This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back to our look through Matthew chapter 20, day 3 of our look through
this chapter. We're going to look at verses 17 to 23 today, and I want to get
this conversation in your mind before we start to look at what it means. So let
me begin by reading those verses.

Verse 17, "Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples
aside and He said to them, 'We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man
will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will
condemn Him to death, and will turn Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and
flogged and crucified. On the third day He will be raised to life.

' Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons, and kneeling
down asked a favor of Him. 'What is it you want? ' He asked.

Jesus said, 'Grant that one of these two sons of Mine may sit on your right and
the other on your left in your kingdom. You don't know what you're asking,'
Jesus said to them. 'Can you drink the cup I'm going to drink?

' 'We can,' they answered. Jesus said to them, 'You will indeed drink from my
cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong
to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.

'" So you have this experience where Jesus talks about, "I'm going to die and
I'm going to be raised again. " And then immediately the mother of one of
Zebedee's sons comes to Jesus. Now you might think that's funny.

Why would the mother come? But if you do a bit of study in the family line of
Jesus you realize that this is a relative of Jesus. That in one sense the sons
of Zebedee, James and John, are cousins of Jesus.

So there's a family relationship here. So it might be more natural for her to
come. But what she asks is what should bother us the most.

Can my son sit on your right and left when you come to your throne? Now in one
sense you've got to give her credit for at least hearing the whole message of
what Jesus said. You might remember as you go back to our study of the book of
Matthew, the first two times that Jesus has told his disciples, "I'm going to
die and then be raised," all they heard was the "I'm going to die" part.

They just got depressed. They didn't hear at all the fact that he was going to
be raised. Evidently she hears he's going to be raised because she immediately
asks, "Okay, you're going to come into your kingdom.

You're going to be raised again. Can my son sit on the throne beside you? " They
get stuck originally in the first two conversations on the fact that he's going
to die.

She gets stuck on the fact that he is going to come to a throne. He's going to
be at a place of blessing. And there's a great lesson for us here.

Sometimes in the cross of Jesus' suffering, we miss the resurrection to life.
And sometimes in the resurrection, we miss the cross. Sometimes in the cross, we
miss the resurrection.

And sometimes in the resurrection, we miss the cross. Sometimes we lose the
truth of our blessing in the suffering. And sometimes we miss the truth of our
suffering in the blessing.

Let's take a minute to look at that more closely. Sometimes we miss the truth of
our blessing that God has blessed us in the truth of our suffering. The two
previous times that Jesus had told them, I just said, that's what happened.

He said there's going to be a death and a resurrection, and all they could hear
was there's going to be a death. Now, suffering is often the first thing that we
hear because it's the clearest thing in our circumstances. It takes faith to see
that there's blessing even in the suffering.

Sometimes it takes great faith because the blessing may not come until we get to
heaven. When Christians down through history have had to face death for their
faith, where's the blessing in that? How are they going to be blessed for that?

They're being put up on a cross. They're being burned at a stake. They're being
beheaded.

They're losing their life. So where is the blessing in their suffering? The
blessing is going to be in eternity.

It takes great faith to see the blessing that comes into our lives even in the
suffering, and we have to have that kind of faith. But in this passage, we see
the flip side of this, that sometimes we miss the truth of our suffering in the
blessing. There is a faith that we also need to see the balance of the fact that
we are going to face suffering and also be blessed.

They heard, but in this case, all they heard was the opportunity, opportunism
instead of faith. What can Jesus do for me? Jesus, can I sit on your right and
your left when you come into your kingdom?

And Jesus immediately, they're talking about blessing, he immediately starts to
talk about suffering. He looks at them and he says, "You don't know what you're
asking. Can you drink the cup that I'm going to drink?

" And he's talking about the cup of his suffering. You remember in the Garden of
Gethsemane, when Jesus is praying, he says, "Father, let this cup pass for me,"
again, the cup of his suffering, the cup of the cross. They had missed the first
part, the part about his death, the part about the cross.

Now, this cup, the cup of suffering, how did Jesus drink it? You say by going to
the cross. He had to choose to go to the cross.

