Power Turned Upside Down | The Last Kingdom – Week 6
Everyone wants their life to matter.
In your career.
In your family.
In your relationships.
In your faith.
And most of us assume influence is how we measure that.
If I have a voice… I matter.
If I have authority… I matter.
If people listen to me… then my life counts.
So we chase it.
Recognition.
Position.
Control.
Because that’s how the world defines power.
The higher you climb, the more influence you have.
The more visible you are, the more impact you make.
And if we’re honest…
We often carry that same definition into our spiritual lives.
We assume God uses the strongest.
The most gifted.
The most impressive.
But Jesus disrupts all of it.
In Mark 10, He says something that cuts against everything we’ve learned:
“You know how the world operates…
Not so with you.”
In other words—
My kingdom doesn’t work like that.
And then He redefines greatness:
“Whoever wants to become great must become a servant.”
Not rise higher.
Go lower.
Because when Paul describes Jesus in Philippians 2, he doesn’t start with power.
He starts with surrender.
“He made himself nothing.”
Not because He lacked power—
But because He refused to cling to it.
Jesus didn’t lose His authority.
He redefined how it works.
Instead of using power to control…
He used it to serve.
The Son of God didn’t climb the ladder of influence.
He stepped off it.
He took on the role of a servant—
A doulos—a slave.
The lowest position in society.
And then He showed us what that looks like.
In John 13, the night before the cross,
Jesus kneels down and washes His disciples’ feet.
The most powerful person in the room…
Takes the lowest place.
Because in God’s kingdom, power doesn’t dominate.
It gives.
It serves.
It sacrifices.
It loves.
And the clearest picture of that isn’t a miracle—
It’s the cross.
Jesus didn’t come to conquer through force.
He came to redeem through self-giving love.
Which creates a tension for us.
Because we want the life Jesus promises—
Peace. Purpose. A life that matters—
But we often want it without adopting the way He lived.
We want the outcome…
Without the surrender.
But what if the problem isn’t Jesus’ promises—
What if it’s our strategy?
Because in His kingdom…
The way up is down.
The path to greatness is humility.
The life we’re looking for is found on the other side of surrender.
And that confronts every instinct we have.
We chase recognition.
He chooses obscurity.
We seek control.
He models surrender.
We want to be served.
He kneels with a towel.
So the question shifts:
Not how much influence can I gain?
But how much of myself am I willing to give away?
Because Jesus didn’t just model this path—
He walked it for you.
He laid down His rights.
Stepped into your brokenness.
Carried your sin.
And went all the way to the cross.
Not because He had to—
But because love led Him there.
And now He invites you to follow.
Not upward into status—
But downward into surrender.
Because in The Last Kingdom…
Power is turned upside down.
And the life you’ve been chasing
Is waiting on the other side of letting go.
Discussion Questions:
Where do you most feel the desire for your life to matter - career, family, reputation, faith, something else? And how do you usually try to pursue that?
When you look at Jesus’ example in Philippians 2 and John 13, what suprises you most about how influence works in teh Kingdom of God?
What might it look like this week to follow Jesus’ strategy of humility and service in one specific area of your life?