Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, February 7th. Today's podcast identifies Christ's servant attitude as more than a praiseworthy quality. It's also the pattern for a believer's life of service. Now we say that our belief system is different from the world's, but the way we act oftentimes is exactly the way the world acts. And so we know that the Lord says we're to do things a certain way, and then we end up doing them another way.
It is the influence of the world system in which you and I live. In fact, in the Sermon on the Mount in the fifth chapter, Jesus put it this way. He said, You've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist him who is evil, but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn also to the other. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever shall force you to go one mile, go with him too.
Give to him who ask of you and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. So here is just a brief example of how Jesus said, now here's what you've heard, here's what I say. And I think if the Lord were living today, here's what he'd be saying. He says, now here's what the world system says, but here's what I say. It is one of those areas in which you and I look at the world system and say, well, this is the way you operate. This is the way you succeed.
This is where you get ahead in life. Then you look in the Word of God and you think, wait a minute, here's a real conflict. Here's what the world says. Here's what God says. And the tragedy is oftentimes the church somehow includes and involves itself in what the world says rather than in what God says.
And then we wonder why things don't work out in our life right and why they don't work out in the church right and why we're not making an impact on the world. So I want you to turn, if you will, to Matthew chapter 20. Now what I want to explain in this verse is extremely important because what Jesus was saying here when he said to give his life a ransom for many, what he was referring to is he was referring to one of the reasons he came. You know, I can recall he says, I came to seek and to save that which is lost. In order to do that, he said, I came to give my life a ransom for many. So in giving his life a ransom for many, he made it possible for those whom he sought to save that he could save them. Then he said to you, remember, he said, I've come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. So Jesus said, here are the three reasons I came.
I came to seek out and save those who are lost. He says, I came to give my life a ransom so that those whom I did find would be able to be saved and have their sins taken care of. Then he says, what I came to do is I came to give them life abundantly, life at its very, very best for those who are willing to receive it. Now in this passage of Scripture, he says that he came to give his 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.
Now let's look at this for a moment. He said, I came not to be served, though people served him oftentimes, but he said, I came to serve, that is to give myself away to the Father for the Father's purpose and to mankind for their needs. We think about him serving in ways of teaching and healing and so forth, but he came to do many things and he served in many ways. 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. 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 sinned it that 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. So when we come to this matter of a ransom, that's what the ransom's all about. The ransom is all about God.
Doing what? Paying the price to set you and me free from the power of sin in this life and the ultimate power of sin which would separate us for all eternity. That's when you and I look at the cross. Listen, I would never worship anything in this world, but when I see the cross oftentimes, I feel like I want to just bow down and thank God that apart from that work of his grace at Calvary, I would be lost, hellbound, damned, doomed, absolutely with no hope because it is through the cross of Jesus Christ and his shed blood, all of our hope is found in that one awesome act 2,000 years ago at Calvary. That's what the Christian life is all about.
Anything else you say about it? It's all about the cross of Jesus Christ. Now so what we have to ask now is how do we explain? I mean, what's the explanation of this servanthood?
Because here's the question. How is it that he can be God and then become a servant and still be God? How can Jesus Christ be God, deity, become a servant and still remain God? Well, I want us to look at the passage of Scripture here, the very, very important passage. And so I want you to turn, if you will, to Philippians chapter two. Paul in his explanation here starts off by admonishing us and he says in verse five of chapter two, he says, Have this attitude in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
And then he describes what happens. Who, speaking of Jesus, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but entered himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, that is the point of death, even death on a cross. Now, he says he existed in the form of God. That does not refer to some physical being, because God is not a physical being, he is a spirit. But God the Son took upon himself a physical being, that is a man's body, human flesh, not the weakness of fallen nature, but human flesh, tempted in all points such as we, but without sin.
So this was his state. And the Scripture says, if you'll notice, he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. He did not hold on to, that is, he didn't say, no, I'm not going.
