Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 7 - The Master's master principle - servant and slave of all. Mar 10:43-44; Joh 12:25-26.Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 7 - The Master's master principle - servant and slave of all. Mar 10:43-44; Joh 12:25-26.
Announcements / opening prayer:
The spiritual organization or organism sinks into confusion without proper leadership. Natural gifts of charisma and human intellect are of little value. What is of value is complete dependence on the grace of God, sacrifice, and determined obedience to God and His word.
The leader is not elected by men, but by God. One cannot make themselves a leader, elect for themselves a certain spiritual gift, or qualify by taking coursework.
The education of a pastor before he begins to teach is of extreme importance, but it is not what determines his spiritual gift. I imagine there are many men who have completed a degree at a seminary that do not have the gift of pastor, and for those who do, they are not promoted until God promotes them.
2Ch 16:9 For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.
And we know that the eyes of the Lord see much more than just the overt appearance and behavior. His eyes look upon the heart. Though charismatic men with selfish motives may fool many people, they cannot fool the Lord and they are not promoted by Him.
3. The Master's master principle: servant and slave of all.
Mar 10:42 And calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them.
Mar 10:43 "But it is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant;
Mar 10:44 and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.
The Bible uses the word servant to describe the chosen of God much more than the word leader. If you look for verses that have both the words "Moses" and "leader" you find two verses and in each the word "leader" doesn't refer to Moses. If you look for verses that have both the words "Moses" and "servant" you find 92 verses in which almost all of them the term "servant" does refer to Moses.
Gen 26:24 My servant Abraham.
Num 12:7 My servant Moses,
Num 14:24 My servant Caleb
2Sa 3:18 My servant David (20 times)
Job 1:8 My servant Job
Isa 42:1 My Servant [the Lord Jesus Christ]
And then we come to the believer - if he is going to serve Christ by serving His people, he must hate his worldly, fleshly life and he must love his new life that is Christ.
Joh 12:23 And Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Joh 12:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Joh 12:25 "He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.
Joh 12:26 "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.
This was a revolutionary principle and even the disciples had a hard time with it.
[back to] Mar 10:42 And calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them.
Mar 10:43 "But it is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant;
Mar 10:44 and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.
That's why see James and John asking for promotion. They likely figured that if they asked first the positions would be theirs, but as we see, those positions have been already elected by the Father. The term servant is not attractive to most people. It immediately sounds to most the same as low prestige, low respect, and low honor. Most people are not at all attracted to such a low-value role. But with Jesus, the term servant is synonymous with greatness.
The church, meaning the entire body of the believing, is a community in which each member serves the other.
Gal 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
The common idea of the leader who earns his position through his own personal greatness as well as his own personal campaigning, collecting votes, gathering followers, etc. was completely thrown out the window by Christ and was supplanted by His idea of a true leader. The leader is a patient server of all long before he is promoted by God, since, if he is not, then he'll be a terrible leader. He waits patiently and depends on God's timing. He doesn't market himself or campaign, but rather grows up spiritually while serving the body of Christ in any capacity.
James and John campaigned by using their mother, but Christ didn't budge an inch.
A specific rank is not given to those who prepared themselves for it and worked hard for it. God alone promotes and places each believer in the body of Christ just as He desires.
Our position in the body of Christ is given at salvation. The faithful, the prepared, the spiritual will be promoted to function in their position when God determines.
The believer knows when God determines by the open opportunities that are presented to him to serve with proper motivation and for the service of others and not selfish reasons.
Eph 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Serving within the less prominent tasks will develop both humility and the latent spiritual gift that will be used for the more prominent tasks.
I state this point for the reason, all ready discussed, that we do not have to wait to discover our spiritual gift to serve the body of Christ. While it is true that service will mature greatly within the function of the spiritual gift, until that time there are many opportunities to serve in the body of Christ in what might be called the more common tasks that are around us every day. The picture I am painting here is like a believer who does not yet know his spiritual gift. Let's say he has the gift of administration and some day he is going to be a great deacon, but he doesn't know that yet. One Sunday morning he notices that due to certain circumstances the people in charge of setting up the food and the equipment are far behind schedule and he notices that there are some simple things he can do to help them get everything ready for the service, yet he says to himself, "I don't know my spiritual gift, so I guess I'll just go sit down." Such a person doesn't realize that service in all opportunities are training grounds for humility and the development of the spiritual gift within. It's like the young man who wants to be CEO of the company and refuses to start in the mail room. (Example: Sir Henry Francis Oliver joined the Royal Navy at the age of twelve in 1877. Fifty one years later he rose to admiral of the fleet after serving as a rear admiral in WW1. Since an admiral of the fleet never technically retires, but remains on his service list for the rest of his life, and since Oliver lived to be one hundred, he was a member of the Royal Navy for eighty-eight years, a record that will never be broken.)
1Co 12:11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.
1Co 12:12 For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.
1Co 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
1Co 12:14 For the body is not one member, but many.
1Co 12:15 If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.
1Co 12:16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.
1Co 12:17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
1Co 12:18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.
1Co 12:19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
1Co 12:20 But now there are many members, but one body.
The preparation and the education is extremely important but it is God who appoints people to leadership and authority in His perfect timing.
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