The Church

Lesson 5

Serving in Christ's Church

Saved to Serve

Those who are saved from the guilt of sin through the power of the blood of Christ should, out of hearts filled with gratitude, glorify God in the church. God is glorified by the lives of those Christians who commit their lives to His service.

Jesus Christ is our example in all things. The apostle Peter wrote "To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps" (1 Peter 2:21). No one should doubt that humans need an example and Jesus completely satisfies our need. In Christ we find an example most unique. He is ageless and belongs to the entire human race in every century and in every place. He is a worldwide example for every person. He is for each of us the great example.

On the night that the Lord's Supper was instituted by Jesus, He declared to His disciples that "I am among you as one who serves" (Luke 22:27). Isaiah 53, the well-known Old Testament prophecy, portrays for man the suffering Servant of the Lord. Jesus Himself taught that the prophecies of Isaiah 53 were fulfilled in Him (Luke 22:37). The rest of the New Testament agrees with His identification. Matthew recognized in the healing miracles of Christ the Servant who was to carry our sicknesses and sorrows (see Isaiah 53:4 and Matthew 8:17). Mark recognized in the two robbers the transgressors with whom the suffering servant was to be numbered (Isaiah  53:12; Mark 15:28). In preaching Christ to the Ethiopian official, the evangelist Philip identified Jesus as the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 (Acts 8:32). Isaiah 53 pictures an innocent Servant suffering for others: "He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth" (Isaiah 53:9). He was a voluntary Servant who "poured out His soul unto death" (Isaiah 53:12).

Remember, Christ is the Servant of Isaiah 53! Remember also that God was not ashamed to call His Son "Servant" and focus the attention of the world on Him as servant. There is nothing shameful in being a servant. To the contrary, to be a servant of the Lord is a great honor (Isaiah 53:12). Of course, that is God's evaluation.

However, among men in the ancient world-as today-a "gentleman" was one who never worked. He had servants to do the work, and servants were considered the very lowest persons of society. But the very glory of Christ is that He came as a servant to serve others - even to give His life for others (Matthew 20:28; Philippians 2:7). One evening just before he died on the cross, like a common household slave, Christ girded himself with a towel and washed the feet of His disciples! He told them later: "I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you" (John 13:15). Jesus Himself is the greatest example of serving!

The ancient idea of a servant means a person at the disposal of another, to carry out that person's wishes and to do that person's work, to represent his interests and to fulfill a mission for another. Jesus was God's suffering Servant, for He placed Himself solely and wholly at the disposal of His Father in order to redeem mankind from sin.

The life of Christ, as outlined in the gospel accounts, shows how much His life was serving. He went about doing good, serving people's needs (Acts 10:38). Jesus healed the sick, the lame and the blind. He served men by teaching them the truth about God as Father and pointing to the eternal principles of life which come from God. A study of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth will reveal that He never performed one selfish act! Paul wrote of Jesus, "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found  in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - and even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2:6-8). How gloriously unconventional is Jesus, for the Son of God becomes a servant! The Greatest stooped to become the lowest. And in this act of humility, there was grace- the shining glory of God's mercy. All the New Testament throbs with that message - the Highest has stooped to serve the humblest, the Purest of all has stooped as a servant to bear the sins of the vile and rebellious!

Jesus said many startling things. Yet nothing Jesus said was more startling than when He challenged the world's standard of greatness. He declared that the greatest are not those who exercise lordship and dominion, but those who serve (Luke 22:24-26).

Sometimes we allow the glory and grandeur of Christ to blind us to His serving. We think of Him, and rightly so, as the greatest character in human history and as the Christ who is now exalted at the right hand of God (Acts 2:33). We may forget that Jesus Christ was literally the Servant of God and of man.

Now, Peter teaches us that He is our example and we should follow in His steps. This means that as members of Christ's church we determine that we must be servants of God and Christ.

The Church: Christ's Body of Servants

The only institution that Christ established on earth is His church. As we have seen, the church in the New Testament is described by various names and phrases. Each of these tells us something about the church. Of all these names and phrases, let us focus on the church as Christ's Body.

Apart from a man's body, he does not exist in this world. Without a body, a man can perform no work, fulfill no mission, execute no plans. He functions through the means of his body. The same is true of Christ: since the church is Christ's body it follows that He functions through His body. The head plans and commands; the body executes and obeys. So is it with Christ and the church.

Since Christ was a servant in every sense of the word, and since He is the example for Christians to follow, then Christians must also be servants of God and man. Since Christ has built only one church, it follows that the church, Christ's body, is the Lord's only "service organization" on this earth.

