Servant-Leadership
Spiritual leaders who follow Christ's example
should become servant-leaders.
Here's Gene:
This was one of the most significant lessons
the apostles needed to learn--
to become servant leaders.
And once again the Holy Spirit has
allowed us to look in on what was
happening in the lives of these men.
Which gives birth really to this Principle to Live By.
Now remember they're going up to Jerusalem
where Jesus was going to face the cross.
And here's what we read in verse 17 of chapter 20:
While going up to Jerusalem, Jesus took
the twelve disciples aside privately
and said to them on the way...
We don't know exactly where they are.
But they're probably getting close to Jericho.
And they're going to go up the Jericho Road
and they're going to go into Jerusalem.
...See, we are going up to Jerusalem .
[And] the Son of Man will be handed over to
the chief priests and scribes,
and they will condemn him to death.
They will hand him over to the Gentiles
to be mocked, flogged, and crucified,
and on the third day he will be raised.
Now this is the third time in the
Gospel of Matthew that Jesus said to
these men: We're going up to Jerusalem
and I'm going to die.
The first time He said it, Peter said: No way.
That's never going to happen to you, Lord.
And of course the Lord had to rebuke him.
The second time Jesus said
He was going up to Jerusalem
to die, to be crucified.
The disciples were becoming very distressed
because they're heading up to Jerusalem.
And they know this is very tense.
They've been there on previous occasions
when they actually tried to take Jesus' life by stoning Him.
So it's a tense situation. But this is the third time.
And here, the third time that Jesus said
He was going to go to Jerusalem to die,
the unimaginable happened.
It's hard to conceive that two men could
be so arrogant. And their names
were James and John.
These two brothers, sons of Zebedee,
have been following Jesus for three years.
And what happened was they made a
very selfish request. Now here in the
Gospel of Matthew, it involves these men.
It involves their mother.
Salome is her name, and she' a wife of Zebedee.
And basically, what Matthew records is
that she came and Jesus said:
What do you want?
And here's the answer.
Promise, she said to him, that these
two sons of mine [James and John,]
may sit, one on your right and the other
on your left, in your kingdom.
Now think about that. But here's the unimaginable.
When you read the Gospel of Mark,
these two men were right there beside her.
And I think what happened is she came in first.
They're kind of behind her. And she
asked this question. And they come right
in behind her and say: Yes, Lord.
Can we sit on Your right and on Your left?
And Jesus responded to these two men
and asked them a question.
And He said: Can you--can you pay the cup or drink the cup that I'm going to drink?
And He's just told them
what it's going to be. And they said: Yeah, we can.
Because they don't really believe.
They don't really understand what that cup is.
It's death.
And so here are two of the men that are
in the inner circle.
Peter, James, and John, who do what I call
the unimaginable with such arrogance.
They're trying to do an end-run around Peter.
Because they know that Jesus is
preparing Peter for the lead role of these men.
Even though Peter doesn't understand it totally.
They don't understand it.
But from a human point of view,
they believe that Jesus Christ has come
as the Messiah, and He will rule and reign
right there in Judea.
And He will deliver the Jews from the
power of Rome. And they want to be
the president's men on the right and on the left.
The thing that always fascinates me is
they're three years in to having followed
Jesus and hearing everything He taught,
and they still don't understand.
Well, it's very interesting that they
really learned that lesson. Once Jesus came.
Once he died. Once he rose again
and went back to heaven.
Who was the first martyr that gave
his life for Christ as one of the apostles?
It was James.
He was beheaded by Herod.
That was the transformation that took
place in his life.
And you can imagine the crown that he will have as
a result of his faithfulness and persecution.
John lived to be in his 90s. And I think
when he wrote that little letter and he said:
This is how we know what love is:
Jesus laid down His life for us.
We aught to lay down our lives for one another.
I frankly think that he probably had
tears in his eyes as he thought back 60 years
approximately, when his brother James
lost his life because of his commitment to Jesus Christ.
It was one of the--probably the most significant
moments in his life when he wrote
about what Jesus really meant when
he washed their feet.
This is how we know what love is.
James laid down his life for Jesus Christ.
There was tremendous transformation
in these two men's lives--in all of these men's lives.
Except Judas, obviously, who left the scene
because of his unbelief.
But back to the lesson.
Jesus takes this situation after
addressing these two men in their
arrogance. And he turns to all of them in
verse 25 and He says this:
Jesus called them over and [He] said...
Look, men. Look.
And by the way, the other men are just
indignant because they knew what
James and John had done. And Jesus says:
...You know that the rulers of the
Gentiles lord it over them, and those in
high positions act as tyrants over them.
