Matthew 20:25-34

Servant Leadership
Book of the Bible
Matthew
Speaker
Tony Ferguson
Sermon Date

Jesus calls this divided, and mostly angry group of ambitious disciples together and teaches them about servant leadership. Where selfish ambition causes division among disciples, Christ would call them together unto Himself and have them learn from Him. Jesus teaches His disciples that the standard for how to approach leadership in the church is not found in worldly leadership models.  The standard for how to approach leadership in the church is found in the example of Jesus.

Greatness in the kingdom is not attained in climbing the corporate ladder or aspiring to have your name in lights. Greatness in the kingdom is attained in serving others. Jesus is teaching the disciples to be selfless servants not entitled tyrants.

Description of the book of Matthew

As you come to the New Testament the first three books you encounter (Matthew, Mark and Luke) are referred to as the "synoptic" gospels. They are called the "synoptic" gospels because for the most part, they have a "similar view" of the life and ministry of Jesus. Though they account for much of the same narrative regarding the life and ministry of Jesus, they are not identical, nor are they intended to be. They assemble the accounts in different contexts, and contain different amounts of detail, but they are all important. God always seeks to establish a matter on the testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses, so having these 3 synoptic gospels about the life an ministry of the Son of God is in no way redundant.

Matthew’s gospel communicates to us the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus in the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. From His lineage, to His birth, to His miraculous ministry, to His teachings, to His crucifixion, Matthew will time and time again point out that these things happened “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet…”.