It Is Not This Way With You

God of the Old Testament was this mean, judgmental, severe God. And the God of the New Testament is a God of mercy and love and compassion and understanding. And they're set up in juxtaposition to each other as if God has changed. And what I want to say to you is God has not changed. And he's all of those things. But in the Old Testament, I want to draw your attention this week to the overarching theme of our chapter. And it is the mercy of God. And what's going on in this chapter is the Lord is restoring or renewing his covenant with the people. They're at Mount Sinai. They said, yeah, we'll do everything you say. And while Moses is gone, they make this golden calf. And Moses comes down and is angry and grinds up the calf and makes him drink the water that he's put it into. And then he goes back up the mountain. And what would you expect God to do with him? He's already said this people's a stubborn and rebellious people. And you'd expect for him to say, away with you.

But in this chapter, we see his mercy. He reestablishes, he renews his covenant with his people and remakes the Ten Commandments, the two tablets again. And I want you to see, even in the Old Testament, even when they were at Mount Sinai receiving the law, you see God's mercy shining through. Listen now to the word of the Lord from Exodus chapter 34. Now the Lord said to Moses, cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered. So be ready by morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. No man is to come up with you, nor let any man be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front of that mountain. So he cut out two stone tablets like the former ones. And Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him. And he took two stone tablets in his hand. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord.

Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. He said, Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day. Behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. But rather, you are to tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and cut down their asherim. For you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Otherwise, you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods. And someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice. And you might take some of his daughters for your sons and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods. You shall make for yourself no molten gods. You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. For seven days you were to eat unleavened bread as I commanded you at the appointed time in the month of Abib. For in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt. The first offspring from every womb belongs to me, and all your male livestock, the first offspring from cattle and sheep. You shall redeem with a lamb the first offspring from a donkey, and if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. You shall redeem all the firstborn of your sons. None shall appear before me empty-handed. You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest, and during plow time and harvest you shall rest.

You shall celebrate the feast of weeks, that is, the firstfruits of the wheat harvest and the feast of ingathering at the turn of the year. Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no man shall covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the Lord your God. You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, nor is the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover to be left over until morning. You shall bring the very first of the firstfruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. Then the Lord said to Moses, Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel. So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He did not eat bread or drink water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand as he was coming down from the mountain, that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he was speaking with him. When Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near him. Then Moses called to them and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him and Moses spoke to them. Afterwards, the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take off the veil until he came out. And whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what had been commanded, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with him. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Would you please join me in prayer? Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you are merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness, blotting out our iniquities and restoring us to right fellowship with you. I pray that having gathered together as your people this morning, that you would meet with us, that you would open your word to us and that you would feed us from it. I pray that you would be with me and give me faith as I preach. and that you would give us faith as we hear. Help us, Father, to think of ourselves and our own need of you and not others first. Father, we pray for those who are away from us this morning, who are traveling, who are sick. We pray that you'd be merciful to them in their absence, that you'd restore them to our fellowship soon. We pray, Father, that you would strengthen them as they're away from us. We pray that you would be at work in our hearts and minds, strengthening us for the work that you have yet for us to do.

I pray that you'd give us your spirit, that we might persevere and not grow weary. Father, for those who are sick and struggling with sickness, loved ones, I pray that you would comfort them, that you'd be with John and Kim as they love her parents and care for them. I pray that you'd be with Elise as Jamie awaits a new liver. Father, we pray that you'd be with the pregnant mothers, that you would be knitting together their little ones in their womb and that you'd keep them safe and bring them to term and deliver them safely. We pray that our children would grow up to serve you and love you and to keep all of your commandments. I pray that you give them faith, help them to know themselves from an early age, Father, and to put their trust in Jesus. We pray, Father, for those who are single, that you would give them maturity, that you would give them patience, that you would give them wisdom and self-control.

I pray that you'd be preparing them to be husband or wife. I pray that you'd be preparing a suitable spouse for them. And that in your time, Father, you would provide this kindness to them. I pray that you'd give them faith to wait in hope, to not grow weary or to despair. Now, Father, as we come to your word, bless us, we ask. Feed us from it. Show us who you are and who we are and what you require of us and how you graciously provide all that you require. through the power of your Holy Spirit to those who believe. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So last week we studied Jesus' discourse up in the upper room with his disciples where they ate the Passover meal. And he told them, this is how you're to do it. And this week we're going to be studying their after-dinner conversation. What did they talk about after dinner? And as we do that, I want you to know it's not some sort of wandering conversation about who knows what. It's a conversation about leadership.