[That is their people.]
It must not be like that among you [you men].
On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among
you must be your servant, and whoever
wants to be first among you must be your slave...
This, by the way, is teaching them in the
context of experience.
This is an experience that James and John
are never going to forget.
They're learning the hard way.
And the others are learning as well. And so Jesus says:
...just as the Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve, and to give His life as a
ransom for [so] many.
And of course, later he washed their feet
as you remember, and said:
Look, you know, I'm your Lord.
I'm your teacher and yet I've washed your feet.
I've served you. It's an example.
You're to serve one another.
And of course, the great lesson there
was a willingness to give their life for Jesus.
And James was one of the first ones of
the apostles that gave his life.
Here's a question for Reflection and Response:
In what ways does this principle of
being a servant apply not only to
pastoral leaders but to all members of the church?
Well, Galatians 5:13 says:
For you are called to be free, brothers and sisters;
only don't use this freedom as an
opportunity for the flesh...
But, and here's the message:
...serve one another through love.
And as I was thinking about: What does it mean
to be a servant regardless of our position?
My mind went back to an experience
that I had when I was younger.
Not too much younger.
I had the privilege of doing helicopter skiing
in Canada with my son.
And the first time that I helicopter skied.
I'd skied a lot on hard-packed and I felt really good.
But boy, when I got up into that powder
and up into those mountains.
And coming down through those powder fields,
I was having a tough time.
I was with a group of people. And one of
the guides came up to me about noon
after the first day. And said, quietly as
I was eating my lunch. Sitting out there
right on that mountain.
Helicopter brought our lunch in.
And we were sitting there. And he said:
Gene, he said, I've been watching. He said.
You're going to wear yourself out.
You got two and a half days yet.
And would you mind having a little one-on-one?
And I said: Whoa.
I'll take all the one-on-one I can get.
Well, he said. Look over there.
There's a--that gentleman over there.
He's a little guy.
He was carrying soup cans. And he was serving us.
And he was taking the cans back to the helipad
to go back off the mountain.
His name was Walt. And he said:
Walt's a good skier, and when you
get up on the top of the mountain,
he'll take and give you some lessons.
If it's okay with you. I said: I'll take it.
We got to the top of the mountain.
And Walt took me first--there were three of us
that he was working with who had a problem
and needed some help. And I remember
that day as he was sharing with me,
showing me just the basic moves.
And I had skied enough in my life that very quickly,
I got it. Because I was putting pressure
on my downhill ski and you never do that in powder.
So he taught me to just to bounce
and to go through and keep the skis together.
And I picked it up within seconds. And I'm skiing down.
And he's down below and I sky up beside him.
We're talking. He looks up and he sees the two older
gentlemen coming down.
One was really quite old. And he made a comment.
He said: You know, I've never skied
with my dad for six years. And I didn't
know what he was talking about
because I didn't know that
older gentleman was his dad.
I thought he was having a father fixation
on me or something.
But anyway, he helped me and taught me.
And just really--it was a great, great opportunity.
And he taught the other two guys, as well.
We were sitting that night at the
lodge for dinner. And the old man, who
was his dad ,was sitting next to me.
And he turned to me and he said:
Gene, my son really enjoyed teaching you today.
I said: Walt is your son?
He said: Oh, yeah, you didn't know that?
See, that's what he had meant when
he said: I've never skied with my dad for six years.
And then he looked at me and he says:
You don't know who my son is, do you?
I said: Well, I really don't, I guess.
I mean, he was serving soup cans.
He was just one of us.
I found out he was the COO of all of the
Canadian mountain holidays.
There are 12 locations throughout Canada.
And Walt comes and sits down.
And I said: Walt, I had no idea who
you were, and who you are, and your responsibilities.
He says: Yeah. He said: I spend a week in each location.
I go incognito. I check everything out.
I check the food services.
I check how well the guides are doing.
I just want to make sure we're doing the
very best possible job.
And I thought to myself: Here's a guy
with that kind of position.
By the way, eventually, he became the CEO.
He began as a bus driver just driving
people up to the helipads.
Eventually, from COO to CEO.
And I thought to myself:
Not once did he tell me when he was
teaching me to sky, who he was. He just served me.
And I thought: You know,
Jesus said something about that.
He that is greatest is servant of all.
And I don't know whether he was
even a believer.
But the fact is, he was demonstrating what Jesus did.
And what He was teaching the apostles.
There's a spiritual lesson there.
So here's the Principle to Live By:
Spiritual leaders who follow Christ's example
should become servant-leaders.