Stewardship of Serving

Good morning and thanks for being here this morning.

This morning we are launching what we call Stewardship Month around here. The is an annual time that our church sets aside around the thanksgiving time to focus on how we can be a great steward of all that God has given to us.

For many of us this is one of our favorite times of the year because not only do we get to hear stories of how God is working in the hearts and lives of others in our congregation, but we also get reminded of some of the most important truths that have impacted who we are.

One of the core ideals that has defined Faith Church is that we want to be found as faithful stewards.

Another aspect about stewardship month is the Stewardship Celebration. In a word, Stewardship Celebration is massive celebration when we come together as a church family and celebrate and give thanks for everything that God has done for us, through us, and with us.

If you are new hear or you have not ever been, I want to exhort you to get this on your calendar. It will be on Nov. 19 at 5pm. Tickets will be free and we will start handing them out soon, but they are required so that we can get an good head count. You do not want to miss that great celebration…

This morning we are going to be talking about Jesus’ last days and we are going to hone in on the upper room discourse. We are going to be in Jn. 13:1-20. I think that it is a passage that we are all pretty familiar with, but I am convinced that we all need to hear what this passage says for us.

I suspect that if I gave you the context you would be able to tell me, if you have grown up in church, most of the narrative story.

This passage is so radical that even 2,000 years after it happened, we still struggle to grasp in our daily lives its true meaning and how to live it out.

Let’s set the context of our story this morning. Jesus is partaking of the Passover feast with the 12. Jesus knows what lays before him, and while he has told his disciples of what is coming they have not understood. Jesus knows that he does not have much time with the 12 and John sums it up this way,

John 13:1 Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father…

So, Jesus knows that this is it, he is going to his Father. And in our little section, he wants to explain to the disciples what life is going to be like in the new Kingdom that he is about to inaugurate.

He wants to help them see that the Kingdom is going to be a kingdom of service, but not the way they think. The disciples had it all wrong. They thought when Jesus was going to inaugurate the kingdom, that they would be elevated and served, and o boy where they in for a shocker.

They had all struggled with this before, remember this episode in Mark 10?

Mark 10:35-37, 42-44

³⁵James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, came up to Jesus, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You.”

³⁶And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

³⁷They said to Him, “Grant that we may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory.”

Remember, this is John, the author of the book that we are studying here… And that Jesus responds by…

Mark 10:42-44

⁴²Calling 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.

⁴³“But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant;

⁴⁴and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.

These men had the worldly idea of what it meant to be in the Kingdom of Jesus and Jesus was going to have to set the record straight for them.

Follow along as I read our passage from John 13:1-20 which is on page _________. Today we are going to be looking for what it means to be a True Servant as we talk about True Service: 4 Aspects of Kingdom Life to Remember Daily

[READ JOHN 13:1-20]

First, we see that…

I. True Service is Work for God

John 13:20 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”

Jesus is going to send out the Apostles, the word literally means messenger. Jesus has a message for the 12 to carry to the nations. What Jesus says is that if you are going to follow me, you are going to need to work for me.

Being a follower of Christ is not just about saying a prayer and getting your fire insurance, it is about bringing God glory. We do this by bringing the good news of salvation to the nations and helping everyone be right worshipers of God.

There is a tendency, though, in all of us to want to do good things for our behalf. We want to exalt ourselves and make ourselves look good. So, sure, you might be asked to do something that is really hard, really challenging, perhaps it is even demining work, but there is a temptation to do all of these things for our own glory…for your own praise.

It is impossible for those around us to see what your real motives are. We all can be really good at doing all kinds of things that are hard but the reality is that it is just about making us look good. Ultimately that will be between you and the Lord, but we must labor…

A. On God’s Behalf

In our passage, Jesus was leaving the earth soon. He was leaving work for his followers to accomplish. Work that God laid out before the foundation of the earth for us, according to Paul in Eph. 2. God created us to represent him and to do work on his behalf.

Now it is not that God could not do the work himself, but rather he has invited us to be a part of achieving his purposes in this world, and that is a great privilege.

