Jesus is the Servant

This Palm Sunday we will continue with our Lenten season and Easter Sunday sermon series called “Jesus is…”. We are looking at some of the New Testament letters and specifically the ways that Jesus is referred to within them.

This week our focus turns to Jesus as a servant. We will be looking at Philippians 2:5-11. The words will be on the screen

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Please pray with me…

Jesus was given a mission by God. A mission that as we know would end in his death. Today we celebrate his grand entrance into Jerusalem. A time in which very few if anyone would have expected that he would be put to death only five days later.

Today our focus will not be on the grand entrance. Our time will be spent looking at how Jesus was as today’s scripture states, “the very nature of a servant.” How he chose to follow the will and direction offered to him by his Father all the way to his death.

We are called to do the same. We are also supposed to be willing to follow God till our time on earth is over. Hopefully that will not mean that we will be put to death due to our faith, but it does mean that we are to work just like Jesus did to serve our father in heaven.

That is the first point regarding Jesus as a servant. We need to be willing to choose to do this. Jesus was like all of us on earth he had the choice to say no. Max Lucado has a book title that explains it so well. His book is entitled “He Chose the Nails.”

It is a book about all the ways that Jesus relates to us as humans. Jesus had a decision to make, and he chose the nails instead of choosing life. His father had given him a mission and he was willing to fulfill that mission no matter the cost.

We know that he was in favor of another option by reading Matthew where shortly before he is arrested, he says these words, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Jesus was human. I would guess at some point in his life he had felt pain. After all he was the son of a carpenter so I would expect that he would hit his thumb with a hammer at some point but probably without the choice words that sometimes can come out of our mouths.

Jesus knew he would be in pain. He knew that he would be in anguish. He knew that he didn’t deserve to have his life ended this way.

But he also knew that he was the son of God and a servant to God. Therefore, he knew that he was not to follow his will but the will of his father.

We should be willing to follow the will of God because he is our father in heaven and because he is our creator. God formed humankind out of the dust of the ground. He formed us in order for us to be in a relationship with him.

This was somewhat destroyed as we have spoken of previously due to the decision made by Adam and Eve. We can have a stronger relationship with God due to his son coming down and dying in order for our sins to be forgiven.

Sin was the barrier between us and God. Jesus through his willingness to be a servant of God removed that stain and allowed for us to return to being in close contact with God through the Holy Spirit who he left to be our helper.

Jesus also became a servant of God because of the love between him and his father. These two have been connected for eternity. Jesus knew that he was the only way that humankind would be able to be in relationship with his father. So, because he loved us, he was willing to come down to die for each one of us.

We can turn to the beginning of John 3:16 for another reason that we should be willing to serve God. It begins that “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.” He had his son come down for us because he loved us.

He showed his love for humankind in many ways before his son as well. He showed his love when he created us as was mentioned before. He showed his love when despite being told not too, he didn’t kill Adam and Eve after they ate from the tree.

He showed his love by keeping alive the Israelites during the time of the exodus. He showed his love by having prophets talk to the people when they quit following God so they would come back to following the one true God. These are just some of the many examples that show the love that God has for each one of us.

This love is not just for those that believe in him right now. This love is for all of humankind. Even if you are against God, God still loves you and wants to be in relationship with you. He is trying to lead you to him each and every day. All that you have to do is say yes.

We also should be willing to be God’s servant because he is there for us in all circumstances. Sometimes it may seem like God is not there, but he is with us. Crying when we cry, laughing when we laugh, helping us when we struggle, and caring for us when it seems like no one cares. God feels every emotion that we feel.

What are some of the traits of a servant of God. When we look at verse eight, we can see that one of those traits is to be humble. Yes, we are to be proud to be a follower of Jesus, but we are also supposed to put others before ourselves. We are to focus on the needs of others instead of our own needs.

The writer of this letter was a man named Paul. I often struggled with his way of explaining his relationship with God. He would often list all the sacrifices he made for God and end it with “be humble like me.” What he meant was we are to not allow our own well being stop us from being a servant to God.

We are to follow the example of Paul. We are to live a life that is worth emulating. We are to live a life that is pleasing to God. One of the biggest problems that Jesus had with the Pharisees was that they were showy in their actions. They wanted people to know that they were fasting. They wanted people to know that they were better than them.

God does not want us to brag on ourselves. God wants us to be humble and show our love for him through our actions. One of the best examples of the difference between how God wants us to act and the actions of a Pharisees comes from Luke chapter 18 where Jesus tells of two men going to the temple to pray.

One of them was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. It goes on to say this.

“The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

We need to be a humble servant for God. We need to admit that we are not perfect. We need to focus on how to serve God instead of on trying to be better than others. God isn’t looking for perfect Christians he is looking for humble believers.

This is why we should look at the disciples. These guys were not the cream of the crop. They weren’t the most knowledgeable of the scriptures. But they were willing to listen and learn. They were willing to respond to the voice of Jesus and fulfill his wishes.

We can see this in what happens right after the event we are celebrating today. In Mark chapter 14 Jesus tells two of his disciples to look for a man carrying a jar of water and then go up to him and say to him ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”

The disciples went and followed the directions Jesus gave them. This is how they got the room in which they would eat with Jesus for the last time. God wants people that will listen and respond to him. We need to desire to serve God by being this type of person.

We need to also be willing to be obedient to God because we never know when what we do can have an effect on someone else’s life. Obedience to God involves praying, listening, and fulfilling what God has called you to do.

Obedience takes action. In our first reading Jesus lays out to his disciples the importance of taking action when he says “I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

Jesus is saying that it is through our actions that we show our obedience. It is when we help those in need who God calls us to help that we our able to show God that we want to serve him. When we choose instead to take another path, we are choosing to ignore our calling. To choose to not help those we have been called to help shows God we prefer to serve the world instead of him.

We are to listen and respond to what God calls us to do both individually and a s a church. But we are to serve God because we want too, not because we believe we have too. We choose to serve God; he does not force us to serve him.

An example of this would be an indentured servant. When some people were originally coming over to what became the United States, they couldn’t afford to do it so they would agree to serve someone who was wealthier and could afford to cover their way for a certain amount of time. They made the decision that they wanted to become a servant because they wanted a better life and felt this was the best way for them to attain it.

If you have given your life to Jesus, you have found a better way to live. You believed that it was through acknowledging Jesus as our Lord and Savior that you could have eternal life. We choose to serve God. We chose to be in a relationship with him.

Verse 9 points out to us that God exalts those who choose to be his servant. God knows when we make sacrifices for him. God knows when we have put others before ourselves. God knows when we choose to act in a way that glorifies him. It leads God to say, “well done good and faithful servant.”

God exalts us because he knows that we are choosing him over the ways of the world. We are making the choice to follow him. He does not pressure us into following him even though he can make it tough not to follow him. He can make our lives difficult but in the end, it is our choice alone.

Some will say that when we serve God, we will get to see the results on earth but that is not always the case. We should not expect to be pleased with how wealthy and how noticeable we become to those here on earth. Our reward comes in heaven. Our reward comes when we meet God, and he can say those words to us that he is well pleased.

Psalm 34 ends with these words, “22 The Lord will rescue his servants; no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.” God has rescued each one of us that have given our lives to him. He rescued us by removing the power of sin from us. He rescued us through the events that we will be focusing on through next Sunday.

He rescued us by having his son come down to earth as our example. To live among us, to show us the way in which we are to serve and worship God and then he died on the cross so that we would be able to have eternal life.

God did that for each one of us. Even if you haven’t yet given your life to him, I want you to know that Christ died for your sins as well.

Let us pray…