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Service Sheet Outline & Questions
Service as Greatness (Matthew 20:17-34)
The Kingdom's Values
In God's kingdom, true greatness is found not in power or status but in following Jesus, who became the servant of all to rescue sinners.
1. Jesus redefines greatness as service (vv17-28)
While the disciples seek honour and status, Jesus teaches that those who belong to his kingdom become great by serving others, following the pattern of his coming suffering and sacrifice.
2. Jesus models greatness through his service (vv29-34)
Jesus compassionately serves the blind men and points to his greatest act of service — giving his life as a ransom for many — so that sinners may be rescued by God's grace.
Questions to think about...
1. James and John wanted positions of honour in Jesus' kingdom. What does Jesus teach about true greatness in verses 20-28? How does his definition challenge the way our culture — and our own hearts — measure success?
2. Jesus says that he "did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." What does this show us about Jesus' character and his saving work? How does his sacrificial service give us both the motivation and the freedom to serve others?
3. The two blind men cried out to Jesus in faith and experienced his compassion. What does this teach us about the kind of King Jesus is? How does this encourage us to trust him with our own needs and to show his compassion to others?
4. Where is God calling you to pursue servant-hearted greatness this week — in your home, workplace, church family, or community? What would it look like to put someone else's good ahead of your own, following the example of Christ?
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Service as Greatness
Matthew 20:17-34 | Richmond Church | 28 June 2026
Introduction
(Keep Bibles open)
Last week we got back into Matthew’s gospel, looking at what Jesus taught the values of the kingdom – the foundational principles that tell us how to think and behave as members of God’s beloved people.
And we saw how these kingdom values are often upside down: Jesus taught us through a parable that in the kingdom, the last will be first and the first will be last! In other words, when it comes to entering into the kingdom, God is not interested in rewarding our effort, but instead is committed to meeting our needs. He treats the least deserving as well as the most deserving. It’s what his grace is all about.
Today we’re going to consider another upside-down kingdom value, and it’s this: service is greatness.
Forgive the football illustration if that’s not your thing, but it’s probably not escaped your attention that the World Cup is on right now. For the last couple of decades the great debate has been: who is the GOAT - the greatest of all time, the best player on the planet? Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo? The BBC have even produced a documentary all about their rivalry.
Ronaldo 100% believes he is the greatest, and is driven to hard work and diligence by this goal. For him it means scoring goals, winning trophies, being internationally recognised as the greatest. And if you’ve watched Messi - well, the other ten Argentina players basically have one job, which is to feed the Messi machine and he will score.
Who is the greatest? How can we decide?
Both have played for some of the best teams in the world. Both have scored countless goals and won loads of trophies for their club teams. Both have won the world footballer of the year award multiple times.
Messi has just become the top World Cup goalscorer ever. Ronaldo is the only player to score at six World Cups, across 20 years. Messi has won the World Cup and the Copa America with Argentina; Ronaldo has won the Euros with Portugal - though so far, the World Cup has eluded him.
Whoever we decide is the greatest, greatness means success, trophies, fame, renown.
In any walk of life, whether sport or entertainment, or closer to home in work or school or even family life, we have our definitions of greatness, of who’s the best, who’s winning and losing. But Jesus’ message to us today is that our definitions need flipping on their head, because in his kingdom, service is greatness.
Jesus redefines greatness as service
Let’s start by thinking about how Jesus redefines greatness as service. In our reading we heard this conversation between Jesus and two disciples, the “sons of Zebedee” – James and John. They come to Jesus with a request, and they’ve brought mum along to help: (v21) “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”
To be fair to them, let’s start with what they get right. They’ve understood that Jesus is going to be the King in God’s kingdom. And they believe Jesus’ promise that his followers will be rewarded with positions of authority – you might remember that from chapter 19.
Now, though, they want to claim the next two most powerful positions in the kingdom after Jesus. If Jesus is the Prime Minister, they want to be the Chancellor and Home Secretary.
James and John were two of the earliest followers of Jesus (before he was a big deal!) and seem to be in his “inner circle”. Matthew recounts in chapter 17 how both of them witnessed what we call “the Transfiguration”, this amazing event where Jesus’ glory was revealed. They’ve done the maths (to call back to last week). They think they’re important, that they’re worthy of those positions of power.
Ironically, after Jesus’ story about the first being last, they still want to be first! We might expect Jesus to strongly rebuke them. But instead, he’s gracious, warning them that the road to get there is going to be tough.
“Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” he asks. Now, “cup” is Bible language for someone’s divine destiny. So, the cup Jesus is going to drink is the plan God has for him. We know what that is, don’t we – Jesus has just told us. It’s a cup of suffering and death, followed by glory.
Jesus is saying to James and John: if you want to share in the glory, you’ll also have to share in the suffering. Jesus already knows that they will suffer for him – elsewhere in the New Testament we read how James is the first apostle to be martyred, while John was exiled to the Greek island of Paphos.
James and John will suffer. But that’s no guarantee of being Jesus’ right-hand man – and left-hand man. It’s time for another kingdom values lesson. Jesus calls all the disciples together.
Verse 25: “You know that the rulers of Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.” Outside of God’s kingdom, Jesus says, leaders are in it for themselves. Those in authority are harsh, using their position to tell people what to do and further their own agenda. This has been a problem even throughout the history of Israel, with the Old Testament prophets often lamenting this and condemning leaders who exploit.
And I don’t think we’ve solved that problem, have we! We could give a hundred examples of corrupt leaders, in the world and even in the church, who’ve abused their positions of power for their own personal profit and pleasure. What’s the solution?
On the one hand, we might try to create robust structures and systems of accountability to try to stop leaders abusing their position.
