Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, February 6th. True wealth has absolutely nothing to do with possessions. Let's begin the series on servanthood by learning about the true riches that belong to those who follow Christ. And today I want to begin a new series entitled, Servanthood, because this is one of those areas in which what the world says and what God says is an absolute thing. It's going to be very difficult to find what God's will is for your life because we don't think His way.
And what has happened is we have watched the world and we've been so influenced by the world, we've picked up on the world's pattern rather than finding in the Word of God what is the pattern. And today I want to begin a new series entitled, Servanthood, because this is one of those areas in which what the world says and what God says is an absolute contradiction. And in this particular passage of Scripture, Jesus brings that up and He helps us to see what the conflict and the contrast is here. And as you begin reading this passage, it won't take you but a moment to realize that here is a mother who's really looking after her boys.
And listen to how it begins in verse 20 of Matthew 20. Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee, who were James and John, came to him with her sons, bowing down and making a request of him. And he said to her, What do you wish? She said to him, Command that in your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on your right and one on your left. Now that was rather bold of her, don't you think?
I want my son sitting one on the right and one on the left. Now he can't blame a mom for wanting the best for her boys. But Jesus answered and said, You don't know what you're asking for. Then he must have turned to her sons and said, Are you able to drink the cup that I'm about to drink? And they said to him, We are able. What they didn't realize was when he was talking about the cup, he was talking about suffering. And James, one of these, was the first of the apostles to be martyred.
And John, the other, lived into his 90s or somewhere in the 90s, probably a very, very old man. And he was the one, of course, who received the revelation on the Isle of Patmos. And so when they said yes, they didn't realize what they were asking for. He said to them, Now my cup you shall drink.
And they did. But to sit on my right and on my left, this is not mine to give. But it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my father. But Jesus called them to himself and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.
It is not so among you. But whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.
Now notice the contrast here. He said, Now this is the way the world thinks about it. Verse 25, he says, The rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. He says, As far as the world system is concerned, the great men are those in authority, those who rule over others, those who have prominence in prestige and position and power and all the rest. He says, But not so among you. He says, He that is greatest among you will be a slave. He says, He that is greatest among you will be a servant. And so he immediately showed them the awesome contrast. And here was their mother saying, I want you to be first and foremost, and I want one of you, James, on one side of Jesus and John on the other.
Well, you have to give it to us. She didn't say ask for herself, did she? She wanted for her sons the very best.
Now, she was asking what probably any good mother would have done in those days. And Jesus said, Well, you know, if they want to drink the cup that I have, fine, but to sit on my right, on my left, that I cannot give them. Now, when you and I think of the Lord Jesus Christ, what are the first words that come to your mind when we think of his personhood? I don't mean the fact that he loves and he preached and taught and all those things. What are some words that come to your mind when you think about who Jesus is?
One of them is what? Savior, Lord, Master, God, all of these things. Usually, we don't really think a whole lot about Jesus being a servant because the emphasis of the scriptures, the way we read it oftentimes is not that. The way he saw himself, of course, was something different. It does not mean that he could not be servant and Lord, servant and God.
But usually we don't think in terms of that. And yet that is exactly what the Bible teaches. Turn, if you will, over to Colossians for a moment, because when Paul was describing Jesus, this is usually the things we think about when we think about him. If you recall in the first chapter, he gives a beautiful description of who Jesus is. Colossians chapter 1, verse 15, and he says, speaking of Jesus, he said, He is, and that word is the exact image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible for the thrones or dominions, all rulers or authorities. All things have been created by him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, that is the church. So Paul, in just these verses here, describing him, says he is the creator. He is the sustainer of everything he's created, and he's the head of the church. When you come to the book of the Revelation, what do you find about Jesus?
He is king of kings and Lord of lords. So when we think about him, we think about him being God, Savior, Master, Lord, King. And yet throughout the Scriptures, throughout the Gospels, Jesus Christ is indeed a servant. Jesus understood, he came into this world as a servant to Almighty God the Father. He came into this world as a servant to man. And so he visualized, he saw, he understood as a servant. He understood in his spirit of humility, he came to serve. And as he says in this 20th chapter, he says, I did not come to be served, but to serve and to give my life, he says, a ransom for many. So it's very evident in the Scriptures that he understood his position as a servant. Now, he certainly declared his servanthood in many different ways, and I want you to look at this passage now. He says in this 26th verse, he says, it is not so among you, but whosoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant. And he says, if you wish to be first, he says, then you'll become a slave. He says, I didn't come to be served.
He says, I came to serve and to give my life a ransom for many. What is he saying here? He's saying in making that statement, he's pointing to a future event in his life. When he says a ransom, what did he mean when he said a ransom?
