And don’t be quick to just move on and just say, “Yes, unity.” Ask: What do I do that sows seeds of discord in the body of Christ? You could do that through gossiping in the church. You can do so through backbiting, complaining. There is always a spirit of greed in the church. There is selfish ambition at work. All these things will sow division in God’s house.

When Jesus confronts the disciples by asking what they were talking about on the road, they knew they were guilty. They were embarrassed to say what they were talking about, and we are told in the text that they kept quiet. They were shamed into silence. I venture to say that we too would be shamed into silence if God were to confront us with our own self-aggrandizing thoughts of our hearts and the foolish arguments in our minds that we make for our own greatness.

2. We Must Be Servants of All

Verse 35 says, “Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, ‘If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, the servant of all.’” Jesus answers the question that the disciples dared not ask him. They wanted to know who was the greatest, and Jesus told them that the greatest was the one who makes himself last and is the servant of all.

On a number of occasions, Jesus made this point very clear. So in Matthew 19:30 we read about the rich young ruler who goes away sad because he is not willing to give away everything he has and follow Christ. They wonder if this rich man cannot be saved, then who can be? And Jesus answers, “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.” This is a principle we see over and over. In the next chapter, Matthew 20, in the parable of the workers in the vineyard, the same salary is given to those who worked one hour as to those who worked all day. And what does Jesus say at the end of that parable? “So the last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matt. 20:16).  He says it again in Luke 13:30 in the context of entering through the narrow door. He says, “Indeed, there are those who are last, and first who will be last.” So this expression, “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first,” is a very important principle that we see throughout the Scriptures.

It conjures up an image in our minds of a group of schoolchildren lining up to get their pizza lunch. The kids line up, and those who rudely push themselves forward will be sent back to the back of the line by the pizza lady, while those who wait patiently will be moved to the front. So those who push themselves forward will be pulled back, while those who pull themselves back will be pushed forward.

The first becoming last is speaking about the importance of humbling ourselves. If we want to be useful to God and to his kingdom and to this church, we will be humble and we will be humble servants for him. We need to humble ourselves because, due to our sin nature, we are prone to be proud. We tend to exalt ourselves. We have an inflated view of our own accomplishments, however insignificant those accomplishments may be in reality. (GWP) They are very big in our own minds and we consider ourselves better than others, and we look to our own interests before anyone else’s.

God calls us as his people to live a life of love, and love puts others before ourselves. Selfish ambition is the opposite of love. In Philippians 2, the apostle Paul says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:3–4).

Pride always pushes itself forward, but love is not proud. Love produces in us a humility that puts others first. And God promises in his word that he who humbles himself will be exalted. We first see this principle in the Old Testament in Isaiah 40:4. It says, “Every valley,” every low valley, “shall be raised up and every mountain and hill made low.” We read recently in Ezekiel 17:24, “All the trees of the field will know that I the Lord bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall.”  Then he says in Ezekiel 21:26, “The lowly will be exalted and the exalted will be brought low.”

Jesus, in his own ministry, teaches this same important teaching. In Luke 14:11, he was at the table of the Pharisees, and he is teaching about not taking the seat of honor and waiting instead to be called up to that seat. Jesus says, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” He says the same thing in Matthew 23. In the midst of pronouncing his woes to the Pharisees, he says first, “The greatest among you will be your servants.” Here again he is dealing with this idea of the greatest being the servant. Then he says, “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matt. 23:11–12).

It is at the end of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector that this is perhaps most famously quoted by Jesus. He says, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14). It is the self-righteous, boastful Pharisee who congratulates himself on how great he is. Meanwhile, the tax collector beats his breast and will not even look up to heaven. He cries out to God for mercy, and Jesus says that it is this humble tax collector who will go home justified, while the proud Pharisee remains condemned in his sins.

In our passage, Christ tells his disciples and he tells us that we must be servants of all. So “servant of all” means that we do not pick and choose whom to serve. Too often we are more than willing to serve the important and influential members of the church because, after all, there is perhaps a potential benefit for me. But Jesus warned against such discriminating service. In Luke 14, beginning in verse 12, Jesus said, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind”—in other words, those of little import—“and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:12–14).

Jesus again emphasized the value of serving all, even the very least, in his parable of the sheep and the goats when he said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matt. 25:40). James, the brother of the Lord, also taught that we are to serve all when he dealt with the problem of the rich of the church being treated favorably over the poor. James says, “My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Christ, don’t show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’  have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” (Jas. 2:1–4). And churches operate this way. They have operated this way historically when they become dead churches, and they operate this way today. The people who have the money and who have the influence and prestige in the society will gain the favor and all the privileges of membership in the exclusive club, and then everyone else is supposed to just go away.