That's what he talks about after dinner. What is a Christian leader? How are they, the disciples, supposed to lead? Well, it may seem strange. You know, you might not, when you read the text, you might not go, ah, I see, he's talking about Christian leadership. But it is what he's talking about. And the reason he's talking, the way he talks about it is in answer to a fight that the disciples are having about who's the greatest. And so this morning, our goal is to look into what Christian leadership looks like. And what ought it to look like when a Christian exercises authority? These are things that are desperately lacking in our society today. Christians don't know which way is up when it comes to authority. They don't know what to do, what is required of them with regard to leadership. And this is precisely what Jesus teaches his disciples this morning. So I hope by the end of it, we have a better understanding of what our God requires of us and expects of us as Christians. Would you please stand for the reading of God's word from Luke chapter 22?

verses 21 through 30. This is the word of the Lord, and it is eternally true. And those who have authority over them are called benefactors. But it is not this way with you. But the one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant. For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. You are those who have stood by me in my trials. And just as my Father has granted me a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom.

and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Now there are a couple of things going on in our text this morning. It would be easy to spend a lot more time than I have talking about them. Our text starts off with Jesus acknowledging in the Lucan account that his betrayer is at the table with him. And then there's this dispute in the middle of the text that arises between the disciples as to which one of them should be regarded as the greatest. And so I want to spend a few minutes at the beginning talking about Judas, because he shows up in our text, and I want to make sure that we learn everything we can about him. But this is not where we're going to spend the majority of our time. We're going to spend the majority of our time on the dispute that arose amongst the disciples. And so in our text,

we start off with Jesus saying, the hand of the one betraying me is with me at the table. Now, as I said, we've already talked about this, a whole sermon on Judas' betrayal, but I do want to point out just one or two things. The first is that Judas ate this meal with them. And that may not seem like a big deal, or you might wonder if that's a big deal, and I tell you that it is a big deal. Because what they ate was the Lord's Supper. And the Lord's Supper is for Christians, right? So why did Judas get to eat the Lord's Supper? That's the question.

And what I want you to realize is that there's a tension in the church. And it's something that God could do away with if he wanted to, but it's his will that it not be done away with. And it's the tension between who's saved and who's not. Okay? Historically in the church, we've talked about this in terms of the visible church and the invisible church. Okay? The visible church is, as it sounds, the church we can see. It means the people that we can see. And the members of the visible church have been baptized into membership in that church. So they are part of the visible church. Now what's the invisible church? Well, it's as you would expect. You can't see it with your eyeballs. But those who are members of the invisible church are the elect or the chosen ones or those who are actually saved. Those are who are going to be in heaven.

And so what I want you to see is, for the most part, if I could draw you a Venn diagram, a big circle, and say, this first big circle is the visible church. And we could put everyone who's ever been baptized into that church. There are their names. There they're represented. We recognize that not all of those people will be in heaven. Not all of those people have believed. Not all of those people love Jesus. And so inside that... visible church. There's an invisible church. There's a smaller group of people who actually have believed. And the question is, who gets to partake of the Lord's Supper? And the answer is, in God's wisdom, the visible church does. Which necessarily means that there are people who don't love Jesus, who aren't Christians, that partake of the Lord's Supper. And that is what Judas is. He is one of the twelve. He is one of Jesus' closest, most inner circle. And yet he does not believe. He never has believed. He never will believe. Judas is in hell. And yet because of his external affiliation with Jesus, he's allowed to partake of this meal. So what does that mean for all of us? You know, you go, well, which one am I a member of? Hopefully I'm a member of both, should be your response. I hope that I'm a member of both the visible church and the invisible church, meaning I hope I'm a Christian.

