Serve One Another
Series: The One Anothers: The Church’s “Body Builders”
Chuck Sligh
July 10, 2022
NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives.
TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to which we will read a little later.
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – A pastor in Kansas City, Kansas, was organizing opportunities for people in his church to do small acts of kindness as a demonstration of Christ’s love in the community. He phoned several neighborhood grocery stores and laundromats for permission to do specific services. In one call, the employee who answered the phone hesitated, and then said, “I’ll need to ask the manager. But first, let me make sure I understand: You want to clean up the parking lot, retrieve shopping carts, hold umbrellas for customers, and you don’t want anything in return?” “Yes, that’s right,” the pastor said. After a moment, the employee returned to the phone. “I’m sorry,” he said, “we can’t let you do that because if we let you do it, we’d have to let everyone else do it too!”
Isn’t that silly?
Why NOT let everyone else do it?
Wouldn’t that be wonderful if everyone found ways to serve?
It would be a little like heaven on earth.
Do you want to find a little bit of heaven in your HOME?
Do you want to find a little bit of heaven in your WORK?
Do you want to find a little bit of heaven in all your RELATIONSHIPS?
THEN LEARN TO SERVE.
Did you know that that’s the reason Christ set us free? Look with me at our text in Galatians 5:13 where we begin to see what our freedom in Christ means to us practically and how it can positively impact all our relationships. Galatians 5:13 says, “For, brethren, you have been called to liberty; only do not use…liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another.”
This is the last sermon in a series on some of the “One Anothers” of the New Testament and so far we’ve seen that we’re members of one another, and we’ve learned that we’re to love one another, be likeminded with one another, and greet one another. At the end of today’s text is our sixth “One Another” command: Through love, we are to SERVE one another.
The Galatians were caught up in what is known as “soteriological legalism,” meaning they thought they had to add works to grace to be saved or to maintain their salvation. The book of Galatians is a refutation of that false gospel. But Paul doesn’t want the Galatians to go from LEGALISM to LICENSE. He teaches that God has called us to LIBERTY so we could LOVE, not LUST. Since you’re free, Paul teaches…“Don’t serve yourself. Don’t indulge your sinful nature. Don’t let your freedom become a beachhead for the flesh.” Instead of legalism or license, Paul says to use your liberty to serve others in LOVE.
What does it mean to “serve one another” and how can we do it?
I. FIRST, I WANT YOU TO SEE THAT SERVING OTHERS IN LOVE IS GOD’S PATH TO GREATNESS IN HIS KINGDOM – Go with me to an amazing Scripture: Matthew 20:25-28 – “But Jesus called them to him, and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lort it over them, and those who are great exercise authority upon them. 26 But it shall not be so among you: but whoever desires to be great among you, let him be your servant; 27 And whoever would be first among you, let him be your slave—28 Just as the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’”
We think the way to greatness is through being served. But God says that he who SERVES is the one who will be great in God’s kingdom.
Illus. – I have a friend who was a graduate of Liberty University which was founded by the late Jerry Falwell. The media always painted Dr. Falwell in a bad light because he had always stood FOR righteousness AGAINST the evils in society. But something my friend related to me told me a different side to Dr. Fallwell.
When he attended Liberty, Dr. Falwell was already a household word. His weekly TV show was broadcast around the nation. He had started a university and it was making headlines. His church was running in the thousands. His organization, the Moral Majority, was making a tremendous impact on America in the moral, cultural and political arenas.
One day there was a terrible rainstorm in Lynchburg, Virginia. Just outside Dr. Falwell’s office, a student’s car had a flat tire. In a torrent of rain, Dr. Falwell, in his coat and tie, went out and invited him to come in out of the rain until the storm let up. But the student explained that he had to be somewhere for an important appointment and couldn’t wait until the storm had passed.
To his surprise, and despite his protests, Dr. Falwell insisted on personally helping him change his tire in the driving rain without an umbrella. Finally, after they had changed the tire together, Dr. Falwell, who by this point was drenched to the bone, pulled out a soaking-wet wallet and handed the student a $20 bill before sending him on his way. The student Dr. Falwell helped was the man telling me the story. He had always respected Dr. Falwell and thought of him as a good man, but from that day forward, he thought of him as a GREAT man.
In God’s kingdom, it’s serving others in love and humility that makes a Christian great.
