No. 35 - SERVE ONE ANOTHER - ACTS OF SERVICE, PART I By: John J. Blanchard Saturday, October 25, 2003 Brethren, we start the year by examining ourselves. We examine ourselves so that we can take the Passover in the right frame of mind and to know exactly where we stand with God and how we are making progress in our own lives. Having done that, during the service we wash one another’s feet. Over the years we have come to appreciate what this act actually means and how humble we have to be to properly wash one another’s feet. I want us to delve into a similar subject today, and I want us to couple it with that act of washing one another’s feet and how the year starts off at Passover to put us in the right frame of mind. We need to think about being humble, to work with one another and to perform acts of service to one another. If you want to title this sermon you could simply say, “Serve One Another”. I would like to start by turning to John 13. We will read John 13:1-17. Of course, we do this once a year but that is not the intent of Christ’s words here. His words are the relationship of a master to his servants and showing how the Master of the universe wants to wash our feet. Therefore, we must be willing to wash one another’s feet. This is not something that we do just once a year. This is an act that is portraying acts of service that should take place between the brethren throughout the year because a servant is not greater than their master. Christ was willing to do this even once, and it says He loved us to the end. He loved us constantly throughout His life and He still loves us. This is something we should do through our daily lives with one another. FORGIVEN BECAUSE SHE LOVED MUCH Turn now to Luke chapter 7. This is an interesting episode in the life of Christ. It is in some ways similar to the Passover. Turn to Luke 7, starting in verse 36: “Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner…” So she was a sinful woman, someone known to be a sinner. “…when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, ‘This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.’” Of course, Christ could read his thoughts. But this man in his mind was judging the situation and saying if this man really thinks He is a prophet, why is He allowing this horrible person to touch Him? Christ understood his thoughts and replied. Read verses 40 to 50 of Luke 7. Even having seen this before their eyes and listening to Christ’s words, they are still not getting the point. They are saying who does He think He is to forgive sins now? But there was a tremendous lesson for all of the people in the room. He said, of course, this woman is a sinner and, of course, her sins are like scarlet and everybody knows them. But she is loving much, so God said to her your sins are forgiven by the quantity of love that you extend to others. He is saying to those of you, like the Pharisee, who exhibited very little love and concern, you can expect that much forgiveness back. That should have been a sobering understanding for them to come to, but very helpful in their lives. We have that example from Christ, and we have the understanding and the help from the Holy Spirit to glean the full lesson that Christ intended here. It is a powerful example for us that says actions speak louder than words. The Pharisee was educated. He had his own home and money, but he did not use it well. Actions speak louder than words. This woman had the actions and the love that Christ was looking for. Turn now, if you would, to I Peter 4, starting in verse 7: “But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.” If that was true back then when these words were spoken, it is obviously even truer today. We are nearly at the end. LOVE COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS Continuing in verse 8: “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for ‘love will cover a multitude of sins.’” This is exactly what Christ was trying to say to the Pharisee. Love will cover a multitude of sins. Verse 9: “Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.” This is exactly what Christ was trying to tell the Pharisee. Verse 10: “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” This is exactly what Christ was telling the Pharisee. Use what you have in acts of service and love toward your fellow man. Concluding with verse 11: “If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” This is not a lesson for ministers. Do not mistake the word minister for a physical minister. When you take care of someone in want, you are ministering to them. That is why they say when a doctor happens on a scene of an accident he ministers to the wounds of the victims. Or when a person comes upon someone like the Good Samaritan. He came upon the man who was beaten; he ministered to his needs. It does not have to be a minister. That is what ministers are supposed to do obviously. But we all in turn are ministers for our fellow men in that way. Love and care is ministering to our fellow man. This is the example of the same thing Christ was trying to say to the Pharisee. Use what you have to do good to your fellow man. If you love much, you will be forgiven much. If you love little, you can expect the same back. The interesting thing is that acts of service are taken into account. In a sense they are even put into our account as treasure in heaven. We have an account with God as you would at a bank, and your acts of love and service are credited to that account! It is an amazing thing. You will see that as we go through the sermon. But we want to have our treasures in heaven. We do not want to have lots of money here on earth and have a corrupt treasury account in heaven. We want just the opposite. We would rather have less here on earth if necessary and have an account that is full with God. In order to do that, we need to perform acts of love, service and compassion on our fellow man. As we go through the sermon, it starts with the household of faith. BUYING AND SELLING I want to spend some time now in the center of the sermon, so to speak, in Matthew chapter 25. When I say Matthew 25 we probably all think of the wise and foolish virgins, the sleeping virgins, the ten virgins. That is what we think of, but there is quite a bit in Matthew 25. We are going to spend a few minutes here in Matthew 25. First we are going to read the account of the ten virgins. We will start reading in Matthew 25:1-5. So you have a situation here where