Listen carefully. What he meant was this. He says, here is the ultimate expression of my servanthood. The ultimate expression of my servanthood was to give my life a ransom for many. A ransom was a price paid to set a slave free. Jesus said, I have come to pay the price to set the slaves free. I've come to give my life a ransom for many.
Put down the price, set the captives free. This is an extremely important word because this word is the word that is the core of everything you and I believe about the cross and why Jesus was crucified. Now, every doctrine in the Word of God is important, but if you were to ask me what I personally believe is the most important doctrine in all the Word of God, without even hesitating, I would tell you the doctrine of the cross. If there is no cross, we don't have anything because everything we have, everything we'll ever have comes by the way of the cross. This is why Paul said, looking at his life, he said, there's only one thing I can boast of, only one thing I can brag about, one thing I can hold up, and that is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The ultimate expression of Christ's servanthood was giving his life as a ransom. And so when somebody says, well, what is the cross all about? The cross is all about Jesus Christ paying the penalty for our sins.
The atoning death of Jesus is the paying of Christ's life by himself for your sins and for mine. There's no such thing as salvation apart from the cross. There's no such thing as redemption apart from the cross.
There's no such thing as forgiveness apart from the cross. So he says, I came to seek and to save that which is lost. I came to give my life a ransom for them, and I came to give them life more abundantly. So he sees himself here as a redeemer, a liberator. Now, I want you to turn to Romans chapter six for a moment, because you may say, well, you know, I've never been enslaved.
Well, let's see if that's true. Romans chapter six, and I want you to notice several verses in this passage. He says in this beginning in verse sixteen.
Look at this. He says, Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness? He says, But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed.
That is the message of Christ. And having been freed from sin, its enslaving power, you became slaves of righteousness. That is, when you and I trusted Jesus Christ as our savior, we chose to no longer submit ourselves to the enslavement to Satan and sin. We chose to enslave ourselves to Almighty God through his son, Jesus. Verse, if you will, verse 20.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were freed in regard to righteousness. Now, here's what he says. Before you and I trusted Jesus Christ as our savior. Somebody says, Well, before I did, I just sort of did what I pleased. No, you didn't. You say, Yes, I did. I was my own person. I did what I pleased. No, you didn't. You did with the flesh what your humanness dictated to you and what Satan engineered in your life. Does that mean you could have done some good things? Yes, indeed. But you cannot serve two masters and you'll either serve Satan and the flesh or you'll serve the Lord Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit. So he says, Now, before you and I were saved, we were slaves of sin, a person.
And this is the tragedy. Many people think they're doing what they want to do. If you were doing what you want to do, then let me ask you a question. You may have gotten on drugs because you wanted to. And you may think that you were enjoying what was going on.
But let me ask you a question. Why can't you get off of them? If you were in control and you did what you wanted to do, then why don't you get off of them? You're an alcoholic and you drank because you wanted to drink. And you drank now because you want to drink.
Why don't you quit? Listen, many things offer a beautiful picture of freedom and liberty and enjoyment. But the question is, does it enslave us? Every form of sin is enslaving by its very nature. So when Jesus said he came to set the captives free, and that's what he says in the prophecy there in Luke chapter four, he came to set us free from the power of sin in our life. And so when Jesus said he came to give his life a ransom for many, this is what he's talking about. He came to set us free from the power of sin in our life and not only to set us free, but he also came to give us the blessing that comes with this abundant life. He said, I've come that you might have life and have it more abundantly, have life at its best with the joy and the happiness and the contentment in a world of sin and suffering and heartache and shame and death and all the things that go with it. We need some peace and some joy and some contentment.
Where does that come? It comes to the person of Jesus Christ. He said, I came to serve you. I came to give my life. The ultimate expression of servanthood in the life of Jesus was the cross. And so when somebody says to you, well, what's servanthood all about?
You could wrap it up in one word and that's cross. Because that is exactly why Jesus came. He said, I came to give my life a ransom for many. Now, notice we said, he said for, in exchange for the many. Notice he said, I came to give my life a ransom for many.
Who are the many? Well, I want you to turn to a couple of passages of Scripture. Turn to Titus right before you get to Hebrews. Turn to Titus and look at this second chapter for a moment. And notice how Paul says this in a beautiful way in his very short verse. In this eleventh verse of Titus chapter two he says, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. He says, the grace of God has appeared.