He didn't say, well, I'm going under these conditions. He didn't hold on to his glory. He didn't hold on to his position, but he condescended to be born like any other baby except conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. What he's simply saying here is that he did not hold on to, but rather he was willing to become whatever was necessary. He did not cling to his mode of existence with God the Father. He was willing to subject himself to live among sinful men.
That's what he means here when he says that he did not cling to that or to be grasped by it. What changed was not his nature, but his mode of operation. Now he's living among sinful men.
Now he's being persecuted. Now he's growing up like a little boy. Now he's operating like a man. And so that's what changed.
Now something happens. That was his pre-existent state. Now he agrees to come in the form of human flesh, and then listen to what happened. Verse 7, he emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant. Now listen, we just read a few moments ago that he was in the form before he came in the form of whom?
Look at it, in the form of whom? God. Now he says he's taken upon himself the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of man. Now what does he mean by this? When he said he emptied himself, what did he empty himself of? He did not empty himself of his deity. At no point did he empty himself of his deity, so he emptied himself of something else. That is, he had to lay aside something else. Had he laid aside his deity, he would have taken upon himself human flesh, and if he were not God, he would have sinned.
He was God in that flesh. Walking among men as a servant, he could not lay aside his deity and accomplish the purpose for which he came. So what he did not give up was his deity. You say, well, then what did he give up? Well, he gave up several things. One of the things that he gave up was this.
He gave up his favorable position to divine law. When Jesus went to the cross, God the Father placed upon him, listen, all the guilt, all the penalty for man's sin. He suffered what he had never experienced. He suffered the horribleness of sin. He felt the wickedness of it, the evil of it, the weight of it, the burden of it, and the eternal damnation of it.
That's what this cup he was talking about was all about. And so he said what he did, he suffered it on our behalf. He knew no sin, became sin on our behalf, and we might become the righteousness of God in Christ.
Now what does that mean? Upon what basis is God going to allow any of us into heaven? I'll tell you, there's only one. You say, well, aren't we going to leave these old bodies behind? We'll leave these behind, we're going to have a glorified body. When you and I come before God, let's just say, let's put a gate up there for a moment if you want to. I don't care if all 12 apostles are standing there or who's there, but let's just, let's give Peter the privilege, let him be there.
When you and I walk up, I can tell you, there's only one way we're going to get in. If we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which means that you and I have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, our sin debt was paid in full at Calvary, and he gave to us what we could not give ourselves, and that is the very righteousness of Christ ourselves, because we are now, every single believer is clothed in the righteousness of Christ. That's what makes it possible for us to get to heaven, that you and I receive Jesus Christ as our Savior. And he said in that passage, listen to that, he said that we might become the righteousness of God in our relationship to Jesus. Now you and I don't always act righteous, God knows that. We don't always act out who we are, but the truth is who we are, we're the sons and daughters of Almighty God, having been forgiven of our sins through the cross, and the one who came as a servant, the ultimate expression of His servanthood was that He took upon Himself our sin, exchanged His righteousness and gave us His righteousness. He took our sin, He died on our behalf, and in so doing, He expressed servanthood to its ultimate. He laid it all down for you and me. He came as a servant to give His life, He says, as a ransom for many.
So what happens? His relationship to riches, He gave it all up. In fact, 2 Corinthians, look at that if you will, chapter 8 and verse 9, look at this, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. And again, Paul, he loves the word grace because he knew that's how he got everything. Through the grace of God by the way of the cross, he says in verse 9, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, imagine in heaven what He owned. I mean, He owns it all, creator of everything. He was rich, yet for your sake, He became poor, that you through His poverty may become rich. Now let me ask you, how many of you think you're rich?
That's what I thought. You see, you don't think so. But you see, the reason you don't think so is because we're not looking at it from God's eyes. And we look around, we think, boy, I need a new house and I need a new this and new that and if I was rich, here's what I'd do. Oh, if I were rich, here are the things I'd do. Probably ruin you.
