Serve Like Jesus

Introduction

We are privileged today to have with us a guest speaker, Brother William Stewart, who lives in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Brother Stewart and his wife Shelley and their daughter Linda are with us today. We have been in fellowship with him in the preaching of the gospel for some time now. I guess he’s probably among the ten evangelists that we help support, lives the most northern of any of them. And he’s fled to Florida to get away from the snow. He’ll tell you how cold it is. But one of the things that he has had influence on us here and probably doesn’t know. He’s going to tell you about one of the things that they’re doing there is having meetup.

They go to uh Target and have a Bible study. It is advertised on the computer, and those who see what is going to be studied will come. And there have been some good studies as a result of that. And I think the idea first came from William Stewart, who is doing that and has been doing it in Kingston. Welcome, William. We’re glad to have you with us.

Good morning. Thank you very much for having me here. And minus 18 degrees, I think, is what it is back in Kingston today. That’s Celsius. I don’t know what it is in Fahrenheit, but if it begins with minus, it’s cold. So good to be here with you. Earlier Harkriter asked me to share a few things about the work in Kingston and then share a lesson afterward. And so that is what we will do this morning. I was curious, and so I went to Bible.ca just to see how many congregations there are within a 50-mile radius of Orlando. And so Steve Rudd runs this site. Whether he has every uh congregation listed there or not, I don’t know. But within the uh 50 mile radius of Orlando, there are 10 different groups that are meeting together.

Praise God. That’s great. For comparison, I decided, well, let’s see about Kingston and what we would find if we were to go to Kingston. So I did the same search with the same parameters. And what came up is that there are two congregations within a 50-mile radius of Kingston. One, of course, the group I’m with in Kingston. Then the next one is about 40 miles away, Indian River Church of Christ in Philadelphia, New York. The closest congregation to us is not in Canada, it’s in the United States.

It’s in Canistota, New York, about 90 miles away. Churches in Canada are few and far between. And for the most part, they are fairly small. And that’s the case with the group in Kingston, as it is with many of the churches that meet in Canada. I took this photo this past Wednesday night before we left on our trip on Thursday. We had small numbers that night. It should have been a little larger than that, but that’s who was there. Shelley and Linda were there. Jeremy Woodman, Brian Gavill, who I’ve reported about his baptism last February, around this time, and John and Verna Wallace. I’m going to add some other members. This is the totality of the local church, plus a few extra children. And so there are 12 members who are there.

All are what we might call first generation Christians, with the exception of the Wallace’s.

And so I petition your prayers for them as we work with them. Brother Harkrider mentioned meetup. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a Tim Hortons or not. If you haven’t, I don’t do you have Tim Hortons in Florida yet? I know they are in some states. It is a good, good donut and coffee shop. That’s where we have most of our meetup groups. And so what we do on a weekly basis is we will advertise that we’re going to get together. And in fact, the one on Thursday nights in Tim Hortons is just sort of a Bible chat. If you’ve got Bible questions, bring your Bible questions. If there’s a topic we need to look at, let’s look at that. And I guess it’s sort of hit and miss uh has been our experience.

There will be some nights that we’ll be there and it’ll just be us there. Uh and then there’s some surprise nights where we had six people show up one night. And uh and so we’ve been doing this now for uh I guess close to a year or so. And uh I’m glad to hear that that we’ve been able to influence you in that direction as well. I can’t take credit for it, it’s some other brethren in the Northeastern U.S. uh who I heard from uh about meetup. And uh it’s it’s been a good way to make some contacts. In fact, the day after we left to come uh down to visit and to go to the lectures, uh I’ve received email notification. Two new people have signed up to our uh meetup account and have indicated that they’re going to be at studies when we get back.

And so I’m looking forward to that. Excited to meet them and to study uh with them. I’m not sure how much door-to-door work you do. Um the bulk of the work that we have done in Kingston really has been door-to-door work. Uh this winter we’ve done none at all. Um, partly because of those minus 18s that I mentioned earlier. Uh people don’t like to open their door and stand and talk with you there. And also, if you’ve heard me do some coughing, I have asthma. And uh the colder temperatures and asthma do not get along very well, so we’ve not done that. Uh, but we do spend uh a fair amount of time trying to get around to people’s doors. If not there, then uh leaving business cards at tables or places in in malls and other public places.

