The Perfect Servant

Church people fight over the craziest things. Not here, of course, but I've heard some real doosies through the years. I heard of a church one time that split over being unable to decide where to put the piano. I heard of another church in Dallas that split because of a power struggle between two men. And when somebody in the church decided to try to trace it back to where all that started, they found that it started with a church dinner where one of those two men was served a larger piece of ham than the other. And that started the power struggle and contention between the two. I one time read about two small struggling churches in a neighborhood that decided to merge and become one church. They were a little more formal in their worship style and they would each recite the Lord's Prayer as a part of their morning service. And in trying to figure out how they were going to merge, they couldn't decide on how they would recite the Lord's Prayer. One of the churches wanted to say, forgive us our trespasses as you find in some translations. The other church wanted to say, forgive us our debts as you find in other translations. And they could not decide on that issue to merge. The newspaper who reported the failed merger said one church went back to its trespasses, the other to its debts. A number of years ago, we were entertaining a missionary in our home and this was back in the 70s before the days when churches put missionaries in motels. And before I came here where we had a prophets chamber of efficiency apartment at one time. For the first 17 years of my ministry, we would keep all the missionaries in our home. We'd feed them, we'd house them and take care of them and so forth. And so I remember one evening having a missionary family in our home. This was way back in the mid 70s. And this missionary would not eat something that Jeanne cooked for the evening meal because it had a mixture of meat and cheese. And he quoted a verse to me out of Exodus 23, verse 19, which says in the King James, do not seed a kid in its mother's milk. I didn't even know what that meant. I didn't even know that verse was in the Bible. And so I was stunned. He said basically what that means is you should never mix meat and cheese. And it's unhealthy. It's against God's requirements for the eating laws. Now, some of you have stunned looks on your phases. There are some crazy people out there and some of them are in ministry. But this guy was serious and I was too stunned to know what to say to him. I've had over 30 years to formulate a response in my mind. You know how you do that? You wish, oh, I wish I'd thought of this. I wish I'd thought to say that. So I'm ready for you. If you come at me with that one, I'm ready for you. I wish I had said to him something like this. Well, that is a warning in as many of Moses warnings to the Israelites. That's a warning about pagan canonite religious practices. The way they would offer sacrifices. Don't worry. We're not offering any weird sacrifices to canonite deities here tonight. We're just asking you to eat a casserole. I wish I'd thought about that, but I didn't. I wish I'd thought to say something like this to him. Do not see the kid in his mother's goat. A kid is a goat. This is beef. We're okay. We don't fit in that anyway. But what I really wish I'd thought to say to him is we're not, we have not cooked one of our children. We have very similar convictions that you do about that. I wish I'd thought, but you don't think of those things. People argue over the craziest things. People divide over the craziest things and make issues over the craziest things in churches. That was true in New Testament times. People argue over the craziest things. Some of them we're not even sure about. For instance, in Philippi, the Philippian church Paul called out to women by name because they were fussing with each other. We don't even know what it was. They got their name in the Bible. That's kind of neat. But can you imagine getting your name in the Bible for that reason? You were fussing with each other. Now call it off. In Corinth, they were fussing over what preachers they liked best. How silly can you get? In Rome, they had other issues they were fighting about. Ju gentile kind of issues. And Paul's been dealing with that in Romans 14. Issues like should we eat meat, should we observe special days as holy, and they were really struggling over these kinds of issues. And so Paul writes a huge section of the book of Romans to deal with this issue, issues of what he calls freedom or Christian liberty. These are issues that are not doctrinal issues. They're not issues. The Bible commands us about their issues that we make. Take differing convictions on. And that's okay. How are to deal with those issues? It's what Paul deals with in chapter 14. Now we've spent three weeks on that. And remember that Paul gave us four principles. First of all, guard your attitude. Watch your attitude about these issues. Don't judge one another. Don't criticize. Look down on one another. Remember to whom you answer. You answer to God ultimately, both in this life and in the next. Restrain your liberty when necessary. Don't cause your brother to stumble. To sin against these conscience if he has a weak conscience in a certain area. And then be settled in your own convictions. Those are the principles that Paul gave us. He continues this topic into chapter 15. And you thought we were done with it. We're going to continue a little bit more on this topic in chapter 15. Because really there's no chapter break here in Paul's writing. He just continues