Think for a moment if you were going to be asked to participate in a great project that was going to help reshape the entire landscape of Lafayette. Maybe it was going to be an art project, or maybe it was going to be part of the urban planning that the city was doing, or maybe it was going to be recreation focus…whatever it is that would be fun for you to be a part of.

You would not be the one with final authority, you would not have to carry the weight of responsibility if something went wrong—the project manager had that to carry on his back.

Rather you got to participate and that you really got to help craft and shape the plan in a unique way that only you could do.

Friends, that is sort of how God is using us. His purposes are not going to be thwarted. God is going to accomplish his plan. God does not need us to accomplish his mission here on earth. Rather, he is calling for us to live out our purpose and to work in the field, to labor on his behalf and instead of seeing this as a burden, we really need to see it as a delight.

Because we get to do this work…

B. For God’s Glory

We are given a chance to labor in this world to make the thing that is most awesome, most magnificent displayed clearly to the world.

We have an option to attempt to make ourselves look good, make others look great, or to make God look great. He calls for us to labor to make him look good in everything that we do.

A true servant is working for God to make God’s glory known to the world.

Now that we have that foundation laid, that a true servant is working for God, then we need to examine what that looks like on a practical basis. What are the nuts and bolts of true service.

We see that…

II. True Service is Done in Love and Joy

Parents, have you ever asked your children to do something and they have done it with a grumpy heart? I’m not sure that you need to be a parent to relate to this since you probably were this child at one point.

Perhaps you asked them to pick up their room, help you carry in groceries, mow the yard, do the dishes, sweep the floor, or whatever and they just didn’t jump right up and say, “Here I am…send me!” like Isaiah did? 😊

Right, I assume most of us have experience that. I think we all would be a little taken aback if that happened, “Hey Johnny, can you take out the trash?” Yes, O, Yes! Thank you for picking me Mom! Said no kid ever.

But the reality is, just like those children, we too have a similar heart when it comes to our service. Rarely do we see that serving is a privilege and as we look to this passage we see that it is to be done with Love and Joy.

Before Jesus sets out this example for his followers, John gives us a helpful insight. He tells us that

John 13:1… having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

What does that mean, he loved them to the end?

The word there is telos. It can mean end, or totally, or completely. Depending on your translation it will render the verb differently. But here is what we need to understand by what John is telling us.

Jesus is not hitting the eject button. He is not pulling out too soon. He is not quitting. He, loves his sheep right up to the end. He loves them completely and perfectly.

Have you ever struggled with that? You have set out to do something, but the more you got into it, the harder and more challenging it became. Especially when you get to the end of a project, we all experience the law of diminishing returns.

I feel like I live by this law. That as you get to the end of something, it requires more work to complete. So, for example, students, you would never turn in a paper that has not been proof read, but you know that in order to catch ever single grammar mistake is going to take too much work. You are going to give it so much work, but that is it.

Why? The law of diminishing returns.

We all live by this law, but not Jesus. He sees that working to the end is required. And so, John records that he loves us, love the 12, until the end. He loves them completely, wholly.

For us that means then that…

A. Jesus’ love should Impact us

That love that Jesus has shown for all of us should have a daily impact on us, it should motivate everything that we do and everything that we say.

Back to that parenting request of your kids for a moment. Why is it that a kid would not jump up and say, “Do the dishes, of course Mom!” I think one of the great reasons is they do not understand what has been done for them.

They don’t understand how much work had to go into getting a dirty dish. They don’t see that Dad had to go to school and learn so that one day he could get a job. They don’t see that dad went and worked a lot of hours so that they could have a home, dishes and food. They don’t see the years of serving that child when they were totally helpless and not able to do anything for themselves.

All they can see is this small, light, temporary inconvenience to their life and they don’t like it. Simply put, the love that the parents have toward the child has not impacted them. Because it has not impacted them, they do not respond and function rightly when asked to serve and love.

So, let me ask you, has what Christ done for you on the cross impacted you each and every day. Do you see the cross in everything that you are called to do? When a call for serving goes out, do you first see it through the lens of the mighty gift that was given to you? Or do you see it more like the spoiled child who does not want to put down his x-box in order to help clean the house?

Do you, when asked, consider first how this is going to impact you, or do you consider what Christ has done for you?

