The Way of the Master
Seeing Spiritually • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 11 viewsServing has a greater spiritual purpose than just getting people to volunteer. Serving is how we become more like our Master.
Files
Notes
Transcript
In January we were talking about Spiritual disciplines. There are two more topics that I want to cover in this series - service and stewardship.
When we left off we were talking about the disciplines of worship and celebration.
Worship is turning our focus back to God.
Celebration is giving expression to the goodness of God.
Serving is also a spiritual discipline.
This is not a guilt trip - “If you are really a good Christian you will sign up to be a greeter or teach Sunday school!”
This is part of Spiritual growth and transformation.
As you become like Jesus, you will begin to do the things that Jesus does.
Jesus serves.
Serving has a greater spiritual purpose than just getting people to volunteer.
In the 1984 classic movie The Karate Kid. Ralph Macchio plays a kid who is bullied and beat up by a gang of karate students. His neighbor Mr. Miyagi chases them off and agrees to teach the young man karate to defend himself. But instead of lessons he has the kid doing chores. But what the karate kid doesn’t realize is that every chore has a purpose. He is developing muscle memory that is going to enable him to move swiftly to block hits and he is developing a keen sense of balance that is going to eventually help him win the dramatic match at the end of the movie.
Perhaps serving is like that too?
Master Jesus is instructing young “Christian-son” in the ways of the master.
While we need greeters and Sunday School teachers, the real point of these “chores” is that we are learning the ‘way of the master.’
Jesus did something to instruct His disciples that they didn’t understand at the time, but would later prove to be an invaluable lesson.
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
I’m going to skip over the conversation with Peter to keep the focus on the act itself and what Jesus was teaching.
12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
john 13
The way of understanding
The way of understanding
Do you understand what I have done to you?
We are so used to hearing about Jesus, the Bible and footwashing that we might miss the impact of what is happening here.
Understand that Jesus is God.
An ordinary Rabbi would never wash his disciple’s feet.
This is not your ordinary Rabbi, this is God incarnate.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
God- the most powerful being who created the universe - washed His disciple’s feet.
Is it because God is too weak to stand up for Himself?
God stoops down to take the role of a servant - that’s discipline!
What takes more strength
Understand that God doesn’t use power to dominate.
When God chose to reveal Himself, He came as a helpless baby.
He didn’t fight back at Israel’s oppressors.
He reserved His harshest words for those who claimed to represent God, but who did not serve.
He voluntarily died on a cross.
Jesus conveyed a new way to be human.
At the fall, mankind asserted self-will, the desire to be in control.
Jesus submitted himself to the Father.
And He submitted Himself to mankind, believing that God would work through every circumstance.
God uses power to serve!
Understand that by serving, God is turning everything upside-down and backward.
Have you ever learned to drive a forklift truck? Essentially it is like learning to drive backward at high speeds because the steering wheels are in the back. Your instincts of how to turn, when to turn and how fast to turn back all have to change from what you are used to doing in a car.
It’s that way with serving. All of our human instincts are designed for self-protection and self-promotion. Jesus didn’t live that way and neither should we, but just as a forklift operator needs to relearn how to drive, we need to relearn how to live.
Serving goes against our sinful human nature.
It is teaching us a new way to live.
The way of following
The way of following
I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
Following Jesus means that our goal is different.
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
As followers of Jesus our goal is completely different from the rest of the worlds.
People usually want money, fame or success.
Some people would say that they don’t want that. They just want to live a good life, to be happy and content.
Some people just want to be happy and content.
Jesus’ goal on earth was to go to the cross.
Our goal is to lay our lives down, not as a sacrifice for sin, but as an act of worship to God.
It is our appropriate response to the One who gave His all for us to give our all to Him.
ESV has a footnote that “spiritual worship” can be alternately translated as “rational service.”
Giving our lives to Christ in return is both a “rational service” and a “spiritual act of worship.”
It is both love and duty.
Most importantly, it shows that the serving and worship are interchangeable.
We serve God by worshipping and worship God by serving.
What we are attending this morning is appropriately called a “worship service!”
Whether worshipping or serving, the goal is becoming a living sacrifice - giving our “all” to Jesus.
Following Jesus means that our methods are different.
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
We often think of serving as being a mindless sort of activity - just doing what you are told.
Christian service is rather a very mindful activity.
Your mind is being renewed, literally transformed to the mind of Christ.
Our mind is fully engaged. We are constantly improving - testing.
We are discerning the will of God. What is God doing or wanting to do in this situation?
We are creatively finding ways to do good.
Like the Marines - serving Jesus is not just a job, its an adventure!
Following Jesus means that our motives are different.
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.
For most people, our motives, even for service are selfish.
We want to look good.
We want people to speak well of us.
We want to be promoted.
Paul is urging the believer to be more realistic.
It’s not about you!
What you do for God should be done in partnership with God.
You are walking by faith. God enables you to do what you do.
Your measure of faith is the degree to which you are able to surrender and allow the Holy Spirit to work through you.
The way of blessing
The way of blessing
The way of blessing
If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
Serving is not something you can learn in theory. It requires practice.
To be blessed means to be happy, content and fulfilled.
Serving should be it’s own reward. - You are blessed when you serve.
You are blessed when you are secure.
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
We talked about what a huge thing it was that Jesus washed his disciples feet.
John tells us what that looked like from Jesus’ perspective.
Jesus was entirely secure in who He is.
He wasn’t worried about what anyone thought of Him.
His only objective was to love... loving them to death!
You are blessed with influence.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
Jesus humbled Himself and God exalted Him.
The way up is down!
This is not influence in the sense of personal importance.
This kind of influence is personal impact.
When we serve out of a heart for God, people are changed!
You may not feel the impact of your influence because that not what you are focused on.
But other people will glorify God because of your example.
Every Christina should have a place of service both inside and outside the church.
Serving in the church builds up the Body of Christ and builds you up because you grow as you serve alongside other believers.
Serving outside the church brings Christ into the community and into the world.
You grow as you see the difference that Jesus can make in the lives of others.
You are blessed with an eternal reward.
22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
col 3:22-24
The reward for serving God is simply to please Him.
God is already pleased to give you every spiritual blessing in Christ.
My reward is to simply hear Him say, “well done!”
Questions for reflection:
Questions for reflection:
Every Christian should have a place of service both inside and outside the church. Where are you serving in the church? Where are you serving outside the church?
What is you motive for serving? Is it about you feeling good about yourself? Have you learned what it means to become a living sacrifice?
How does serving make you more like your Master? Does it feel like you are just going through the motions or has serving taken on real meaning and purpose?