Unworthy Servants
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
In the summer of 1986, two ships collided in the Black Sea off the coast of Russia.
Hundreds of passengers died as they were hurled into the icy waters below.
News of the disaster was further darkened when an investigation revealed the cause of the accident.
It wasn’t a technology problem like radar malfunction--or even thick fog.
The cause was human stubbornness.
Each captain was aware of the other ship’s presence nearby.
Both could have steered clear, but according to news reports, neither captain wanted to give way to the other.
Each was too proud to yield first.
By the time they came to their senses, it was too late.
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Many people do not like the idea of being a servant to others because they feel that they are too good or they do not want to do the dirty work of the Kingdom, but I will tell you that without the humble servant’s attitude that Christ showed we run a great risk.
Jesus is our perfect example of a humble servant.
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Beloved, the reality is that we, the followers of Christ, are not only servants...
But we are unworthy servants...
And that will be the main focus of our study today.
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So, please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.
We will conduct our study in Chapter 17 and focus on verses 7 through 10.
Our message this morning is titled “Unworthy Servants.”
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As you are turning to our passage today please keep in mind this fact:
As servants of Jesus...
We are must understand our role...
We must be aware of our Master’s commands...
And we are to embody the right attitude.
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So, this morning we will cover three main points:
1) The Servant’s Role
2) The Master’s Commands
And...
3) The Servant’s Attitude
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Heavenly Father...
You are the Alpha and the Omega...
You are the One above all...
You are the great I am...
And we are nothing without You.
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Help us learn this day what it means to serve You...
Help us to see the necessity of humility in our daily lives...
Help us to see our unworthiness...
And help us to see that You are so much more holier than we can ever imagine.
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Thank You for the gift of the Holy Spirit who is even at this moment leading us to all truth...
Thank You for sending Your Son who is our Lord and Master...
Thank You for even allowing us, who at one time where your enemies, to serve You...
And may we never lose that attitude of thankfulness for all You have done for us, Your followers.
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And it is in Jesus’ name we pray all these things...
Amen.
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Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
7 “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’?
8 Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’?
9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?
10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ”
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) The Servant’s Role
1) The Servant’s Role
Verses 7-8: “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’?
Beloved, before we explore the content of our passage...
We need to understand the context in which this illustration by Jesus was said...
So, we will have to look at the first six verses from Luke 17 in which we covered in two previous messages.
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The first message was focused on the instructions that Jesus had just given His disciples...
This can be found in Luke 17:1-4, which says:
1 And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come!
2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.
3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him,
4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
So, as we previously observed...
Jesus commanded His followers to guard against the various temptations they may encounter...
Jesus warned of leading others into sin because of our actions...
Jesus instructed His followers to rebuke their follow brothers and sisters in Christ...
And Jesus made it clear that to follow Him means to forgive anyone who comes to us and asks for forgiveness.
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To these commands the apostles turned to their Lord and Savior and asked for help...
As we see in Luke 17:5-6, which says:
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
6 And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
The disciples asked to have their faith increased...
But Jesus said it is less about the quantity and much more so about the quality of faith...
For even a little bit of genuine faith in Him is enough to make the impossible possible.
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Now, Beloved, it is in this setting that Jesus gives this illustration on the attitude of a servant...
So, Jesus asks a few key questions for His followers to study, “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’?”
The answer here is clearly “no” a master would not say that...
A master expects his servant to do his or her job.
Next, Jesus asks, “Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink?’”
The answer here is clearly “yes” a master would continue to give his servant instruction until he finishes all his responsibilities...
And only then will the servant be able to take care of himself or herself.
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Now, in ordinary life, masters do not, and are not obligated to, relieve slaves of household duties merely because they have put in a hard day of outdoor labor.
That is why the master in this illustration by Jesus expects his servant to keep working inside the house even after a day of hard work outside...
You see, Beloved, a “servant” as described here was a small farmer’s only servant, aka slave...
He worked both outside (plowing and shepherding) and inside the house...
And just because he worked outside very hard did not mean that he deserved a reward...
That was his responsibility.
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Beloved, the point of this parable was that a slave, called here a servant, should expect no special reward for doing what was his duty in the first place...
And that truth applies to believers, too.
You see, the demanding standards Christ set may have seemed too high to the disciples...
The call to guard against the various temptations...
The call to not lead others into sin...
The call to rebuke our brothers and sisters in Christ...
The call to forgive anyone who asks for forgiveness...
