We are on the home
stretch of the six part series. This
week is our 5th in the series looking at Jesus’ Vision for the
Church. Today we will look at Jesus’
Vision for Leaders within the Church. Before I read the scripture – let’s pray.
Gentle
Shepherd, Come and Lead us
For
we need you to help us find our way.
Gentle
Shepherd, Come and Feed us,
For
we need your strength from day to day
The context of this
passage is very important. James and
John had come to Jesus through their mother and asked for a special reward and
a special position when Jesus set up the kingdom. That one
“may sit at your right and the other
on your left in your kingdom.”
Jesus denied the
request and then the other ten disciples got indignant and began arguing about
who was the greatest. Now hear Jesus’ response:
25 Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so
with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your
servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave-- just
as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life
as a ransom for many."
1)
“Not so with you!” What it should not look like.
a)
Who
are leaders in the Church?
Before we begin, it is necessary for me to define who I mean
by “leaders in the Church.” First, we
are not just talking about Kim and Jeff and Brian and Sharon here. I believe
that every one of you exercises a role as a leader in some ways at some times
in various places. The kind of leadership Jesus is talking about is not just
for those who are called or gifted at leadership.
Some leaders
are called and some are gifted. Some of
you have the gift of leadership. If you have the gift of leadership you are
going to exercise that gift in every situation that God places you in. Paul lists “Leadership” as one of 8 natural
gifts in Romans 12:8. There are only a
few gifted leaders.
The rest of us are occasionally called in a specific place
for a specific time to lead. But all of
us need to hear Jesus’ Vision of what true leadership is all about.
A number of
years ago I was leading a large team of engineers. One day, a young Christian
engineer came into my office and asked:
“What
does it mean for you to be a Servant Leader here?”
I had no
answer. I had never integrated that part
of my Christian walk with my work life.
I didn’t have clue. But from that day forth I began seeking how to
integrate Jesus’ model of leadership everywhere. Jesus sees the Church both within these walls
and without. He wants His Servant
Leaders to apply His teaching in every place He puts us.
So listen up –
Jesus’ Vision for Leaders of His church is for all of us.
b)
What
is Jesus saying here
Jesus begins
this teaching by building upon what they already know:
“You know that …”
The
Disciples knew what leadership looks like in the world. And so do we. Worldly leaders place
themselves over others.
“… lord it over them”
“… exercise authority
over them” and we don’t like how
it feels.
Now
most of us would say
“I never lord it over anybody when I am in
a position of leadership.
When we say that - we aren’t really getting Jesus’ point. I would say that whenever we use our power or
authority or position to coerce or manipulate another to do what we want, we
are responding as worldly leaders and are “lording it over them.” I’m afraid that most of us can more easily
identify with that kind of leadership.
Jesus’ response.
“NOT
SO WITH YOU!”
But
Jesus is not just talking about “lording it over” other people. We also need to
remember the context. Jesus is
responding to James and John who were thinking about their own reward and their
own personal distinction. Jesus is
responding to their jockeying for position and trying to have the appearance of
being great. Worldly leaders seek for positions of authority and power for
their own reward and their own honor.
Jesus
cannot be more emphatic:
“NOT
SO WITH YOU!”
Jesus
is saying that “The people of the world don’t exercise
leadership the way I want it exercised in the church.” “I want to turn your understanding of leadership upside down.”
Jesus Vision
of the Church is that her leaders:
·
would not lord
it over His church
·
would not
exercise authority over His church as a means of getting their way
·
would not be
out for their own reward
·
would not be
looking for personal distinction in their leadership.
Jesus
vision of leadership has turned everybody’s idea of leadership on it’s
head. He’s saying “Leaders in My church don’t put themselves on top. They put themselves on the bottom.”
Listen
to the powerful contrasting images He uses to describe His leaders;
Not looking to become great – but to be a
servant
Not looking to be first – but to be a
slave
Notice
the future and present contrast in those images. We are always trying to be something great in
the future. Jesus wants us to be a
servant NOW. Jesus is saying:
“In my church, I want my leaders to forget about
“becoming” and just “be.”
This
week a friend shared her idea of servant leadership with me. She said that Jesus’ leaders are to be like
servants and slaves who are trained to please their Master rather than please
themselves.
Again,
I think all of us can identify with being out to please ourselves rather than
being out to please the Master. There
are so many areas that we haven’t made Jesus’ words our words: When we find
ourselves trying to please ourselves, we need to say:
“NOT
SO WITH ME!”
2)
Servant Leaders “just as …” What did it look
like?
Jesus not only
teaches the disciples that they need to strive for downward mobility, He gives
them a living example of that leadership looked like. When Jesus says:
“just as the
Son of man…”
He is saying – “Don’t look at how the world leads – look at me.”
So what can we learn
about being a servant leader from Jesus.
Let’s look at just two things.
a)
A
Servant Leader does the job that no one else will do
Jesus
said that
“the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to
serve …”
and of course
the most obvious example of that is when He washed the disciples’ feet. Most of you know that when you entered a
house in the
Jesus
exhibited servant leadership by doing the job that no one else would do. The job that was beneath everyone else. And then He re-iterated His vision for
leadership in the Church when he said:
“You also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do
as I have done for you.”[i]
b)
A
Servant Leader takes the hit for those he leads
Jesus tells
his disciples to lead as he led just as the Son of man came:
“to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Remember when
they arrested Jesus and he told the thugs to take him and let the others go.[ii]
Jesus did not
just give His life. Our scripture says
that He gave it as a ransom. A ransom is
what is given to a captor to release a captive.