What is God's purpose for the church? Is it definite? Is it settled, or is it subject to every human whim and to the decision of the church itself? What the church is and does is decided by God and Jesus Christ. God built the church through Christ, and He gave all authority to our Lord Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20). The Master chose the mission for His church; He defined its purpose. Since the church is Christ's body through which He functions among men today, it follows that the mission of the church is the mission of the Master.

The Lord said that His mission was "to seek and save the lost" (Luke 19:10). His mission is the church's mission-to seek to save the lost. That mission is fulfilled when the church preaches His Word, baptizes the lost and then consistently teaches all the things Jesus taught and commanded (Matthew 28:19-20).

The church of Christ is not an athletic club or a literary society; it is not a hospital or a political headquarters; it is not a theater or a restaurant. The church is Christ's body, and a body functions as the head commands. Now the purpose of the church is an eternal one, determined by God and Christ before time: it is to make known God's Word and wisdom by preaching the Good News of Jesus (Ephesians 3:10-11; Mark 16:15)!

If the function of the church is primarily to preach, then it is also to teach. Teaching is to systematically present and explain the Word of Christ. Everything the church does is brought about by teaching. How to worship, the spiritual growth of individual Christians, the help that is to be given to the helpless, the care of orphans and widows, how to preach the gospel throughout the world-all of these things require the teaching of the Word. Yes, the work of the church is to seek and to save the lost and that is done by the preaching of the gospel, but the church also exists to teach.

The work of the church is more than talking, even if the talk is preaching and teaching the Word of Christ. The church is in the world to help. Such helping may involve ministries like feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, opening our homes and lives to strangers, visiting prisoners in jails. All of these are itemized by Jesus as the things upon which His final judgement will be made (Matthew 25:31-46).  The apostle John warns, "Dear children, let us not love with words tongue but with actions and in truth" (1 John 3:18). In his summary of what true religion is, the apostle James includes "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (James 1:27). And Paul commands that we are to do good to all men (Galatians 6:10).

The church is Christ in actions! As Christ's body, the church is His mouth, hands and feet in this world!

How to Glorify God

When we consider the glory of God, our minds are overpowered. God created the heaven and the earth. He sustains the entire universe. God is wonderful and glorious; there is none like Him!

What could any man do to add to the Glory of God, when "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." (Psalms 19:1)? Yet, as astonishing as the thought may be, man can glorify God. In fact, that is the very foundation of man's purpose-to glorify God (Romans 1:21-23).

Man glorifies God when he does the will of God. To do His will is to obey God, to do what He teaches in His Word. Doing His will is how we enter His kingdom, the church (Matthew 7:21). It should be no surprise that the way we continue to glorify God in the church is to do His will.

Please keep in mind that both the church and the individual Christian exist to glorify God (see Ephesians 3:21; Matthew 5:16). It is by their obedience and serving that glory is given to Him.

God is glorified by our lives of service to Him, which are in effect expressions of gratitude to God. Paul spoke of men who had come to ruin because they refused to glorify God. In Romans 1:21, he says: "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened." Please notice in Paul's saying that refusing to glorify God is the same as being unthankful. And that shows the motive of obeying god is to thank Him! After all, He has created our world and us. He has given us everything we have. And, above all, He has given us salvation through Jesus Christ.

The true motive for righteous and godly living is found in Paul's words-to be thankful! So many people say, "I must be good because I am afraid;" others say, "I must be good because I want God to be good to me." But we should be saying, "I will do God's will because I am grateful." A committed life of service in the church that truly glorifies our Father comes from our gratitude to Him.

And what else can a serious, thoughtful person be but grateful when he considers all that God has done for him? What else can one feel when he considers all that Christ has suffered to redeem him from sin?

The life that successfully gives glory to God is the life of service to God and man that springs from gratitude to the Father. Such a life will attract and lead others to Christ so that they too may be forgiven. Such a person, filled with gratitude to God for the gift of Christ, goes about his daily affairs with a steadfast purpose, with an honesty of intent, with a purity of heart that wins others to Jesus. This is the kind of "sermon" that the world will heed: it is the sermon of a real life - the daily, obedience and serving life offered to the glory of God from a grateful heart.

Let us not deceive ourselves about our religion and about giving glory to God. It is not only in public church assemblies that we glorify God. We glorify Him - or not - in the office, on the farm, at school and home, while we work, learn, eat and play. God is glorified each day when lives, filled with thanksgiving, serve God and help others.

The love and wisdom of God in planning the church so that we may be saved should move us to such gratitude that we give our life in dedicated service to the Lord Jesus Christ! He "loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood" (Revelation 1:5)!

Scriptures for Further Study
Philippians 2; Colossians 3; 1 Thessalonians 5:15-25. Look in the first chapters of Paul's epistles, and see if you can find at least ten times where he expressed gratitude to God.

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