The Politician and the Servant 1988

I'd like to begin by reading from the book of Mark, chapter 10, starting at verse 35. And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to Jesus and said to him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you? They said to him, Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.

But Jesus said to them, You do not know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? And they said to him, We are able. And Jesus said to them, The cup that I drink, you will drink.

And with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized. But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared. When the ten heard it, they began to be indignant with James and John.

And Jesus called them to him and said to them, You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be greatest among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.

For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. James and John were among the closest disciples that Jesus had. They were with him on the Mount of Transfiguration.

They were with him in the Garden of Gethsemane. James was the first of the twelve to be killed for his faith. John's influence as a disciple, as an apostle, burns through five books of the New Testament.

And yet James and John were very, very much like we. Even after following Jesus for quite a while, it was not clear how they were going to turn out. There existed in them the potential to become one of two things, a politician or a servant.

A politician is a person who gravitates to power with the object of tapping that power and making it serve him. A politician will work hard, do wonderful things for people, listen with a sympathetic ear, present himself to you as the best friend you ever had. But he has an object in view.

He wants to get to the place, or she, where he's great enough, important enough, to be served by others. Master, we want you to do for us whatever we ask. What do you want me to do for you? Grant us to sit, one at your right hand, one at your left, in your glory.

And these two, James and John, were willing to work. They were willing to accept and submit to the baptism of fire, to drink the cup of suffering, as long as in the end they're up there on top with the king. Now, a servant.

The servant has a simpler agenda. When the servant is serving, he's already arrived at his goal. Serving is his purpose in life.

It's what gives it meaning. For him, serving is not a means to an end. It is the end.

It is his joy. His life. To serve the master wherever the master puts him, on whatever level the master should choose.

Now, James and John understood that in the beginning. When Jesus said to them in the beginning, Follow me, and I'm going to make you fishers of men. They understood that to follow Jesus was to be with him and to serve.

And to be a fisher of men was to to bring men and women into the kingdom in the same way Jesus brings men and women into the kingdom, as a servant. But, as time passed, James and John began to expect that Jesus was about to emerge into greatness. That soon he would throw off his servant garb and stand on the temple steps in royal robes.

Is not he the Messiah? Isn't he the son of David? And when he rises up as king, we're going to rise up with him, and our serving days will be over. Jesus could see that this politician's disease was eating at James and John, and that if it would not be checked, it would destroy them. So he called them to him and said to them, You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.

But with you it shall not be so. Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Now, if there was any word that Jesus spoke to these men that haunted them for the rest of their days, and kept calling them back from the politician's road, it was this. For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. They took that in.

As the days passed, they began to translate that word into living. They learned that they are here not to be served by God, but to serve God. Not to be served by each other, but to serve each other.

Not to be served by those lost sheep out there, but to serve them. They understood that. And that's how James and John lived.

And that's how they died. Now, every one of us, without exception, has living inside the politician whose desire is to be served, object is to be served. But we also have, surely, since we heard the call of Jesus, had living in us also the servant whose life, whose desire, whose joy, whose purpose is to serve.

In time, one of these two will live, the one to be served or the one to serve, and the other will die. The Spirit of God has been showing this body, certainly, or especially, during these last few years, that the reason we're being brought together here is certainly not to be politicians. Not one of us has been called into this assembly to be served at any stage of our life together.

We have been called together to learn to serve. That's why we're here. To carry the weight of glory which God has placed in our midst.

And there's no doubt in my mind about this that a tremendous amount of serving goes on in this fellowship. Tremendous amount of serving. There are people who are washing the feet of their brothers and sisters, who are carrying the weight, who are reaching out, who are serving.

Many, many people are doing it. People are tying themselves down to commitments that are going to require time out of every day, that are going to require thought from them, that will cost them something. And we need to thank God for this.

But we also need to see that this is what makes this thing work. This alone, without anything else, this is what makes the church function. When we understand that we've been called together to serve, then the Spirit of God can move.

You could say that the Spirit of the Lord has drawn us together into this body, into this assembly, in order to teach us to serve in three ways. To serve God, to serve each other, and to serve the lost sheep who are still out there waiting to be found. First of all, He's called us into this body to learn how to serve God.

When God spoke to Moses at the burning bush, the first thing He told him to do was, take off your shoes. You're standing on holy ground. Which means, worship.

You're standing on holy ground. We serve God, first and foremost, by means of worship. That's how we serve Him.