Wherever we can talk with somebody, wherever we can make a contact, that’s what we want to do. Uh just we seek to to let folks know that there is a congregation of God’s people meeting. Folks in Canada in general are not as religious as folks in the United States. And I think the further south you come, the more religious folks tend to be. At least that’s what I’ve noticed. Not saying you don’t have your religious folks, I’m sure that you do. But in Canada, it’s it’s a difficult field. Most people just do not have an interest in Bible things whatsoever, perhaps do not even have a faith that there is a God whatsoever. And so part of the benefit of that is if we do find someone who is interested in studying, we almost always have a blank slate uh in that respect.

Uh but uh certainly a difficult work to be in. And we appreciate your uh support and prayers as we continue in that. I don’t know if you’ve been to by uh to looking under Jesus.net or not. That’s our local website. Um it’s been running for several years, and so there has been a lot of material on it. Unfortunately, not all that material is there anymore. We just switch platforms from HTML to WordPress. You techies know what I’m talking about. Those who don’t, there’s not as much info there as there used to be, but we’re updating and uh continuing to put up new material. So yeah, if you haven’t been there, go ahead and check it out and uh some material that might be of interest to you.

Well, I’m gonna stop there so far as telling you about the work. If you have questions about anything, if there are things that you would like me to address, grab me afterward, and I’d be happy to speak with you and uh and answer those questions. Uh we’ll move on into uh a lesson from God’s Word. Go ahead and open your Bibles up to John chapter 13. John chapter 13.

I thank Brother Klein for helping me get things in order with my lesson this morning so far as the PowerPoint. If you’ve ever tried to go from PC to Mac, you know sometimes they don’t always agree. Well, that was the case with a lot of the lesson this morning. And so he did some reformatting for me, and I appreciate him doing that. John chapter 13, we’re going to talk about Jesus and his service in that chapter and how we need to learn from what we see the Lord doing there. You know, sometimes we get focused on the wrong things in life, and that was the case with the apostles as well. And the apostles on several occasions, they had these arguments, these disagreements about who is the greatest.

That they would discuss among themselves about greatness. And this is one of those occasions in Luke chapter 9 and at verse 46 beginning, a dispute arose among them as to which of them would be the greatest. And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a little child and set him by him and said, Whoever receives this little child in my name receives me. And whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all will be great. This is not an exclusive event. We have this same kind of discussion in Matthew chapter 18 and at verse 1, we have this same kind of thing in Mark chapter 9 and at verse 34. On another occasion in Mark chapter 10 and at verse 37, James and John come to Jesus seeking a place of authority in his kingdom.

They wanted to be great in the kingdom of God. But their idea of what greatness was from a human perspective rather than from God’s perspective. It seems that the human mind fancies greatness more than humility. And Jesus certainly found that with his disciples as he went through the three plus years with them. Now keep in mind Jesus was molding these men. He was forming their character so that they would be faithful servants of God. And so as many times as this kind of dispute came up, I imagine Jesus roughed the edges out on them. That he made sure they understood that is not true greatness, the things that you’re looking at, but rather you want to be a servant. On another occasion, Luke chapter 22, I’m going to turn and look up here because I can’t see it on the screen.

It’s a little tiny there. But in Luke 22 and at verse 24, beginning, we’re told there was also a dispute among them as to which of them should be considered the greatest. And he said to them, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors, but not so among you. Who is greater? He who sits at the table or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the one who serves. Now I want you to consider the context of this verse. We’ve got the disciples again discussing about greatness and who would be the greatest among them. But if you’ve got your Bible there with you, take a look in the context here and at verse 20 beginning.

We’re in the midst of Jesus sharing the Passover feast with his disciples. And so at verse 20, he took the cup after the supper. He said, This is the cup of the new covenant, my blood, which is shed for you. But behold, the hand of my betrayer is with me on the table. And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. Verse 23, then they began to question among themselves which of them it was who would do this thing. There’s a betrayer in our midst. And we have one verse that tells us they started questioning about who that betrayer was, but then verse 24, now there was also a dispute among them as to which of them should be considered the greatest.