B. Love is Filled with Action

Next, we see in our passage that Love is not just something that Jesus says that he has for his followers, but that he is going to live that out in living color. He doesn’t just say, “I love you” and that is it. He will serve them here in a powerful way and then ultimately by going to the cross.

Love, at least how Christ and the Bible talk about it, is more about action and less about emotions. I am not saying there is not an emotional component to this, but rather, that is not the driving thrust of this passage, the gospels, and the entire breadth of scripture.

If his love has impacted you, then what are some ways that you can live out and serve here at Faith Church? First you could look for just one off serving times. Things that require very little ongoing commitment.

Things like

• Trunk or Treat
• Living Nativity
• Christmas for Everyone
• Winter Break Ministries

Then there are ongoing serving times in things like

• Children’s Min
• Community Centers
• Greeting
• Ushering
• Setup and Teardown of the sanctuary here.

III. True Service Follows the Model of Christ

Most of our passage here focuses on the actions of Christ washing the feet of the disciples and Christ’s call for them to follow the example that Jesus has laid down.

We are going to in a moment examine the radical nature of what it is that Jesus is asking his followers to do, but I want to point out first and foremost, that Jesus, who is God of very God, not only commands that this is how things are and should be, he goes first.

Think for a moment when you are in charge…do you go first? Perhaps you have a nasty and dirty job at home? Cleaning those bathroom toilets? Do you go first when you are in charge? J

Jesus doesn’t just say, “Guys, here is how I want you to treat each other” Rather, first and foremost Jesus demonstrates what it actually looks like to do what he is talking about.

We need to be honest with ourselves here, that is not how we think of leadership when we think about being in charge, we think of it in those Mark 10 terms. We don’t think about setting the example, rather we look to be bossy.

So, let’s…

A. Examine the Radical Inversion of The Kingdom

This is really where things get crazy. Let’s put this in context. Jesus, the creator and sustainer of the entire world. The son of God, the one who is worthy of worship, the one whom the angles cast their crowns and devils flee from.

The one who has existed from eternity past and future. Who has no beginning and no end, he is going to get down on his hands and feet (the fact that God is wrapped in flesh should still amaze us) and wash the feet of the disciples as a model of what it looks like to be a servant in the kingdom.

Here is what Jesus says about himself…

John 13:13 “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.

But he also says in verse 19 that he is God.

John 13:19 “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.

Now that “he” is inserted for clarity, it really reads, ‘I AM’ pointing to him being the Divine YHVH. But the point is the same…Jesus is God, and there is none higher.

He says, “this is how the Kingdom works…right here…

John 13:14–16

¹⁴“If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

¹⁵“For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.

¹⁶“Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.

Let’s take this at face level for a moment. First, it is pretty disgusting and nasty to wash someone else’s feet. In the days before paved roads and closed toed shoes, feet were pretty gross. Not to mention I’m sure some of the guys had some nasty fungal things going on 😊 So to wash anyone’s feet would just have been gross.

Normally a servant would have done this task, but since there was no household slave here, no one was there to wash the feet. Now it was way beneath their dignity to wash each other’s feet because they were thinking in worldly terms of rank. They were freemen, why would they do this? They were too good to do this.

The text also tells us that Jesus even removes his cloths to look the role of a servant. He is trying to create a powerful picture for his followers.

I’m sure that as the 12 were watching they had to be just flabbergasted. Here, the man that they had been following for these three years (let alone God incarnate), is not doing the radical thing that is against everything that culture and society tells them is normal…he is debasing himself. He is humbling himself.

Did you notice what John says in verse 3…

John 13:3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands,

Do you see how amazing that is? Jesus has all things in his hand. He could have done anything he wanted at that point. He could have summoned an angel from Heaven to come wash his feet and that would not have been outrageous. He was the king of the universe. But that is not how Jesus is setting up his kingdom.

Jesus smashes the worlds vision of what makes one great. Jesus says that if you want to be great, you need to be a servant. That is how his kingdom works…and so he models it for us.

Friends, that is not how you and I think at all. We tend to think the opposite. We think that leadership and power is given and enjoyed so that the leader’s life can be made comfortable. We don’t see power as a tool that is used to lift those up who are lowly…rather we see it as a tool to make our names great and our souls comfortable.

