Luke 22:24-30

Main Point of the Sermon: We will reign with Christ, so we must serve like Christ. 

Introduction

My wife and I recently had the privilege of going on a cruise without the kids. It was incredible! And every morning, often late morning, we had a spread of food ready for us to enjoy and an abundance of staff at our beck and call ready to grab whatever we requested as we reclined at our table and gazed at the ocean off the back of the ship.

It’s really nice to be served, isn’t it? In fact, many of us spend a lot of mental energy thinking about how to get promoted and earn more so that we can work less and do what we want to do with our time and energy. It’s not my inclination to wake up in the morning, saying, “Yes, I get to change another diaper!” We’d much rather be served.

But when we answered the call to follow Christ, it was a call to serve. 

If you’ve been around All Peoples Church for a while, you may be familiar with our identity statement. We aim to be a “A beloved family of missionary servants”.

We believe that the Bible teaches that one of the defining marks of a Christian is serving others. 

How then do we relate our desire we have in us to be served with Christ’s call to serve? 

I’ve titled this sermon “Learning To Rule With Christ.” We’ll see today that Christians are promised future reign with Christ in glory. But like Jesus, our path to glory is a path of sacrificial service. 

Context:

So here we are in Luke in the last few hours of Jesus’s life. Jesus has just shared his last meal with his disciples and he is giving them final instructions as he prepares them to continue his ministry after his ascension.

The King Came To Serve

Verse 24:

 24 A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. 

This is not the first time they’ve argued about this. Luke records another instance in chapter 9. Interestingly, in each recorded situation, the argument comes after Jesus speaks of his death (Matthew 18:1-4; Mark 9:33-36; Luke 9:46-47).[1] They wanted to know who would be Jesus’s successor. Who will be most important in the kingdom. 

I wish I could say that this is an old problem, that we adults in the twenty-first century never fight over such things. But I can’t. This is a human heart issue. It’s how the world has always operated.  We want to be recognized as attractive or smart or valuable. Our hearts inherently long for power and significance. We claw our way towards it, making others the door mat as we enter our glory. Instead of rejoicing in others accomplishments we withhold honor and instead harbor jealous and covetous thoughts. We gossip or slander others to try to make ourselves look better. The result is broken relationships, church division, divorce, and on and on. 

Now, you would think that the Twelve, who had walked so closely with Jesus and who had already been corrected by him on this issue would get it by now. But even to the last hour, they had a twisted and worldly understanding of the kingdom of God. 

Jesus is going to turn their worldview upside down with his response. I’m going to read from the New Living Translation for clarity. Verse 25: 

In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ 26 But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. 

Jesus compares two groups of leaders. Leaders in this world and leaders in the kingdom of God. 

He says, the kings of the nations exercise lordship over their people, that is they demand complete submission and servanthood from the people – others serve them. At the same time, they demand titles of honor like “friend of the people”, “benevolent lord” or “generous one”. 

We have plenty of modern examples of this. Like North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, whose image flies high in major cities, or Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, who touts his agenda as creating “a world without naziism,” or United States Presidents who we’ve seen so confidently assert their great successes for the people in public debates. 

Jesus says, the world’s leaders demand to be served and to be highly spoken of. 

But Jesus says, in contrast, “Not so with you.” Among you it will be different. You must not think this way. That’s not how you’re going to lead. Instead, the greatest among you must start to behave as if he were the youngest, or the lowest in rank, and the leaders in your community must act like the one who serves, like the one who takes the orders. 

Rather than demanding the service of others or titles of honor, you must take the lowest position. 

Jesus gives another example in verse 27: For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? 

His question obviously implies that the one reclining is the greater, not the one serving. But Jesus says, 

But I am among you as the one who serves. 

He says, look, you all understand how the world operates. But look at me. Look at my behavior towards you and towards others. It’s not like the world. 

Jesus is certainly not saying to his disciples that they ought to think less of him. Rather, he is redefining greatness. He is showing them what rule and authority looks like in the kingdom of God. God’s King has the identity of a servant-leader. Friends, the King of kings, the Lord of lords came not to be served but to serve. He is already great positionally, worthy to be loved and served, but his character, his identity as servant, is what highlights his true greatness. 