My desire is to be a Christian, to see Jesus and to live with him for all eternity in heaven. And yet it can be a scary thing to say that there are people in the visible church who are not believers. Not believers yet, not believers ever. So how do we know what we are, where we are? Well, we can go a couple of different ways. One, we could turn entirely in on ourselves and start creating a standard by which we can judge ourselves. Am I a Christian or not? Well, I go to church. Well, I don't do this. Well, I do do that. Well, I'm not as bad as those people. Well, we could start creating all of this description of what it means to be a Christian. And maybe we come out saying, yes, I am. Or maybe we come out saying, no, I'm not. But I don't think that that's helpful. Because that list is subjective. We get to decide what it is. We get to set the standard. And yet we don't set the standard of who's in heaven. The Lord does. And so if we're to...

set about the work of determining where we fit and whether we're a Judas or a Peter, both betrayed the Lord. We need to set our standard according to the word of God. Who does Jesus say? Who does the Lord say? What does the scripture say about who is going to dwell in heaven? And we could spend the whole time, our whole sermon talking about this. But I want to give you just a couple of points and then I want to move on. I want to tell you that those who hear the word and those who believe the word, and those who obey the word, all of those things, for their whole life, those are the ones who will be in heaven. And they won't be in heaven because they kept the word perfectly. Undoubtedly, they won't. You and I won't. But those who've demonstrated a life of faith and repentance and who've persevered in this work from now until the day they die, those are the ones who have sure hope of being in heaven.

Those who say, no, I don't know. I started well. Judas started well. But those who don't finish well cannot be assured of the same thing. I'd be happy to talk more about this afterwards, but I don't want to spend a bunch of our time this morning talking about this. I simply want to say that when you see that Judas ate the meal, it ought to be a shot across your brow going, why did he get to eat the meal? I don't understand. I thought that meal was for believers. Then you realize, oh, well, in God's wisdom, Those lines are not perfectly and clearly drawn to us. They're perfectly clear to the Lord, but not to us. In the parable of the wheat and the tares, when the slaves come and they say, Master, someone came and sowed a bunch of tares, a bunch of weeds in your field of wheat. Do you want us to go tear them out? What does he say? He says, no, don't tear them out, but let them grow up together. And yet at the harvest time, we'll separate them out.

And that field is the church. And so we have to live in that tension. And that tension is not meant to be overwhelming or discouraging or meant to make you despair. It's meant to motivate you to love Jesus. That's the purpose. And so Judas ate with them. And Jesus says of him, woe to that man to whom he is betrayed. In another passage, he says, it would be better for that man never to have been born. And so this is not something we ought to pass over lightly. You'll notice also that when Jesus says this, the disciples, begin to discuss among themselves which one of them it might be, and it wasn't, I think it's you, I think it's you, was it you? It's, was it me? Am I the one? And then right on the heels of that, this discussion with sincerity of, am I the one who's going to betray him? There arose a dispute amongst them as to who ought to be regarded the greatest. Now, you ought to feel like a dog on a leash that just got your leash yanked.

Because you're going down this path and you're seeing the disciples wondering about themselves and whether they're going to be the one that betrayed them. And then they slip into this argument of who's going to be the greatest. And so on the one hand, you see great humility. None of them thought more highly of themselves than they ought to have. And on the other hand, they're going, what's the pecking order here? Who's the greatest? You see humility and you see pride, hand in glove, right next to each other. And one of the things we learn from this is how easily and how quickly we can switch between from righteousness or obedience to wickedness and folly. I mean, it's like that. And right in front of Jesus. Now, this isn't the first time they've had this argument. This argument is the sort of thing that hasn't been settled between them. Earlier in Luke, in chapter 9, in verses 43 to 46, we read, they, the apostles, were amazed at the greatness of God. But while everyone was marveling at all that he was doing, he said to his disciples, let these words sink into your ears.

For the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. But they did not understand this statement, and it was concealed from them so that they would not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this statement. An argument started among them as to which of them might be the greatest. And so you could track the apostles and you could say, when they don't understand what Jesus is saying, they start to fight about which one of them is going to be the greatest. When they don't understand the Lord, it becomes an occasion for their sin. for them to fight about something and to bolster their pride and to secure themselves in their position. And so I want you to think for a moment, how would you expect Jesus to respond to them? Right after the Passover, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And after supper, he took the cup also, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. He's just said all of this. And then he says, the hand of the one who's going to betray me is with me on the table. And then they start fighting about which one of them is the greatest. How would you expect Jesus to respond?