So, do you think that you are too busy, too important, too whatever to serve? If so then you are failing in the Kingdom. God, the highest of all serves, and he calls you to serve too.

Next, we need to…

B. See that serving in the Kingdom means serving your “enemy”

Not only is it preposterous that Jesus would get down and wash the feet of his elected, chosen, sealed followers, but he even does this to Judas. It wasn’t like Jesus didn’t know that Judas was going to betray him. It wasn’t that Jesus was hoping that this might be the one act that would change Judas.

John records this earlier when he called Judas and the 12

John 6:70–71 Jesus answered them, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.

Jesus knew when he was washing Judas’ feet that he would betray him.

Later in 13:18-19 Jesus makes it really clear that he is not in the dark about what Judas is going to do.

John 13:18–19 “I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’ “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.

Jesus makes this predication because he didn’t want his followers going back and saying, “You see, Jesus didn’t really know what he was doing. If he only knew that Judas would have betrayed him, then he would not have done what he did…maybe therefore we shouldn’t live like this.”

So, Jesus makes it clear. Look, I know what I am doing, I know that he is going to betray me, and yet, I am still going to do this. Why?

Because in the kingdom that I am creating, I still want you to serve and love your enemy. We are called to love even when there is no hope of that person being changed.

Now Jesus is the only one who knows things won’t change, but we have all be there where we think, “There is just no way that this is going to matter to this person.” They are too far gone. This act of love will be worthless. While you actually might be right from a historical/factual perspective, Jesus still calls for us to love our enemy…for that is how his Kingdom works.

You are going to have a chance to model this in living color soon. We are going to have a chance to purchase gifts in the annual Christmas for Everyone ministry. This is a ministry that we do as a church to purchase toys for kids and families that are underprivileged in our town. Simply put, no matter how what bad choices parents have made, we don’t want kids to have a Christmas without a few gifts under the tree.

The goal is to show kids some love during Christmas time. And if you come and serve on the gift distribution day, which I would encourage you to do, you might see someone that you say, “I bought a gift for that person?” They seem to be doing better than me.

Now we work really hard to vet everyone that comes through the program to ensure that they are in need, but the truth is some folks are just evil and they get by. Some have then taken that as a reason to stop loving people like this. “Well…you just don’t know…I don’t want to get taken advantage of, so let’s just not do it.”

Now we need to be balanced, but the point that Jesus is making here is that loving and serving in the kingdom does involve loving and serving your enemy. There are going to be times when you serve and you are going to get used, you are going to get betrayed.

I don’t think that when you get to Heaven and God asks you to give an account for all that he entrusts you, he is going to say, “Now what is this here? Why were you so generous? Why did you love you neighbors even when they were evil? That is not how I wanted you to act.”

Rather we hate being taken advantage of, we hate it when we are betrayed. But if we are going to serve in God’s Kingdom, we need to see that loving our enemies is part of what God calls each of us to.

Now this is as good as time as any to talk about the middle section where Jesus actually washes the fee and eventually gets to Peter and he says that he will not let Jesus wash in…True to form for sure.

I think this is the spot to talk about that because Jesus models for us loving our enemy because first we are his enemy. He loved us when we were his enemies, and yet he cleansed us—he saved us.

John 13:6–11

⁶So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?”

⁷Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.”

⁸Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

⁹Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”

¹⁰Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”

¹¹For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason, He said, “Not all of you are clean.”

There is really two things happen in our passage, there is the level that I am talking with you about being a great servant, being like Jesus. But then there is this part where Jesus talks about what seems to be something else.

I think what Jesus is saying here, as Peter objects to being washed is that, the 11 are clean—even though Peter says, “wash all of me” That is not what he needs.

Peter and the other 10 are justified. They are going to be kept safe by Christ and he will save them, but not all of them will be. There is one who is not a son of God but a son of perdition. As mentioned, this was not a surprise to Jesus, but it would be to them.

It is important to note that this even Judas shows how different Christianity is. In other religions, it is all about what you do, “Did you do the right thing” Well friends, Judas had. If rituals and works could ever save, they would have saved Judas…the Lord Jesus washed his feet, but they can’t. Only a heart of faith in God, something that Judas lacked, is able to save.

