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In today's message entitled True Greatness, we explore Jesus' teaching, discovering that in God's kingdom, greatness is not found in power or position, but in humble service and simple faith that reflects the heart of Christ. Reverend Daniel preaches the word.

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Today's gospel reading is taken from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 9, verse 33 to 41. Together we say, Glory to Christ our Savior. And they came to Capeman, and when he was in the house, he asked them, What were you discussing on the way? But they kept silent. For on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. And he took a child and put him in the midst of them. And taking him in his arms, he said to them, Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. And whoever received me receives not me, but him who sent me. John said to him, Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name. And we tried to stop him because he was not following us. But Jesus said, Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly I say to you, whoever gives water to drink, because you belong to Christ, will by no means lose his reward.

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And we want to explore together what true greatness is all about according to Jesus. What does it mean to be great in the eyes of Jesus? Mark chapter 9, verse 33 to 34 reads, and when Jesus and his disciples came to Kapanon, and when he was in the house, he asked them, What were you discussing on the way? But they kept silent. For on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. So Jesus and his disciples came to Kapanon. This was the place where Jesus first started his ministry. He was ministering there, and this is perhaps the last time in the Gospel of Mark when he will come to this area. And as it is quite common in Mark, it's only often in the private setting of a house or someone's home that Jesus began to teach his disciples what the crowds perhaps could couldn't know or understand. And in this instance, he asked them what they were arguing along the way. But the disciples kept silent. In this instance, in the case of the disciples, their silence perhaps reveals their guilt or shame because they had argued about who was the greatest. In a sense, it was also a wordless confession by the disciples. Silence means, yeah, they have done something. They have argued about greatness. You see, the disciples, while following Jesus, were also people of their times. They were very much influenced by the culture of the day, the thinking and the philosophies that led them to read what greatness is about. So they were looking at greatness and understanding it in terms of one's rank and standing as practiced in Judaism of the day. In the Judaism of the day. Rabbinic writings frequently comment on the sitting order in paradise and argue that if you are just, you will sit nearer to the throne of God, and you are on a higher rank than even the angels. Earthly order or sitting at worship and meals, or even authority within the community, or dealings with inferiors and superiors were seen as preparation for the eternal life. Sorry, the eternal order that is to come. We also see a certain order in terms of the worship procession. We see this in Psalm 68, verse 24 to 25. It says, Your procession is seen, O God, the procession of my God, my king, into the sanctuary. The sinners, the sorry, the singers in front, the musicians last, between them, virgins playing tambourines. The rule of the community at uh Qumran likewise prescribe the proper order of procession in entering into the community. First, the priests, their Levites, and the third place, all the people shall enter, one after another, in thousands, hundreds, and fifties and tens, so that all the children of Israel may know their standing in God's community in conformity to the eternal plan. And no one shall move down from his rank nor move up from the place of his Lord. So it's very much within the culture of the day where one's status and rank is linked very much to one's position in society. However, in Mark chapter 9, verse 35, Jesus taking on the posture of an authoritative teacher. And we know that because in Mark 9, 35, Jesus sat down and called the 12. So the his sitting down, his posture of sitting down and calling the child is a posture of an authoritative teacher during that time. In other words, he's telling, he's wanting to teach them a lesson on discipleship. The word translated as servant is taken from the Greek Greek word dikonos, which it connotes the idea of waiting tables, waiting on tables. It refers to personal devotion in service to someone superior. And it generally connotes coming under someone. As a servant, you're always serving someone superior to you. There's always someone above you, and your position as a servant or as a diagonal is to come under someone to serve the person. So the Greek world in the time of Jesus generally considered service demeaning and undignified. According to Plato, he says this: How can a man be happy when he has to serve someone? It expresses the basic Greek attitude towards service and servants. However, in