Or how would you respond, knowing that this isn't the first time they've had this argument? I would expect them to be severe. I would. I'd expect them to rebuke them sharply for their foolishness and their folly. This isn't the first time they've done it. But instead of that, Jesus simply compares the way the Gentiles or unbelievers exercise authority, and they contrast, and he contrasts it with his own leadership. And he calls the disciples to follow his example in the process. All right? So he goes on, when they start fighting about who's going to be the greatest, which is a question of authority. The question of who's going to be the greatest is who's going to have the most authority. Who's going to be the boss and who's going to be the followers? That's what they're arguing about. And Jesus says, leadership doesn't work the way you guys are, you're seeing it the way you're conceiving it. You're thinking of it in terms of just brute strength and power and who's going to be the one who's strongest and able to enforce his will. But this is not how it is.

And so he goes on and he says to them, the kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are called benefactors. So how do the Gentiles exercise their authority? What does the scripture tell us? What's their leadership look like? Well, first it tells us they lord it over them. Now, do we understand what it means to lord something over someone else? It means that you intimidate them. It means that you pressure them. It means that you force them to do what you want. Upon pain of punishment or jail or some sort of consequence. You force your will on other people. And you do it by means of sheer power. You're able to do it, so you do it. At its core, this type of leadership is a type of leadership that takes from the people that are under its care. Instead of giving to the people who are under its care. It takes from the people.

I want to read to you an example from Scripture of this sort of leadership. I want to give you a little bit of context first. In Israel, in the Old Testament, at one point they cry out and they say, we want a king like the nations. And so they get a king, and his name is Saul. And Saul is a wicked king who doesn't do what he ought to do, and the kingdom is torn away from him, and it's given to David. And David, who has plenty of sins, is described as a man after God's own heart. And he does good for the kingdom. And there's a little bit of a scuffle when David's about to die about who's going to be the next king. But God works out his will and Solomon, David's son, becomes the king. And so while David's a man of war and he's out conquering all their enemies and securing land and that sort of stuff, he says, I want to build a house for the Lord.

And the Lord says to him, you can't build a house. You're a man of bloodshed. But your son, he can build me a house. So Solomon comes along. And Solomon is the wisest man, the wealthiest man that's ever lived. And he builds a house for the Lord. And he builds himself quite a nice house. Solomon has many wives, though, has many children. And one of his children, Jeroboam, tries to usurp his authority, tries to take the kingdom to himself. When that doesn't work, Jeroboam runs off to Egypt to hide. Because the Egyptians and the Israelites didn't get along, so he knew he could go there and it would be a protection to him. Egypt wasn't going to turn him over. So he goes off, Jeroboam's there. And then Solomon dies. But right before he dies, he appoints his other son, Rehoboam, to be the king. Well, because of the way Solomon had behaved during his time as king, the Lord told him, I'm going to divide the kingdom. I'm going to take most of the kingdom away from you.

I'll leave you with a remnant so that someone from the house of David will always sit on the throne, but I'm going to divide the kingdom because of your wickedness. And so Jeroboam has tried to steal the kingdom. He's off in Egypt. Solomon hears as he's dying that Jeroboam's trying to take it over, so he quick appoints Rehoboam to be king, and then he dies. And so all the people say, there's Rehoboam, and they all gather together to anoint him as king. And I want you to think for a minute. When you get a new king, what do you want to know about him? Do you as the people have any expectation or questions for the king? Of course you do. You want to know how he's going to rule, right? We all want to presume he's going to rule in all the good ways that the former king did, and he's going to improve all the bad ways that the former king did. But that's not a good assumption. Because what if he's a wicked king? What if he doesn't do the good things that his father did? What if he does worse things? And so this is the question that gets put to Rehoboam as,

he's being anointed king. What kind of king are you going to be? How are you going to exercise your authority? So I'm going to read to you now from 1 Kings chapter 12, verses 1 through 11. It says, Now Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, heard it. This is the one who tried to take the kingdom from him. He was living in Egypt, for he was yet in Egypt where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon. Then they sent and they called him and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came to Rehoboam saying, listen carefully, your father made our yoke hard. Now therefore, lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke, which he put upon us and we will serve you. Then he said to them, depart for three days, then return to me. So they departed. Now this is them saying, what kind of king are you going to be? Solomon was hard on us. He expected a lot of us. He required a bunch. Lighten your load and we'll serve you.

which is a threat if you understand it properly. If you don't give us what we want, we're going to make it miserable for you because there's a lot of us and there's only one of you. So he hears it and he sends him away. Give me three days. So what should a wise king do? If you were in Rehoboam's shoes, what would you want? You probably want advice as a new king. Somebody tell me, help me negotiate these political waters because I'm young and I'm new at this. So that's what he does. King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive. So these are the old men of the city, right? Saying, how do you counsel me to answer this people? They spoke to him saying, if you will be a servant to this people today and will serve them and grant them their petition and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever. Good counsel or bad counsel? Good leadership or bad? Is he being counseled to be a good leader or a bad leader? A good leader. Okay.

