Matthew 20:25-28 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Give Thanks to the Lord with Gifts Sunday, October 18, 2026 “Seek True Greatness in Service”
There may be many good reasons for a person not to serve in a particular way at a particular time. This is true about various ways we ask and encourage people to serve at church. Our nominating committee recently asked people to be on a ballot as potential members of next year’s Ministry Board. Some of those men will likely say no. And there may be some very good reasons for doing so. If you don’t feel that you have the skills and talents necessary to serve in the way you are being asked, that’s a fair reason to decline. If you know of particular short-term issues that would make it especially difficult right now, it is understandable that you might wait for a future opportunity without that conflict. If other callings God has given you, your role in your family or among your friends needs some extra attention, you might decline to serve in a specific way at church. While there are many reasons that someone might not serve at church, there’s really only one reason to serve. Maybe better said, there is only one good reason to serve. That reason is Jesus. More fully described, the reason that any of us ought to serve is summed up by the theme of our worship series: give thanks to the Lord for he is good. We serve because we are thankful for what Jesus has done for us. That’s a central theme of the few verses in front of us today. Jesus teaches his disciples some important lessons about service, and we get to learn the lessons, too. We’re going to work backwards a bit because the most important lesson comes right at the end of our selection. Jesus tells us that he is the example for our service. We serve just like he did. We serve because we know the greatest servant of all. Here’s how Jesus describes his example: “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.” It is not difficult at all to see how true and even obvious this statement is. Sure, Jesus gathered disciples around him. But they weren’t his servants. He was serving them. He was teaching them and helping them grow and learn. His interest was their best interest. And it didn’t stop there. Jesus from eternity is true God. He left the perfection of heaven to live among people on earth. Again, he didn’t do that because he had something to gain from it. He did it because we had something to gain from it. Every step of the way, Jesus had your best interest in mind. He loved his disciples. He loved you. He loves you. He wanted you to not be trapped in sin but released for eternal life. He bought you out of slavery to sin. He bought you salvation. That’s what a ransom is. Jesus gave his own life. He was willing to do everything, even die, even die on a cross, for you and for me and for his disciples and for every human being ever. So Jesus says to his disciples: “Be like me.” Have that same attitude. Take the same sort of action. No, that does not necessarily mean dying. It means caring more about others and loving them and acting in their best interest. It means doing that instead of focusing on ourselves. It means doing things for others instead of being selfish. This is how Jesus says Christians achieve greatness. Seek greatness, true greatness, in service. Seek greatness in service because you know the greatest servant of all. Seek greatness in service because you want to be like him. Understand that we don’t want to confuse those two. Jesus is the example that teaches us how to serve, but he is so much more than that. He has saved us. His service has accomplished the most incredible and amazing things in our lives. He doesn’t serve and save us because we serve and love others. We serve and love others because Jesus served and loves us. What he saved us from is ourselves. We don’t come into this world wanting to serve others. We come into the world wanting to serve ourselves. And in this way, we are just like everyone else. The world tells us that we should get ahead. The world tells us that we need to look out for number one. The world tells us that greatness looks like stepping on anyone who gets in your way. It looks like being the one in
charge and telling others what to do. According to the world’s standard, you can measure your greatness by how many people have to listen to you. You can measure your own success by how you feel about things. Jesus says as much when he talks about the earthly rulers lording it over people. They find greatness in control and power and influence. That’s what they seek. Don’t be like the world. Don’t be like worldly leaders. Don’t seek greatness the way that they do. In a way, Jesus is telling us not to be concerned with greatness at all. Even better, he tells us what true greatness is. True greatness is found in serving others. The one who wishes to be first must make himself a slave to everyone, serving everyone above himself. Jesus took the opportunity to teach this to the disciples when James and John approached him with and through their mother. Their request was to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus in glory. They wanted this special honor. They were close disciples of Jesus after all. They had been afforded special privileges among the disciples. They were looking for their own honor and glory. And when the other disciples learned about this request, they were upset. They were upset because why should James and John get special honor? Why not any of the other disciples. Each one felt that bit of pride and jealousy and ambition. That’s when Jesus summoned them all. That’s when he went through the comparison to earthly rulers and the command not to follow their pattern but to follow his. Do not look for servants. Look to be a servant. Do not try to be first. Make yourself a slave to others. This is the way that one finds greatness in the kingdom of God. Seek true greatness in service. We’re saying this in our services today in a slightly different way. We’re saying that we give thanks to the Lord through our service. That’s why we care about what true greatness is. We care about what God says. We care about what he says because of what he has done for us. We give him our praise and thanks by following the directions and instructions that he gives. In this series we’ve considered how we offer our thanks to God through our prayers. Jesus has given us a connection with God through which we can address him directly. We can speak a word of thanks as we pray. We have considered our gifts. We can thank God for the blessings he gives us by using those gifts to spread his kingdom. Today we conclude our series, but that doesn’t mean we’ll have said everything we can about giving thanks. There are many examples and many nuances left that we could discuss, but today our focus in on service. And our considering service does conclude this series well. Service describes how we make use of our time and our talents. These are also gifts which God would have us use as stewards. He would have us view them as his gifts which we are given for his purposes. He would have us use them to seek true greatness, which means greatness has he defines it and as he describes it. He would have us use them to do good to others. That’s the heart of service. It’s really about attitude isn’t it? Do we continue to act the way the world acts? Do we continue to seek greatness the way the world defines it? Do we continue to judge greatness by the way we feel about it? Or are our lives transformed by Jesus in such a way that we worry less about our own interests and worry more about others? Are our lives changed in such a way that we want to change the lives of others by introducing them to the Jesus we have come to know? Sadly, we have to admit that just like the disciples, we too often don’t pattern our lives after his. We do focus our time and attention on ourselves or just on those who are closest to us. And God does call on us to care for our own families. But he also calls on us to give sacrificially, to give for the sake of others and not ourselves. There may indeed be many good reasons to turn down a specific opportunity for service in the church or outside of it. Unfortunately, a reason many refuse these opportunities is our own selfish attitude. Today instead we say thanks to God for all his gifts by seeking true greatness as Jesus defines it. He is the example. He is the motivation. He is the Savior who selflessly served us. And he is the one who blesses us as we serve others.
The Text: Matthew 20:25–28 (EHV) 25But Jesus summoned them and said, “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them,
and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26It will not be that way among you. Instead whoever wants to become great among you will be your servant, 27and whoever wants to be first among you will be your slave—28just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”