there are ten virgins, five are wise and five are foolish. They all fall asleep waiting for Christ. Read Matthew 25:6-13. We understand that there are ten virgins who slept, but five when they fell asleep had wisdom. We have compared the lamp and the oil to the Holy Spirit. We have compared it to different things: light, truth, whatever. Ten of them did have a lamp. Five were foolish with their oil, vessel and lamp. Five were wise but they all slept. What happened is those who were foolish were told to go buy and sell. What does that mean the wise must have been doing? They must have been buying and selling before this time. They said no we bought this and we sold things. Quickly why don’t you go buy and sell. So buying and selling is connected to our lamps and to our oil. In chapter 25 Christ gave a lesson that was much longer than that, but it is connected. We have to keep reading. Sometimes we break things up in too small of parts. We have to be careful that we do not chop Christ’s words up too much. We see that on the news all the time. A man will make a statement like President Bush will say something. It might be a speech that went on for an hour. They will take one thing they did not like right out of the middle and that is all they quote. It makes you think the whole speech was a bummer. We have to be careful we do not do that with Jesus Christ. Let us continue with what He says in chapter 25 of Matthew. Read verses 14-22. It is almost like a little child running up to their mother and dad and saying, look what I did with what you gave me. God congratulates him in verse 23. Read to verse 30. Right after the parable of the ten virgins Christ goes into a buying and selling parable about talents given to these three individuals and what they will do with it in their life. They are told to go buy, sell and trade for more. It is a continuation of the same theme that the ten virgins were. It is an interesting continuation as a matter of fact. What is it that they are to buy and sell? Are they to sell stocks, bonds or real estate? No, it is not a physical buying and selling although physical things are what we have. We do spiritual things sometimes with the physical assets that we have. Let us continue in Matthew 25:31 and read to verse 46. We have our answer all within the chapter of Matthew 25. The ten virgins, five wise and five foolish, were given talents to use in their life and to go buy and sell. What did they buy and sell? They traded with their acts of service. We trade our time in life, our physical resources and our energy for acts of loving service towards others. That is what we do. We trade it. When we trade it, what does this require? It requires people to trade with. Who do we trade with? We trade with the least of Christ’s brethren. As we trade amongst one another back and forth in acts of love, kindness and service, we are buying and selling. This is what Christ is showing. The wise bought and sold while they had time. This is an interesting concept to wrap our minds around. We could be asleep and not understand the true doctrines! Sometimes that is okay if we are developing holy righteous character and we are developing love. What does Christ say? Love covers a multitude of sins. We could find ourselves among those who wake up at some point in time and say I did not realize I was preaching the wrong doctrine! Christ could say do not worry. When I was hungry, you gave me food. When I was naked, you gave me clothes. When I was really down and out, you were there because you did it to the least of My brethren. That is why it says in I Corinthians 13 all knowledge may be a waste, because it is the love that matters. Our concern and our acts of service one to another is what matters. This Christ considers buying and selling. He gave us each talents. Those talents can be measured in a variety of ways: the time we have in life, how many years each of us have to buy, sell and trade with, or the time we have left from today until Christ’s return. This is a talent. It is a physical gift from God that we can then go use to trade with. For some of us it might be a shorter time than others depending on whether we live up until Christ’s return. But our resources like the money we possess and the physical possessions we have, we have time given to buy, sell and trade with that to help others. There are a variety of ways we can help others. It can be with our talents that we use our gift. God hears our prayers as brethren with the Holy Spirit. We all have time enough to pray. Do we use the time and our gift to pray for brethren? Do we call the sick? Do we write the sick? Do we care for one another? Do we help each other when they are down and out or when they have physical needs? Christ said these acts of service are going to add up. When I return, this is what I look for. Did you love the least of My brethren? Did you take care of the family of God? He says, if you do that a lot like this woman who was a sinner but liked Me a lot, I will forgive a lot. But if you exhibited very little love, I have no choice but to exhibit very little love for you. It is the judgment. It is the measuring stick. He has given us plenty of warning of what we are measured by. It is up to each of us to decide what we are going to do with the time, the resources, the energy that we have been blessed with. BUY AND SELL TO BUILD CHARACTER Now we are coming to the true purpose of the body of Christ. We talk of building holy righteous character. God lives in each of us making us part of the body of Christ. He gave each of us the body to buy, sell and trade with primarily. Did you know that? It begins with the household of faith first. Our physical families also would be close right behind that. It is almost mixed up inextricably. Then the world at large comes. But we must start with acts of love and service in the family of God. Christ has one body. We can read that in I Corinthians 12. We have read that many times, but let us review that. Read I Corinthians 12:1-7. What we have, each of us individually, is for the profit of the whole body. What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul Christ asks in another place? What each of us has been given as God has placed us carefully in the body is for the profit of all. Each of us to buy, sell and trade with is what we are there for. Continue reading in I Corinthians 12:8-18. Each of us is here specifically for what God wants and for a very good