The Desire to Become Great

Do you want to be great among your fellow Christians? Do you want to be first—a pastor or a missionary in the midst of the people in your congregation? Why not? Many of them are new believers or immature anyways. Someone has to lead them. Your desire is a good thing. It is a healthy desire. You do not have to quench it. You simply have to channel it the right way.

Jesus spoke to his disciples in private and explained the principles of becoming great among believers. In other words, how to become first.

Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’ (Matthew 20:25-28).

A Branch of the Kingdom

If you are able, channel your desire to be a pastor-teacher, evangelist, prophet, or missionary-apostle (one of the four leadership roles in the Church) towards the Kingdom of God. You see, just as a bank office is only a branch of a bank, your local congregation is but a branch of the Kingdom.

The Kingdom headquarters is in Heaven with Jesus.

For our citizenship is in Heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ… (Philippians 3:20; NASB).

The investments you make in your local congregation (by serving, dedicating time, giving money, using your gifts, loving people and supporting the ministry) are stored up for you in Heaven. That’s the repository.

Eventually Jesus will come to us from Heaven bringing rewards with him—the rewards correspond to the good things we have done in secret--those are the treasures we have stored up in Heaven.

Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, to render to every man according to what he has done (Revelation 22:12; NASB).

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on Earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:19-21; NASB).

We’re Different

Leadership in the Church is not the kind of leadership worldly people want. Church leadership is dramatically different from the leadership of this World. Church leadership is governed by the principles of another world. You must follow Kingdom principles if you will someday earn greatness in that world, the Kingdom.

Furthermore, you must follow one particular Kingdom principle if you will become a leader in the Church now—the principle of service. Jesus taught us service through his example. In the passage at hand (repeated below), Jesus frames the principle of servant leadership with the expression ‘just as the Son of Man...’ In other words, we must do things the same way Jesus did them.

Jesus called them together and said, ‘... whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’ (Matthew 20:25-28).

If you observe his ministry closely, Jesus’ service did not mean that he didn’t rebuke, correct, or speak with authority. It didn’t mean that he ran around with craven false humility. For example, he washed the apostles’ feet once as an example of what they should do, but he didn’t wash their feet daily. Jesus delegated tasks confidently and promoted the apostles’ spiritual growth by instructing them as their teacher. He knew that he was their Lord, but did not lord over them.

You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him (John 13:13-16).

Fighting, Clawing, Scratching

In the World, people get positions of leadership by fighting their way to the top. They compete for power in politics, work, business, sports, finance, real estate, and especially in religion.

Sometimes they compete viciously, using slander, lies, cheating, betrayal, or even assassination to become leaders. They can go to the extreme by using military force, such as a coup d’etat. People fight, claw, and scratch their way positions of leadership.

But God’s people know that greatness comes by service. God’s Church knows that Jesus is the model for Kingdom greatness—no one has ever earned a higher place in Heaven. Therefore, if we designate men for positions of leadership (and we do so by laying hands on them), we must put service-focused men in those positions.

There’s no competitive interview process. There’s no technical review of resumes. There’s no request for college transcripts. There’s no comparison of GPAs. Nobody should ever get a pastoral job because they beat others out, but because they built others up.

Church leadership must be obtained through service.

Want to Become Great?

There is a business-leadership model called servant-leadership and it reached the peak of its popularity around 2008. Many businesses use it to build up a leadership base and to increase productivity in their companies even today. But that leadership model misses the main point Jesus taught: that the goal is the Kingdom. Jesus embodies the principle of servant-leadership, but his goal was other-worldly. You are not following Jesus’ principle of servant leadership if you are aiming at success in this World.

The Church has always been in the World, but never has so much of the World been in the Church. The Church is flooded with worldly-minded people today—many more than it had at the time of the apostles. Due to this turning away from the Good News of the Kingdom, apostasy has so overwhelmed Christian churches that it’s less and less likely that a man guided by Jesus' principle of service will actually make it into a leadership position.

Still, the guiding principle for becoming great in the Church continues to be service. Jesus established the principle of servant-leadership and there has never been another system to replace it. Jesus commanded that none of us should lord over the rest. He established that none of us gets to be the boss by being bossy. His laws cannot be violated.

In the Church, we become first by being last. That’s Jesus’ example. We are to humble ourselves just as he did, and then God will grant authority to us. That’s exactly what happened to Jesus. God granted the Kingdom to Jesus—but only after Jesus humbled himself. Read the text below and ask yourself “What’s the therefore there for?”

…he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name… (Philippians 2:8-9)

Our Method and our Goal

If Jesus followed them, we too must follow the principles of the Kingdom, not the ways of the World. The Church can only operate God’s way if it follows Kingdom rules. Jesus taught us to strive for greatness—so we must do that too. Striving to obtain eternal glory in the Kingdom was Jesus’ modus operandi, his method of procedure.

Christianity is not service for the sake of service. Christianity is not altruism. Christians strive to become rulers in the Eternal Kingdom. To get that glory, we must humble ourselves now, in this life. Service and humility constitute our modus operandi.

… it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest (Luke 9:48).

The greatest among you will be your servant (Matthew 23:11).

Service is our method, but what’s our goal? Attaining a better resurrection.

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, and Samuel and the prophets… But others were tortured, not accepting release, in order that they might gain a better resurrection (Hebrews 11:32, 35).

To obtain the prize for which God has called us heavenward, we must serve. One way or another, we must obtain a resurrection from the Dead. We aim for a resurrection. We strive for a resurrection--the best one possible! Isn't that the goal for which Paul strove?

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow attaining to the Resurrection from the Dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:10-14).