But he forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him. Meaning he neglected it. He tossed it aside. And he consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him. He said to them, what counsel do you give me? That we may answer this people who have spoken to me saying, lighten the yoke which your father has put on us. The young men who grew up with him spoke to him saying, thus you shall say to the people who spoke to you. Saying, your father made our yoke heavy. Now you make it lighter for us. You shall speak to them.

My little finger is thicker than my father's loins. Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions. And this is what he says to the people. And this becomes the event that starts the divide in the kingdom. Because the people are all upset about it and they all go back to their house and Jeroboam becomes the king of the newly formed northern kingdom of Israel. And Rehoboam is only left with the southern kingdom. Bad leadership. Wants to take from the people. Sees them as a commodity that will be used for his pleasure and for his plans. Disastrous results. This is what it means to lord it over the people. This is how the Gentiles are described in Jesus in our text. They lord it over them.

They force their will. They take those who are weak and who are incapable of defending themselves or doing something else, and they demand unjust things from them because they can't. This is the sort of leadership Jesus is talking about. This is how the Gentiles exercise authority. In Proverbs 29.2, we read, when the righteous increase, meaning when they rule, when those who care for us are growing in number, when the righteous increase, the people rejoice. But when the wicked man rules, the people groan. And this is without knowing it, this is what the disciples are arguing about. How do they envision their position going forward? What do they understand their authority to be and how are they supposed to exercise it? And they default to what all of us default to, which is sheer power. I'll get the strongest man wins. I will get what I want because I can make you do what I require of you and you can't stop me. This is the basic understanding of,

how authority works. In whatever sphere you think of it in, whether that's in the civil government, whether that's in your house, whether that's in the church, whether that's in your workplace, this is the basic understanding of how authority works. You will do what your authority tells you to do because you don't have a choice about it. And Jesus says, this is how the Gentiles exercise authority. This is how the unbelievers do it. They lord it over them. And to boot, they call themselves benefactors. Now, what's a benefactor? A benefactor is someone who acts in the best interest of other people. That's what a benefactor is, and it's a joke that they would be called benefactors because they do exactly the opposite of what a benefactor ought to do. So not only do they take advantage of the people under their care, they require them to say, you're doing me good as you do it. And the people, you won't be surprised to find out, are foolish enough to believe it. All you have to do is look at Venezuela.

or any socialist society, and you'll see that the people think that those who are exercising unrestrained authority over them are acting in their best interest and they're believing a lie. They are not benefactors. They do not care for their people. They take from them. Their authority is corrupt because it's a deficient view of their place in the world. They think they're at the top of the heap, these Gentile kings. And Jesus says to them, it's not this way with you. It ought not to be this way with you. It cannot be this way with you. You may not exercise your authority in such a way as to steal from the people, to abuse them, to take from them. That's how the Gentiles do it. That's how the whole rest of the world does it. But you will not operate that way. Instead, Jesus says, the one who is greatest among you must become like the youngest and the leader like the servant. Now, what's the difference between old men and young men?

Well, Scripture tells us that the glory of the old men is their gray hair, and the glory of the young man is their strength. And you see this at work and business. The men who've got experience and who are mature and have put in their time don't have to do the back-breaking work that the younger, less experienced people do. And that's as it should be, right? Now, if you were to work with an old man with gray hair who's a good leader, And you've got some nasty job to do, some hard job to do. What will he do? I can guarantee you I know what he'll do. He'll come help you. That's what he'll do. And he won't come out there because he has to. And he won't come out there because you're incompetent. And he won't come out there to show you up. He'll come out there because he understands how to exercise appropriate authority. You'll hear business owners talk about this, and they'll say things like,