right on into chapter 15 with the same topic. But he does change gears. And what he starts dealing with in chapter 15 is the kind of attitude that we need to adopt to make those principles of dealing with each other in areas of Christian liberty work. There's a certain attitude we must have in order to make these issues work and to be comfortable with each other and agree with one another except one another. There's an attitude that we need to have. It's an attitude of servanthood. And what Paul does here is he uses the Lord Jesus as an example of the perfect servant. And as the perfect servant Jesus teaches us Christ demonstrates for us two marks of a servant attitude. Two marks of a servant attitude that Jesus demonstrates in order for us to dwell with one another in unity and peace and joy when it comes to issues that we may disagree on and differ on. We need to follow the example of Christ. Mark number one of a servant attitude that is demonstrated by Jesus is a selfless spirit. A selfless spirit. Now remember the flow of thought here Paul has basically summarized the obligation we have toward one another by saying in chapter 14 to the strong person. That is the person who understands issues of Christian liberty, who has a clear understanding of what the scriptures teach on that and is not going to make those kinds of issues a problem. To that person he says basically hold on to your freedom but don't flaunt it. Don't push it in the face of a weaker brother. In fact if your weaker brother is going to stumble to sin against his own conscience by following your example, restrain your liberty for that brother. So think about the other person's what he is saying. Serve him. To the weaker brother the one who has a more sensitive conscience who doesn't really understand yet really clearly what the Bible teaches about Christian liberty issues but gets hung up on a lot of these different things and feels like everybody ought to feel the same way they do. To that weaker brother he says basically okay maintain your conviction at least for now until you can grow to the point that you understand these issues as issues of Christian liberty but hold on to your conviction if you have a weaker conscience in that area but don't force your convictions on everybody else. Again he's saying think about the other brother. Serve him. So you see in the very concepts that he's gotten across the bottom line attitude that we have to have in dealing with these issues is a servant spirit and that requires a selfless spirit. Selfless spirit. Now verses one and two Paul gives us our obligation to have a selfless spirit. Look at verse one. He says we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves each of us should please his neighbor for his good to build him up. Now that's our obligation. That's what Paul says we are to do. Now let's unpack this a little bit. Let's tear these verses apart just a little bit. We who are strong. In other words the implication is that the command is that the burden is on the stronger brother to make this work. Not on the weaker brother. So many times people who understand Christian liberty think well your weaker brother just need to grow up you need to learn something. Come on I'm not going to restrain my liberty for you. No no Paul says the attitude the the bulk of the responsibility for the right position on this and right attitude is on the stronger brother and the stronger brother needs to bear with the failings of the weak not not moral failings not sin he's talking about but failings in the sense of the failing to understand these are issues of Christian liberty. Maybe it's a weakness in knowledge. Don't know the word well enough yet. Maybe it's just a weakness of conscience. Your conscience is still condemning you over things the Bible doesn't say you should condemn you. But for whatever failing or weakness it is it's the role of the stronger brother to bear with that to tolerate to be patient with the weaker brother. Actually this word is the same word Paul uses in Galatians 6 too when he says we ought to bear one another's burdens. Lift up carry. So the idea is even come on carry the brother carry this weaker brother. You lift him up be tolerant be understanding. Be gracious toward him. That's the responsibility of the stronger brother. Bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. The whole goal here is not to please me. If my attitude is I understand that the Bible doesn't say there's anything wrong with mowing my yard on Sunday afternoon or playing ball on Sunday afternoon or woman wearing slacks to church or style of music. If I understand those are issues of Christian liberty that we can disagree on and do so agreeably. If I understand that I have a responsibility to one who has a differing conviction not to please myself. My goal is not well I'm going to do what I'm going to do I don't care about you. No I do care about you. I should care about you. And I should care about the fact that I'm not going to give you an example that would cause you to sin against your conscience or go against what you think is right. I also care enough about you to help you understand what the Bible teaches about these issues so that you grow in your understanding of these issues. But my responsibility is not to please myself and this goes down hard for people who have a real me first complex which we all do by nature, our sinful nature. This goes down hard. Well I'm going to do what I'm doing right. I don't care about so and so. Yes we should care about so and so. So Paul is saying don't please yourself. Doesn't mean you should