If you are familiar with the Bible these words of Jesus may bring to memory the startling scene of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples just before the last supper. We’re told in John 13 that… From memory

3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. This set up always blows me away. He knows who he is, yet he got up…

 He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him (13:3-5). 

Jesus, the Son of God, the King prophesied to rule on God’s throne forever and ever began to act like the least at the table. Rather than reclining at the table and being served as was fitting, he served, even washing feet! The one John the Baptist said was too great in rank for him to be able to unstrap his sandals, was at his disciples feet unstrapping theirs. And if he were here in person he would do the same with each of you, one by one. Could there be a better example of servant leadership? 

Jesus’s greatness is shown not first in a display of power and assertion, but in his humility as he became a man, grew from infancy to adulthood, learned and worked and served like all of us in blood, sweat, and tears.

He taught daily, often morning to night; he healed the sick from sunrise to sunset; he traveled great distances and at risk to his safety and honor into the most unlikely places to set captives free. 

He lived like a servant, from beginning to end, not like a king. 

Even to this hour he is aware of your needs and is before the Father representing every single one. He comes to you now to serve you, to know you, to listen to you, to love you in the most radical ways imagined by man.

Our God’s kingdom could not be further in character from the kingdoms of this world, and from the selfish inclination of our hearts. 

Jesus shows us that in the Kingdom of God, honor is gained through service. 

If you want to be considered great in God’s eyes, become like Jesus. 

The kingdom of God is an upside-down kingdom. The way up is actually down. If you want to be great, you must serve. 

Learning To Rule With Christ

Now, in our last few verses, Jesus is going to show us the future glory awaiting his people, and I want to try to show you how our future in Christ’s kingdom should empower us to serve. Verse 28: 

“You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, 29 and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, 30 that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 

Jesus says, you who have remained with me until the end, who didn’t abandon me when it was hard, are being assigned, or given, a kingdom. This is crazy! Jesus compares what they are about to receive to what he received from his father. As my Father decreed a kingdom to me, I now assign to you a kingdom!

These words doubtless would humble these men who so craved worldly authority and honor. They would soon realize that their arguments were no less silly than children fighting over who gets to sit in the front seat of the car. Jesus lays before them a destiny that none of them could fathom. 

He says they were being handed a kingdom, so that they could 1) “eat and drink at [Christ’s] table in [his] kingdom and 2) sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 

Jesus was giving them a spot at his table. He was giving them an unfathomable place of honor. This is a place of intimate fellowship, a place of feasting and joy. 

He was also giving them a place on judgment thrones next to him in his kingdom, where they would rule over the twelve tribes of Israel. 

From fishing boats to thrones. From noisy fish markets to glory at the table of the King. From poor men, to judges. 

Now, I can’t spend as much time here as I’d like, but I want to say a few things about the Apostles’ rule over the twelve tribes of Israel and also how we fit into this promise. 

First, as best as I can tell, the “twelve tribes of Israel” is not speaking literally of Judah, Benjamin, Reuban and so on, but rather symbolically of all the people of God. We see this truth explained in Ephesians 2, 1 Peter 2, and in Galatians 3 that both Jew and Gentile have been united as one in Christ. Every Christian is a child of Abraham through faith in Christ. This is why James greets both Jew and Gentile Christians as the “the twelve tribes in the Dispersion” (James 1). There is no question, Israel is and always will be dear to God’s heart, but he always intended that his people would expand beyond the borders of Israel to encompass people of every nation in Jesus. 

Second, I believe this text shows us, along with other hints in Scripture, that the twelve Apostles are given a higher place of rule and authority in the kingdom of God. They will have a prominent place amongst his people. Revelation 21 shows this by depicting the church as a great city with twelve foundations, and on the foundations are written the names of the twelve Apostles. On the one hand, these are simply brothers who have clung to Jesus like us in faith. On the other hand, Jesus has given them a unique place over his people in the kingdom. 

But how does this promise relate to us? Though this is a description of the future rule of the Apostles, the Bible speaks similarly of ALL CHRISTIANS. 