Praising Him, adoring Him, thanking Him, presenting our bodies to Him as a living sacrifice. Moses was called to go to Egypt and bring forth the people of Israel out of bondage. And this shall be the sign that I have sent you, says the Lord, when you have brought forth the people of Israel out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain.

Now, how is Moses going to serve God on Sinai? By worship. The primary reason for our coming together here week by week is not to be fed, not to be inspired, not to get something, not to be served, but to serve God in pure, clear, true, heartfelt worship of His glory. That's why we come.

And this is our Mount Sinai. And when we lift up our voices in prayer and praise to the living God, when we sing to the Lord, when we bow in silence before Him, we enter into the company of Heaven itself, where every living creature finds its meaning and its joy in serving God in worship. Now, when it's clear, it makes a tremendous difference when it's clear to us that we are coming together to serve God in worship.

This is the reason we're here, not as politicians, but as servants. When that's clear, then the Spirit of God can wonderfully move that we're here for no other reason, and at least this has to be the primary reason, and that we are coming here not as politicians who come to get something more than they give, but as servants who come to give with a clear mind and a good will to offer up to God the best and the first of everything we have, our bodies, our minds, our spirits, our possessions, to give Him the worship He deserves, quality worship to God, to thank Him again and again for the marvelous gift of His Son, Jesus, and for the gift of the Spirit who makes Jesus real. Every single one of us is in this place not to be served, but to serve God.

Secondly, we've been assembled, we've been gathered by the Spirit of the Lord to learn how to serve each other. Reading from John 13, verse 12, When Jesus had washed their feet and taken His garments and resumed His place, He said to them, Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Why did He bring us together? Did He bring us here because we're so awe, so compatible with each other? Did He bring us here because our feet all smell like lilies? Did He bring us here, put us into this body, because it's so wonderful to be with people who think the way we do? He brought us here because this strange assembly of humanity here is the best laboratory on earth to learn how to wash feet. See, I have it wrong if I stand here and wonder, why don't those dummies come over and talk to me? And I suspect that not one of us has been guiltless of that. Many times in the winter, why don't you have them come and talk to me? I have it wrong if I'm wondering, why aren't they meeting my needs? How come they don't make me feel better about myself? That's not why God put me here.

God put me here to learn to talk to them, to work on meeting their needs. And I'm going to take care of it in the process. And to encourage them, and to carry their burden.

He didn't put me here to be a politician. He put me here to be a servant. And this goes on all week long.

There are specific people for whom each of us is called by God to pray for, by name, every day. And as we do these things, opportunities open up. They will unfold, and we will find ourselves learning more and more what it really means to serve each other.

For we have not been brought here to be politicians. We have been brought together here to be servants, to learn to lay down our lives for each other. Finally, we've been gathered together by the Spirit of God to learn how to serve those lost sheep out there who are still waiting to be found.

Reading from Luke, chapter 15, verse 1. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable.

What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. When the shepherd goes out after the lost sheep, he goes out after that sheep as a servant. He seeks, he searches for a long, long time in bad weather.

When he finds that lost sheep, he doesn't sit on it and ride it home. He picks it up and carries it home. And that's exactly what our Lord has done for us.

He's our servant first. That's what he does for us. He laid down his life for us.

Then he came looking for us. Then he found us. Then he put us on his shoulders and carried us home.

And he says, Now go out and do the same thing for somebody else. Go out there and find that lost sheep waiting in the bushes. Seek those lost.

Bring back those strayed. Bind up those crippled. Strengthen those weak.

The politician can never see the sheep in any other way but as something to be devoured or pleased or ignored. Those sheep, they don't count. What can they bring for us? But the servant has the shepherd's eye and the shepherd's heart.

Because the servant has come not to be served but to serve. James and John traveled a long, long way from where they were that day when they cornered Jesus to try to get the two choices in glory. They received Jesus' loving rebuke.

And they learned from it. James was a servant of God who died early on by the sword of Herod. And John was a servant of God who traveled through a journey of years and years and years to exile on the Isle of Patmos and who knows what kind of service beyond there only God remembers.

The politician inside them died and the servant lived. And the Lord who wrought that miracle in them is among us now willing and able to do the same for us if we will yield to the words that He speaks to us when He says, You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them and their great men exercise authority over them but it shall not be so among you but whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all for the Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Let's wait upon the Spirit of God now in silence.