In his excellent book, The Reign of the Servant Kings, Joseph C. Dillow shows that a prominent theme of both the Old and the New Testaments is that both the Old and New Testament saints who persevered in faithful, humble service for the Lord and others are destined to be rewarded in the future millennial kingdom with rulership and authority. But before RULING in the future kingdom comes SERVING in the present era. He says:
The controlling principle of the biblical philosophy of history rests in the precept of the second before the first. God often chooses the “nothings” (1 Cor. 1:26-27). Only in this way is the self-praise of man destroyed. It is the pervading characteristic of the whole course of redemption that God chooses the younger before the elder, sets the smaller in priority to the greater, and chooses the second before the first. Not Cain but Abel and his substitute Seth; not Japheth but Shem; not Ishmael but Isaac; not Esau but Jacob; not Manasseh but Ephraim; not Aaron but Moses; not Eliab but David; not the Old Covenant but the New; not the first Adam but the last Adam. The first becomes last and the last becomes first. (p. 4)
Serving is God’s way of advancement in the Kingdom of God. Only love and holiness get as much stress as SERVING in the Bible for believers.
II. SECOND, I WANT YOU TO SEE THAT SERVING OTHERS IN LOVE IS THE PREEMINENT WAY JESUS INTENDED BELIEVERS TO FOLLOW IN HIS STEPS.
Several New Testament writers exhort Christ-followers to emulate Jesus in general.
• In Ephesians 5:1-2a, PAUL exhorts, “Therefore, be followers of God, as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us….
• PETER says in 1 Peter 2:21, “For to this you were called: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps.”
• And JOHN says in 1 John 2:6 he says, “He who says he abides in him ought himself also so to walk just as he walked.”
We ought to follow the example of Jesus in every way, of course. EVERYTHING Jesus did was perfect and right and pleasing to the Father, so ANYTIME we follow His example in ANY area of our lives, we’re on solid ground. But there’s only one time in the Gospels that Jesus HIMSELF tells us to follow His example and it’s found in John 13, so I’ll ask you to turn to John 13 now.
Before we look at these verses, I want to explain something to you first. Being a slave was the most humbling position in Roman and Greek society. The slave was given the lowliest chores, the dirtiest work, the most difficult, demanding jobs, the things that no one wanted to do. And one of the most humbling, lowly, nasty jobs a slave could be called upon to do was to wash the stinking, dirty feet of those they served. Foot-washing epitomized the reproach of being so unfortunate as to be a slave.
Now with that in mind, look with me at John 13:4-15 – “He rose from supper, and laid aside his outer garments; and took a towel, and tied it around himself. 5 After that he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6 Then he came he to Simon Peter: and Peter said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?’ 7 Jesus answered and said to him, ‘You do not understand what I am doing not; but later you will understand.’ 8 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.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.’ 10 Jesus said to him, ‘He who has bathed only needs to wash his feet, but is completely clean…: and you are clean, but you are not all clean.” 11 For he knew who would betray him; that is why he said he, ‘You are not all clean.’ 12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and sat down again, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord: and rightly so; for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet; you also should wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.”
Jesus was—and still is—the Lord; the King of the universe. But instead of demanding the honor as the Lord and King that He alone in the universe deserves, He condescends to do the dirtiest, most common, most demeaning job a servant could do—wash the feet of His disciples. Following in the steps of our Savior by serving one another in love means not to look for recognition and honor and having others serve you, but to look for and do for OTHERS the LOWLY tasks, the DIRTY jobs, the HARD work.
More than anyone else on earth, Jesus showed this kind of humble servanthood, and He says, “I’ve given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.”
Well, how can we serve one another like this and follow Jesus’ example? That leads me to my third point:
III. LET’S LOOK AT HOW PAUL TEACHES US HOW TO DO THIS.
In Philippians 2:3-8, the Apostle Paul teaches us how to serve one another is love. He mentions three things:
First, in verse 3 he says to practice humility. – “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit but in humility, let each esteem others better than themselves.”
What is humility?—Humility is “the quality of a Christian which makes him think of himself no more highly than he ought to think and causes him to lift up and honor others rather than himself.” If you don’t see yourself as better than anyone else, you’ll have no problem cleaning the church, washing dirty toilet bowls, working in the nursery and wiping dirty bottoms, teaching a class of snotty-nosed kids, or doing yard work at the church.
Second, in verse 4 Paul says not to be self-centered, but learn to be sensitive to people’s needs. – “Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the intrests of others.”
Sidney Powell said: “Try to forget yourself in the service of others. For when we think too much of ourselves and our own interests, we easily become despondent. But when we work for others, our efforts return to bless us.”