purpose. Read verses 19-22. Each of us is necessary as this body of Christ, and I am speaking of this mini body here. We are part of a larger body of Christ that we have very little influence over and very little power to affect, which is very broken now at this time in history. We have our own miniature body of Christ here, our congregation; and we have every part necessary to fully buy, sell and trade right here. We are not going to be able to tell Jesus Christ when He comes that I could not help the hungry. There were no people hungry near me. I could not help somebody who was physically afflicted, or somebody who was broke or somebody whose car broke down or whatever. The list goes on and on. That excuse will not be there. We have all the parts we need to fully and properly buy, sell and trade. We need to look at each other that way as an opportunity for acts of service to build our character. We are a mini body of Christ. When we think of our congregation, I want to think of an island which all of us are on. The Great Lakes Church of God is on that island. I want to think of ourselves in some ways as an island being a boat like when Christ crossed the sea of Galilee with the twelve apostles in the storm. They were a congregation traveling across the sea. Our congregation exists in the sea that Satan controls. His waves buffet us and throw us around. He wants to sink our boat, but we are all in this boat together. The way to keep it afloat and our individual selves afloat is by acts of love and service to lock Satan out. It helps us to develop holy righteous character. It helps us to buy, sell and trade. Another way to look at our boat and our island is it is our village. It is a mini spiritual Jerusalem where each of us is a house on a street in the town. We do not want to have the admonition to pertain to our town that the truth has fallen in the streets . If we operate under the spirit of the truth, we are going to be developing holy righteous character through acts of love and service toward one another. If we buy, sell and trade among one another, all of us will become wealthier in the process. That is, we will become wealthy with treasure in heaven. It is a miracle actually. It would be very hard to do without you here. Who would I preach to? Who would I try to help? It is the same for you. We have each other, and we can become very wealthy as a congregation with treasure in heaven. Continue reading in I Corinthians 12:23-26. This takes building holy righteous character to a new level. We have heard the saying that they loved each other so much when one cried, the other tasted salt. Have you ever heard that expression? In the Church of God that is not good enough! We must not just feel one another’s pain, sorrow, suffering, joy and honor. We must be doing something about it. We must take the feeling we have for one another and then do something that means acts of service. We have heard about servant leadership, and we have been taught over the years to serve one another and be servant leaders. But we have noticed that often times in the body of Christ what is reflected out there? We see a body in pain that very few care about. There are brethren suffering around the earth and we do not even know about it! What do you mean taste their salt? How can I taste their salt if I do not know they are suffering? We found out that there are brethren who are destitute and in terrible circumstances and we did not even know about it. We found that very few in the Church of God were lifting a finger to do anything to help someone else’s circumstances. We were also shown many rules to play by over the years. They were harsh rules. That is like paying to play. God wants to see a willing love. When He was teaching the Pharisee by example and asking, look what this woman is doing comparing to what you are doing, He was showing that He did not want a bunch of Pharisaical rules about tithing your cumin, spices and every little thing. You should just know to do that. I want to see acts of service that show Me in your heart is tremendous love, because I want to forgive you Mr. Pharisee. But I cannot forgive beyond what you were forgiving others. I cannot love you beyond what you were loving others. It is the yardstick that the Father established. We are blessed because we have the knowledge, and we have each other. We are not here to lord it over one another, take from one another or give each other a hard time. We are here to buy, sell and trade among each other so we all become wealthy in God’s eyes. That is what we are here for. It is our purpose of the body of Christ. The fact that He gave us other people to travel over the sea with in our little boat is probably our greatest blessing after the Holy Spirit. To have our own little village is a blessing. I do not have to go to the store, I do not have to invest money with my stock broker, I do not have to become rich in real estate in order to have treasure in heaven. All I need is you! That is all I need and then I can buy, sell and trade with you. The rest will come. That is why God gave us the body of Christ. We have everything we need in order to do this. FOR THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH Turn to Galatians chapter 6. We are told here not to grow weary in doing good. We should never get tired of it but keep it up. Be persistent. Read Galatians 6:6-10. It is all summed up right there. This is what we have the body of Christ for, the household of faith. We can sow among them and reap later, and that is why we are here! It is not rocket science. Christ told us all of these things. Back up in Chapter 6 to verse 1 of Galatians and read to verse 5. We each develop our own treasure in heaven by using the body of Christ to buy, sell and trade with. Each is responsible for our own bank account, our own treasure in heaven. God says as you have time, so do among the household of faith especially. So, of course, we must be gentle with one another. When we see each other with faults, which we will especially as close as this little congregation is, we must quietly and gently help one another through those trials, tests and shortcomings. Do not judge harshly because we also have faults. What goes around comes around as they say. Let us look at a few of the words of Christ about us and how to love one another. Turn to John 15:9 and read to verse 17. He says I have loved you and I have given you your talents. I have given you your