To be great is to serve. We don’t ASCEND to greatness, but descend into greatness.
To be great in this world is to put importance on oneself; to be great in God’s Kingdom is to serve the needs of man.
The world sees greatness in those who exercise power and authority but God sees greatness in those who serve.
Do not be like the boss who wrote this memo to his personnel director: ’Search the company for an alert, talented young man who can step into my shoes. When you find him - fire him!’
When Hitler was looking for a chauffeur he selected the shortest man he could find and kept him as his driver for the rest of his life. This man was so short that he needed special blocks under the driver’s seat just to see over the steering wheel. Hitler used other people to make himself look bigger than he really was.
God sees greatness in those who serve.
Are you serving today? Then God sees you are great!
The problem is not with seeking greatness. It’s good to seek for greatness.
Jesus did not reprimand the disciples for the desire to be great. God wants us to aspire to greatness!
The problem is not with the desire, but with our understanding of greatness. The world has twisted the true meaning of greatness – we define it as having authority, status, power, money...
Jesus says greatness has nothing to do with these
• Greatness isn’t having a million people look up to you
• Greatness isn’t having your face printed on the Fortune magazine
• Greatness isn’t having money or prestige or worldly success
D. L. Moody describes it best:
“The measure of a man is not how many servants he has, but how many men he serves.”
Like to share with you the three principles for achieving greatness:
(1) FIND GREATNESS IN SERVING
Man wants to be "Benefactors" (v.25) - that’s how the Lord describes the "kings of the Gentiles and those who exercise authority".
Like James and John, who wished to sit beside Jesus when He sits on His throne.
What they’re really asking for is power, influence and position.
And they were not the only ones guilty of this. The only difference - they voiced out their intentions. The other 10 confirmed their same thoughts when they showed their anger.
Look at Jesus’ life – isn’t He great? Yes. Christians or non-Christians alike acknowledge the greatness of Jesus - as a teacher, a great prophet, a great man who had ever lived.
Jesus had never written a book, or led an army. He never holds any public office and never earns a degree. He was not rich. He was not powerful the way the world views power. He died the death of a common criminal.
Yet He was the greatest man who ever lived, because the welfare of others came before His own welfare.
He left in this world the most lasting and pervasive influence ever.
As a Teacher and Lord, He could have lived above His disciples and demanded blind allegiance.
Yet He served them – even in the midst of their misunderstanding, selfishness and weakness.
What motivates Him was the need He saw in man – the need to bring them back to God.
Being a servant is not one of our natural behaviours...
If someone asks you, “Who would you rather have been – Princess Diana or Mother Teresa?” That’s not so simple – a choice between what I know I ought to say, and what I wish to say.
Given the choice, most of us would rather be the princesses of Wales than a servant to orphans in India. It would be nice to have a feel of life as a royalty and be treated like a princess.
Our human desire defines greatness this way – rather than being a servant to the poor in the city streets.
You want to be great? Start serving... look out for the needs of those around you and help them.
Greatness is measured by how many people you serve, not how many people serve you. Don’t follow the ways of the world. Don’t be like the crabs!
The Peculiar Behaviour of Crabs
I do not know how true this is:
When live crabs in a pot are about to be cooked, one does not need to worry about putting a lid on the pot because the crabs would not climb out anyway. Not because they do not have the ability to do so, they have. The reason is this peculiar behaviour they have:
When one crab tries to climb out of the pot, another crab would prevent it from doing so by pulling it down and climbing over it. They end up pulling each other down and in the end none of them is able to escape.
Things would have been completely different if they had helped each other. They could have helped one crab to get to the top and it could have helped the others get out by pulling them up by their claws. It would have been so easy for all of them to escape from the pot if they had understood what it means to serve one another.
Do we know and understand what it means to serve?
So don’t be deceived by the world. True blessing comes from serving. Remembering the words of Jesus: ’It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ (Ac 20:35)
"If it falls to your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music; sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, ’Here lived a great sweeper, who swept his job well.’"