And really, you see Jesus choosing to drink this cup of suffering in the Garden
of Gethsemane. "Lord," he prays, "let this cup pass for me," but then
immediately you remember what he prayed. Not my will, but your will be done.

I'm going to be obedient. As a follower of Jesus, God will give you things to do
that you don't want to do. And it can be from a very light kind of suffering,
like I don't want to talk to that person.

I don't want to make that kind of call. I don't want to take that trip to be
with people that are hurting to, as I said earlier, a very severe kind of
suffering. I don't want to give my life for my faith.

I don't want to lose my family for my faith. When it comes to serving Christ,
there is a cup of suffering that's involved. While back in our small group, we
were talking about how we face doing things that we don't want to do in faith.

And I was sharing with our group that one of the struggles I've had all my life
is this feeling of inadequacy. And I've had to learn when I feel like I can't do
it, I don't want to do it, that I've got to decide to serve. Because it's in the
service that you find the strength, that you find the power.

I think the same thing is true when God presents us with this cup of suffering.
God says, "Here's what I want you to do. I want you to come to me, even though
your family might leave you.

I want you to go to this place, even though you might face some suffering. I
want you to stand up for your faith in your job, even though you might lose your
job. " And in this conversation we have with God, we're thinking, "I can't do
that.

" And in one sense, God says, "How about you just serve me one step at a time?
Not my will, not my will, but God's will be done. And we'll see where that
leads.

You can only serve God one step at a time. That you can do. " And that's exactly
what James and John did.

These two men that in this moment, "Can you sit on my right and left? Can I have
the great blessing? Well, are you able to drink the cup?

" They said, "We can. " And Jesus said, "You will. " And the truth is, they did
drink that cup.

James goes from throne seeker to martyr. You might know that in the book of
Acts, James is the first disciple to give his life for his faith. He becomes
someone who drinks the cup of suffering.

And John goes from, these two brothers were called sometimes the sons of thunder
because they always had anger. It seemed like they were the ones who wanted to
call down fire on people when they didn't serve Jesus or love Jesus like they
thought they should. He goes from a son of thunder to an apostle of love.

And you might remember, he is the one who receives revelation from God on the
island of Patmos. He's on Patmos because he's exiled there for his faith. He's
alone there for his faith.

But even there, he sees this vision of Jesus. So here are these two men who are
all about, "Could I sit on my right and your left? Could I sit there on those
thrones?

" But they go from seeking these thrones to men who are willing to take up the
cup of suffering and to receive the greatest blessing that you and I can imagine
of us being able to look at them having faith all the way to the end. So my
question is, how did they do this? And I believe the answer is they stopped
focusing on the throne and they started focusing on the one who's seated on the
throne.

That's where you get to. You start focusing on Jesus because in him is the joy,
in him is the blessing. So whatever else you're going through, you keep focusing
on him.

You stop focusing on getting ahead in the church and you start focusing on the
head of the church, Jesus. You stop focusing on the corner office and you start
focusing on the cornerstone, Jesus. When you focus on him, you have the power to
enjoy the blessing but also drink the cup.

You have the power to do both. And that's the Christian life. Is this life of
giving ourselves, we're going to talk about this more tomorrow, giving ourselves
in service, but also this life of enjoying the relationship that we have with
him all through it because that relationship is going to last forever.

So you stop focusing on the throne and you focus on the one who's seated on the
throne. Let's do that right now. Jesus right now in our minds, we focus on you
seated on the throne, high and lifted up, Lord of lords, you are the one who in
the end, every knee is going to bow to you.

And you're the one that we get an opportunity to serve today. Lord, help us to
see the message of both blessing and suffering in our lives as followers of you.
Lord, make us willing to drink the cup, whatever that might be in our lives.

Not our will, but your will be done, knowing that your blessing is a part of
even that. But also make us willing to enjoy the blessing, the resurrection life
that you've given us And in the balance of those two, the cross and the
resurrection, I pray that you help us to see there is life in both. There is
life in our suffering as we give ourselves for you.

We are a living sacrifice and there's obviously life in the resurrection as
we're resurrected to life in you. Help us to see that it's all about you, Jesus.
Whatever we're going through right now, help us to get our focus on you.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.