never enjoy yourself. That's not the issue. But he says in verse 2 we ought to please his neighbor for his good. He's not talking about flattering your neighbor, winning the approval of your neighbor, being a man pleaser. Not talking about that. It's obvious in the context what he's talking about is you should do what is right for your neighbor's spiritual health for his good it says. So that he may be edified or built up or that he might grow. You don't want to tear him down. You want to help him grow. And so your focus here it is. Here's the obligation. The focus is to have a selfless spirit put the other person first and say I will do what is best for you not what is best for me. That's our obligation to have a selfless spirit. And I want to remind you I don't think we see this often enough. The responsibility is squarely on the shoulders of the stronger brother to do this. It's the stronger brother who understands liberty that is to reach his hand across the divide and say I love you I accept you. Not waiting on you to grow up and quit your silly convictions and have the same mindset I do. No. It's the responsibility of the stronger brother to reach across the divide and say I love you. These are not issues to me. I'm not going to make them an issue. We're serving together. Come on let's serve the Lord together. It's the responsibility of the stronger brother to do that. In February 24th issue of the Indianapolis star newspaper one of their reporters wrote in a column about something he had witnessed on the streets of Indianapolis. I want to read to you what he said. He said while walking back to the office after lunch I noticed two burly Indianapolis metropolitan police department officers outside circle center mall. Between them sprawled on the hood of one of the patrol cars his arms at his sides was a shabbly dressed man in his late 50s. He was weak and shivering. Next to him on the asphalt appeared to be his earthly possessions. The older of the two officers was stooped over in front of the man his partner stood watching intently. My initial take was that the older officer was frisking the man. Five steps closer my cynicism turned to amazement. The officer wasn't patting the man down. He was bent over tying the man's bootlaces. Because this homeless man was in such bad shape he couldn't do it himself. As that older officer on his knees put one boot up on his own pant leg to tie the laces and then the other to tie the laces his younger partner softly talked to the man trying to determine what kind of help he needed. And Ernie Reno the reporter closed his story this way. He said at a time when a relative handful of cowboy cops often dominate the news and public opinion officers of courage and character perform quiet unnoticed acts of selflessness. And I want to just take a moment to say there are plenty of police officers in our area who do things like that who never get noticed and I commend you whoever you are. If you're here today I commend you and I commend all of our law enforcement officers for the many things they do that never get noticed. But the point is this here's someone who was reaching down on Bended Knee to serve a homeless man, a weaker person. And what Paul is saying is you who are strong bear with have a selfless spirit focus on what is best and what is needed for the weaker brother and bend the knee to serve that person. A servant attitude is a selfless spirit that's our obligation. We have an obligation to do that for our weaker brother for each other. But not only does Paul describe our obligation to have a selfless spirit he gives us an example of a selfless spirit and a servant spirit verse three. For even Christ did not please himself but as it is written the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me. Jesus did not please himself coming to this earth was not something which was pleasing to himself. Think about what he was getting up in heaven. He was not satisfying himself to come here. He did it for you and he did it for me. He became a man with all the human limitations hunger, weakness, tiredness, exhaustion, all of that. That wasn't to please himself. It was to to minister to us and throughout his life he said over and over again my purpose is not to please myself it's to please my father. Just to get this firmly in our mind from the word of God look at these verses on the screen. John chapter four verse 34 my food said Jesus is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. This verse from John chapter six and verse 38 for I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. It's not about me. It's about the father's will. John chapter eight verse 29 Jesus said the one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone for I always do what pleases him. Jesus never acted to please himself. It was always to please the father and when he came to this world he came not to please himself. Nothing about that pleased himself. It pleased the father and it provided the means for us to be saved. It was all about pleasing the father and about serving you and me. Jesus is the ultimate example of a selfless spirit so much so that Paul will quote from Psalm 69 the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me. In other words all the venom that was poured out against God by angry sinful hearts was directed to Jesus. The ultimate expression of that is on the cross when Jesus is dying for you and for me he's paying for our sin but the arrest the mockery of a trial the beatings the whippings the pummeling of his face as he was blindfolded the march to the cross so weak he could not even carry the