CALL TO SERVANTHOOD

Introduction

-{Philippians 1}

-The great violinist, Niccolo Paganini, after his death, had willed his marvelous violin to the city of Genoa on condition that it must never be played. The wood of such an instrument, while used and handled, wears only slightly, but when it is set aside, it begins to decay. Paganini’s lovely violin, that had produced such beautiful music for so long, has today become rotten and worm-eaten and useless except as a relic. How many Christian’s, unwilling to serve their Lord, could be described in the same manner?

-Christians are called to more than just believing the right things. No doubt, that is part of it—you must believe rightly. However, that belief is meant to then translate into a lifestyle reflective of the Savior who bought us.

-This is our mission at Harvest Baptist Church. We exist as a church not to just go through motions or add program upon program, and activity upon activity. We exist to make disciples and we do that by providing an atmosphere that encourages a spiritually mature lifestyle through the knowledge and application of Scripture. We as a church grow in our knowledge of the Lord and then live it out. If we don’t, we’re as useful as a rotting violin.

-The apostle Paul desired that all the churches that he had a hand in planting to know the truth and then live out the truth. It is reflected in all of his epistles, but I believe that we most clearly see this his epistle to the Philippians. This epistle is known for its very positive perspective, as Paul is joyful over how well the church is doing, and wants to challenge them to even greater faithfulness of growing and living for Christ. That’s why I believe, for our church, it would be a very fruitful study to look at this epistle.

-And so, Paul begins his letter with a typical greeting, but it definitely sets the tone for what is to come. Here, in these beginning verses, we find Paul teaching that a church will flourish when it takes seriously its call to servanthood.

Philippians 1:1–2 ESV

1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

-{pray}

-I want to give you a little background so we understand where this epistle is coming from. During Paul’s second missionary journey he seemed to be hitting a roadblock as all of his plans to go to Asia were frustrated. Then, one night, he received a vision of a man calling him to come help them in Macedonia. Understanding that the Lord was calling him to share the gospel and plant churches in Macedonia, he headed there with Silas, Timothy, and Luke to do the work of the Lord.

-Paul eventually made his way to the city of Philippi, a strong Roman colony. There were not many Jews there, so there was no synagogue. Believing the few Jews that were there would have a prayer meeting down by the river, he found a small group praying and worshipping God. Among them was Lydia, a seller of purple cloth from Asia who was a God-fearer. After hearing the gospel, she and her household believed and invited the group to stay with them. This was the beginning of the church, with Lydia’s house probably serving as the place where they met.

-Later, as Paul and Silas were walking through the town, a demon-possessed slave-girl who foretold the future was disrupting their ministry and they cast the demon out of her. Her masters were not happy at losing their money-making scheme, and had Paul and Silas arrested. While praising and singing songs to God in the jail, an earthquake opened up all the jail cells. When the jailer was about to kill himself thinking all the prisoners escaped, Paul and Silas assured him they were all there, shared the gospel, and the jailer and his family believed.

-So, here was the beginning of a church: an upper-middle class fashion designer, a slave girl, and a blue-collar jailer—all together, worshipping the Lord—a people that Paul was very fond of. Now, probably a little over 10 years later, Paul finds himself in Rome under house arrest, and he writes this letter to encourage them to keep going in their faithfulness to the Lord. And while our passage today is quite routine for an introduction, it does set the tone for the rest of the letter in that Christians are called to serve the Lord by serving others, and it is a lifestyle that is indicative when we grow in Christ and decide to live for Christ. This is a lifestyle that we are to take upon ourselves. And this introduction gives us several principles about servanthood that we all would do well to heed....

1) The attitude of service

-In v. 1 of the greeting Paul refers to himself as a servant, and does not qualify himself by any other description. This is interesting because most often in his greetings he refers to his office of being an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here, he is nothing but a servant. The word for servant would probably be better translated as slave (as some translations will have). The people who fell in this category were no mere butlers or maids who were just working a job. These servants/slaves owed some sort of debt to their master. And so, they were owned by and subservient to the master of the household.

-Paul, by referring to himself as a servant or slave, was taking away any pretense that the title of apostle or church-planter or anything else might give. Paul was not somehow a better man for who he was or what his title might be. As he touches upon later in the epistle, all those things that humanity puts so much stock in (with degrees and labels and roles) are nothing but garbage to him. He is a servant and slave who is owned by and subservient to the master—Jesus Christ.