I don't ever want to require of my people things that I wouldn't do myself. You guys hear people say this? That's a good thing. That's actually a good thing. Now here's a question. What should that produce in the young people when their boss says that? What it ought to produce in the young people is, I don't want you to have to do that. I want to free you up to be able to do the work that's befitting of your age and your position. I want to be able to do that. I don't need you to come help me. And you'll end up in these really awkward conversations between the old man and the young man where the young man's trying to do the work in such a way that the old man doesn't have time or ability to come do it, but the old man wants to serve. And this is what Jesus tells them. The old must become like the young and the leader like a servant. Jesus gives himself here as an example. Who's greater?

The one who serves the tables or the one who reclines at the tables. And the obvious answer, it's a rhetorical question, is the one who sits at the table is the greater one. He's the one who is more honored. He's the one who's not working. He's the one who's receiving service. He is higher than the one who is providing service. And they all understand who Jesus is. And they understand if anyone should be able to sit at a table, it ought to be Jesus. But what does Jesus say to them? I'm here as one who serves. If anyone had the place of being able to recline at a table and be served, it's me.

and yet I come to you as one who serves. Now, it's very important as we go through this that we keep our eye on the ball because many people in our day have gotten a hold of this concept so far as I've laid it out, but they've messed it all up. Now, what's it called? Say it again. Servant leadership. Okay, all right, great. I'm glad we're all tracking. I want to talk about servant leadership, okay? And I want to start out by asking you a question. When Jesus served tables, when he washed feet, when he hung on the cross and died, did he have to set aside his authority to do it? No. And that is the failure, in a nutshell, of servant leadership today, is that it says to be a servant, for a leader to behave like a servant, they must empty themselves of their authority to do it. And it's not true. Jesus didn't have to set aside his authority.

to serve his disciples. He served them as their authority. Andrew, stop tearing that paper. And this is the center of the problem with servant leadership. Servant leadership has become, in our day, now I'm not describing scripturally what servant leadership is. I'm describing what it's understood to be in our society. Servant leadership is a way of diffusing the tension that exists. between an authority and their subordinates. That's the whole purpose. It's meant to remove or flatten the authority structure. But we can't get rid of the idea that there's a leader, and so we'll just call them servant leaders, as long as they understand that those leaders have to get rid of their authority, which is to say their responsibility. And it's not right. When a leader takes on the position of serving, he has no less authority than he did if he were sitting on his throne.

In the business world, if the CEO is talking with the janitor and he says, and the janitor's not feeling well, and he says, you know what? Let me clean those last couple of bathrooms for you. You go on home. You look terrible. Did he have to set aside his authority to do it? No. He's still the CEO. He just happens to be cleaning the toilets. And I want us to get this very simple thing fixed in our minds. Leadership is something that's delegated. It's something that's given. And you cannot give it, you can't ignore it. It's given to you by someone else. Why did the apostles have authority? Why would they have any authority in this world? Because Jesus gave it to them. In the Great Commission, right before he leaves, and this is a part of the Great Commission that's always left out, he comes to them, they gather up on the hill, and he says, all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me, therefore go.

And what he's doing is taking all that authority that's been given to him, giving it to them, and telling them what to do with it. Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always to the end of the age. They do all that work because they were given authority. They didn't take authority. Okay? Now, If they were unfaithful in that work, if they decided, I don't want to do that, that's hard, I don't know how, it's scary, it's whatever it is. If they decided they didn't want to exercise that authority, they wanted to give it to somebody else. Would they stand before God and still have to give an account for the authority that had been given to them? Absolutely. Absolutely. And what servant leadership does is it says, I'm the boss, I'm the leader, I'm the one who's been given authority.