time and your life to bear fruit. That is why we want to bear fruit. When He returns, he will measure by our acts of love and service primarily to one another, but also to the entire world. Go to Matthew 5. This is shortly after going over The Beatitudes with the apostles. It is always a good thing to reread those, but we will not today. You can take the time to do so later. Read 5:43-48 where Christ adds to those Beatitudes. Our love starts at the household of faith and extends through our families and right out into the world. It is going to be a measure that God uses when He returns. He says you will love your neighbor. If you obey My commands, you will love your neighbor as yourself essentially. Read Matthew 19:16-19. Love your neighbor as yourself. This was not good enough for the young man. The young man replied to him in verses 20-22. He had one thing in the way, like an idol, his possessions. God said if you want to be perfect and really love your neighbor, trade that for the Holy Spirit and become one of My disciples. There must be people in need. You trade that for the Holy Spirit and I will give you everything, the pearl of great price. The young man could not get past his stuff. That is a sad commentary. We do not want to have that to be true of us especially among the household of faith. We want to care for one another in all of our needs. Turn now and read Matthew 22:34-40. He could not boil it down more to one point than that. Love God, love your neighbor, love your fellow man and you will have it all! That is what I am looking for. Love covers a multitude of sins as we were told. Love is what is going to give us any boldness at all in the day of judgment. We are all going to feel pretty weak-kneed when Christ returns. We are all going to feel like we did not measure up. At that point in time the only thing we are going to have at all that will make us feel good in the least is our acts of service. We are going to hold out a list. We may not even have written it ourselves. God may have it. When I call your name, bring this to Me; and we will look at this. You will say here are my talents God! Just like that little kid. I had five and look I made ten! Like a father tells his little boy He is going to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” We may be like the one who said I knew You were hard. I did not want to buy, sell and trade and run a risk. You know when you love somebody it hurts. When you sacrifice it hurts. I did not know if You would give back anything. You are a hard guy. You will not have much in that case. We will not have much love to face His love and mercy on us. The only confidence we are going to have is our little list. With His mercy He wants to forget everything that is bad. He is willing to only look at the good! If we accept Christ’s blood, He is willing to get rid of all the bad stuff and just look at what we can hand Him for good. LOVE CASTS OUT FEAR Turn to I John chapter 4. We are going to put this together with Hebrews, and it is quite well explained. This is not a strange concept. I John 4, verse 17: “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.” There is a pile of information in those couple of scriptures there! If we have love in our lives we do not need to fear God, not in judgment anyway. We can be bold! We can say, God, forgive me for my bad points; but I was growing in love right up until Your return. Here is my list of loving acts for my brethren and for the world. Hopefully we will get that pat on the back and be told, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” That is the only thing we are going to be able to be bold about. If we have nothing to be bold about and nothing to give us courage, it means we did not buy, sell and trade enough while we could. We did not take advantage of the body of Christ to build wealth for one another as we should have. I would like to back up now to verse 7 of I John 4. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” Then we go on to read what we read earlier. Verse 17: “Love has been perfected among us in this; that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.” Let us continue reading in I John 4:18-21 and I John 5:1-4. It is our faith with works, because “faith without works is dead.” Our acts of service that demonstrate that Christ lives in us and bears fruit, that we have love, is what will give us any confidence when Christ returns. We will have the confidence to run up to Him and say here are Your talents plus what I made! Here is what I bought and sold and developed in my character to be like You. This is what our boldness will be. If we do not have enough works or very little, we are going to be ashamed. We are going to be sorrowful that we did not use our time wisely. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 10. It is the same thought coming through here. Hebrews 10, verse 19: “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” If we want boldness to go before the High Priest and behind the veil and boldness before God, we need love and good works. We do it as a congregation by encouraging it among ourselves so that we can buy, sell and trade to have talents to list for God when Jesus Christ returns. I would like to conclude by reading the gospel of John. These are all things that we do in the absence of the Master! That is the remarkable thing. We do not see God right now, but we see each other, the body of Christ. We do all of this and develop an account in heaven in the absence of the Master. No one but the Master will come. BY THIS ALL WILL KNOW John 13, verse 31: “So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, “Where I am going, you cannot come,” so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.’” Our best testimony or witness to the world is our love for one another. He says I am leaving. I am not going to be back for a long time. You cannot come where I am going right now, but this is what I want you to do while I am gone. Love one another because I am leaving you My body. I am giving you the body of Christ. Love one another. Buy, sell and trade so that when I return I can see what you have done with the talents I have given you. I will see what you have done with the life I have blessed you with. I will see what you have done with the brothers and sisters I have given you in your congregation. So go, faithful servant, buy, sell and trade, perform acts of service on your brothers and sisters all year long.