Martin Luther King Jr.
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Secondly, v.27 “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 the One who serves.”
True greatness is demonstrated in the way Jesus lived His life. Don’t look at someone else. If nobody else is serving, you must continue to do so. Why? (2) JESUS IS THE BENCHMARK of true service. He sets the standard.
If no one else is serving, it is your duty to encourage them and get them to serve. Not to join them.
After washing His disciples’ feet, Jesus said this to them (John 13:12-15):
13 "You call me `Teacher’ and `Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.
A businessman once asked his Bible study group, “How can you tell if you have a servant attitude?”
“By the way you react when you are treated like one,” was the reply.
Example from the life of the great evangelist D.L. Moody
It seems that a “large group of European pastors came to one of D. L. Moody’s Northfield Bible Conferences in Massachusetts in the late 1800s. Following the European custom of the time, each guest put his shoes outside his room to be cleaned by the hall servants overnight. But of course this was America and there were no hall servants.
Walking the dormitory halls that night, Moody saw the shoes and determined not to embarrass his brothers. He mentioned the need to some ministerial students who were there, but met with only silence or pious excuses. Moody returned to the dorm, gathered up the shoes, and, alone in his room, the world’s famous evangelist began to clean and polish the shoes. Only the unexpected arrival of a friend in the midst of the work revealed the secret.
When the foreign visitors opened their doors the next morning, their shoes were shined. They never know by whom. Moody told no one, but his friend told a few people, and during the rest of the conference, different men volunteered to shine the shoes in secret.
Perhaps the episode is a vital insight into why God used D. L. Moody as He did. He was a man with a servant’s heart and that was the basis of his true greatness.
[Gary Inrig. A Call to Excellence. (Wheaton, Illinois: Victor Books, 1985), p. 98]
We are all beneficiaries of great service over the centuries… till today.
Today you know that you’ve been served?
SERVED BY JESUS...
1. He came to serve, not to be served (Mt 20:28); giving His life a ransom, dying on the cross
2. He serves even now, as our High Priest who intercedes for us (Heb 7:24-25)
SERVED BY THE PROPHETS...
1. The prophets spent their lives in service for our benefit
1 Peter 1:10-12 “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.”
SERVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT...
1. It was the Holy Spirit who inspired the prophets - 1 Pe 1:11
2. He also inspired the apostles, and enlightens us - 1 Pe 1:12; Jn 16:13
SERVED BY THE APOSTLES, MISSIONARIES
1. They are the ones who preached the gospel to us, and borne hardships - 1 Pe 1:12
2. Through them, we have come to believe in Jesus - cf. Jn 17:20
SERVED BY ANGELS...
1. For they had a part in the process of revelation - cf. Dan 8,9; Lk 1:11-19,26-38
2. Thus they too have ministered to us, providing protection for us - cf. He 1:13-14
SERVED BY OTHER CHRISTIANS...
1. Someone taught us the gospel, others continue to teach us and our children
2. Some have made it possible for us to assemble, and each week clean up what we leave behind
3. In times of sickness, many have prayed and rendered various forms of service
SERVED BY PARENTS - Sacrificial serving is also a part of parenting experience too.
1. Parents find joy in serving the family and their children
2. They make efforts to provide for them and give them the best
3. “They fetch you to schools… make breakfast for you… buy you whatever you need…”
Can we take all these for granted? No. I hope not.
We can show our appreciation by emulating those who served us. If we appreciate Jesus for all that He has done, that the only appropriate gift we can offer Him is our service, don’t you think? Can we demand to be served?
YOU’LL BE REWARDED
Although reward is not the main motivation why we serve - I believe we serve Him out of love - yet Jesus tells His disciples here they can expect great rewards.
Our service is first to please God by taking care of the needs of those around us. They might not even appreciate our service to them but our service will always be rewarded.