-A servant/slave has no rights of their own. They are there to serve at the pleasure of the master. They do not exist to forward their own agenda. They do not exist to merely please themselves with the pleasures of life. They exist to serve at the behest and pleasure of the one who owns them. And elsewhere, Paul tells us that if we are true believers in Jesus Christ, we have been bought with a price, and we no longer belong to ourselves, therefore we use our gifts and talents and energy and resources and times to serve at the pleasure of Jesus Christ.

-And this was the attitude that Paul was taking here. He wasn’t better than anybody else, he was just a servant of Christ Jesus—there to serve Christ as Christ sees fit. Nothing about his abilities or roles made him any more special than anybody else. If you look at the Old Testament to those that we might call biblical heroes, they too were called servants or slaves of God. Moses, David, Daniel, and so many others were also but servants, serving at the behest of the Master.

-Now, there are two aspects of this attitude that I want to quickly highlight. First, this attitude embodied humility and selflessness. While our own sinful nature and the pressures of the world want us to make our life all about us, truly following the call of Christ turns it in the completely opposite direction. It is not about us at all, but about serving Christ by serving others. And the only way we will truly live that out is with humility and selflessness. That is why Christ said:

Matthew 20:26–28 ESV

26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

-Jesus Himself is the great example of this attitude of servanthood. He, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, did not serve Himself but gave Himself to save people. Are we better than the Master?

-And tied to this is a second aspect of having a desire to please the Master over anybody else. A true servant is more concerned about pleasing the Master than pleasing themselves or pleasing the world or pleasing their friends or family. The desires of the Master come first and foremost, even if it means displeasing others.

John Kenneth Galbraith was an American diplomat, and in his autobiography he tells the story of the serving devotion that his family's housekeeper had for him. He wrote: It had been a wearying day, and I asked Emily to hold all telephone calls while I had a nap. Shortly thereafter the phone rang. President Lyndon Johnson was calling from the White House. "Get me Ken Galbraith. This is Lyndon Johnson." "He is sleeping, Mr. President. He said not to disturb him." "Well, wake him up. I want to talk to him." "No, Mr. President. I work for him, not you.” When I called the President back, he could scarcely control his pleasure. "Tell that woman I want her here in the White House."

-Such a single-hearted dedication to the one that we are devoted to, in humility and selflessness, is part of the call to servanthood. But in our passage we also see...

2) The fellowship of service

-Paul reaches out to the saints—a title that is not only for super-holy people, but refers to everyone who has believed in Jesus Christ. But these saints are part of a local church, the church at Philippi. And it is within the fellowship of that local church that they would serve, together.

-While there is a call to the individual to take on the attitude of service, it is not a call for Christians to serve alone—rather it is best done within the fellowship of believers. Yes, there may be times when we serve others outside of the context of church (maybe a neighbor or coworker has a need) but we also remember that there is opportunity of service in and through the local church.

-There are several reasons that servanthood is a component of being a part of a larger group. First, it is through the local church that we can encourage and support one another in service. I don’t know about you, but there are several things in life that I should do but I don’t do because I lack the motivation to do it within myself. But if I had someone come alongside me to spur me on I might be more apt to do it.

-As much as that might be true for things like eating healthy or exercising, how much more is it true for what we are called to do for Christ. We need someone to encourage us to fulfill our great calling—to come alongside of us and not berate us or make us feel guilty, but to remind us of what a great privilege it is to serve Christ and others, and the spiritual blessings we receive when we give ourselves to this servanthood. The writer of Hebrews told Christians:

Hebrews 10:24 ESV

24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

-In a sense, we can hype each other up to serve people in the name of Christ. And that is why he continues the exhortation with a verse we are all familiar with in:

Hebrews 10:25 ESV

25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

-We need to be an active part of a church so we can be encouraged to serve and also be an encouragement toward service. And a great benefit of this serving together is that you build a stronger relationship with your brothers and sisters in Christ. I think that this is something that could be very beneficial for all of us. We are not a small church, but we are not a giant church either, but over the past few months I don’t know how many times I have had someone say to me that with the growth we’ve been blessed with they just don’t know most of the people within the church. I’m probably the only one here that knows that vast majority of you. But I want you to know each other and build relationships with each other. And the best way of doing that is finding ways to serve, and as you serve alongside one another the relationship will blossom.

-But another aspect of this fellowship of service that I want you to consider is that when you serve together in fellowship you are able to collaborate for greater impact. Each of us has been given a particular gifting by the Holy Spirit. But we do not possess every gift, and so where we lack we need others to take up the slack (so to speak).

