Have you seen “Mythbusters”? It’s a reality show on television which takes a modern myth and tries to disprove it. So far they’ve tackled over 700 myths. Let me just give you a few as an example: Talking to your plants helps them grow. Not true! Toast always falls butter side down. Not true! People only use 10% of their brain. Not true! A bull causes destruction in a china shop. Not true! Food on the floor less than 5 seconds is safe to eat. Not true! The color red makes bulls angry. Not true! You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Not true! Of course you can.
This morning we’re going to deal with two myths that have to do with pride and humility and we’re going to do so using the disciples of Jesus Christ as our models for this. Now before we get started it’s important to look at what the main problem we have: pride.
Pride is something we all struggle with. It plagues us day after day because it’s so very natural. Everyone naturally centers their life around themselves. What does the Scripture say about pride? Let’s just read a few examples:
Isaiah 2:12 “For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up - and it shall be brought low.”
Jeremiah 50:32 The proud one shall stumble and fall, with none to raise him up, and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour all that is around him.
Proverbs 11:2 “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.”
Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Proverbs 29:23 “One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.”
James 4:6 "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
God makes it extremely clear that pride is deadly to us. It poisons our life. We become blinded to others and to God and end up serving only one person – ourselves! And the most frightening thing about pride is that those who are prideful are blind to it. They don’t realize they have it because it creeps up in your life and slowly builds and builds until this is the normal way of thinking and behaving.
Definition of pride. In Hebrew it comes from the basic word meaning “to rise.” It is very often a positive word – God rises above his enemies and is exalted on his throne in majesty. But the negative side of this is man lifting himself above God or above those around him. It means arrogance, insensitivity, and presumption. The prophets use this negative example over 50 times! Pride is when your world centers on you.
I don’t believe anyone here WANTS to be prideful but we want to avoid that. We just read the horrible consequences of pride. So what must we do to avoid pride and gain humility? And this brings us to our two myths which we will challenge this morning…
The FIRST MYTH is that godly zeal produces humility or godly behavior proves that a person is humble.
Many people believe that today. We see a man or woman who is a passionate follower of Jesus and sacrificial giver and worshiper of the Lord and we conclude that that person is a humble disciple.
Let’s look closer at this. In our text this morning we find Jesus and his disciples at the end of their three years together. They had left their nets and their other occupations in order to follow Jesus. And now they are in Jerusalem celebrating the Passover for the last time with Jesus. Jesus washed their feet. He then shared with them the bread and the wine. No sooner had they finished this holy supper when we read Luke 22:24: “A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.”
Remember, these were the handpicked followers of Jesus. They had walked with him for three years and were sent out to preach, to heal, to minister to the crowds. They had walked probably hundreds of miles and lived on handouts for three years when they could have stayed home at their good jobs and lived a normal life. But they left all and followed Jesus! So how do you explain this pride that we find? It flies in the face of our myth!
Zeal does NOT make one humble! Zeal does not prove humility. That should put the fear of God into every one of us! Just because you give more than a tithe – even 90% of your income to the work of God does not mean you don’t have a problem with pride. You can live on the streets and preach to the homeless and still have pride. You can stand in the pulpit, preach, share your personal testimony and still have pride. You can go on a mission trip every year for 20 years and still not be humble. You can be on the worship team and listen only to Christian music, attend Bible studies 4 times a week, never miss a Sunday service and still not be humble.
I don’t know that any one of us has made as much a sacrifice for the Lord as the twelve disciples did for those three years. And yet we find them filled with self exaltation and that’s tragic. What does that say about the danger for you and I?
THE SECOND MYTH is that Biblical knowledge and personal effort will produce humility. If you fill your mind with enough Scripture, and good Biblical preaching and teaching and work hard at putting down the pride you will be humble. Is that really true?
Look again at the disciples. What kind of teaching and preaching did they sit under? You can look at the crowds at that time. They heard a lot of Jesus’ teaching – the sermon on the mount, various parables and sayings. They heard only a fraction of Jesus’ teaching. But the disciples were there at His side for almost the whole three years. Day after day after day they heard Jesus’ teaching, preaching, reproving, encouraging. At the end of John’s gospel he said this: “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (21:25) Our Gospels contain only a fraction of all he did, said, and taught and the disciples were there for it all.
Jesus had told them: Matthew 11:29 “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” He had just washed their feet and told them to follow his example.
