Good day, I am John
Many people know me as John the Gospel writer or John the apostle who was sent to the island of Patmos as punishment for encouraging others to worship God. This punishment turned out to be a real blessing. It was on this island that God gave me a magnificent vision of what life with him is going to be like, which you can read about in the Book of Revelation.
But before I was John the apostle or John the Gospel writer, along with my brother James, I was a fisherman. Our father Zebedee ran a successful fishing business, and our future was looking pretty good. But then one day as we were preparing for another days fishing, all this changed. We hadn’t planned for the change, but it happened.
It happened all because of one man, Jesus. Jesus came walking along the shore, with two other fishermen, Simon and Andrew. There was something special about Jesus that attracted us to him, at the time we weren’t quite sure what it was but we felt in following him we felt we would be involved in something much bigger than just fishing. So, when he invited us to join him, without hesitation James and I left behind our future with dad and the fishing boats and followed Jesus. We joined his team.
After a while, James and I felt that being one of his early followers, we will be rewarded and considered special, we believed we deserved some recognition.
That’s how it should be, don’t you think?
We thought Jesus will surely give us some prestigious position in his team.
Well we soon discovered that Jesus has a different approach to life. This approach is in fact a better approach to life.
It all happened one day as we were heading to Jerusalem. We had been following Jesus for some years, learning from him and I thought we had been pretty loyal. Jesus had been saying some strange things about dieing and rising again. At the time I didn’t quite understand what he was meaning, but if he meant he was literally going to die James and I wanted to make sure Jesus looked after us. So we put it to him, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” Now we knew we could never be as perfect as Jesus but surely, we have proven ourselves. We gave up a successful fishing business and we have been loyal to him, surely we thought he will reward us with some honour and glory.
Don’t you think that is how it should be? Well if you do, like we were, you are in for a little bit of a shock.
It wasn’t long after our request that Jesus revealed to us one of the important lessons of being a Christian.
That being a Christian is not about being better than someone else, having a more superior position, nor is it about having power over someone else…listen to what he said “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.” (Mark 10:42-44)
This changed my whole understanding about what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.
Up until this point I had been following Jesus for my own personal benefit. Now don’t get me wrong there are benefits for you and me in following Jesus. The best one being, is we have life with God forever, because of what Jesus did for us and continues to do for us. And because of this I don’t have to worry if I am good enough. But being a follower of Jesus is not just about focusing on what I want and what I like. We don’t just have a relationship with Jesus just so we can benefit.
In fact in following Jesus we are led into a life of serving others, no matter who we are. And it is a special type of service. The reality is everyday people are serving us, but most of the time they are serving us, so they can get something from us or they can benefit from someone else. But this is not the approach to service Jesus is talking about. The type of service Jesus is encouraging us to live out is one of really serving others, so they benefit.
A good friend of mine Paul when he was helping a group of Christians in Corinth to understand what it means to follow Jesus with service, explained that the service we carry out is not just one of action, but importantly action carried out in love. Listen to how he explained it; If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
So, being a Christian is about serving others and serving them in the right way, that is with love.
So what might this look like for you?
How might your actions be done in love?
For some people it means they give up what they are doing and focus on doing something else so they can help others in a better way to connect with Jesus. This is exactly what Shannon Ledbetter did. Shannon was an actress and model, appearing as a Bond girl in the James Bond film, Tomorrow never dies. She quit acting and modelling to study theology, in order to better serve others in the community through the church. Now she serves as a Community Canon with Blackburn Anglican Cathedral in the UK.
However for many people including most people who worship at St Paul’s, to serve others well in love is not so much about a complete career or role change, but rather to see our current roles at work, in our families, in the community and even in the church differently. To see them as opportunities where God is present, where God is wanting to care for the people we interact with, but not only that as we serve God is also caring for us. Take a moment to think about what you are involved in this next week, how might these be opportunities for God to bring his generous love to people through you?
Take a listen to the story of Max. Max who owns and operates a large distribution business. For many years he saw his business only as a way to make money and show people how successful he was. However, at some stage in his faith journey, he began to ask the question, what if God has given him this business for a more important purpose. A purpose of helping and serving everyone he interacts with, so they get to know and experience some of God’s love through him and his business. In thinking like this it changed the way he related to his employees and customers, he regularly ate lunch with his staff, would listen more intently to his staff and customers and people regularly commented that he was a person who cared and served them better than any other business. And occasionally because of this opportunities opened up for him to talk others about life and faith issues.
Why don’t you take a moment to think about your own situation?
What might it mean for others and you if God was using the things you are involved in as opportunities for you to serve others so they experience His love through you?
One thing to always remember is our service is never about proving to God we are good enough for His love. Rather we serve as Christians because we are already loved by God and because our loving service is how God works through us to connect with others, so they know His love. My friend Paul, as he helps a church in Galatia, says it like this: You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. (Galatians 5:13)
And the best news of all is this is exactly how Jesus operates. Even though He is God Jesus is always serving us humbly. Listen to what he says to us, after he encouraged us to see the importance of service. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45). We have a God whose approach to being God, is one of serving us, serving us in a loving way. Doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
And again the person who sums up Jesus’ approach and his affect on us well is my friend Paul. Listen to him as he encourages some Christians in Philippi
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
The more I got to know Jesus, the more I realised that serving others was not some demeaning experience, but one of the most important things we can do. It is a great way for God and the other people in our life to connect with each other. I pray that you look forward with joy to a life of serving others in love and watching how God uses your service to bring His love and life into the lives of others.
Amen