All of those actions represented only the minimal duties for a servant of Christ!
Those who obey Jesus in following these commands are not to think their obedience is meritorious...
It is simply our Christian duty!
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Beloved, everything from the commands we follow to our faith is nothing we can boast about...
God gave us faith as a gift...
God gave us the Holy Spirit to live in us...
And by the power of the Holy Spirit and the faith He gives us we are able to follow His commands for we are His workman...
We were created for the purpose to serve Him and every tool we use to serve Him has been provided to us by Him...
As Ephesians 2:8–10 says:
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
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So, what we are seeing from Jesus is that He is saying that we need to have the right attitude if we are going to be His followers...
We need to serve with humility...
We need to understand that when we follow Jesus’ commands we are not doing something worthy of a reward...
We are just being faithful and meeting the minimum requirement.
So, we have no cause to boast about following the commands of Jesus...
We have no right to boast about being obedient...
We have no excuse to lord over our faith to others...
We are not to act like the world that loves to brag about all their accomplishments...
Instead, we are to follow the example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ...
Instead, we are to be servant leaders.
As the Expositor’s Bible Commentary on Luke says:
“The world’s idea of success is to lord it over others;
Jesus’ way is the reverse—namely, servanthood—which is actually the way to true greatness.”
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So, we need to get away from the world’s destructive attitude that believes a person should be rewarded for meeting the minimum requirements of one’s responsibility...
Like handing out participation awards to students for the simple fact that they showed up to school...
Why are we handing out awards to those who are doing what they are supposed to be doing...
That s not kindness...
That is confusion...
And that mentality has harmed our society for it is far from anything in Scripture...
And that takes us to our next point.
2) The Master’s Commands
2) The Master’s Commands
Verse 9: Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?
So, Beloved, as we discussed before...
In ordinary life it is unthinkable that, after a servant has completed his daily task, his master will invite him to sit by his side at table and will attend upon him and praise him as though he deserved special rewards and honors for the mere execution of his duties.
Likewise, we as the followers of Christ need to understand it is our duty to keep all the commands of Christ...
Although we will not be able to be perfect...
We are to make a practice of righteous living...
And to live righteously is to live under the commands of God.
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Beloved, that is why obedience to the commands of God are often mentioned in Scripture.
Just take a look at 1 Corinthians 7:19, which says:
19 For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God.
So, it is not about following a specific ritual that God is concerned about...
What matters to God is if we know His commands and we keep them.
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In fact, our faithfulness in keeping God’s commands acts as a by product of saving faith...
Jus look at how John the Beloved put it in 1 John 2:3–4, which says:
3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,
So, just like the positive is true, so is the negative...
If one claim to be a believer and does not make a practice of keeping His commands...
Then that person is a liar...
They are not truly born-again.
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That is why the idea of a carnal Christian...
That is a person who claims to be a Christian but lives a very worldly life...
That idea is an oxymoron...
It is a squared circle...
It is claiming to be both up and down....
It is claiming to be both left and right...
It cannot be!
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Now, a genuine Christian may have lived a carnal life in the past...
But once the Holy Spirit is in you...
You become set free from the slavery of sin you once belonged to...
Again, not perfect...
For our mind has been renewed but our body still waits to be renewed at step of glorification.
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In fact, Jesus Himself put it this way in John 15:10, which says:
10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
And all of Christ’s commands can be summed up in two points...
Love of God...
And love for others.
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That makes sense for even the ten commandment can be divided into these two categories...
Love for God is found in the first four commands:
First, you shall have no other gods before Me.
Second, you shall not make idols.
Third, you shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
And fourth, remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
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Then the love for others in found in the remaining six commands.
Fifth, honor your father and your mother.
Sixth, you shall not murder.
Seventh, you shall not commit adultery.
Eighth, you shall not steal.
Nineth, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Tenth, you shall not covet.
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So, if we are to be in a saving relationship with God...
If we are to be good and faithful servants...
Then we need to love God and love others...
As 1 John 3:21–24 puts it:
21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;
22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
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So, it is our Christian duty to love God with all our heart...
And it is our Christian duty to love others...
And when we are faithful and obedient in this area...
We are just meeting the requirements God laid out for believers...
We are just meeting the minimum expectation by God’s standards...
And if we are honest...
Not a single one of us is ever 100% faithful in keeping all His commands...
So, we have nothing to boast about...
We have no reason to expect a reward for our efforts...
We are truly unworthy servants...
