Serving the King

Nathanael answered Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel."
(John 1:49)

Jesus is both Christ and Lord. As the Christ, Jesus is the one promised by God and proclaimed by the prophets as the one by whom God delivers His people. As Lord, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus Christ. To him every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Those who profess Jesus Christ as Lord are to live for him. We are to serve him. Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and the Lord of lords. Those whom he calls to follow him, those who hear the gospel message of the kingdom of God and respond, are called to serve the King. In serving Jesus, we are serving God Himself. In serving Jesus, we are serving the interests of the kingdom of God by serving the citizens of God's kingdom.

Not only are we called to serve, but in Jesus we see the perfect example of one who serves. Jesus did only that which his Father told him to do. As his Father sent him, so does Jesus send his disciples. Jesus himself stated that he came to serve and not to be served. He teaches his disciples that we are not greater than our master. Those who seek to be the greatest are to be the servants to all. Jesus shows us how to serve and calls us to serve. A mature Christian is one who is actively serving the King.

Growth towards Christian maturity

Serving Myself

In our self-interest, we serve no one but ourselves. Our energy is spent serving the desires and passions of our flesh. We neither serve Jesus nor have any interest in serving him. In fact, from our perspective, there is no value in serving Jesus. We see following Jesus as a form of bondage. We know nothing of the freedom that is intended for those who are in Christ. Any supposed interest we show in serving others is marred by our self-interest. Not only is our focus on ourselves, but we are living in a Western culture in which the idea of a king is at best solely ceremonial and at worst a completely foreign idea. We believe in the ideals of a Democracy or at least of a Republic, and therefore we resist any idea to a king. Thus, we turn away from Jesus when he is presented as King.

Christ Becomes My Teacher

Our journey towards knowing and embracing Jesus as our king involves coming in contact with the king. At first we don't recognize him as king, but begin to get to know him as teacher. Through his teaching, awareness begins to take root in us of the depth of our self-interest. It is often subtle at first. We have been so conditioned to accept and even embrace our lives in terms of satisfying ourselves, that it takes time for us to become aware. We embrace Jesus and being to encounter the truth that he is the Christ, God's promised Messiah. Attention is shifting towards him and we commit to following him. As we grow in our knowledge and love of him, we discover that he teaches that he came to serve not to be served. That is challenging to us because it goes counter to all that we believe about life and ourselves. We might accept that it is good to help people out by serving them, but being a servant is not what we see as our lot in live. A servant is a low position in our world view. Nevertheless, what we find in Jesus keeps drawing us. We see in him a life lived that is like no other in history. We wrestle with the idea of Jesus serving and his call to us to serve. And like his first disciples, we resist the idea, desiring instead to be a great follower of Jesus. Thus, in the early stages of our transformation, our attention is focused more on how we can benefit from following Jesus, not on how we are to serve Jesus.

I Submit to Him as Lord

Growth in Christ takes place as we listen to what he teaches and then do what he says. In time, following Jesus becomes the focus of our lives. In walking with Jesus we see and experience things that go beyond what we could have imagined before. Not only do we see the things Jesus does and hear what Jesus teaches, but he is equipping us to do what he does and teach what he teaches. Our relationship with Jesus is deepening. We are growing in our trust of him and his leading. More and more we find ourselves doing what Jesus says even when our initial reaction may be to resist. But Jesus is trustworthy and we are committed to following him. There is a shift taking place in us in that our interest in serving Christ simply for the sake of serving him is increasing, and the pursuits of our self-centered interests is decreasing. Jesus is clearly still teaching us, but our relationship is such that our commitment to him goes beyond his being our teacher. We now see that he is indeed Lord. Lord of all. All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Jesus. What is even more astonishing to us is that as we walk with him and continue to learn from him, he gives us things to do in his name and his authority that we go and carryout. Serving Jesus is not at all what we thought. There is a freedom we find in belonging to Jesus and serving his interest. We are growing in our excited to serve him. Less and less do we think about what we will get out of it.

Sent as an Ambassador

We are maturing in Christ. He is our Lord. We are grasping that we are citizens of the kingdom of God and that Jesus is our King. We realize that humanity could never find one who could be a better king because through no one other than Jesus has the world been created and is it sustained. No one else is without sin. No one else leads as a servant. No Democracy or Republic is needed for Jesus is king. We certainly realize that the fullness of Jesus? reign will not be in place until he returns to earth and judges the world. Nevertheless, Christ dwells within the heart of those who believe in him, and thus he reigns in the lives of those who belong to him. No longer are we living for ourselves. The desires and passions of our flesh can never satisfy the longing for Christ we now have. Our heart's desire is to serve him, and we find God granting that desire by giving us opportunities to do just that. Our interest in serving Christ and his kingdom interests have led to our crucifying our flesh with its passions and desires. We hear the Lord calling us to fulfill the mission he set out for his Christ. We are now intentionally pursuing our calling to make disciples. We are serving the King. We are his ambassadors, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God and of Jesus Christ. We are ambassadors calling those God puts in our path to be reconciled to God. We are the servants sent out to bring people to the marriage supper of the Lamb. What joy it is to serve Christ with our life. What a great reward we are promised when this life is over.