Jesus' teaching, the posture of a servant is a visible manifestation of the reality of God's love. Greatness in the economy of Jesus presents itself to every believer in the common and simple task of serving others. In fact, Jesus will go on to say that service of others is the primary way in which disciples imitate and fulfill the mission of Jesus. In other words, in opposition to the Jewish culture of rank and file and the Greek thinking of the day, Jesus taught his disciples that greatness means coming under someone to serve the person. We see Jesus again reminded 10, verse 42 to 45. He called them and said to them, You know that those who considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. In other words, they take authority, they exercise uh their brutal and strong authority, their firm control, and their great ones exercise authority over them. They are the rulers and the benefactors of the society of the day. But Jesus told his disciples in verse 43, but it shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Interestingly, the in verse 43, the word for servant is also the same word used in our text today from Mark 9.35. The servant is translated as Dikonos, which carries the idea of coming under someone in order to serve the person. As a practical demonstration to what service is all about, Jesus then took a child and put him in the midst of the disciples and said to them in Mark 9:37, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. And whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. In Judaism, the time of Jesus, children and women were largely ancillary members of society. Their connection with the social mainstream often depended on men, either as fathers or husbands. And children were never invited to any conversation because they were always taught as not having arrived. You are a child, what do you know? Yet these were the very ones whom the disciples were to receive. Jesus said, Receive a child in my name, and you receive me. As a case in point, the following uh few verses from Mark 9, 38 to 41, which was read before us, shows us one of Jesus' disciples, John, and his complete disregard to his discipleship as a call to service. He still sees his role, his discipleship as a matter of entitlement or privilege to belong to Jesus. Because John belongs to Jesus, therefore he has a certain uh authority and position. And others who do not belong to so-called the Jesus camp should be cast out. So we read in Mark 9, 38 to 41, Jesus, John said to him, Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name. And we tried to stop him because he was not following us. But Jesus said, Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. So John thought of his discipleship as me against them, rather than a humble service to God. So I would like to move on more in terms of our application today. So what does all this mean to us today in the context of where we live? So while following Jesus, are we too a people of our times seeking rank, status, and honor rather than humble service to others? So all of us here, including leaders and myself, we are leaders but also servants. So our leadership is always qualified by servanthood. So what this means is even though we take on uh authority as leaders, but we should use that authority to serve one another. So it means that as leaders, or if you are leading uh ministries or even PCC or myself, what it means is even as we lead, we should also be willing to serve others. Even that in terms of status or rank, they may be lower, but it means servanthood means we are always willing to come under someone's authority. Come under someone, even of a lesser authority to serve the person. So this is the model of Jesus. All of us are disciples, whether we are leaders or not. And all the more if God has called us to leadership in various forms, we ought to model leadership along with our discipleship because it comes together. So, how does Singapore as a society measure up in terms of rank, status, and honor? Meritocracy, which is regarded as a core principle of governance in Singapore, operates on the principle of equalizing opportunities and allocating rewards based on an individual's merit abilities and achievement. For meritocracy tells us that anyone can achieve it if they have the gumption, the drive, the talent, and the ability. In a meritocracy, success finally depends on our own efforts and our own merits. Along with meritocracy, Singapore's fiscal strategies encourage self-reliance as opposed to a welfare system that depends on fiscal subsidies and handouts. The government policy in Singapore has always been to help people who help themselves. A minister once commented in 2015 that if you provide help for someone who is willing to take up a job and work at it and make life not so easy if you stay out of work. If you provide help for someone who wants to own a home, it transforms culture. It is this culture of self-reliance that has enabled Singapore to succeed while maintaining relatively low government spending and revenues. A system of meritocracy and self-reliance based on one's own merit of achievement and hard work will naturally, the byproduct of that is a sense of self-mastery and confidence that moves up, moves one