1 Intro: Servant Leader (Oxymoron) Big Idea: Servant leaders lead from underneath. Alderwood Community Church May 24, 2015 Servant Leader Behold and Worship Your King Sermon Series Matthew 20:17-34 As opposed to top down leadership. Christ calls his followers to exert their leadership from the ground up. This is a paradigm shift. William Barclay has succinctly commented, The world may assess a man s greatness by the number of people whom he controls and who are at his beck and call; or by his intellectual standing and his academic eminence; or by the number of committees of which he is a member; or by the size of his bank balance and the material possessions which he has amassed; but in the assessment of Jesus Christ these things are irrelevant. God s great men are not sitting on top of lesser men, but bearing lesser men on their backs. R. C. H. Lenski Leadership is influence. We all have influence other people. Jesus is calling you to examine the influence you are making. 12 disciples apostles were the foundation of the church *Read Text: Matthew 20:17-34 1. Servant leaders have a mentality of putting the needs of others above their own. (20:28) We are called to resist and even change the way we view circumstances and people as how they might benefit us. Rather, we are to think how we can serve the needs of others A. Jesus our example Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many Matthew 20:26-28 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who, being in the very nature
2 God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant Philippians 2:3-7a During the Last Supper, after the disciples had again been arguing about which of them was the greatest, Jesus asked, Who is greater, the one who reclines at the table, or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves (Luke 22:27). It was probably at this time that Jesus gave them the beautiful object lesson of servanthood recorded by John. (John 13:1-17) Jesus ultimate act of servanthood, however, was to give His life. Greater love has no one than this, He said, that one lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). so he [Jesus] got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciple s feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth no servant is greater than his master, nor is the messenger greater than the one who sent him. John 13:4-5, 14-16 B. Jesus our identity And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son Romans 8:28-29a And exactly what is that likeness Jesus communicated his identity in Matt. 20:28, He is a servant And so are we. Servants of God. You are never more like Christ than when you serve and when you give your life away! The Apostle Paul understood this, he referred to himself often as a servant: Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle. Rom. 1:1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus.. Phil. 1:1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ Titus 1:1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus Philemon 1 1 Cor. 3:5, 4:1, 2 Cor. 4:5, 6:4, Eph. 3:7, Col. 1:23,25 a servant of the gospel 2. Servant leaders meet the needs of others in love. (20:17-34) A. Servant leaders assess the greatest need of others. (1) The disciples needed to be assured and equipped for their future ministry. (20:17-19)
3 Jesus revealed that the leaders of the people would turn him over to the Gentiles, who would mock and flog him, and that his death would be by crucifixion. This was the heart and substance of what Jesus had come to do, so it was both natural and necessary for Jesus to repeat it again and again for the disciples benefit. Not long after this, these truths would be the very center of their preaching There is another reason why Jesus repeated these predictions: So the disciples might learn that self-denial, humility, and service were to be the pattern not merely of his life and ministry but of their own (2) The disciples needed to be corrected and instructed about the values of the kingdom of God. (20:20-28) Vrs. 21 What is at the core of James and John s request? (What s in it for me?) Matthew s account suggests that her sons put her up to it, since Jesus shifts his address from the mother in v. 21 to the sons in v. 22 ( You don t know what you are asking uses second-person plural pronouns). The pathos of a mother s plea would presumably tug at Jesus heartstrings all the more (they were working the angles). Vrs. 22 Jesus tells mother and sons that they do not yet understand the nature of his kingdom. He redirects their attention to his coming suffering. Cup was a common Old Testament metaphor for suffering, especially that caused by God s wrath (e.g., Ps 75:8; Isa 51:17). Jesus asks if John and James are prepared to experience rejection and persecution for their faith. Vrs. 25 - the rulers of the Gentiles rule it over them to bring into subjection, gain dominion over, to subdue. their high officials exercise authority over them flex their authority, possibly tyrannize. Virtually every government of that day was a dictatorship, often of a tyrannical sort. The Jews were painfully aware of this truth as they were under Roman occupation and ruled by domination and authoritarianism. They flexed their leadership muscles they made it abundantly clear, Make no mistake about it, I am in charge. Vrs. 26 Not so with you Jesus teaches about a significant value in his kingdom. If I appear great in their eyes, the Lord is most graciously helping me to see how absolutely nothing I am without Him, and helping me to keep little in my own eyes. He does use me. But I am so concerned that He uses me and that it is not of me the work is done. The axe cannot boast of the trees it has cut down. It could do nothing but for the woodsman. He made it, he sharpened it, and he used it. The moment he throws it aside, it becomes only old iron. O That I may never lose sight of this. Samuel Brengle