And so we’re trying to find who the betrayer is, and that somehow morphed into a discussion about which one of them was the greatest of them all. Do you see how their minds were focused in the wrong area? That their minds were on the wrong things. We need to distinguish between true greatness and this world’s greatness. And again, at this late period in Jesus’ ministry, he still had to teach them that.

And so he teaches them about greatness, and then he’s going to show them about greatness as well, because he’s going to present himself as a servant. And so if you go with me over to John chapter 13, I just had you move away from there, but let’s go back to John chapter 13. And we’re going to read in our text from John chapter 13. John the thirteenth chapter, and starting at verse 3. Says, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, and laid aside his garments, took a towel and girded himself. After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded.

Then he then he came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet? Jesus answered and said to him, What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this. Peter said to him, You shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean, and you are clean, but not all of you. For he knew who who would betray him. Therefore he said, You are not all clean. So when he had washed their feet, taken his garments, and sat down again, he said to them, Do you know what I have done to you?

You call me teacher and lord, and you say, Well, 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. Most assuredly 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. He gives them this example, the example being him washing their feet. Now, you might question why was the need for washing feet there? I’ve not gone into anybody’s home and had them wash my feet. I’ve never had that experience. Well, the reason they’re needing the wash, the washing of feet is because of the attire that they’re wearing on their feet, the sandals, and uh and also they’re walking on dirt roads, which you and I customarily don’t do.

And so in the Jewish encyclopedia.com, it says the Israelites, like all other Oriental peoples, wore sandals instead of shoes, and as they usually went barefoot in the house, frequently washing of the feet was a necessity. Hence among the Israelites, it was the first duty of the host to give his guest water for the washing of his feet. To omit this was a sign of marked unfriendliness. It was also customary to wash before meals and before going to bed. And so I wonder if the disciples were sort of thinking each to themselves, I wonder who’s going to wash feet tonight. Who’s the guest of this gathering? And so nobody rose in order to do so, and it was left to the Lord to do so. And so he got up and he washed their feet, as we have the example.

And so we then might ask the question, why? What would compel Jesus, God with us, the Son of God, here in the flesh, to lower himself to the point where he is washing dirty feet. Why would he do that? And the answer is the very same as it is to the question of why did Jesus go to Calvary for you and I. The degree of service between those two is very different. And yet the motive behind them is exactly the same. And so that’s what we’re going to spend our time remaining this morning talking about is why did Jesus do that? And then from that, why should you and I present ourselves as servants to those that we have contact with and have opportunity to serve.

1. Jesus Served Because He Loved

In John chapter 13, back up to verse 1. We started at verse 3, but back up to verse 1. And verse 1 tells us about his love for them. It says, now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come, that he should depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own, who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And so we’re told that he rose up and he girded himself and he washed their feet. Jesus’ service, whether it be washing their feet or whether it be dying at Calvary for you and I, his service was an expression of love. He loved them enough that he would give them this example.

It is because he loved.

Just in that night, there was one who would betray him. Judas, remember, had conspired with the Jewish leadership to betray Jesus. And he would do that just within a few hours of this supper. Others, again, as we had talked about, they were more concerned about their own greatness. Even when they heard there was a betrayer in their midst, they were concerned about which one of them was the greatest of all. And then we’ve got Peter. Peter, even though he very strongly affirms to Jesus, I will not deny you, I’m going to be with you, even if I have to die with you. Jesus says to him before the rooster crows three times. You’re going to deny me. Peter would deny him that night. In fact, the scriptures tell us that all would leave him.

All would forsake him. And this is just in that night. Imagine what the three years was like with these fellows if all of that fell in one night. They were not an easy bunch to love. And yet Jesus loved them. Perhaps you and I are not an easy bunch to love either at times. There may be times when you and I have betrayed our Lord. There may be times when you and I have been wrapped up in our own greatness instead of his greatness. You and I at times might have, out of fear, denied our faith. It may be that we have deserted him at some point. And yet he still loves us. He taught us that we need to love one another. And in order for us to love one another, service comes into that.