I don't want to exercise it or bear the responsibility of it, so what I'm going to do is give it to somebody else. Now, what is the context of servant leadership? Most often, it's in the church and it's in the homes. Husbands are supposed to be servant leaders. Pastors and elders are supposed to be servant leaders. We're supposed to lead by serving, and it's just not the case. Should leaders serve? Absolutely, they should. Is that all they should do? If that's all they do is serve, they are being unfaithful. Is all Jesus did serve? Is that all he did was serve? No, he taught and he healed and he rebuked and he corrected and he warned and he did all the gnarly stuff that came along with all the authority that was given to him. Not just, let me wash your feet. Let me wait on tables for you. And so there's no problem with a leader serving. That's fine. That's as it should be. Leaders who refuse to serve,

are failing. But leaders who only serve are failing in a worse way, an unnatural way. So how ought leaders to serve? If it's appropriate for a leader to serve his subordinates, his inferiors, what should it look like? Well, it shouldn't look like Rehoboam. You remember Rehoboam? I just read to you about. He's the one who took all of his subordinates and says, I'm going to squeeze you guys like a sponge and I'm going to squeeze every bit of life out of you. That's how I'm going to exercise my authority. That is wicked. That is not serving. You remember the older elders, they said, if you will serve these people, and they said a couple of times, if you will serve them, if you will be their servant, they'll love you forever.

And you have to wonder for a second with those elders, where did Solomon come up with this idea for all the things he expected of the people under his care? Who do you think, where do you think he came up with that? Do you think he just made it all up on his own? We'd be crazy to think that. These were the elders that counseled Solomon. And so there's this weird thing going on where the people are saying, lighten our load. And the elders say, if you'll be their servant. They're not saying, don't do what Solomon did. Solomon was only doing what they told him to do.

What those elders were saying to Rehoboam was, don't take advantage of your people. Care for them and love them. Serve them. Lead them. Protect them. And they'll love you forever. But Rehoboam says, no, no, no. I'm going to take from them everything I can get from them. You thought my dad was bad? Wait, just wait. That was wicked of him. So ought leaders to serve? Yes. How ought they to serve? By sacrificing for their people? They ought to serve their people by proactively knowing and providing for their needs. They have to serve their people simply by protecting them. If this is what we mean by servant leadership, then we're being biblical and all is well. If we understand that a leader who serves is not required to abdicate his authority to serve, but rather uses his authority in his service to sacrifice for, to provide for, to protect, to nurture those under his care, then that's fine. But that's not what anybody means by servant leadership. What we mean by servant leadership is I don't have to make the decision as the authority. I'm not responsible for it. It means I'm going to serve the people under my care. So let's put it in a family, okay? In a family, who's the leader? The dad's the leader. The husband is the leader. The man is the leader because that's the way God has set it up to be.

And it also is true that because of this fallen nature that we all have, that men don't want to do this work. They look everywhere they can, high and low, to find a way to abdicate and to send their authority off to somebody else and let somebody else make their decisions for them. And servant leadership is just the biblical whitewash on the top of it that says, that's how it's supposed to be. So when the husband's the one who's supposed to make the responsibility, you husbands, have you never been in a position where you didn't want to make a decision? A decision needs to be made. Do you want to make it? Do you want to bear the responsibility of the consequences of the decision? Do you want to see your wife and your children suffer if you make a stupid decision or a selfish decision or an ignorant decision? And all of us say, no, I don't want that. If I can't make perfect decision, I don't want to have to make any decision. So who ends up making the decision? Your wife ends up making the decision. And I'm sorry to tell you, but it's not her job to make the decision.

It's her job to counsel you. It's her job to help you. It's her job to tell you with all of the wisdom that God's given her whether you're being an idiot or not. That's her job. And then to submit to your decision. That's also her job. But the responsibility of the decision is yours. And servant leadership says, honey, what do you think? Well, I think that's, yes, okay. And then what happens when the decision goes poorly? We all know who made the decision. All of a sudden, the wife says, she's in trouble. Like, oh, well. And what a wicked thing for a husband to say to make his wife make a decision and then to blame her when the decision is bad. You take responsibility for it. The same thing goes on in the church. The pastors and the elders of the church are the shepherds of the church. That means they're the protectors, they're the providers, they're the ones who have their eyes facing outwards so that they can make sure that the sheep are cared for. And being a shepherd was a gnarly job. None of us...

have any point of reference for shepherds, but David was a shepherd. And what did David end up doing before he came and killed Goliath? He was, huh? He killed bears. Why would he kill bears? Was he a big game hunter? Why did David kill bears? Because they were after the sheep. That's why he killed the bears. So wouldn't it be appropriate then in the church for the leaders, the leadership of the church to let the people make all the decisions? The answer is no. And it's not because you're stupid. It's because you haven't been given the authority for leading and caring for the church in the same way that the pastors and elders have. You haven't been delegated that authority. They have. And they have to lead in such a way as, in the knowledge that they're going to give an account for how they lead.