cross beam without stumbling under its weight the agony of the crucifixion the mockery of the crowd and the religious leaders if you really are who you say you are save yourself you said you could save others let's see who you are all of that all of those insults Jesus bore for you and for me and to carry out the father's plan there was nothing about Jesus' life or death that was to please him he is our example of selfless servanthood a selfless spirit and Paul drives home the point about how we should follow his example in verse 5 he says may the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves in other words think about one another don't fight over these issues of Christian liberty and he says as you follow Christ Jesus he's the example you claim to be a follower of his look at the way he lived look at the way he died he's an example the ultimate example of selflessness and a servant spirit so he is our example of what it means to selflessly serve one another so we have our obligation we have our example and I don't know if you feel like I do but when I see all of that when I look at Jesus' example I think there's no way I can live that way there's no way I can do that no way I can consistently put others first like that and live a selfless life like that where do you get the strength to do this well Paul tells us where our strength comes from in verse 4 it comes from the scriptures our strength verse 4 for everything that was written in the past now let me just say that he's just quoted from the Old Testament in verse 3 so he's saying that passage was written for our benefit that passage about Jesus bearing the insults that were intended for the Father but everything everything that was written in the past in the Old Testament was written here it is to teach us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope you see you get the strength to live this way from the word of God that's why we must feed on the word I appreciate it so much what was said earlier about the song speak O Lord and he was right on if we were a different kind of church I'd just have her preaching today that was right on that's great A. T because it is the word of God that speaks into our lives from which we draw the strength to live this way we must let God speak to us from his word from the scriptures and if you'll notice there are four things Paul says in verse 4 that the scriptures will do to us to give us the strength to follow Jesus selfless spirit of servanthood there are four things the scriptures give us first of all the scriptures give us knowledge everything that was written in the past was written to teach us scriptures give us knowledge how do you learn to live this way where do you get this stuff you're not going to get it from your sinful nature there's not anything in us that wants to be selfless or servant our sinful nature is a me first look out for yourself number one that's the way we're wired by our sinful nature you're not going to learn this stuff from the culture around us from the world around us I mean John tells us in his epistle that one of the three main philosophy this world system operates by as the pride of life I want to be seen I want to be noticed I want to push myself to the front you're not going to learn a selfless spirit from the world around us not going to learn it from inside the only place you get this stuff is from the bible so the bible gives us knowledge we understand this is the way Jesus lived this is the way he intends us to live we must learn servanthood from the word of God but notice Paul says this book the scriptures will also give you endurance hey it takes endurance to live selfless servant kinds of lives it takes endurance to do that the willingness to bear up under some things the willingness to put up with some things the willingness to be misunderstood when you may either exercise your liberty or restrain your liberty the willingness to to bear up under people's expectations when you're reaching out to help a week or brother it takes some endurance to bear up under this and you get that from the bible as you read the stories of Noah 120 years of mockery preaching about the coming judgment of God as you read the stories of Joseph 13 years as a servant and a prisoner waiting for God's purpose to be fulfilled as you read the stories of Moses and of David and of Jeremiah and of Peter and so many others in the in the bible God begins to build through their example and as you read about the character of God and the faithfulness of God in his word God begins to build into us endurance the strength to be able to keep going when it's difficult when sacrificing when serving when selflessness is hard to do endurance comes from the scriptures but thirdly encouragement comes from the scriptures when it is hard when it's difficult when you want to give up when you want to say I it's not worth it I'm tired of dealing with that person then the scriptures give us encouragement he says they're in verse 4 the encouragement to keep going the joy and peace of knowing that you're pleasing God encouragement and then finally the scriptures give us hope Paul says in verse 4 hope hope is always a future perspective in the New Testament looking to what's ahead you see if we only focus on what's good for me right now we cannot live a selfless servant spirit when we look ahead and we look at what it means to stand before God someday and to be in his presence that has a way of putting everything else in perspective our hope puts everything else in perspective and we're able to live with servant spirits and selfless spirits if we recognize