And that right there takes us to our third and final point.
3) The Servant’s Attitude
3) The Servant’s Attitude
Verse 10: So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ”
Let’s start our final section by looking at an important key word.
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An “unworthy servant” is a servant or lave who is not worthy of any special honor.
In that same light, Christians should acknowledge that God owes them nothing and that they owe him everything, even their very lives.
In other words, as God’s servants we can never exceed, or even meet, our obligation to Him.
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So, believers are unworthy in the sense that at our very best all we have done is what we should have done.
And what we should have done is found in what the commandments of God teach.
We have not done more than that.
On the contrary, usually we have done much less.
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As the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament on Luke says:
“Jesus now applies the parable, comparing its picture to the disciple’s service to God.
Obedience is not to be accepted as a cause for merit but as a fulfillment of duty, for we serve another who is over us.
The disciple has done what is required.
In putting the parable in these terms, the stress is on the disciple’s humble self-esteem.
The disciple is God’s servant, laboring faithfully and dutifully in all areas.
It is significant that Jesus speaks of doing all that is commanded.
The servant cannot pick and choose what to obey.
The servant serves dutifully, and God offers thanks for faithful service.
God in his grace notices and commends.”
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So, at our very best, we are simply forgiven sinners.
We must guard ourselves from falling under the sin of pride...
And instead we should seek to serve God humbly.
As theologian James R. Edwards says:
“Conformity to God’s will does not lead to thoughts of ‘extra credit,’ self-merit, or entitlement, but to humility; not to pride, but to joy!”
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So, Beloved, we need to make sure that we are not thinking of ourselves to highly...
We need to take to heart the truth found in Romans 12:3, which says:
3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
In addition to not thinking to highly of oneself we are reminded that a servant is not greater than his master...
And if Jesus led with a heart of service...
If Jesus was a servant leader...
How can we think of ourselves so arrogantly.
How can we expect awards and recognition for preforming our duties...
How can we expect to be treated better than our Lord and Savior who was completely perfect in every way...
As John 15:20 says:
20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
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Now, Beloved, hear is the shocking truth about all of this...
Even though we are unworthy servants...
Even though we are unworthy slaves...
Even though when we are faithful we are only meeting the minimum requirements...
Jesus still rewards us even those we don’t deserve it...
Just take a look at Luke 12:35–37, which says:
35 “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning,
36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.
37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.
Jesus presented a reversal of the normal procedure that we see outlined in our passage...
Here the master doing just what verse 7 of our passage rules out...
The master’s extraordinary act, depicted in this passage that we just read, symbolizes God’s grace, while the normal expectation of the master here in Luke 17 symbolizes the proper servant attitude.
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So, we have to have an attitude of an unworthy servant...
And at the same time God will give us what we do not deserve in an act of His grace...
This is truly incredible!
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
So, as this message comes to a close...
I would like you to consider this:
A large group of European pastors came to one of D. L. Moody’s Northfield Bible Conferences in Massachusetts in the late 1800s.
Following the European custom of the time, each guest put his shoes outside his room to be cleaned by the hall servants overnight.
But of course this was America and there were no hall servants.
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Walking the dormitory halls that night, Moody saw the shoes and determined not to embarrass his brothers.
He mentioned the need to some ministerial students who were there, but met with only silence or pious excuses.
Moody returned to the dorm, gathered up the shoes, and, alone in his room, the world’s only famous evangelist began to clean and polish the shoes.
Only the unexpected arrival of a friend in the midst of the work revealed the secret.
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When the foreign visitors opened their doors the next morning, their shoes were shined.
They never know by whom.
Moody told no one, but his friend told a few people, and during the rest of the conference, different men volunteered to shine the shoes in secret.
Perhaps the episode is a vital insight into why God used D. L. Moody as He did.
He was a man with a servant’s heart and that was the basis of his true greatness.
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So, Beloved, live your life in this world as a humble and unworthy servant...
For the ones who end up rewarded in Heaven are those who did not seek to be rewarded on earth.
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
Let’s pray...
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Heavenly Father...
If anyone hearing this message right now does not know You in a saving way:
Then remove the veil that blinds them from the truth found in the Scriptures.
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I appeal to Your Name’s sake!
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For those hearing this message who already know You:
Remind us to always humble ourselves as we serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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Again, I appeal to Your Name’s sake!
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It is in Jesus’ name we pray all these things...
To God be all the glory.
Amen.
