A.G.I.R.

– Serving As Jesus Served

Serving As
Jesus
Served

© Andréas Andersson 2013

Introduction
• The Bible gives us one big role model, one outstanding life
example to follow. Who is this great role model?

• It’s Jesus Christ. In every situation we face, we can ask

ourselves: What would Jesus do?
- How would Jesus treat that rude person who just doesn’t seem
to like you?
- What would Jesus answer your boss, when he orders you to tell
"a white lie" to your customers?
- How would Jesus treat that poor, old lady in the street corner, or
that smelly boy in church who everyone tries to avoid?

• If you know what Jesus would do, then you know what God wants
you to do.

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 A.G.I.R. – Serving As Jesus Served

Worldly logic versus Jesus’ logic

• To follow Christ’s example in this fallen world is not always easy.

• The logic and the principles of this world are often the direct
opposite of the principles that Jesus taught us.

• As we turn on the TV, read the magazines, or listen to the radio,

we’re constantly fed with messages that encourage us to be the
lords of our own lives and fufill all our selfish dreams and desires.

• This fallen world is all about ME – my life, my needs, my desires.

The highest virtue is the striving for independence, and the
ultimate goals are happiness and self-fulfillment.

• But Jesus never taught us to win our lives or satisfy our every
desire; He called us to lay our lives down and take up our cross!

Called to serve
• Let’s read together from Matthew 20:25-28. (READ VERSES.)

• As Christians we are NOT called to dominate or control people

around us. We are called to serve as Jesus served.

• According to the Bible, there is no higher or more noble mission in

life than being a servant. And the greatest servant is he who
humbles himself the most.

• "The student is not above the teacher," Jesus says, "nor a servant
above his master" (Matthew 10:24). Just as our Teacher and
Master, Jesus Christ, served, so you and I must serve.

• What a radical and provocative message to believers in the 21st

century!

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 A.G.I.R. – Serving As Jesus Served

How did Jesus serve?

• So, how did Jesus serve? In what ways did His service differ from
the customer service we encounter when we go the market-place
or call our cell phone operator? (WRITE DOWN KEYWORDS.)

• First of all, Jesus served unselfishly: Unlike the sellers in the

market-place, Jesus sought no personal gain whatsoever. He did
not serve people to get something in return. His only motives for
serving were love and compassion.

• Is that how you and I serve our fellow-humans?

• Secondly, Jesus served whole-heartedly: He spared no effort to

meet people’s needs. Whenever He saw someone who was lost,
sick or in bondage, He offered salvation, healing, and deliverance.
All who came to Him were set free in God’s power!

How did Jesus serve?

• What about you and me? Are we whole-hearted in our efforts to
serve the people around us?
- Do we offer them salvation, healing, and deliverance?
- Do we offer them food or shelter if they are in need?
- Or do we do just enough to get by?

• Thirdly, Jesus’ service was self-sacrificing: He did not serve only

the people He liked. He did not choose only the situations, the
places, and the times of the day that suited him. He was willing to
pay a price, sacrificing His comfort, His status, and even His life.

• Can the same thing be said of you and me? Are we willing to pay
a price, in order to touch the people around us with God’s love?

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 A.G.I.R. – Serving As Jesus Served

How Jesus viewed people

• Jesus did not see people as objects, nor as projects. He saw God’s
image in every person He encountered, even those who were
worthless and rejected in the eyes of the world.

• On one occasion, Jesus healed a crippled woman on the Sabbath.

When the synagogue leader showed his contempt, this is what
Jesus said: (READ LUKE 13:15-16.)

• Jesus saw the person behind the handicap. He saw the person
behind the life-style. He never allowed a person’s circumstances
or expressions to define his or her identity or human value.

• You and I are called to do the same: to see the precious person
behind the disguise; a unique individual, created in God’s image
and infinitely loved by Him. That’s who we are called to serve!

A true servant
• A true servant is motivated by love and compassion – not by
personal gain, not by duty or bad conscience, and not by a need
for acknowledgement or public praise.

• A true servant is humble and respectful, following the example of

his Master, who "humbled himself by becoming obedient to death
– even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2:8)

• A true servant is other-oriented:

- He puts the needs of his neighbor ahead of his own needs.
- He constantly seeks what is best for others, not for himself.

• A true servant is Christ-centered – not self-centered:

- He draws people to Jesus, not to Himself.
- He shapes people into Christ’s image, not his own image.

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 A.G.I.R. – Serving As Jesus Served

The power of true service

• Christ-like servanthood is incredibly powerful, for two reasons:

1. It is directly contrary to the logic of the world:

- The concept of unselfishly giving out, sacrificing your comfort
and resources without expecting anything in return, is simply
mind-blowing!
- People just don’t understand why you’re doing it – and that
gives you the opportunity to tell them about the greatest sacrifice
of all: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!

