John Wooden was one of the greatest college basketball coaches who ever coached the game. During his career, he led the UCLA Bruins to 10 national championships, with 7 of those being in succession. With today’s college basketball landscape, I’m not sure that kind of success will ever be duplicated. Coach Wooden was a unique coach in a variety of ways. One of those ways would be how he would start preparing his players for success on their very first day of practice during their freshman year. He would call each of the new players to his office for a meeting, but in that meeting he wouldn’t discuss their skills, their ability, plays, strategy, conditioning, leadership, or even try to motivate them for the upcoming season. He would simply sit down with them and teach them how to put on their socks and tie their shoes. Players thought that he was joking, but he was dead serious. He would tell them, if you don’t put your socks and shoes on right, you will get blisters, and if you get blisters, you can’t practice, and if you can’t practice, then you can’t play, and if you can’t play, then you can’t win. He is quoted as saying, “It’s the little things that make big things happen.” Many NBA all-stars came through his basketball program at UCLA, and the players have said it was these quiet, humble, private instruction times that shaped their understanding of discipline, humility, and greatness when it came to basketball as well as life. While this is a great story to remind you to check your socks and shoes this morning, that’s not why I wanted to share it with you. I wanted to share it because John Wooden was a Christian and he learned this leadership style from Jesus. It’s a style I want us to look at this morning, so if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Mark chapter 9 and verse 30, and we will look at how Jesus disciples behind the scenes.
Jesus Forms Us in Private. - Mark 9:30-32
Leaving that region, they traveled through Galilee. Jesus didn’t want anyone to know he was there, for he wanted to spend more time with his disciples and teach them. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but three days later he will rise from the dead.” They didn’t understand what he was saying, however, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant.
Here in verse 30, Jesus was making His way back to Jerusalem for the very last time. His ministry of teaching the crowds had (for the most part) come to an end. However, He wasn't through teaching. Jesus made sure that no one recognized Him as He travelled one last time through Galilee, and in verse 31 we are told why. Jesus wanted to spend more time with His disciples and spend His time teaching them in private. If we go back through the last three years of the ministry of Jesus, we see that Jesus had already been teaching the disciples with every sermon or miracle that He performed. The most important and formative lessons could not be taught in the public eye. They had to be taught in private. That’s why Jesus desired to spend those private moments with them. Did you know Jesus desires the same thing with you? The reason is you can’t be disciplined the way God requires just coming to church on Sundays. Even if you came every time the church doors were open, it still wouldn’t be enough. Let me put this idea into perspective. The State of New Mexico requires that you drive roughly 20 minutes a day over 6 months to get your driver's license and be able to deal with everything you might encounter on the roads in New Mexico. Sure, you might encounter some interesting things on the roads in New Mexico, but how much more will you encounter in your walk with Jesus that you need to be prepared for? If we are going to invest time in learning to drive, we are going to need to invest time in being taught by our master as well to carry out the task He trusts us with every day. We need time — quiet time with Jesus every day, and we are going to have to be intentional about it, or it will never happen. We can’t use the excuse, “I just don’t have enough time.” Sure you do — just wake up 30 minutes early. After all, if someone told you they would give you $1,000,000 a day every day you wake up 30 minutes early, you and I both would be Johnny on the spot. With Jesus, we have an embarrassment of riches with Him, so we need to make time. During this daily quiet time, we need to read His Word so He can speak to us. We need to reflect upon His Word and how we will live that out. We need to constantly talk to Him in prayer just like we talked about last week. Once Jesus got the disciples alone, He began to teach them, and He started with the basics. It wasn’t on how to tie their sandals, but it was the most basic and foundational principle of the Christian faith: the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The disciples didn’t understand what He was saying yet, but Jesus was telling them about it again to make sure that after it all happened, they would remember and understand the importance of what He said. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.” Paul goes on to say in verses 17-19, “And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.” Paul understood, and we should as well, that there is nothing more important or precious than the resurrection of Jesus. It’s something we can never get over or ignore because we’ve heard it before and are comfortable with it. The Gospel is what should drive everything we do as we follow Jesus. It’s the Good News that this world that is so full of bad news is so desperate for. That’s why we sing and talk about it so much here, because it’s the foundational principle of everything else we do, the reason we exist as a church, and the mission that God has given us. However, in these quiet times we need to be focused upon the important things. We need to be focused upon the Gospel, about how God has called us to deal with the issues we are facing, and how God has called us to disciple others through the things they are facing as well. Many times we can be distracted by using these quiet times of fellowship with Jesus to pursue things in Scripture that don’t matter in eternity. The Bible is a very interesting book that can make us ask a lot of questions. That can be good, but there is a time and a place for everything, and many times that isn’t during your quiet time. I cannot see how an eight-week study on whether Adam & Eve had bellybuttons is going to help you share the Gospel daily. Deal with those temptations that keep popping up or help your best friend through their relationship problems Biblically. Yes, those questions are interesting, and there is a place for them, but during your quiet time you need to focus on the formative things that might be uncomfortable, but we will talk more about that in the next couple of verses. This wasn’t the first time the disciples had heard about Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. If you remember, the last time Peter spoke up because the plan Jesus was speaking about was not the plan that he had for Jesus. He was corrected by Jesus. However, this time everyone is quiet, saying they still didn’t understand and were too scared to ask. As Jesus teaches us (whether in public or in private), we can never be too afraid to ask. That’s how we learn. While it is a sin to question God, it’s not wrong to ask questions of God. We see that throughout the Old Testament and with the disciples as well. If you have someone tell you not to ask questions about your faith instead just believe, you might be in a cult. Don’t be afraid to ask them. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” When you find the truth to your question, you will always find Jesus.
Jesus Confronts What We Hide. - Mark 9:33-34
After they arrived at Capernaum and settled in a house, Jesus asked his disciples, “What were you discussing out on the road?” But they didn’t answer, because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest.
After Jesus shares with His disciples, they all continue to walk to Capernaum. It’s implied that while they were walking, the disciples, or at least some of the disciples, were having a conversation that wasn’t supposed to be heard by Jesus. We can only guess what this conversation brought about. Maybe it was from Jesus choosing only three to join Him on the Mount of Transfiguration or the failure of the other disciples while they were gone. While we are not told what caused the argument, we are told what this argument was about. It was about who amongst them was the greatest. This shouldn’t have been an argument at all, especially as followers of Jesus. The answer is simple. The greatest is Jesus, and all the rest of us are (I can’t say second place because that would imply we are close to Jesus’ glory and holiness), so I’ll just say you have Jesus, then the rest of us sinners saved by His grace. They knew this conversation was a sinful one, and that’s why they tried to hide it from Jesus and would not speak up when Jesus asked about it. Because it was sin, Jesus could not let sin remain, so He called it out, not in public, but in private where He could teach them correctly how to think about true greatness. The quietness in that moment spoke to the fact that this wasn’t comfortable, but it was necessary. This is one of the reasons we must focus on the things that matter during our quiet time because this is when God confronts our hidden sin. Sin cannot be left alone in the dark places of our hearts and minds, thinking they will be fine, because no matter what the sin is, it will destroy us when it is not dealt with. King David experienced this and wrote about it in Psalm 32:3, saying that when he did not deal with his sin, his body wasted away and he groaned all day long. You might say that your body is doing well, and that means you don't have to worry about your hidden sins. Also, “do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7). All sin will eventually bring death (James 1:14–15). We can’t leave our sin in the dark to fester and grow and set up strongholds. We must bring it to light to deal with it. So we should bring our sins into the light, the light that is Jesus, the light that is His Word, and we deal with it the way God calls us to. As we talked about last week, when it comes to a lack of a prayer life, sin damages our relationship with God. If we value our relationship with Him, we are going to have to let God and His Word deal with our sins, whether it is in private or in a small group. We need those intimate times for God to deal with us in a way that only He can and in ways that only He can. Then we must act upon those things and the temptations that lead us into those sins. God will use the Holy Spirit through His Word to do this often because we need it often. We must understand that we cannot hide anything from God, so we need to bring it to Him and ask for help and let God’s Word and God’s people help us through those confronted sins. These moments are difficult, but they are so needed in the life of a follower of Jesus.