Jesus gave His life so that we who deserve to be captive can be
released. Jesus took the hit “while we were yet sinners.”[iii]
Jesus’ Vision
for Church leaders is not just to have us clean bathrooms / not just doing the
jobs no one else wants. For Jesus
Servant leadership involves death. Death
to all of our dreams. All of our
desires. Making our lives a ransom / a
payment so that others can be set free.
Does He have
any takers? Any one want to take this
and present it at the
3)
Servant Leaders What does it look like?
But is this even
possible? Can we serve “just as the Son
of Man” served?
I believe it is our
calling and it is possible. Today we
remember all of those who died in the attacks on 9-11. Look how many people were Servant Leaders at
that time. The fireman. Todd Beamer and Jeremy Glick who stopped
flight 93 from flying into the Capital.
God has placed inside
us the capacity for heroic Servant Leadership.
But it is not something to become – it is something that we just do by
choosing to be the lowest / by choosing downward mobility.
The Apostle Peter certainly got Jesus’ point. Listen to Peter’s words to the leader in his first epistle:
Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving
as overseers--not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants
you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those
entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 1 Peter 5:2-3
Jesus is not saying that no one is ever over another person
in the Church. Peter uses the words
“over-seers” in this passage. But notice
how he uses the exact phrase that Jesus’ uses:
“not lording it over those entrusted
to you but being examples to the flock.”
We pass on servant
leadership by having it modeled for us. Servant leaders are examples to the
flock. Every week, when I come here I
see your Servant leaders folding bulletins.
Getting the place ready for you and I.
So let me share with
you two stories of where I have seen this kind of leadership in operation.
I
have a friend who is a high powered corporate attorney in a prestigious law
firm in
His
office has a refrigerator that, let’s just say had gotten a little ripe and
perhaps you could say was bearing fruit.
No one in the office wanted to clean it out. The secretaries and law clerks all pleaded
that it was not in their job description.
Andrew could have asked his secretary to do it. But instead, one night he cleaned it out. Few knew that he did it.
Although
this was a little thing, it totally changed how he was perceived at work. He demonstrated servant leadership by doing
the work that no one else would do.
Attendance at the Bible study increased.
But we don’t serve to get people to do what we want – we serve because
it is what Jesus tells us to do.
Finally, one more example. By the way, last week I shared with you
how God
was teaching me to hold things
given to me with the same or higher level of respect as those who gave
it to me. As you will see – it took me
several times to learn this lesson.
This
happened fairly early on in my career.
Our company was in the enviable position of being on both teams in a
multi-billion dollar fly-off for the US Air Force. The Air Force had decided to
fund two teams Research and Development to develop an advanced tactical fighter. Both prime contractors would develop a
prototype of the new plane and the Air Force would then judge which design was
better before committing to a production run.
Both
primes were a little nervous having us working both teams. They placed very tight controls on us to
prevent any information to flow from one team to its competitor or vice versa.
I
was the senior technical lead on the project and traveled to one of the prime’s
headquarters for a debriefing at the start of the project. During the meetings, it became apparent that
we were going to require a lot of company confidential material for us to do
our job. Reluctantly, they gave us all
of the specifications of their top secret design. The documents were carefully labeled and then
double wrapped to prevent any accidents.
I
was given the double wrapped documents and left with the rest of our team. Unbeknownst to me, when we had our briefcases
inspected at the guard shack on the way out, I left the documents on the
counter.
It
wasn’t until the next day when I arrived at work, that I realized what I had
done. I arrived the next morning at
little late and the whole department was abuzz.
I was told to report to the president’s office. I rarely was called down to the president’s
office.
“Whatsup?”
“Haven’t
you heard?” A long pause. “Don’t you
know?” my boss said. “You left the top
secret documents at the guard shack yesterday.
The president of General Dynamics has been yelling at our president
since early this morning. They are
threatening to pull us off the project.”
At
first I questioned what was being said.
I didn’t do that. My first two
responses to accusation are always – I didn’t do it AND then mental excuses as
to why I did it. I was
flabbergasted. I looked in my briefcase
(for the first time since I left our customer) and the documents were
gone. My heart sunk.
“I’m
gonna get canned.” I thought. Did I cry
out to God for His mercy? Not that I
remember.
It
all happened so quickly, I really didn’t have time to get nervous. A short walk to the president’s office with
my mind racing however set my stomach churning.
“First
of all, before I say anything else, I want you to know that I’m not going to
fire you.” were the first words out of
the president’s mouth.
I
had just received mercy from his hand.
Mercy is not getting what I deserve.
We
talked for several minutes. He made it
perfectly clear that the president of General Dynamics had been shouting and
threatening all morning. He emphasized
the importance of being sensitive to their needs. I could see that it wasn’t easy for him to
take the hit for one of his employees.
But he remained calm during the whole period and never once put me down.
As
I was about to leave, he said.
“You
know Bob, I didn’t hire you to be a courier.”
I had just
received a compliment from a man whom I never heard compliment anyone. Although it wasn’t directly stated, I knew
that he respected my engineering talents and want me to know that. I had just received grace. Not just mercy. Not just pardon for my sin. Grace – a compliment when I deserved
condemnation. My error had cost this man
– yet he returned good for evil. He
exhibited Servant Leadership by taking the hit.
I received a compliment
Jesus’ Vision for
Christ the
It is my prayer that
you would say:
“Not so with us.”
to our standard way
of leadership and take Jesus’ model as ours and say:
“May it be so with us.”
Lord Jesus – So be
it.