we're going to be with him someday hope of the scriptures gives us the strength to live as Christ did our strength but I love the way Paul does this he doesn't end with that he also talks about the goal our goal of having a selfless spirit in verse 6 here's the goal verse 6 says so that keywords when he says so that you know he's driving toward the purpose the result the goal here this is what I'm driving toward with all of this talk about a selfless spirit so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ you know what the goal of selflessness is a selfless spirit and serving one another the goal is not unity it's not and that's a wonderful byproduct and it's a means to the goal he mentions unity here so that with one heart and one mouth but the goal is that we may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that we may glorify God that's the ultimate goal of everything we do is to glorify God and I know we throw those terms around glorify God and sometimes we have no clue what we're talking about when we say glorify God what does that mean sing a song does it does it mean say praise you Lord not really to glorify God means to display his glory to those around us to be a channel of God's character so that when people see us they see the character of God they see in a sense his glory they see what God looks like they see who God is like when they see us they see what Jesus would do how he would live how he would operate on the job how he would treat a neighbor how he would deal with finances they see Jesus they see God so that they're not just seeing us they're seeing something supernatural it's it's bringing the character of God to bear so that people can see him down here that's glorifying him that's people seeing his glory through us that's what it means to glorify God so the goal the goal is not just to get along with each other that's just a means to glorifying God so that by the supernatural nature of people seeing a servant a selfless person someone who has a selfless spirit they know that's not normal they know that's not natural where's that coming from and you have the opportunity to demonstrate the character of God to glorify him that's the goal that's the goal did you realize the whole purpose of Paul talking about all these debatable issues Christian liberty issues don't fight over me don't fight over holy days don't fight over that kind of stuff is so that we make glorify God the ultimate goal selfless spirit Christ is an example of that but we must hasten on there's a second mark of a servant that Jesus perfectly demonstrates and that is an impartial spirit an impartial spirit first seven notice what Paul says except one another then just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God now what he does is he gives us a command there but he tells us that we need to accept each other as Christ accepted us we really have to look at our example first the example is described in verses eight through 12 if we understand how Christ accepted us then we have a better idea of oh okay that's how I accept one another so let's deal with the example first our example in verses eight through 12 is Christ himself he accepts others with an impartial spirit this is beautiful how Paul develops this look at verse eight he says for I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God's truth to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs now remember the issues of Christian liberty in the Roman church at where Jewish Gentile issues okay so that add a little punch to what he's talking about here what he's saying is that first of all Jesus ministered to the Jews in bringing salvation he ministered to the Jews Jesus confirmed Jesus fulfilled the promises made to the patriarchs through the patriarchs they're the fathers of the Jewish nation Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph they're the fathers of the nation God made promises to them God made a covenant to them about the Jewish people and their salvation and the land they would have and the kingdom that would be there someday and Jesus came first and foremost to minister salvation to the Jews to fulfill those Old Testament promises and prophecies Jesus came to be Israel's Messiah Jesus came to offer salvation to his people the Jews look at this verse Matthew one verse 21 where the angel Gabriel speaks to Mary about the birth of Christ actually here speaking to Joseph about what he's already told Mary and he says she will give birth to a son and you are to giving the name Jesus now notice this because he will save his people from their sins who are the his people in that verse not the elect as some teach the Jews that's the whole purpose of the gospel of Matthew is to present Jesus as the the savior of the Jews the Messiah of the Jews he came to be a Jewish king and Matthew's whole purpose is to present him that way so he presents him as dying for his people the Jews first and foremost Jesus came to minister to the Jews but he doesn't stop there Paul says yes verse 8 he came on behalf of God's people the Jews but look at verse 9 so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy as it is written and here he quotes four times from the Old Testament and I want you to notice this from every section of the Old Testament to drive home the point that God was never partial when it came to salvation it was not about just the Jews and the Jews only it was always to include the Gentiles even in the Old Testament notice the four four quotes verse 9 therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles I will sing hymns to your name that's a quote