up the ranks of society. It's just a logical, natural byproduct of the system in which we live in. What occupation we hold, which neighborhood or district we live in, the car we drive, and so on and so forth becomes success symbols of what we can be and become. Thus, in a most natural way, our merit and hard work therefore achieves a certain rank, status, and honor in society. And all of us are within that framework, and it's within this cultural framework that God has called us to be his servants, to be his disciples. So even though we live in a society as such, because of certain goals that have to be achieved being a part of civil society, our attitude and our posture can be different. I'd like to share with us the story of Tsong Ta, which is published on Salt and Light on the 16th of June this year. And I won't read his full story, it can be found on Salt and Light, the website. So the heading reads Jesus Wash Feet, I wash backsides. How this young man learned to love through serving the elderly. So when he was just 17, Tongta became a Christian. At that time, he thought that being a pastor was the best way to serve God. So when he read from John 21, verse 15 to 17, where Jesus called Peter to serve him, the resolve to be a pastor was solidified. He said, I felt God calling me to tend to his sheep, and that one day I would not do what I wanted to do, nor go where I wanted to go, but that I would go where he wanted me to go. So every part of that verse has come true in Jong Tus' life, just not the way he had imagined. So he enrolled for theological studies and graduated from Singapore Bible College at the age of 27, eager to fulfill the call to be a pastor. However, every door seemed closed. One day, as he was reading about John the Baptist, who remained in the wilderness until the day of his public ministry, he felt God highlighting that verse to him. He said, I felt that I should remain in the wilderness, in hiddenness till my public ministry. I realized I should then start to work in the marketplace to mature and gain life experience. Yet every corporate organization he applied to never got back to him. So it was in a state of quiet dejection that he spoke to a leader at his church. She encouraged him to give St. Luke's Elder Care, a Christian elder care provider, a try. So when Zhongta reached out to St. Luke's Elder Care, he was called in for an interview quite quickly. The interviewer had asked him about his theological training and his pastoral heart. The interviewer said, is there a difference between the pastoral calling and the pastoral vocation? In other words, is there a difference between serving the church as a full-time pastor and being a pastor, living out that pastoral vocation in the marketplace? So Tsongta had actually applied to be a driver, but he was offered the position of a care staff. He was told that he should be prepared to get his hands dirty. So Tsongta took up the job, and the boy who grew up with a domestic helper doing everything for him became the man who washed dishes, mocked floors, wiped tables and chairs, cleaned toilets, and prepared meals at the care center. Within the first month, Tongta wanted to quit. One of the biggest difficulties, he said, was toileting. I had to help the clients go to the toilet, and if they soiled themselves, I had to pick up the poop and clean up the whole mess, he said. It was very humbling. At 27 years old, my thought was, I don't want to clean backsides. He struggled for weeks. There were days when standing in the toilet with an elder, Zhongta questioned if he had heard God correctly. The turning point came one day when Zongta had an epiphany. There was an elderly man who had been particularly difficult to deal with because of his mood swings. One day after Zongta had cleaned him up, the man could not stop thanking him. I think he was very embarrassed. Me see him in a different light, he said. I realized that no one wants to be helpless. It must have been a lot harder for him to be clean than for me to clean him, said Chong Ta. I finally stopped thinking of quitting after that. Since then, the story of Jesus washing his disciples' feet in John 13 has taken on a new meaning, a deeper meaning for him. He said, and I quote, in ancient times they didn't have shoes. The feet was probably the dirtiest part of the body. Today, perhaps our backside is the dirtiest part of the body. If Jesus, he said, could wash their feet, there's no excuse for me. I realized that this was my discipleship, my version of washing feet. I started to see cleaning backsides as a privilege. He eventually became a program, sorry, a program executive at the program development office at St. Luke's Elder Care at Amokyo. Through these years, he has learned to communicate the gospel in ways that are not so much heard but felt. He says, and I quote, I'm dealing with people who cannot understand the gospel or say the sinner's prayer. It cannot be that the gospel is not available to them. I had to learn not to put God in a box in the way that He should move, he said. Christianity is about the presence of God. Our job is to embody the gospel and carry the presence of God to the people around us. They can still feel the presence of God through the way we