How did it appear? It appeared in the person of Jesus Christ provided for at his atoning death at Calvary. If you just turn on over through the first and second Peter to 1 John. And look, if you will, in the second chapter of 1 John. Another important verse concerning this. The second verse of the second chapter says, And he himself, speaking of Jesus, is the propitiation, that is the living sacrifice who went to Calvary. He's the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also, he says, for the sins of the whole world. Jesus Christ is the ultimate sacrifice that made it possible for all of us to be saved. Now, if a ransom is a price paid to set a slave free, who was paid off in this transaction when Jesus Christ went to the cross and laid down his life voluntarily?
He said, I lay it down. And when he laid it down, the Father placed all the sin of the world upon him. The sin debt of the world was paid.
To whom was it paid? God. Now, oftentimes people think that, well, what happened was when Jesus Christ died, that that paid off Satan. Satan had no power over him. And he was not paying off Satan.
Now, you say, well, now, wait a minute. How is it that Jesus Christ had to pay off anything? I mean, is he not God?
Yes, he is. Well, if he laid down his life as a ransom, as a payment, well, what do you mean paying off his Father? So I want you to turn, if you will, to Romans chapter 3, a very, very important passage of Scripture in the Bible. First time you read it, you think, what in the world does this mean? Second time you read it, you think, well, I think I'll pass over that one. And the third time you read it, you think, well, he said it was important. And I want you to see how very important this is because, listen now, here is the heart in all the Scriptures.
Now, watch this. How God, who is absolutely perfect, who is absolutely holy, absolutely sinless, when God says, the soul that sinneth it shall die, what that means is the soul that sinneth it shall die. It doesn't mean except if and in but. So that every single person who sins will pay the penalty of their sin. So God came up, I don't mean that he had to come up with something, but in our way of saying it, he provided a way for your sin and mine to be atoned for, paid for, in such a fashion that he could set us free from what we deserved, which was guilt and separation and eternal separation from him. He made it possible for us in his servanthood to be able to be free, free from the power of sin, free from the ultimate power of sin, which is eternal death and separation from God the Father. He made it possible. How did he make it possible? Here's what he did. When he sent the Lord Jesus Christ, look at this passage and see what it says. He says, beginning in verse 23, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Now, look at this. I'm going to interpret these words as we go through it. Being justified, that is declared no longer guilty. I didn't say it wasn't. We aren't guilty, but declared by God, not guilty. Being declared not guilty as a gift. Look at that, as a gift by his grace. This isn't something we did for ourselves.
This isn't something anybody else could have done for us. Being declared by Almighty God, no longer guilty, as a gift from him by his grace, which is his goodness and kindness toward us, without regard to merit and worth on our part. And in spite of what we deserve, he did it. Through the redemption, that is the purchase price, which is in Christ Jesus, when Christ went to the cross. Redemption means that he paid the price. He redeemed us. He bought us back. We were on our way to eternal separation from him. And he laid down his life on the cross.
That's what the ransom is all about. Paid the price for you and me. He says, which is in Christ Jesus, whom, that is Jesus, whom God displayed. How did he display it? He placed him upon a cross for the whole world to see.
And the object of our affection, if there's any object of affection materially or symbolically wise in the Christian faith, it is the cross. He says he displayed him publicly as a propitiation or as a sacrifice in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness.
That is the righteousness of God. Now look, if God had said, well, yeah, I know you've sinned, but I'll let you get by with it. God himself would no longer have been righteous. He would have lied. He would have told an untruth. He would have broken his own decrees, his own laws. So in order that he might remain righteous, listen, because he is long suffering, because in the long suffering of God, he passed over the sins previously committed.
How could he pass over them? For the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in him. Then he says, where then is boasting?
There is no boasting. What in the world does that mean? Here's what it means. That God who decreed man's sins, he's lost forever. Made it possible for man who is guilty, no longer to be guilty, declared not guilty, in giving his only begotten son.
Jesus, the ultimate expression of his servanthood, came into this world for the primary purpose of dying on a cross. In his death, God the Father placed upon him all the sin of all mankind. He did not cease to be God. He was always God. It was God the Son in his absolute righteousness and perfection, taking upon himself all the guilt of mankind and taking our place.
He gave himself a ransom for, in exchange of, as a substitute in the place of you and me in order that God, who is responsible for the crucifixion of his own son, placed upon him all the sin of mankind, and therefore, now God can remain righteous and say, my decree was the soul that sinneth and shall die. And therefore, you have died. I have given someone in your place. He has taken your place.
He has paid the penalty. Therefore, I can declare you no longer guilty. You are now righteous because my son paid your sin debt in full. That is the only way God can remain righteous to his own law and declare you and myself not guilty.
We are no longer guilty, but he says we are clothed in the righteousness of our Lord. Thank you for listening to The Pattern. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
