Who Do We Serve

Who do you serve?

Most of us have known someone who was happiest when serving, and also the most honored. What we might have missed is that the true course to happiness for the Christian is one of service

Funeral for Bonnie Stokes on Saturday -

Reminded of my mother and her servanthood.

Funeral of Tom - 17 witnesses of servanthood

Servanthood In OT and First Century Palestine

How should we think about servanthood?

servant employed by or bound to serve and perform duties for another person

the term is about a social position, that is, it is about a relationship to others

Hearing a story (parable) of a master and servants with the master going on a journey and leaving the servants in charge would be about God and Israel. They would have seen it as a challenge in their own day.

OT servanthood

Israel was to serve the Lord - which had impact on the prosperity of the nation

If Israel was faithful - Yahweh would remain close and his presence would bless them

If Israel was not faithful and served other gods, Yahweh would be distant and the nation would no longer receive God’s blessingsServants (ebed) of God so designated in the OT - Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Hezekiah, Isaiah, Zerubbabel, prophets as a group.

NT servanthood

At the secular level - doulos was understood as being subservient to another in a legal manner. This secular use appears in the parables of Jesus.

Among the early Christians such dichotomies was eliminated - Paul wrote “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, the is neither male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28)

NT writers saw the coming messiah as depicted in Isaiah’s descriptions in the “Servant Songs” Isa 40-55

Jesus as servant of the Father

Jesus was understood to be the ultimate “servant of God in his life, death, and resurrectionJesus brought a second exodus (salvation) leading to the early Christians to understand themselves as servants (doulos) of Christ. Rev 1:1, 2 Pet 1:1, Jude 1

What did Jesus invest in as servant of God? He invested in the lives of others, specifically the disciples.

In return the disciples invested in people as the body of Christ was formed

They shared the gospel - the story of Jesus

They participated in the formation of disciples that would in return witness themselves to the gospel

thus they increased what they had received.

Servanthood in the Twenty-First Century

To be a Christian (follow Jesus) is to be a servant of Jesus

What precious treasure have we been given - the gospel as it has been passed down (1 Corinthians 15)

Given in order to invest in others

To participate in the making of disciples

that they might be witnesses to the gospel

coming in and going out like a healthy heart

Mother Theresa

President Jimmy Carter