In John the 13th chapter at verse 34 and 35, he says, A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Now, the commandment to love is not what’s new. We can go back to Leviticus chapter 19, and we can see the commandment to love in Leviticus 19 and verse 18. And that through service. But the degree of love seems to be what is new here. The kind of love that Jesus has is the kind of love that he wants you and I to have. And so his love that night, he loved them such that he would wash their faith.

He would humble himself. And then later on in the next day, he would love you and I enough that he would die for us. That’s the degree of love. And so as we focus on Jesus and his service, may our service be the same type of thing and focus from that same kind of love. We want to make sure that we don’t serve from the wrong motive. Sometimes we do that. Sometimes we’ll be motivated by guilt. Maybe we feel guilty about something that we have done, and so that’s our motive for serving. That’s sort of a Catholic mentality. You’re trying to offset the bad things by doing the good things. Servitude will not appease our guilt. The only thing that will take care of our guilt is the forgiveness of God and the forgiveness of those that we’ve wronged.

And so we don’t want to be serving because of guilt. Also, we don’t want to serve because we’re trying to earn favor, whether it be God’s favor or somebody else’s favor. That is the wrong motive for service. We can’t earn our way into heaven. We serve God because we love God. We serve one another because we love one another. That is the motive for doing it. We don’t want to serve because we want praise. That’s the way that the Pharisees were. Remember in Matthew chapter 6 in the first four verses, Jesus warned us about the Pharisees and how they would blow a trumpet so that people would see the good works that they were doing. Jesus says, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

Make sure that your service is done in humility and not for the attention of people. And so we need to be sure that our service is not by the wrong motives, but our service is because we want to do good and we want to serve out of love. John 3 in verse 16, I imagine most people, whether religious or not, might be familiar with that verse. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. What was the motive? It was love. A lot of folks have given that as a memory verse. It’s a good verse to remember. May I suggest that this is a good memory verse as well. 1 John 3 and verse 16.

By this we know love because he laid down his life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Again, the motive in here is love, but who is now being the one who’s exercising that? We see his example of love. He died for us. John says, therefore, we need to follow suit. We need to imitate the Christ and His love and be willing to lay our lives down for the brethren. That’s how much he wants us to love one another. And so Jesus that night served because he loved. And you and I, brethren, need to serve because we love one another and we love God. Not only should we serve one another out of love, but we also should do so out of a sincere desire to put others ahead of ourselves.

2. Serve in a Spirit of Humility

We want to be humble. It’s sad that self happens to be the most important person for most people. We see that every day.

And folks are focused on how I feel and what I want and doing what I want when I want and how I want.

God calls upon us to be humble. Philippians chapter 2, verse 3 and 4, the apostle Paul says, Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interest of others. You and I, as the children of God, are called to be humble servants of one another, not self. And again, in this context, he then in verse 5 he says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. That is the example, then. Jesus becomes the example for humility and service through humility. And as you follow through verse 5 on down to verse 10, he humbled himself by coming in the flesh.

He is God. He is from eternity past. He is in heaven. And he comes and he takes a fleshly body for his abode. He lives a humbled existence as a man. And then, if that were not enough, he dies the most humiliating and demeaning death. The death of the cross. How did Paul preface all of that? Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Again, Jesus said, we need to love such that we’re willing to die for one another. Paul, as he’s writing here in Philippians chapter 2, the point is the same. But the motive is not love this time, it’s humility. That our service should be from that spirit of humility.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, coming the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. That is our example of humility. That is what we’re called to do. Now, relating that back to John chapter 13, when Jesus came to this world, he girded himself with the towel of humanity. That’s what he girded himself with. And then he didn’t wash us with water as he did with the disciples’ feet. He washed us with blood.

We need to serve like Jesus served. He was 100% humble. He was focused on what he could do for others. Mark chapter 10, verse 45. Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. This morning’s Bible class talked about how Jesus, when he came, when the Jews, they were looking for the king. That’s what they were looking for. Most kings are used to people serving them. This king came to serve. He came to serve and to give his life. If our creator humbled himself and became a servant to that degree, shall we not imitate? That’s what he calls us to do is to imitate him and his service. We should be motivated to serve one another from love, from humility.