I could mention many, but I’ll give a few examples: Lk 19:17: “Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities’. Or 2 Tim 2:11-12: “The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. Or Rev 2:26 “To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—".  

Church, these are promises for you. Our destiny is nothing less than joint reign with Christ in the kingdom of God. 

Slow down. Friends, the positions and places of honor we care so much about in this life pale in comparison, look silly in comparison to the destiny Christ holds out to his people. 

But here is what we need to remember: the path to this future reign is no different than our Lord’s. 

Jesus understood that his glorification was coming through an act of service, his death on the cross. And he invites us to glory, saying, go and do as I have done, love one another with the same sort of sacrificial service that I have.. 

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 

(John 13:34). 

As I have loved you. That is, all the way to death. Jesus went to the cross as the greatest act of service because of his love for us. He died so that all who believe in him would not perish, but live; so that his enemies could be reconciled to God through him, and brought back into his kingdom. 

“... the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45). 

Our King is motivated by his love for us. This is what drives him to serve. 

I want to bring some specific application. What would it look like to serve and love like Christ? 

I want to speak to a few different groups of people. 

Pastors – What if we measured our greatness not by how many people are around us, but by how much we’ve poured out our lives for the body of Christ?

May we never lord over the flock like the leaders of this world, but be the chief servants in the church. That is true greatness.

Singles and Retirees - What if instead of measuring your greatness by your career or where you’ve traveled or by your financial portfolio, you measure it by how sacrificially you’ve been on mission or supported missionaries or orphans or widows? 

What you do with your time matters to the Lord greatly. Wholly devote yourself to the Lord. Oftentimes, singleness or retirement affords the opportunity to move around and give more freely. If you have capacity in this season, don’t waste it on yourself. Give yourself away for others' good. That is true greatness. 

Husbands and Fathers –  “love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Eph 5:25). For you! Yes, God has given you a position of authority in your household, but never take advantage of your position. Be the chief servant of your home. Let your spouse and your children see you run first to take out the trash, to change the diaper, to meet the need. Train your children with your teaching and your example. That is true greatness.

Wives and mothers – Serve your husbands and your children. Serve faithfully in the small things when it feels unseen. Your role as help-mate to your husband is so beautiful, especially in light of Christ’s service. Many of you serve tirelessly. Fight to do it cheerfully with all respect for your husband as you do the Lord. That is true greatness.

Spouses, what if instead of keeping score of all that you’ve done or comparing your spouse's work to yours, you aimed for the glory of serving without getting anything in return?

With one another – Be generous towards one another. Outdo one another in showing honor, in listening to one another, in praying for one another, in serving the lowly in our community. It’s never glamorous to serve kids, but Jesus said, whoever receives a child in my name, receives me (Mk 9:37). Don’t try to be great in this community by knowing the best looking and influential, but give your attention and energy to the least. 

We must think less of protecting our belongings and time and more about ways to share with others for the sake of the kingdom. We must be the best employee or boss you can be, not as a people pleaser, but because we are ultimately serving Christ our Master.

This is true greatness in God’s Kingdom. 

Is this how you see the world today? Is this how you operate?  

Friends, we desperately need a worldview shift and we need to be reminded of these truths daily. 

You are royalty. You are heirs of the Kingdom by virtue of your union with Christ. Many of you put that on display daily. Let’s do it all the more. This life of service is preparation for future glory. We learn to rule with Christ by serving like our King. 

I want to leave you with this. The call to live out this servant identity is often hard, but you are not alone in the fight. Not only has Christ given us an example in his broken body and shed blood, he has given us the Holy Spirit to empower us for this great task and to remind us of these great promises. So let’s fix our eyes on the Servant of all when we face each difficult hour of service this week. 

Benediction: The servants who are ready and waiting for his return will be rewarded. I tell you the truth, he himself will seat them, put on an apron, and serve them as they sit and eat (Lk 12:37)!

[1] Utley, R. J. (2004). The Gospel according to Luke (Vol. Volume 3A, Lk 22:24). Marshall, TX: Bible Lessons International.

[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jn 13:3–7). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.