-In his other epistles Paul gives the picture of the church as a body: there are different parts that make up one body. Although each part has a different function, together they work as one in doing whatever the body needs to do. When we work together, using the gifts God has given us, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can accomplish much for Christ in our service for Him, working toward whatever common goal that He has for us.

-And I want to note that no one is exempt from the fellowship of service. In v. 1 Paul says a special greeting to the overseers and deacons. Overseers were the leadership of the church—in our day and age we mostly refer to them as pastors. The two offices within a church—pastors and deacons. He doesn’t point them out because they are special in an way, but rather to emphasize that they are part of this local body as well. The leadership is to encourage the service of the people, but they also need to be a part of that service.

-Pastors and deacons are not CEOs and board members over a corporation telling everybody else what to do. They are part of the body who are also gifted in certain ways, and they too need to heed the call of service—use their gifts to serve others. Everyone here has a gift, now use it to serve. As Peter exhorted us:

1 Peter 4:10 ESV

10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:

I read the story of Timothy Stackpole who was a New York Firefighter, who was severely burned in a 1998 fire. After he recovered, he returned to the force despite the advice of some friends and family and the fact that he could retire comfortably. He was a great fire fighter and passionate about his work and was soon promoted to captain. He knew that God had gifted him with skills that complimented the rest of his company to help the people of New York. Timothy led his team into the second tower on 9/11 to try to save some people because that was their gift and calling. Unfortunately, it collapsed and took his life. But he knew his calling—to serve the people of New York by saving people in New York together with the rest of his team. It was a true fellowship of service.

-Oh, that we all would have that same dedication to serve others together according to our calling and gifting. And one last principle I want to talk about:

3) The basis for service

-Paul gives a general greeting that he uses in most of his epistles, but it tells us why we serve.

Philippians 1:2 ESV

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

-We first serve because we have been extended grace by God the Father through what He has done for us in Jesus Christ. As church people we hear the gospel message so much we might forget its true impact—we might not consider how truly lost we were before Christ, and how unworthy we were to ever receive Christ, and how helpless we were until saved by Christ. There is a reason that the song is called AMAZING GRACE. I don’t care how highly you think of yourself, you were not, are not, and cannot be good enough, smart enough, warm & fuzzy enough to earn God’s good will.

-God had no reason whatsoever to show you any kindness or mercy. And yet, by His grace He sent His Son to die to pay for the penalty of your sins that you could not cover, and by grace offered you eternal life with Him. It is a gift to be received—believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

-And Paul then couples grace with peace. In our sin we were enemies of God, but by extending grace to us in Jesus Christ He made peace between us, and there is no longer any hostility between us and God. And because of the peace we have with God we can have the peace of God. The Jewish word is shalom, and it speaks of our well-being. When Jews would great each other with shalom, it was a wish for them to experience God’s blessing leading to their well-being.

-Shalom is a peace of heart, soundness of mind, calmness of spirit that comes with a right relationship with God. It isn’t a promise of a lack of conflict, but experience the goodness of God in the midst of conflict.

-Grace and shalom are given in Jesus Christ, and because God has provided all of this for us, out of our gratitude we serve Him and others. His grace and peace are the basis for our service—they are the why. What more motivation do we need.

Conclusion

-John Wesley provides the most convicting analysis on what it means to answer the call of servanthood: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you can.”

-As our mission is GROWING AND LIVING IN CHRIST TOGETHER, service is not only an output, but it is also an input—meaning that service is actually an important part of your own spiritual growth.

There was a pastor who took a survey of his church to see if people saw a relationship between service to others and spiritual growth. When asked, "To what extent has your service to others affected your spiritual growth?," 92% answered "Positive," 8% answered "Neutral," and none responded that ministry had a "Negative" effect. Service to others enhanced their spiritual growth. How much? 63% responded that service had been an "equally significant factor" in their spiritual growth compared to other disciplines that contribute to spiritual growth (Bible study, prayer, etc.). More amazingly, 24% responded that service to others had been "a more significant factor" to their spiritual growth than Bible study or prayer. More telling, of those actively serving others, only 12% were "not satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with the level of their spiritual growth. In stark contrast, of those who were not involved in service to others, over half (58%) felt either "not satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with their level of spiritual growth. Serving others is not just benefiting the recipients of that service but also those doing the service.

-Christian, I invite you to come and pray that God would lead you to where He would have you serve. Don’t end up like a rotting violin.

-But there may be some here who haven’t received the grace and peace of God in Jesus, and I invite you to come forward today and believe in Jesus...