I have very often found that to be the case. When I am absorbed in my own struggles and problems, I can’t seem to get my mind off of them; but when I serve others and lose myself in their needs, I leave with a tremendous joy and a sense of purpose I did not have before.
Third, in verses 5-8, Paul tells us to have the attitude of Christ, and then he illustrates that attitude for us in the text.
Verse 5 says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”
The word “mind” means “mind-set” or “attitude” here. Remember that Paul had just commanded the Philippians not to do anything for self-glory, but instead, to esteem others as better than themselves…that is, to not be SELF-focused, but OTHERS-focused. So, he’s saying, “Rather than do that, have the mind-set that Christ had.”
So what was the attitude he commands us to emulate?—He tells us in verses 6-8: “Who, being in very nature God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 But emptied himself, and took upon him the very nature of a servant, and being in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even the death of the cross.”
Did you get it?—The very God of Gods, God the Son, the LORD Jesus Christ—had all the privileges, rights and authority of the Godhead. But they weren’t things He held dear to His heart and selfishly hung to. He EMPTIED Himself of all those privileges, rights and exaltation and chose to be born into this world as a lowly human in one of the most stark places on earth in one of the most brutal times in history in the home of a simple carpenter, one of the hardest physically demanding vocations in that time, and in His life and ministry, He took on the role of a SERVANT—NOT a king; NOT a master; NOT a ruler—but a humble SERVANT!
Not just the ROLL of a servant. Verse 6 gives one of the most powerful declarations of the deity (the divinity) of Jesus Christ in the Bible. Paul said that Jesus was in His very nature God. The word he used is morphe, which means the basic nature of a thing. Paul then uses the same word, morphe, when he says that Jesus took on the very nature of a servant. Jesus, who was in very essence God Himself became the very essence of a servant.
THAT’S the attitude God wants us to have! God wants us to have the attitude of humility and self-sacrifice for others. And He wants us to stoop low to not serve just those who can help US, or pay us back for our service, but those who CANNOT help us. God wants us to be servants.
CONCLUSION
What are some ways we can put this sermon into practice in our lives? I’d like to challenge each of you husbands to become servants in the HOME for your wives, and you wives to become servants to your husbands.
I’d like to challenge each one of you to become servants at WORK.
In the CHURCH, I’d like to challenge you to take on the DIRTY tasks; the TOUGH jobs that need to be done; the HARD tasks—like working in the nursery; like helping clean the church during the week; like teaching kids; like yard work here at the church. You won’t be in front of the church, and you may never be recognized this side of eternity, but you have it on the authority of Jesus Himself that He’ll consider you GREAT, for He said in Mark 10:43b – “…whoever will be great among you must be your servant.”
I’d like to challenge you to come to church not seeking to BE served, but to serve OTHERS. Like I challenged you in my sermon on “greeting one another”—Come early to church, and don’t wait for people to come and greet you…YOU go and greet THEM. Be a channel through which God can use you to show that our Christianity is real and our love for God is genuine because Jesus said, “By THIS shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
When we have a church fellowship or a potluck, I’d like to challenge you to fully participate. Mark it on your calendars every month and bring some grub. When we tear down after a potluck, I’d like to challenge you not to be among those watching others cleaning off tables; cleaning up the kitchen; takings the table and chairs back to the storage area; vacuuming and mopping. No, I’d like to challenge YOU to be in there in the thick of it—SERVING!
Illus. – Of “Colonel” Jim Little. He was a real colonel in our mostly military church in Wiesbaden, but he jumped right in and always did the lowliest work ever. Because our military community in Wiesbaden at that time was sprawled out over several Air Force bases and Army posts, you might ever not see someone in the church in uniform. When we said goodbye to Jim and his precious family, I deliberately mentioned his rank, for the first time ever because we de-emphasized rank in our church. Many in the congregation gasped with surprise. He was a colonel in the Army, but he so perfectly played the lord of a servant, that no one knew his rank.
I’d like to challenge each of you to say, “I’m going to find a ministry in this local church where I’ll serve God to help advance the Kingdom of God, reach people for Christ, and help them mature in their faith.” Everybody should find out what part of the body they’re meant to be—whether an arm or a leg or an ear or a lung—and get busy serving God for the benefit of the body. We have need of K.I.D.S. Church helpers and teachers to serve just one Sunday a month, nursery childcare just one Sunday a month; and singers and musicians for our worship team. There are many other opportunities as well.
My challenge to you is to be a servant; be a servant; BE A SERVANT!