But that is not the way the body of Christ works. The Christian life is a life of service. We are to be servants of all, and we should especially be looking for ways to serve those who are most in need. There are many ways in which God calls us to serve. Think about it in the context of church. If you are a minister, “minister” means “servant.” The word diakonos is the same word for servant. So a minister is a servant, and a minister is called especially to serve God’s people through preaching the word and through counseling in accordance with the word.

But there are many other kinds of service in the church that we always see people involved in. You can be involved in the music ministry. That is a way to serve the body of Christ. You can be in the prestigious A/V team that we appreciate so much. You can be, like we all are, involved in church clean-up. You can be out here mowing the lawns. You can be serving church meals in various ways. When we have big church gatherings, there is always opportunity for serving at those tables. You can be a member of the Workmen for Christ if you are young man, and we see them out here every Saturday working on the grounds. You can be part of Judy Lee’s flower crew. There are many different ways of serving in the body of Christ, and in doing this, you are serving all of God’s people.

But especially too there are ways of doing personal service, which many of us in this church for many years have been a part of, such as cooking a meal for someone in need. Whether they are sick or they have a busy time in their lives, you go and cook a meal for that person. Or you go grocery shopping for people who cannot do the grocery shopping or are short on time. You can wash someone’s car or mow their lawn, especially for the elderly people. You can babysit for people. I want to highlight that it is good to serve, but if you expect to be paid for your service, it is no longer service. That doesn’t mean you cannot pay someone to do something. But if you go to serve, and you are expecting to be paid for it, that is just a job. Right? That is not service anymore.

But there are many ways, and this is a church full of service because there is the love of Christ in this place and a love for one another. And the prayer is that this would not be a one-generational service church, but that we would be a church in which our children and our grandchildren and beyond that for many years, that we would not only be preaching the gospel, but we would be a lively body of Christ in which we are serving one another. I can tell you that there are churches out there who still will preach an orthodox gospel, but there is no longer any life in that church. Maybe there was a hundred years ago, and thankfully they are still speaking about the Bible, but the life of God has gone out from the people.

Servants in God’s kingdom serve willingly and gladly. And they will hear from their Lord on that day, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into my rest.” That is what we should all aspire to. That is what we want to hear. That is why we serve. We want to hear our Lord say on that day, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into my rest.” In order to have the joy of having this commendation from our Lord, we must be servants of all.

3. Welcoming Jesus

In verses 36 and 37 we read, “[Jesus] took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.’” Having already taught the disciples that the greatest will be humble and will be servant of all, Jesus goes on to dramatize this truth by enacting a parable of how we are to treat one another. Through the example of a nearby child, Jesus teaches that it takes humility to welcome the lowly, and those who do so welcome Christ.

When I think of myself as great, I naturally overlook the lowly. They just are not important enough for my attention. The job of the lowly is to serve me, after all, and to be mindful of my needs. But Jesus here rebukes such an arrogant and haughty attitude.

Jesus’ use of this child to stand for the lowly is a little bit lost on modern readers, especially in America because we live in a modern, child-worshiping society. Yet in the ancient world, children were mostly looked down upon. Unless you were part of some royal family, children were at best seen as low-level subordinates, with no real status in society or perceivable beneficial ability. But Jesus consistently displayed a much higher view of children than those around him. Jesus had the little child stand with them to show that they were no better than this little child. The disciples rightly gloried in being allowed to be in the presence of Jesus, but this privilege made them no better than anyone else. He calls the little child to come into his presence.

Jesus receives anyone who comes to him, even the foolish, weak, lowly, and despised zeros of the world that come to him in faith. There is a commentator, Kent Hughes, who put it this way. He said, “We are to receive all of God’s people as we do children, with no thought of their accomplishments, their influence, their fame, or their gifts, but simply because they are his children. This rules out seeking the powerful or influential for what they can do for us. This is a warning about neglecting the simple, the humble, the ordinary.”[1]

There is a right way that we should champion a sort of spiritual egalitarianism. Certainly, there are important differences of abilities and functions in the kingdom of God that we maintain and we teach about. But there is also a kind of kingdom equality. We are all one in Christ. In Galatians 3:28 Paul says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” He says in Colossians 3:11, “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” And, of course, we know Ephesians 4:4–6 where Paul speaks of this unity. He says, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”  You see, we are all one. There is not a separate baptism for the really important people, and then we have a different baptism elsewhere for the less important people.