But did all that teaching and perfect knowledge of the Scripture produce in them humility? Did it destroy their pride? Apparently not!
And that is a great warning to us as well! You can study and study and study the Scriptures. You can sit in every one of my adult Bible classes. You can read books and learn all you can about the Lord and his ways and how to be a godly follower of Christ. You can memorize Scripture and work hard at making yourself a servant to others by volunteering at various places. You can review your catechism and read Luther and all the teachings of our church. But if we take seriously what we find in Scripture – it won’t produce in you humility. It won’t destroy your pride. It certainly won’t hurt you but it doesn’t produce in anyone humility.
So we’ve busted two myths and to tell you the truth, it’s discouraging to discover. I would love to believe that my godly lifestyle breaks my pride and the more I study Scripture, the more humble I will become. But that is simply not true! What IS the truth? Let me share with you two truths about humility and pride.
THE FIRST TRUTH is that pride can only be broken by the crushing of the law.
Jesus directly confronts his disciples as they fight over who is the greatest: (vs. 25-26a) “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you.” In other words, it’s normal in the world to compete for position, for title, to say “I’m the boss and others must bow.” We cut each other down and push others out of the way in order to lift ourselves up. And then the most important thing Jesus says here: “BUT YOU ARE NOT TO BE LIKE THAT!” (NIV)
Jesus is confrontational! He MUST be if there is to be any change. And that is the first purpose of the Word of God – to get directly in our face and show us what we really look like. It’s a mirror! And so many times we read the Bible and we see it as a book of information, or a window on God and the wonderful things of God. Yes, the Scripture reveals God’s heart. But FIRST, the Word must reflect back on yourself not as a window but as a mirror to see the dirt, the smudges, the messy hair, the bloodshot eyes. It reveals the areas where we don’t have it together.
These disciples certainly thought well of themselves – the chosen ones and the ones to sit with Jesus. They were heroes! They were sent out by Jesus and had the cream of the crop teachings. But they didn’t see their pride – not one bit. And Jesus placed the mirror of his word in their face and said “LOOK!” Does the Scripture crush your heart when you read it? If not, then something is wrong – read it again – ask for the Lord to open your eyes and ears. The Holy Spirit will reveal areas that need to be repented of and changed. Luke 18:13 “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'” The law drives us to see who we really are and then we see that we need the Lord, we need his mercy, we need the cross. “Change my heart Oh God!” He will answer with his grace and mercy, with his forgiveness.
So that’s our first truth: the Word of the Lord alone can crush a prideful heart.
THE SECOND TRUTH is that only the Holy Spirit can produce humility in anyone. Jesus tells his disciples at the end of verse 27: “But I am among you as one who serves.” And that is the crucial thought here – ONLY if Jesus is among us and IN US through His Holy Spirit will we be able to be a servant.
The disciples couldn’t do it after three years – they didn’t have the Spirit of God indwelling in them. But that quickly changed. A miracle happens to the character of every apostle after the day of Pentecost – their pride is GONE and they rejoice in humility.
Look at the change in Peter and James and John – they were arrested by the religious authorities, thrown into prison. There is no rage, no anger, no resentment, no self-justification. This is what you expect from someone who is standing up for their rights in pride. NO – they follow Jesus in humility. They humbly preach the gospel and the fruit is amazing – thousands come to the Lord.
And then look at what they wrote after Pentecost: James wrote – (4:6) "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (4:10) “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” And then Peter wrote (1 Peter 5:5-6) “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,” We could also look at John. These were men changed to the core from ones who fought about who was the top disciple.
Every one of us needs that transformation as well. We love Jesus. We love his Word. But just like the disciples, that doesn’t make us humble.
The key is the breaking of the law and the indwelling and filling of the Holy Spirit. You can’t LEARN to be humble. Humility is not a skill you acquire like a mechanic, a musician, a nurse, a painter, a teacher, an accountant, or a preacher. I can’t tell you to be humble and you will be and neither can God.
Humility is a gift given supernaturally by God’s Holy Spirit. But the Law has to crush us first to realize that we aren’t humble and need to be. Until that moment, we will go through life blindly pushing others out of our way and not realizing anything is wrong.
Let’s pray that God would open our eyes to his crushing word that we would see ourselves as in a mirror, repent and seek his Spirit to change our hearts. He WILL forgive. He WILL fill you. He WILL change your heart! And blessing will flow from your life just as it did with the disciples.