3. True Greatness Is Found in Service

And we should also realize that that’s where true greatness will be found. That’s the lesson Jesus had to teach his disciples over and over when they argued about greatness is that true greatness is found in service. In today’s world, it’s money, prestige, power. Those are the kinds of things that man looks at. Those are the kinds of things that man is concerned about, but not God. In Mark chapter 10, verse 43, Jesus says, whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. Chapter 9 and verse 35. If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all. That is completely contrary to the mindset of humanity. But that is where true greatness is found with the Lord. We want his perspective of greatness.

Because if we follow our perspective of greatness, we will not go to heaven. He wants us to be servants. He calls us to be servants. That is what true greatness is. Remember in Luke 22. The discussion of who would betray Jesus turned into a discussion of who is the greatest of all. And Jesus rebuked them. And as he rebuked them, he said, don’t imitate the kings of the Gentiles and seek authority and the benefits that go with it as they do. That shouldn’t be the concern. In verse 26 and 27, he said, He who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater? He who sits at the table or he who serves.

Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as one who serves. Guess what he’s doing when he says that? He’s going around washing feet. Here they are, these men who were so great in their own opinion that they would sit and allow the king of kings to wash their feet. Again, it’s a parallel text to where we began in John 13. True greatness is in service, the Lord tells us.

Conclusion

And so, friends, may we serve. May we serve God. Every day, present ourselves as servants of God. But let’s not convince ourselves that it stops there. Part of serving God is making sure that we serve one another. John tells us in 1 John chapter 4, talks about those who say they love God but don’t love their brother. How can we say we love God if we don’t love the one that we can see in front of us? We can’t see God. Our service to God is found in the here and now as we serve one another. And so may we serve with a spirit of love, not exalting ourselves, not to look good, not out of guilt, but because we truly love one another. May we serve in a spirit of humility.

Jesus, the example, humbled himself even to the point of death. Don’t sound the trumpet. Don’t do it for glory, but do it because that’s the example of the Savior. May we serve, understanding that that’s where true greatness is found. And if we want to go to heaven, that’s what we’ve been called to is to be a servant of all, to be an imitator of our Lord and Savior. Well, friend, I don’t know what your position with the Lord is right now. As I look across the crowd, I see a few faces that I recognize, but I’m sorry, most of you I don’t.

But you know where you stand with the Lord, and He knows where you stand with Him. Is heaven your hope and home today? Are you among those that Paul would say our citizenship is in heaven? Next week, Shelley and I and the ladies who came with us are headed back to Canada. Because that’s where our earthly citizenship is. And when we get to the border, we’re going to hand them some documents and they’ll look them over and they’ll ask us how much we spent so they can gather tax money. And then they’ll let us drive on into Canada because that’s where our home is. When the day of judgment comes and we appear before the Lord, we’re told in the book of Revelation that books are going to be opened.

And some of those books will have the record of our lives and what we’ve done. And then there’s another book that is open, and it’s the book of life. If I may, that is your passport into heaven. If your name is written in that book, then you enter into eternity with God. If your name is not written there, then you do not spend eternity with the Lord, but you’re cast into hell. Is your name there? Are you faithfully serving Him today? If you are not, then there’s no better time to change that than today. If you’re not a child of God, the Lord tells us what we need to do. We need to believe He is the Christ, the Son of a Living God. He tells us we need to repent of our sins.

Turn away from sin so we can walk in righteousness. We need to confess His name before man. He says, if we’ll confess Him before man, He’ll confess us before the Father.

And if we have done that, then we are added to the body of Christ. We are a believer. And then we walk faithful. If you’ve not done that, we call you to do that today. Maybe you have done that, but you’re not walking as you ought to. Maybe you’re not serving in love and humility and seeking true greatness. Friend, there is no reason to leave this auditorium without the hope of heaven. And so if you are unsure or you know that things are not right, then let’s make things right. If you’re subject to the invitation, let us know as we stand together and as we sing.