from Psalm 18 but it's also in 2nd Samuel 22 you compare those two chapters they're one and the same so 2nd Samuel that's a historic book verse 10 again it says rejoice so Gentiles with his people Deuteronomy 32 that's part of the law of Moses next quote verse 11 and again praise the Lord all you Gentiles and sing praises to him all you peoples Psalm 117 that's one of the poetic books and again Isaiah says the root of Jesse will spring up one who will arise to rule over the nations the Gentiles will hope in him Isaiah 11 he quotes from the law of Moses in the Jewish writings the writings and in the prophets three divisions the Old Testament in our divisions four all four of them are represented here what Paul is doing very strategically is saying every part of the Old Testament indicated that God's plan was never to stop with the Jews it was also to spread to the Gentiles and so what he's telling us is that God Jesus as the perfect servant example was impartial as he offered salvation yes it was offered to the Jews he was the Jewish Messiah but it was also offered to Gentiles there's no partiality so with that example we go back to verse 7 and we know how we're to accept one another here's our obligation accept one another then just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God how did Christ accept us impartially Jewish Gentile in the same footing and this goes all the way back to verse 1 of chapter 14 where Paul says accept him who is weak in the faith without passing judgment on disputable matters how did Jesus accept us when Jesus saved you he forgave you of all your sin it will never be brought up again end of discussion your sin will never be brought up again he received you freely receive each other that way Paul is saying don't bring up disputable matters don't bring up issues of Christian liberty to fight over to help each other grow in the word of God understanding Christian liberty yes but don't bring up these issues to fight over them don't disagree over them don't make them issues except one another just like Jesus accepted you but except one another also in the sense that Jesus sees no difference between Jew and Gentile in the body of Christ we're all one in his church his body salvation is impartial no matter what your racial background is your ethnic background is what nationality you come from doesn't matter to God we are all equal in his eyes even if you're Irish you can still be saved I don't know where that came from but my wife is Irish she's saved okay doesn't matter to God impartial doesn't matter what Paul is saying is it should not matter to us where we disagree on these issues we had to accept one another fully in the body of Christ don't make issue over translations don't make issues over style of music don't make issues over apparel what you wear to church just so long as it's modest that is a biblical command don't make issues over that kind of stuff either way I was noticing Kevin shoes right before the service those are cool shoes Kevin I really like those minor a little bit more dressy nobody should say we'll pastor john's to stuffy and Kevin's too informal that's not an issue you don't have to wear any shoes if you don't want to just no hold on that doesn't matter that's not the issue we should be so what Paul is saying be impartial in your accepting of one another accept one another just like Jesus accepted you into the body now I I realize servanthood kind of messages are not real popular servanthood books are not real popular you know I could list you names of people who've written books on servanthood and almost all of them maybe all of them those books are at the bottom of their sales you know Chuck Swindall wrote a book on servanthood David Jeremiah wrote one on servanthood bill highbles wrote one descending into greatness which was probably his best book it was an exposition of Philippians two and how Jesus descended from greatness to humility and the pattern for us it was the lowest selling book he's ever written this is not popular stuff why because it goes against everything in us and in our culture to live like this but this is the way Jesus lived Christ is our perfect example of a selfless impartial spirit that really is a servant to other people and if we want to live like Jesus then we've got to live the same way I think maybe it's for that reason that Paul ends this passage with a doxology with a prayer in verse 13 and he says if if you live this way with this selfless impartial servanthood then this is my prayer for you made verse 13 may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit you live this way you'll have peace joy hope that's my prayer for you Paul says you know what my prayer is this morning along the lines of what Paul prayed here and finishing out this passage and subject my prayer is that we dedicate ourselves to being servants of one another as Christ gave us the example let's pray together Father we ask for your strength and help through your word to be selfless to be impartial servants of one another Lord I need that for myself and Lord I expect there are few others here who need that as well I pray that you would give us the grace to live like our Lord to follow his example of servanthood Lord help us to realize what damage we do to your cause and to your glory by fighting over issues you never intended us to take sides on help us to stand strong and true for true doctrine for the moral commands of scripture that help us to be willing to show grace and acceptance to those who may differ with us on other issues and so fulfill the law of Christ we pray in Jesus name amen