And so they better not delegate all of their authority to whoever they're afraid of in the church. And it's not uncommon for the leaders of the church to be afraid of different people in the church, namely their wives. You ever wonder why there aren't any men in churches? I can tell you why. It's because the church is being run by women, and there's men who are figureheads. But all the decisions are being made by the women, and the men don't find a place in it, where they're like, oh, okay, I can stand up straight and sing out loud. Servant leadership. All of the women of the church, all the women in the home are being expected to lead. And it all goes under the guise of servant leadership. And it is rotting out the core of our society. Men were made by God to lead in the home, in the church, in society. It's our responsibility. And we can all sit around and argue like the disciples were about who's going to be the greatest. But Jesus says the greatest is the one who serves, the one who lays down his life for his sheep, who cares for them.

who loves them, who serves them, but not without authority. And so you men, I'm all for you serving your wives. I'm all for you serving your children. I'm all for you serving the people who are under your care. But don't you dare for a second think you have to lay down your authority or you ought to lay down your authority to do it. That is wicked. It's as if there are only two options. Rule like the Gentiles do, lording it over them, or deferring all of your responsibility to other people and letting them make their own decisions. But it's not this way with you. It cannot be this way with you. Those of you who have been given responsibility to lead, lead. Lead. Serve the people under your care. Love them. Lay down your life for them. But don't abdicate your authority in the process. Don't hide your authority under a bushel. You'll do no one under your care any good if you hide it, the fact that you're the leader. Be the leader that God's made you to be. Jesus ends by being very sweet with the disciples, saying,

You are those who stood with me in my trials. Many have diverted him. Many have left him because of the authority that he's exercised. That's why the Pharisees hated him. He was a threat to their power. You've stood by me in my trials. And just as my father has granted me a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. What a sweet thing to be told if they will exercise their authority the way that they ought. This kingdom that's been given to me, I grant to you that you'll eat at my table in my kingdom. You'll see me again. We'll dwell together. And in that place, you'll sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. That's weird. You're going to sit and judge the 12? Well, who are the apostles? Well, Paul tells us, I'm pretty sure it's Paul, that Jesus is the cornerstone and the apostles are the foundation of this building, the building, the edifice of God that's being built, that you and I are stones of. These guys are the foundation.

These are the ones that God's chosen. They will have authority. They will exercise it benevolently and honestly and faithfully and with equity when Jesus comes and returns. So I'm going to end with this. I have two questions for you to consider. One is when you're the authority and one is when you're the one under authority. When you're the authority, I want you to consider whatever you're dealing with, Is this how Jesus would have handled it? Is what you want to do what he would have done, right? What would Jesus do? Honestly, what would he have done? As you understand him to have been the one who had all authority in heaven on earth, how would he handle that situation? What do you think he would do? Which is not to say, turn over the tables and get out your whip every time. That's not what I'm saying. But I'm telling you to ask the question honestly, what would he do?

What would he do with your coworkers? What would he do with your wife? What would he do with your children? What would he do with them? Do it. When you find yourself as the subordinate and you're all fired up about something and you're angry or you're worried or whatever it is you are, I want you to think, what would Jesus say to me right now? What would he do with me? When you've crawled up the walls and you're screaming all your gripes from the height, how would he handle you? Oh, I'm sorry you feel that way, honey. That's just too bad. Do you remember Job? Remember what Job did when his wife was having a fit? Curse God and die is what she tells him to do. And what does he say to her? You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Can you imagine that? Do you know what kind of fight that will cause? It'll be the best fight you'll ever have. I promise you, if you're married, that'll be the best fight you'll ever have because you'll at least be fighting over the right thing. You'll be fighting over who's the leader of the house.

And who's going to set the tone of it? So fight over it. And if you wives get to where you're acting like Job's wife, you should think, Jesus wouldn't put up with this. He'd put me in my place. I ought to be quiet now. I've said enough. And if you can't figure that out on your own, listen to your husband when he tells you that. Leaders serve, but they don't abdicate their authority to do it. That's the point. So just figure out where you have authority, where God has delegated you to be in authority and be faithful. Don't neglect it. Do your work by faith and trust God to produce good fruit from it. He is faithful. Let's pray.