That's what Paul told Timothy, watch that, it'll ruin you. He says He was rich and He became poor, that you and I may become rich. I don't know whether you thought about it or not, but you and I are extremely wealthy.
And the wonderful thing about our wealth is, listen, they raise taxes, doesn't faze it. Depression comes, can't touch it. Sickness comes, can't touch it. Thieves can come, can't touch it.
Not even death can touch it. Because our wealth is eternal. It is spiritual wealth, which will live far, far beyond physical and material wealth.
We are wealthy indeed. We have eternal salvation. We say His ultimate expression of servanthood is His work at the cross. But I want to now talk about a demonstration of His servanthood to bring it down a little bit more closer to where we live. So I want you to turn, if you will, to John chapter thirteen. John chapter thirteen. Now this is a familiar passage.
And some people see this as an ordinance in the church. But here's what's happening. Let me give you a little background. Jesus is in the upper room with His disciples and having the Passover meal. Now listen, watch this carefully.
You have to watch this. Here was the custom of their day. When, let's say for example, suppose I invited you to my house for dinner back in those days. Well, what you would do is you would take a bath and bathe and be sure you were clean. You'd put on your vest and be sure your sandals were clean and so forth. And so then you'd walk to my house. Well, you'd walk through dusty streets and sandy streets and so forth. And by the time you got to my house, your feet would be dirty. So the first thing that would happen when you got to my house is the servant in my household, the lowest form of servant, different levels of servanthood, the lowest form of servant, he would be at the door, he'd take off your sandals, and he would wash your feet. So, Jesus and all the apostles are sitting there. Here's the picture.
Here's the basin. Here's the towel. Now you'd think out of twelve apostles and the Lord Jesus, somebody would really want to show off.
This was beneath their dignity. What does Jesus do? He comes and gets the picture, the basin, the towel, and he expresses his servanthood in washing the feet of his disciples, one of whom, remember, Judas is a traitor.
He washes their feet. What is he saying? Is he saying that we should start an ordinance in the church, as some people ought to do, and wash feet? That's not what he's saying. That's not what he said. He said, I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master.
He's talking about service. He's talking about the spirit of a servant. Jesus, the Son of God, listen to this. Can you imagine this God who created the dust, God who created the water, God who created everything that is in existence?
I mean, I can't even conceive of the awesomeness of God. And here is God clothed in human flesh, kneeling down before a group of followers and taking his hands that will be crucified in just hours, taking those precious hands and taking the water and washing the dirty feet. Now, he didn't have a washcloth, washing the dirty feet with his hands of those disciples of his. You'd have thought one of them would have gotten up and said, oh, no, no, no, let me do that.
No. He washed their feet. Here's what he's saying. He says, if I'm willing to express that kind of servanthood to you, I want you to do the same thing for one another, not start an ordinance.
You know why? Listen, I can wash your feet and think nothing about it. But if I really serve you, I'm going to love you. It is not the act of the foot washing. It is the act of servanthood. It is the act of humbling ourselves. It is the act of doing for someone else.
Not because we want something in return. Jesus wanted nothing in return. He said, what I've done, he says, I've given you an example of how you are to treat one another. If you do these things, he said, you'll be blessed. That's what he said about servanthood. He said, if you do these things, you'll be blessed.
Now, here's what I want you to notice. Here is the Spirit of the Son of God. Here is servanthood in two extremes. First of all, he's willing to get on his knees with his precious hands that will be crucified for you and me, and wash away the dust and the dirt from dirty feet. And in just a few hours, he's going to be offering himself as the Lamb of God, nailed to a cross, to wash away sin from the human heart. That's what servanthood is all about.
It doesn't make any difference what the task is. The issue is, Father, what do you want to do with my life? And what does he want to do with their life? He wants us to be servants. He says, in my kingdom, there will be no big deals. What I'm looking for are men and women who are willing to serve. The greatest among you, he says, will be your servant. Thank you for listening to The Pattern. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