The point that Jesus makes through this enacted parable is that the believing child is your brother. For it says in John 1:12, “Yet to all who received [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” So you can use an example. We saw not too long ago Jackson Bodine was baptized. He is younger than I am. He has, I think, less wisdom, less ability in most areas of life. But he and I are brothers—we are brothers in Christ. And he is a covenant member of God’s kingdom, so we are children of the same Father. We have to have that idea. And if in any sense we think of ourselves as being inherently superior because of our ability or our background or anything else, we are missing the boat on what it is to have real unity in the body of Christ. We even said this to someone recently in a counseling session where the person was thinking they were not very important. And Mr. Broderick said, “You are just as important in the body of Christ as anyone else.” Any member in this body is an essential member of the body of Christ. That is what the Scripture clearly teaches.

We can also learn from Jesus the proper way to view children. Here and elsewhere we see Jesus taking a little child in his arms, demonstrating his marked affection for children. In stark contrast, the disciples preferred driving children away from the Lord. Jesus, however, prevents them from doing so and orders them in Matthew 19, “Let the little children come to me.” This tells us that we are to encourage our children to come to Christ even at a young age. This question frequently arises when people wonder what is the proper age for a believing child to be baptized. There is no set age for this, so there is no good answer. But the key is that the person being baptized must have a credible profession of faith. Those who say that a child’s profession of faith can never be credible seem to be siding with the disciples over and against Jesus. Is it true that a child can not really have a credible profession of faith? Where did you get that idea? Not from Jesus. You must be careful not to drive the children away and prevent them from coming to the Lord. The truth is that if you are old enough to be convicted of your sins, then you are old enough to turn to Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Notice the way that Jesus identifies himself with these believing children. He says, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me.” Jesus often identifies himself with those who believe in him. Recall what the risen Lord said to Saul when he revealed himself to him on the road to Damascus. Saul was going there to arrest those who believed in Jesus as the Christ. The risen Lord confronted him and asked, “Saul, Saul,” and then he didn’t say, “Why do you persecute them?” He said, “Why do you persecute me?” You see, Jesus Christ identified himself with his people. Saul wasn’t saying, “I am going to persecute Jesus.” But Jesus said, “In persecuting my people, you are persecuting me.” He identifies himself with his people.

We see that again in Matthew 10:40 when he sends his disciples out to speak. He says, “Those who receive you receive me, but those who reject you reject me.” Again, he is identifying himself with his people. And we saw earlier in the parable of the sheep and the goats, he said, “Whatever you do for the least of Christ’s people, the least of my children, you are doing for me.” So we see this over and over. Jesus identifies himself with his people.

It is a sobering truth, if you think about it. That Jesus identifies with us is a comforting truth, but it is a sobering truth that we as his believing people are identified with Christ. We are united to Christ by faith; therefore, we bear his name. That is why we are called Christians. We bear the name of Christ. That reality should drive how we conduct ourselves in our daily life. We don’t want to shame his name by how we live or what we speak. So if you engage in coarse joking with your friends, think about this: Am I bringing shame or honor to the name of Christ that I bear? And when we are insulted or people speak all kinds of evil about us because of the name of Christ that we bear, when we are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, then we can take comfort in knowing that they are not persecuting us but they are persecuting Christ in us. That is the way Christ sees it, so that is the way we should see it.

But this identification goes both ways. If people attack our Christ, how should we react? We should see an attack on Christ as an attack on us. He identifies with us, and we are to identify with him. So when people are speaking against your Lord, don’t just sit idly by and nod your head and say nothing and congratulate yourself for not saying anything bad about that person. You just sit there and listen and smile. No. They are speaking about your Christ. He identifies with you and you identify with him. We should stand up and defend the name of our precious Lord and Savior. Remember what Christ says in Matthew 10:32: “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before me I will disown him before my Father in heaven.”

Not only are we united to Christ, but we are united to one another in the body of Christ. We are united to him as the head and to one another as members of his body. If someone attacks my brother in Christ, then they are attacking me. See, one body in the body of Christ. We are united to one another in Christ.

So there should be no argument among ourselves or even in our own minds about who is the greatest. Who is the greatest? There is an answer. The greatest is Jesus. He is the greatest. He is the great God-man who came to this earth to save us from our sins through his death, burial, and resurrection. We are utterly unworthy. We are not great. We are utterly unworthy of Christ. No matter how nice you think you are, we are utterly unworthy of Christ. All we are that is great is that we are great sinners, saved by a great God by his great grace.

We are unworthy of him. But by grace, we have been united to him through faith so that now in him we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. Jesus Christ is the greatest, and we are his grateful servants. And in serving him as our head, we also faithfully serve one another as fellow members of his body. We are servants of all. So we do all this for the glory of his great name and for the advancement of his kingdom. May we do so always. Amen.

 

 

[1] R. Kent Hughes, Mark: Jesus, Servant and Savior, Preaching the Word series (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015).