love them. Zong Ta has also come to terms with not being remembered or even being recognized for helping them to walk, cleaning their backside, putting on their shoes, taking care of them. He said, for a young person, being recognized, being remembered, figuring out our legacy is very important. But we are called to love and to serve with no returns. And that's okay because we are doing it for God. Many of the things we do, like helping them in the toilet, are examples of what Jesus talked about when he spoke of doing things in secret. Nobody knows. Maybe the quiet work is the real work. This July, which is coming soon, Tongta's season at St. Luke's Elder Care will end when he takes on a new role as a Chinese pastor at his church, fulfilling the dream that first took root in his heart when he was a fresh-faced believer at 17. Though he has come to enjoy his work at St. Luke's Elder Care, he was moved to accept the role in obedience to God, whom he knows has a purpose for his life. So, how does Song Ta's story speak to the question I posed earlier? While following Jesus, are we too a people of our times, seeking rank, status, and honor rather than humble service to others? I believe his seven years spent at St. Luke's Elder Care will pivotally shape his approach and posture in ministry as a pastor. My reading of this story is that Zongter's years at St. Luke's Elder Care in God's divine providence were years of deep character formation, that he may become a better pastor with a common touch to the people he serves. Maybe all pastors henceforth should be sent to our version of St. Luke's Elder Care to SACS, St. Andrew's Community Hospital, or St. Andrew's Mission Hospital, right, for some training and attachment. And I wish I had that perhaps in my early days. Perhaps that will form me better to empathize with those with physical difficulties, especially as we grow older. I think that is true, right? You know, even as we move out of the church building, as we go about our daily uh uh passageway to lunch, we go to the coffee shop. Do you realize that you know there's so many elderly around? You know, that a lot of times I realize that even though I live a very fast-paced day, from day to day, I tend to move quite fast from one place to another. I realize that I have to slow down when I'm in a coffee shop area or when I'm in a housing estate because that is the pace of life, that is the reality. And of course we know that this year we have Singapore has entered a super aged, we have entered this label of being a super aged society. So there's a lot more we can do uh for the elderly. But the point is this do we also seek after rank, status, and honor as we serve God? May we learn from Chongta that often the quiet work done for others is the real work. Our posture of service to others, of coming under someone in order to serve the person, will determine how far God will use us for his purposes and glory. So there were times and I'm sure we have all witnessed, I mean, uh at some point, you know, those of us who have been in pastoral ministry, you know, people go through theological uh studies for various reasons, you know, and the the the test of all this is when the rubber hits the road, when they enter back into a parish, you know, whether they are willing to serve and do anything if God if it is to serve the Lord. And and all their theological understanding and knowledge then is applied to a practical context. And whether they can leave it out is a question of perhaps how my and how, sorry, how far and how much God can use them. I'd like to close with another reading from the Gospel of Luke, which again records the significance of the words of Jesus about servanthood. So it's so important to serve that all four gospels uh records in different measures the importance of disciples, of discipleship must involve a servanthood, must involve serving those who are less fortunate than us, it must involve coming under someone to serve them. So I'm reading from Luke 22 verse 24. Luke 22 verse 24, it says, A dispute also rose among them as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And Jesus said to them, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as the one who serves. So if we are a leader today, we are called to serve. For who is the greater? The one who reclines at table, the one who waits and says, Where's my food? You know, I'm waiting for it. Come and serve me. Or one who serves. I guess the greatest example is the words of Jesus here in Matthew, sorry, in Luke chapter 22, verse 27. Jesus says, But I am among you as the one who serves. But I am among you as the one who serves. So Jesus, if you see him in action, he will not be found waiting at the table to be served. He won't be found lording over others, but he will be found in active service. And that is the heart of Jesus' ministry, serving the lost, the last, the least, and the lost, reaching out to the poor and needy, coming down to their level, ministering to them. And as the disciples of Jesus, all of us are called to embody this posture of service. As Jesus Himself is among us as the one who serves. And he said, If you are truly my disciples, you must do what I do.

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