Jesus Defines Greatness. - Mark 9:35-37
He sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and said, “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.” Then he put a little child among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not only me but also my Father who sent me.”
The last thing we see Jesus teach these disciples in our passage this morning is taught not by answering their question, but by confronting their sin and helping them see things the way He sees things. Their pride had made them argue about who was the greatest. They were looking at greatness as defined by the world, but when Jesus came, He didn’t come to pursue greatness. He came to redefine it. He tells them that if you want to be first, you are going to have to be last, and you must serve others. Remember when Jesus calls us to something, it’s not something He hasn’t done first. He is leading — we are following. In Mark 10:45, Jesus addresses greatness again and tells us He did not come to be served but to serve others and give His life as a ransom for many. The solution to the sin of pride is to serve. Since we all struggle with pride, we all must serve like Jesus. Pride has been described as an addiction and being intoxicated with oneself. Being interested in being served, not serving, receiving but not giving, getting our way instead of pursuing God’s way, and being the greatest instead of the least. We all struggle with this in some form, and Scripture tells us in James 4:6, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” As Jesus is redefining greatness, He is also redefining what it means to truly serve as well. One of the earmarks of Jesus' serving was through His giving. We see it spoken of in Mark 10:45, “He GAVE His life as a ransom for many”. We also see it in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world He GAVE His one and only Son.” As followers of Jesus, we are called to give like Jesus. We must give of our time, our resources, and our talents. Most of us could probably have guessed those, but how we are to give might be a little more difficult to discuss. First, our giving must be costly. As the old hymn goes, Jesus paid it all, and He died on the cross. He gave us the most precious thing in the universe. He gave His life and His blood to all of us. When it comes to serving, we can find ourselves serving if we have time or giving depending on what’s left in our wallets, but that’s not costly and not how we are called to give. Proverbs 3:9 tells us to honor God with our wealth and give Him the first fruits. Our wealth is in our time, our abilities, and our resources. Serving through giving cannot be an afterthought for a follower of Jesus. It must be from our first fruits, and it is what is required for greatness in His kingdom. Not only must our giving and service be costly, but it also must be consistent. 1 Corinthians 15:58 tells us that because of the Gospel, we are to abound in service to the Lord. That’s consistency. It’s a lifestyle of service and of giving, not just when we feel like it or when it is convenient. Let me give you a real-world example. Our church is very generous with its resources. You can see proof of this every time we have a special offer or a collection drive. We are constantly surpassing our giving goals with things like our Mission Offerings, and we are constantly being told we donate more than the organization has ever received. What if those were the only times anyone gave? We wouldn’t have a budget or be able to turn on the power each week. That’s why we obediently give of the first fruits, and the first fruits come every time we get paid. Not only is our giving and service supposed to be costly and consistent, but it's got to be out of compassion. 2 Corinthians 9:7 tells us that we don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a cheerful giver person.” Jesus gave and served because He loved others no matter the cost. That must be our motivation as well. Jesus was always moved with compassion, and we must be as well. Who we serve is also an issue because when it comes to serving, we usually choose to serve those who are easiest to serve, but what did Jesus tell the disciples? “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of EVERYONE else”. That’s why He brings a child over. Children were not valued in the world's eyes, nor were they in the disciples' eyes, but they were of incalculable value in Jesus eyes. He was telling them, if you want to be great, you can’t pick and serve who you serve, but you must serve everyone. Who did Jesus love so much that He gave His life according to John 3:16? The world, and that’s who we are called to serve as we bring the Gospel to every corner of this planet.
As disciples of Jesus, we must understand that we are going to grow the most in those intimate moments with Jesus, and as we saw, that’s how He taught the disciples here. The lesson that was learned behind the scenes is one we can learn from as we follow Jesus. We are going to have to be intentional about our time with Jesus to make sure we are giving Him the time He deserves. We are going to have to deal with our sins in His light because we aren’t going to be able to have these intimate moments of growth unless we do, and we are going to have to serve. That’s how God measures greatness in His kingdom.