4 Vrs. 26 servant (diakonos deacon) The original Greek word was purely secular, referring to a person who did menial labor, such as house cleaning or serving tables. It was not necessarily a term of dishonor but simply described the lowest level of hired help, who needed little training or skill. But Christ elevated servant -diakonos to a place of great significance, using it to describe His most faithful and favored disciples. Vrs. 27- Jesus reiterated and intensified His description of God s way to greatness: Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. The position and work of a slave were much lower and demeaning even than those of a servant. A servant was to some degree his own person. He often owned little more than the clothes on his back, but he was free to go where he wanted and to work or not work as he pleased. But a slave (doulos) did not belong to himself but to his master and could go only where the master wanted him to go and do only what the master wanted him to do. He did not belong to himself but was the personal property of someone else. In several of his letters Paul identified himself as Christ s slave (doulos) even before identifying himself as His apostle. He greeted the Romans with the words, Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle (Rom. 1:1; cf. Phil. 1:1; Titus 1:1). That is why he could say, If we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord s (Rom. 14:8). Slaves were the property of their owners and could therefore be bought and sold. Like such a slave, Christians have been bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:20; cf. 7:23) and are the property of the Lord who bought them with His own precious blood (1 Pet. 1:18 19). (3) Jesus met our greatest need by giving his life as our ransom. (20:28) (a) Our need to be set free (ransom salvation) Here was the first clue as to what the death of Christ would accomplish. He had told them on a number of occasions He would die. But He had not indicated the reason for His death. Now it was clear that His death would be to provide a ransom (lytron, payment ) for (anti, in place of ) many (see the chart, New Testament Words for Redemption at Mark 10:45). His death would take the place of many deaths, for only His death could truly atone for sin (John 1:29; Rom. 5:8; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18). He was the perfect Sacrifice, whose substitutionary death paid the price for sin. The very purpose of his mission. Ransom to pay the price in order to set a prisoner or a slave free We are set free from the power and damnation of sin. For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. Hebrews 9:15 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God s grace that he lavished on us Ephesians 1:7-8a (b) Our example
5 (4) Two blind men desperately needed to recover their sight. (20:29-34) Why, we may wonder, did He take time to minister to two blind beggars? In light of the disciples slowness to learn and believe, why did He not spend the last few days alone with them, drilling into them what He so much wanted them to understand? The reason was His compassion (v. 34). When better could Jesus have demonstrated the depth and breadth of divine compassion than while He was on the way to His crucifixion? The Twelve would one day look back on the healing in Jericho and on all His other acts of mercy and realize that their Lord was never too preoccupied to be compassionate, never in too much of a hurry to heal the afflicted, never in too much agony Himself to be insensitive to the agony of others. That realization itself would be one of the most important lessons they would learn from their Master. In these few verses is found one of the most beautiful portrayals of the loving, compassionate heart of God The apostles personal sacrifice all but one died violent deaths for the sake of Christ and the gospel. B. Servant leaders willingly sacrifice personal resources to meet the needs of others. The cost of true greatness is humble, selfless, sacrificial service. The Christian who desires to be great and first in the kingdom is the one who is willing to serve in the hard place, the uncomfortable place, the lonely place, the demanding place, the place where he is not appreciated and may even be persecuted. Knowing that time is short and eternity long, he is willing to spend and be spent. He is willing to work for excellence without becoming proud, to withstand criticism without becoming bitter, to be misjudged without becoming defensive, and to withstand suffering without succumbing to self-pity. John MacArthur Application: Being a servant leader at: 1. Work- What can they do for me? What can I do for them? 2. Home- 3. Church- -Church Leaders -Volunteering (785 volunteers, 164 in Children s ministry, but we need more.. Children s ministry First touch ministry Parking ministry -Church planting -Parking off campus
6 Illus: Not to be served but to serve. What a difficult lesson to learn. Yet how necessary. Do you know about Brother Lawrence, the Carmelite monk who lived in the seventeenth century? His birth name was Nicholas Herman. He was born in Lorraine, served as a soldier in the French army, and was converted through seeing a tree in winter, stripped of its leaves, and reflecting on the fact that within a short time its leaves would be renewed through the love and power of God. He became a monk in 1666. In the Carmelite monastery where he was assigned, Lawrence, as he was then called, worked in the kitchen, where he had charge of the utensils. At first he hated the work, but he set himself to walk in God s presence so that he could worship God and serve others in these humble circumstances. In time he came to worship God more in the kitchen than in the cathedral, and he could pray, Lord of all pots and pans and things, make me a saint by getting meals and washing up the dishes. His meditations on the Christian life became The Practice of the Presence of God, which is a Christian classic. Brother Lawrence chose humility and by it achieved greatness.