On the other hand, we could take the anarchist route: let’s not have any leaders at all! The whole concept of leadership is rotten.
But neither of these would solve the problem. Neither gets at the heart of the matter. Jesus says that the problem is not just that there are individual leaders who abuse their power, but leaders who are striving for greatness but who define that in totally the wrong way.
In the world, greatness means influence and authority, fame and following. And don’t we often buy into that mindset?
But Jesus says that greatness in the kingdom of God works differently. It’s completely upside-down. (v26) “Not so with you,” he says. “Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave.”
The first will be last and the last will be first. Do you see that same language coming through again? Greatness in the kingdom of God is not defined by authority and power, but by servanthood, even slavery. Jesus says: this is what greatness looks like. You want to be first? Make yourself the very last. You want to be successful? Put others’ needs and ambitions ahead of your own. You want to be great? Make yourself a slave of others.
Do you feel how radical this is? How utterly upside-down and back-to-front?
Let’s talk about slaves for a minute. It’s hard for us to imagine just how a slave would have been thought of and treated in the first century Roman empire. They were the lowest of the low, rock bottom of society, worthless, legally regarded as property and not people. There was a definite hierarchy in Roman society, and slaves were very last. When Jesus says that to be great we must become slaves, he might as well have been saying that black is white, that 1 plus 1 equals 3, that up is down, that first is last.
But we live in an age when Jesus’ teaching has so shaped our culture that “servant leadership” is something that actually resonates with us, even if we’re not believers. Since we met together last Sunday, we’ve seen Sir Keir Starmer, our Prime Minister, step down after two years of leading the country. Think about what that title means. Minister - it’s from a Latin word meaning “servant”. It’s the same root as the word “minus” - it’s a word that conveys inferiority and subordination. A minister’s role is to serve. And the Prime Minister, the leader of the country, is first in line to serve! Contrast that with the Roman leaders, who saw themselves as gods.
So this idea, that leadership is about service, is so ingrained in our modern minds that no-one needs to convince us it’s a good idea… in theory, at least.
In practice, though, don’t we still most highly value things like fame and fortune, power and privilege? We celebrate the fastest, the strongest, the most intelligent, the most confident, the ones with status and connections.
Who do we personally most admire and respect? Who do we celebrate? Who do we wish we were a bit more like? Who seems to us to have made a success of their life? The billionaire business owner? The Oscar-winning actor? The football superstar? The social media influencer?
How do we define greatness? Not in theory, but in reality, in our hearts?
Jesus models greatness as service
For Jesus, greatness through service is not just a theory. He didn’t just talk the talk; he walked the walk. So secondly, Jesus models greatness as service. He became a servant and a slave of all.
Let’s start with the story of two blind men at the end of this chapter. “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked the two blind men. “We want our sight.” And Jesus did what they asked. He didn’t look down on them in the way those around them did, didn’t tell them to pipe down. He served them, he became their slave, by giving them what they needed.
And more than that, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” The eternal Son of Man, the King of all creation, stepped down from his throne in heaven to walk among us, not to exercise his power and authority over us, but to take care of our greatest need by dying for us.
Paul puts this beautifully in that famous passage in Philippians chapter 2:
“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!”
He is the highest of the high - God himself, the King of the universe. Yet he became the lowest of the low. He took on “the very nature of a servant” – being born in a backwater village to nobody parents, living an anonymous life for his first thirty years, and being executed in utter disgrace on a cross. The King of creation became its servant. The Lord of all people became our servant, to rescue us.
And how does God respond to Jesus’ service? This passage goes on: “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus became great by being a servant. He lived out this principle to the max, didn’t he! Because he became a servant of all, God made him Lord of all. Jesus said, “If you want to be great, be a servant.” And then he said, “Follow my lead.”
Don’t you just love this about Jesus by the way? In a world where trust in our leaders seems to be at an all-time low, here is a leader we really can get behind. I often have conversations with people who are angry about the corruption and self-centredness of our leaders. What a joy it is to be able to say, “yes, and that’s what I love about Jesus - he is the very opposite of that!”
What about us then? The inhabitants of the kingdom – that’s us who love and trust the Lord Jesus – must have this mindset that greatness comes through service because our King himself had this mindset. And not only that; the inhabitants of the kingdom can have this mindset because the King had this mindset. We are able to give up all earthly conceptions of greatness precisely because he has won for us a future infinitely more glorious than anything the world has to offer, and is transforming our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
Do you, Richmond Church, see one another according to this upside-down kingdom value? Who do you see as the greatest among you? According to Jesus, both his teaching and his example, this community must reflect this kingdom value and make servant-heartedness the mark of greatness among you. We should desire this value in ourselves, and encourage and celebrate it in one another.
We have a tendency to look for who’s getting success in life and try to copy them. Those with good careers, top exam results, peak physical fitness, loads of friends. Here in the church, we should keep our eyes peeled for servants, and follow their example. This is tricky, because servants often go unnoticed. And we do crave recognition for our efforts! But in the kingdom of heaven, the servant is the greatest of all – even if it isn’t recognised by other people.
I reckon if you start looking, you’ll find 1001 ways people serve each other in this church, putting others’ interests first. This is how we should see greatness among us. Do we?
In God’s kingdom, things are inside-out, upside-down, topsy-turvy, or as my little sister used to say, “front-to-runt”. Those who seem least deserving will be shown the most generosity by God, and those who are the lowest servants will be considered greatest of all.
These are values that should shape how you see yourselves and one another within the community of this church.
That’s what Jesus teaches us; but he didn’t just teach these values – he lived them out to the fullest extent, shedding his precious blood, generously taking the wages of our sin, and handing over his valuable righteousness which we don’t deserve at all. He is the King who became the slave of all to set us free to serve one another.