What Does it Mean to Truly Serve the Lord?

Tom: We’re continuing with the gospel of John, we are in chapter 12 and we are going to pick up with verse 26:“If any man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am, there shall also my servant be:if any man serve me, him will my Father honor.”

Dave: That’s quite a verse, Tom.Of course as Christians we want to serve the Lord, but one of the worst things you can do is claim to be a servant of the Lord and dishonor Him, not follow His word, not follow Him—His example.So, I think Jesus is saying, if you’re going to serve Me you should be acting like I would act, doing what I would do.

I haven’t used this illustration for many years, when I used to deal with university students and so forth, I would say look, let’s say here’s a football coach.He’s the winningest coach ever, let’s say he’s a pro, and now the team wants to hire him for a huge salary, twenty-five million dollars a year.But the owner of the team says, "Just one small item here—you’re going to be the coach, but I’m calling the plays."  The guy says, "Look, you give me a hundred million I’m not going with that deal! You’re going to ruin my reputation! They’re going to blame me. I’m coach but you’re calling the plays?"

We’ve got a lot of people who claim Jesus Christ is the coach, you know, He’s the leader, but they’re calling their own plays.I think that’s what Jesus is saying:“If any man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am there also shall also my servant be.”Jesus said, “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel.” And I think that He is still in this world using us. We’re the body of Christ. We’re His arms and legs and hands and feet and so forth, as we should be, and "Where I am...," what would Jesus do?I guess that’s the question people would ask.

Tom: Well, it isn’t just the question people ask, but now we have these sort of wrist bands that have, "What Would Jesus Do?" 

Dave: Oh, wow, yes.

Tom: On the one hand, you would say, well, at least they are thinking along those lines and they have this thing on their wrist and it’s making them conscientious about it.But, Dave, my concern with this is what content are they drawing upon?You can’t just wear a band and then think "What would Jesus do?I don’t know. Let’s see if I can come up with something that I remember," rather than—I mean, how do we find out what Jesus would do?

Dave: We go to His Word.  "If any man continue in my Word...," Jesus said.Tom, I could name a few NBA players that have that on their wrists, and they did not act like Jesus would act at all, and they brought a reproach upon him.I wouldn’t want to wear one of those myself for fear, you know, that I wouldn’t always do what Jesus would do!I want to.It’s like having a fish on the back of your car and then you’re speeding and cutting in front of people and manifesting road rage or whatever.But Jesus says “Where I am there will also my servant be.”I think "In what I am doing, what I would be doing, My servants are going to do this for Me."  And then he says, “If any man serve me, him will my Father honor,” wow!I don’t know all that that means—I don’t even know a fraction of what that means.I’m sure that means in heaven—He says, "I am going to confess him before my Father’s throne."But you say, "Well, God is going to honor me in this life.I am going to try to serve Jesus and be a good Christian, and then He’s going to give me rewards. He’s going to honor me in this life. I might become famous; I might become wealthy..."—that’s the last thing it’s talking about: fame in this world!But my Father is going to honor him with fruitfulness; we might be honored with martyrdom—what an honor that would be, to die for the Lord!And there are many people—

Tom: And not to strap something to your body—that’s not what we’re talking about, folks.

Dave: There are more Christian martyrs in the last century than in all the history of the church up until that time.But anyway, it’s really profound what Jesus is saying and we’re kind of giving it a light touch.

Tom: Well, Dave, I want to add to that.When we’re to hear the words, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Sometimes I think about that and how could anybody ever measure up to that?I don’t know quite how to handle it.You see, on the one hand, this is one thing that I would—I mean, I couldn’t think of anything better that all eternity than to hear those words but how does somebody measure up?I know it’s by his grace and there are so many things there but you still, I look at myself, here the servant, could this ever happen?

Dave: Yeah, Jesus said when you have done everything that you should do, say, “we’re pitiful servants indeed we’ve only done what we should do.”And He does it through us—it’s all to His praise and His glory.On the other hand, you go to 1 Corinthians 3, when it talks about the works being tried by fire: those that are burned up, a person hasn’t done anything for the Lord, and yet he himself shall be saved.And yet you go on and read the next few verses.It is one of the amazing things that Paul says:“Then shall every man receive praise from God,” wow!So, everyone will have received some praise.I guess just the praise for having believed in Him, having believed the gospel, and that’s where we start.And if we’ve really believed the gospel in our hearts, then we have come to know Him, though in a feeble way.Well, verse 27 says, “Now is my soul troubled.”Well, troubled—He was going to weep in the garden, because He is going to be made sin for us; He’s going to bear the wrath of Almighty God against the sins of the entire world.He’s going to bear away—John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.”So, he’s troubled: "And what shall I say, “Father, save me from this hour?But for this cause came I unto this hour.I’m not going to shrink back now."I mean, this is His whole purpose in being born into this world.

Tom: Dave, why was His soul troubled in this context?

Dave: Well, He weeps in the garden—“If it be possible let this cup pass from me.”And if the weight of—I mean, He’s looked forward to this all of his life—I believe. In the garden He said, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me," so we would know there is no other way of salvation, that’s on the record.The Father says, “No, there is no other way; You have to go through with this, and You have to pay the penalty for the sins of the world.”I think His soul is troubled for a lot of reasons.He came unto His own, His own received him not.We despised Him; He is "despised and rejected of man.A man of sorrows, acquainted with grief."I think the sorrow is not the kind of sorrow that you and I would have if someone maligns us, rejects us, but Christ is the Savior of the world! And that pains Him, that He comes to bring redemption—He comes to save men and they reject him!He’s concerned for their sakes.“Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour?But for this cause came I unto this hour.Father, glorify thy name.Then came there a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”

Tom, there’s so much—I mean, we could spend, I guess, weeks on that verse—and some people think we move very slowly, where we are actually moving very rapidly.The name, glorify thy name. What is His name?Well, there are seven names, Yahweh, before he even says that or when he says, “Myname is Yahweh, I Am that I Am the self existent One,” Exodus 3.He also says, “I Am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.This is my name and this is my memorial to all generations.”Sometime we need to do a real study on his names, and those who believe in his name Jesus, “In the name of Jesus every knee will bow, every tongue confess.”And Jesus says that He is Yahweh—He is the I Am.The Father speaks from heaven: "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again" because He is going to be glorified to the ultimate in the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross.

Well, we haven’t gotten into that very much, Tom. We’re going to have to come back and talk about verse 28 again, I think.

Tom: Okay.