2. It releases God’s power into people’s lives:

- You start by seeing a need – and the person behind that need.
- Then you pray for wisdom to meet that need in God’s power.
That’s the kind of prayer that God loves to answer!

The fruit of servanthood

• In Galatians 6:9-10, the Apostle Paul exhorts us, "Let us not
become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a
harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity,
let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the
family of believers."

• In other words, if we keep serving, faithfully and whole-heartedly,

never giving up, then we will bear fruit – people will be changed!

• But it’s important to know what kind of fruit we’re supposed to

bear – what kind of change that Jesus wants to see in the people
we serve.

• What if Jesus has told us to grow bananas, but instead we grow

figs or pineapples? (HOLD UP TWO DIFFERENT FRUITS.)

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 A.G.I.R. – Serving As Jesus Served

Two kinds of fruit

• The truth is that there are two different kinds of fruit: One is the
world’s fruit and the other one is God’s fruit.

• On the surface, these two fruits may look similar and equally
good. But when you start eating, you notice that the taste is very
different.

• And, above all, only one of the fruits is edible; the other one is
poisonous – even deadly!

• What do these two fruits represent? They represent two kinds of

change (WRITE DOWN ON THE WHITEBOARD):
- One is called SELF-IMPROVEMENT.
- The other one is called LIFE TRANSFORMATION IN CHRIST.

Self-improvement versus life transformation

• The world is looking for self-improvement; ways to become a
better and more successful person.

• But what Jesus offers is life transformation; the process of dying

to oneself and being born again and filled with God’s Spirit.

• Do you see the big difference between these two changes?

• Self-improvement is what happens when we reduce the Gospel to

merely a set of good values and principles. Then people are lead
to believe that as long as they follow the rules of the Bible, they
are morally good and righteous people.

• That’s just what the Pharisees believed. But Jesus saw right
through their impressive façade, revealing their self-righteous and
self-sufficient hearts.

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 A.G.I.R. – Serving As Jesus Served

The need for grace

• We need to bring people to a point where they acknowledge their
sin and their need for the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

• It’s not until they humble themselves at the cross, that Jesus can
transform their hearts and give them the Holy Spirit as their daily
Helper and Guide.

• Someone once said, "God doesn’t primarily define people as

GOOD or BAD, but as LIVING or DEAD."

• How does that change your perspective on the people you meet in
your everyday life, from Monday through Sunday?

• After all, if somebody doesn’t have God’s Spirit and the eternal
life, what does it help if he or she leads a morally good life?

Make disciples
• Maybe that’s why Jesus never told us to "go and make good
people out of evil people"?

• Instead He told us to "go and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you." (Matthew 28:19-20)

• We are called to make disciples – wherever we go, whatever we

do! That’s the ultimate goal and purpose of our servanthood.

• We are called to make God’s abundant life available to the people

we meet; to offer them ”the bread of life" to eat and ”rivers of
living water" to drink.

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 A.G.I.R. – Serving As Jesus Served

Obedient, not successful

• God doesn’t call us to be successful; He calls us to be obedient.
That’s a huge difference!

• Paul writes to the Church in Corinth, "I planted the seed, Apollos
watered it, but God has been making it grow." (1 Cor. 3:6)

• It is God who gives the fruit. We cannot produce the fruit

ourselves, no matter how hard we try.

• When you serve and serve but don’t see any visible results, don’t
be discouraged! Remember that you’re called to be obedient, not
successful.

• If you are obedient and faithful, you will bear much fruit. But
most of the fruit you will not see in this life – it will be a great
surprise the day you come to heaven!

Challenge
• The men and women who wrote the biblical history were all great
servants:
- They put God’s will and the needs of the people ahead of their
own needs and interests.
- They willingly sacrificed their comfort and their resources to
save the lost, heal the sick, and restore the broken-hearted.

• Our great Master, Jesus Christ, calls you and me to do the same;
to be available for His divine purposes and serve the people He
loves by meeting their needs:
- Their physical needs.
- Their social needs.
- Their practical needs.
- Their spiritual needs.

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 A.G.I.R. – Serving As Jesus Served

Challenge
• Jesus sums it up in Matthew 7:12: "So in everything, do to others
what you would have them do to you."

• Are you ready to accept the challenge – to serve as Jesus served?

• Let’s pray. (CLOSE WITH A PRAYER.)

Questions for group discussion

• What are some important lessons from the teaching?

• Why is servanthood so central and so powerful?

• Are you motivated to serve people around you? What is your main
motivation?

• What do you consider to be the greatest challenges when it comes

to serving as Jesus served?

• What does it mean to you to be a servant in your family? At

work? In your community?

• What steps can you take to become a better servant?

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 A.G.I.R. – Serving As Jesus Served

Prayer in small groups

• Ask for God’s perspective on the people around you, and the
wisdom to discern their needs.

• Invite the Holy Spirit to shape a servant heart in you.

• Pray for the humility and endurance to model servanthood in

your family, work place, and community.

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