And remember, our rewards are mostly likely not in this world.
Jesus tells us that even a seemingly insignificant action like giving a cup of water to someone, if done for Jesus’ sake, will be rewarded.
God will tell us, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"
Doesn’t that put all the little things you do in a different light?
John C Miller in his book The Question Behind the Question tells the following story:
It was a beautiful day in downtown Minneapolis when John Miller stopped into a Rock Bottom restaurant for a quick lunch. The place was jammed. He didn’t have much time, so he was happy to grab the one stool they had available at the bar.
A few minutes after he sat down, a young man carrying a tray full of dirty dishes hurried past on his way to the kitchen. Noticing John out of the corner of his eye, he stopped, came back and said, "Sir, have you been helped?”
"No, I haven’t," John replied, but all I really want is a salad and a couple of rolls."
"I can get you that, Sir, what would you like to drink?"
"I’ll have a Diet Coke, please." "Oh, I’m sorry, Sir, we sell Pepsi, Would that be all right?"
"Ah, no thanks," John said with a smile. "I’ll just have water with lemon, please."
"Great, I’ll be back." He disappeared.
Moments later he came back with the salad, rolls and water, John thanked him and he was quickly gone again, leaving John to enjoy his meal, a satisfied customer.
Suddenly, there was some activity off to John’s left and then over his right shoulder stretched the "long arm of service," delivering a bottle of cold Diet Coke!
"Wow!" John said, "Thank you!"
"You’re welcome," he said with a smile as he hurried off again.
John’s first thought was, "Hire this man!" Talk about going the extra mile! He was clearly not your average employee. The more John thought about the extraordinary thing he had just done, the more he wanted to talk to him. So as soon as he could get his attention, John waved him over.
"Excuse me, I thought you didn’t sell Coke," John asked.
"That’s right, Sir, we don’t"
"Well, where did this come from?"
"The grocery store around the corner, Sir." John was taken aback, and asked, "Who paid for it?"
"I did, Sir, just a dollar."
"Come on, you’ve been awfully busy, How did you have time to go get it?"
Smiling, he said, "I didn’t, Sir, I sent my manager!"
John couldn’t believe it. Was that empowerment or what? It was the lunch rush. He was already busy with plenty to do. But he noticed a customer who, though not in his section, looked as though he needed some attention, so he decided to do what he could to help. I don’t know what was in his mind at that moment, of course, but faced with a similar situation, many people would have had thoughts like these:
- Why do I have to do everything around here?
- Who’s supposed to be covering this area, anyway?
- When is management going to provide us with more products?
- Why are we always so shorthanded?
- When are the customers going to learn to read the menu?
As John left that day, John gave him an the excellent tip he deserved.
And when he returned a couple of months later and asked for his favorite server, Jacob Miller the hostess said, "I’m sorry, Sir, but Jacob is no longer…” John’s thoughts flew fast, “No!” He just couldn’t believe they had let him get away. He blurted out, “Oh no, you lost him?” to which she brightly responded, “Oh, no Sir, we didn’t lose him. He was promoted to management.”
Adapted from John C. Miller, The Question Behind the Question, Denver Press, Denver, Colorado, page 115.
Let’s do it – let’s serve. In God’s church, we cannot be spectators. We are participants!
Discover your area in which you can serve and invest your effort and time in it. Each of us has been called to have a special ministry in the Body of Christ. Here we don’t worry about rank or status, just focus on serving God well. All Christians are called to be servants and to think of the interests of others before their own. Jesus lived that way.
Prayer
Dear heavenly Father, we confess that we sometimes use the wrong criteria when evaluating the importance of a person. We desire status, rank, and recognition, rather than seeing the needs of others and how we can better serve them. Forgive us for our self-centeredness. Mold our hearts Lord, that we may be moved to serve others just as Jesus has served. In Jesus’ Name, AMEN.