However, even those who are washed, those who are saved, still have the ongoing probable of daily sin. They still fail, their bodies are cleaned, but they still mess up.

Jesus is calling for regular repentance and confession of sin. If you are going to be a part of the kingdom of Heaven, if you are going to be in Jesus’ service, then you need to handle your sin when it happens.

To the believers listening to this message, Jesus calls us to be living a life of repentance and confession. We need to be washing our feet regularly.

But to those who have not been washed, Christ welcomes you to be washed, to be cleansed from you sin. You can do that by trusting in him, in his death, burial and resurrection and by making him Lord of your life. By doing that, you can know that you are saved—you can be cleansed.

Lastly, we see then that.

IV. True Service Results in a Blessed Life

There is no way around this. Jesus makes the point straight forward to us because he knows that we are not quite sure if it is true. He says that living this way will bring joy…

John 13:17 “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

The question is, are you going to believe what he says?

Jesus knows our hearts, we all seek what is good and pleasurable for our soul. Ultimately everyone here is always seeking what they think is good for them.

No one, not even God, is not seeking what is most pleasurable to them. The real rub is, what are we finding pleasure in? Are we finding it in God and his kingdom or are we finding it in something else? If that concept sounds bizarre to you, I would recommend the book Desiring God by John Piper, we he unpacks this very idea.

God wants us to find pleasure and joy in him and in serving in his kingdom…so he tells us that if we live like he is talking about then we are really going to be joy filled. There is nothing more satisfying, more pleasurable than God and doing his work…and he wants us to enjoy that.

So, we need to change how we are thinking about serving and living the life of a servant. We need to…

A. Understand that serving is food for the soul

What do I mean by that? Did you eat today? Did you eat yesterday? Was your meal that you had last Monday able to sustain you? No, it wasn’t.

Part of how God made you was to serve and you can’t rely on past serving because serving is like food for the soul.

It is good for you and Jesus says that it will bring you joy and happiness. That is how things that bring you joy work. So much of how God has setup this world that brings joy are things that need to be done regularly.

It might sound strange, but if we examine it I think that it will make sense.

Think back for a moment on a memory that brought you joy. You had a great time with family or friends. Perhaps you grew closer to your family or friends, you did a lot of fun things, but that was 10, 15, 20 years ago…will that experience sustain the relationship?

Let’s say my wife and I went on our honeymoon and we spent a lot of money to have a good time (something we actually didn’t do). But that was the only vacation, the only tie that we spent alone and together. We had an amazing time together. We Enjoyed one another and grew closer together.

But seven years later, that experience can’t keep our marriage going. Sure we can look back on it with affection. We can see that it was a defining time for us, but if that is all we have, 7 years later, then we don’t have much.

Things that bring you joy need to be in God’s world, so often done over and over. Even the truth of your justification, if you have trusted in Christ, needs to be rehearsed daily. The person that does not rehearse his or her salvation, I bet, does not find joy in it.

So then, if that is true, then we need to see that serving is food for the soul. We can’t just bank on the fact that we did some serving project a year ago and expect that it will sustain our soul. You need to be engaged in regular serving so as to nourish your soul and find the joy that comes with it.

Another what the serving helps you be joyful is that…

B. Becoming like Christ brings joy

If Christ is saying, do as I do, and we believe that God is the happiest person that exists, then the more we become like him, the more joyful we will become like him.

Have you ever thought that God is the happiest of all beings? Notice what the Psalmist says of this…

Psalm 115:3 But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.

Or earlier

Psalm 33:11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation.

Image that all that you wanted to do always came to pass, nothing that you did was ever thwarted, I think you would conclude, like John Piper concludes in his book Desiring God that God is the happiest of all beings.

So, God calls for us to be like him knowing that being like him will make us joyful and bring us great delight. But if we are to do that, then we need to be like him in being the lowest of all the servants.

Serving will make us happy because it will make us like Jesus, our Lord and Savior!

So, Friends, let see that True Service is the mark of a true follower of Christ. That by serving in love, and following the model that Christ has given to us, that this will produce true joy in us as we become more like our savior.