Servants of God in the Kingdom of Men 1988

I'd like to begin today by reading a poem that was written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer just a few months before he was killed by the Nazis, and it was written from a prison cell. And it's called, Who Am I? Who am I? They tell me often, I stepped from my cell's confinement calmly, cheerfully, firmly, like a squire from his country house. Who am I? They often tell me, I used to speak to my warders freely and friendly and clearly, as though it were mine to command.

Who am I? They also tell me, I bore the days of misfortune equably, smilingly, proudly, like one accustomed to win. Am I then really that which other men tell of? Or am I only what I myself know of myself, restless and longing and sick like a bird in a cage, struggling for breath as though hands were compressing my throat, yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds, thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness, tossing in expectation of great events, powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance, weary and empty of praying, of thinking, of making, faint and ready to say farewell to it all. Who am I, this or the other? Am I one person today and tomorrow another? Am I both at once a hypocrite before others and before myself a contemptible, woe-begone weakling? Or is something within me still like a beaten army, fleeing in disorder from a victory already achieved? Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine, whoever I am.

Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine. Now, Bonhoeffer, waiting for the Nazis to execute him, had reason to ask, Who am I? And he asked this question really not of himself but of God. And he looked to God for the answer, and he trusted God for the answer.

But many of us, who are not in a prison cell, who get our three meals a day, who are free to come and go as we like, are asking that question of ourselves all the time. Who am I? And even after we have heard the call of the kingdom in Jesus and have experienced the power of God grabbing hold of our lives and have seen the chains that bound us breaking, we keep asking that question, Who am I? And even when we don't say the words, it's written on our faces and it's stamped on the way we live our lives, we're muddled and confused and unclear about something which should have been settled long ago, about the one thing which should be the foundation, rock-hard foundation of every day we live. We're not sure who we are.

Matthew 5, 13, Jesus speaking to us says, You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its salt must be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men. If the salt doesn't know what it is, if it doesn't know what it's here to do, if it lost its saltness, what good is it? Throw it out. You are the light of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hid, nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. But if the light doesn't know what it is, if it isn't sure about what it's here to do, if it wastes itself under a bushel, what good is it? Light is here to shine, to give forth light.

And you, Jesus says to us, I make you the salt of the earth, I make you the light of the world. Know who you are, know what you are, and live that way. Jesus, remembering that he was also the Son of Man, as well as the Son of God, knew who he was.

He was never in any doubt about who he was. I am the light of the world. I am the way, the truth, and the life.

I am the good shepherd, I am the door, I am the stone which the builders rejected, which is now becoming the head of the corner. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.

Jesus knew who he was. And if you are his follower, he expects you to know who you are. And to know who you are, not only in the scheme of this sick world, but to know who you are in the scheme of God, in the kingdom of God, which is already here.

Now, I may think of myself as Bill the businessman, or Dick the preacher, or Mary the doctor, or Susie the nurse, and may get my sense of identity from those things. I may think that I have worth because I own the Ambassador Bridge, or I wrote a song, or I won the heavyweight championship, or I play in the movies. But even if I won all of those things, I'm going to still wake up in the middle of the night and ask, Who am I? Until I know, before God, who I am under him, what he has called me and ordained me to be.

Until I know that, I'm all the time going to be confused. Jesus came into this world, died on that cross, and rose from the dead, in order to put a call on my life and yours. And he has, by his Spirit, moved over our lives, gathered us together, even in this place today, so that we can be sure about this one thing, who we are, before the living God.

Hebrews chapter 9, verse 13. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of an heifer sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot, without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? How much more shall the blood of Christ purify you so that you can be free to serve the living God? Clear conscience. Once the blood of Jesus has washed your conscience clean, once he has buried you under his own death and raised you by his Spirit to the life of his Spirit with him, you are one thing.

You are a servant of God. And no matter where God sends you, no matter what message he puts on your lips, no matter what he gives you to do, no matter what power may flow from your hands for the healing of others, you are a servant of God. That's what you are.

He has purified your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. You didn't choose me, says Jesus to us. I chose you and I ordained you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

How do we go and bear fruit? We go and bear fruit only as servants of God. We ask and receive in Jesus' name as servants of God. We are the salt of the earth.

We are the light of the world as the servants of God. Mark chapter 10, verse 35. And James and John, sons of Zebedee, came forward to Jesus and said to him, Teacher, we want you to do whatever we ask of you.

And Jesus said, What do you want me to do for you? They said to him, Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and the other at your left, in your glory. In other words, James and John were tired of always having to ask this question, Who am I? And so they set out on a little glory hunt to settle and solve and heal their identity crisis. I mean, if I know that I'm number one right next to Jesus, number two, he's number one, and I get to sit right next to him, then I know who I am.

If they ask me who I am, I'm number two in the kingdom. I'm sitting next to Jesus. But Jesus said to them, You do not know what you're asking.

Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? They said to him, We are able. Jesus said to them, The cup that I drink, you will drink. And with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.

But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared. And we know one of the first, if not the first, of the apostles to be killed was James. And it's worth it, you know, to drink the cup that he drinks.

If that guarantees me that spot right next to Jesus. But he tells me it doesn't work that way. You know, if you drink the cup that I drink, you'll be at my table.

But where the seating order is going to work out, how that's going to be and where you're going to be sitting is not going to depend on that. You can't work your way up into number two position by these things. By this time, the other ten disciples are a little ticked off.

When the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And they were indignant because they were asking the question, Who am I? They wanted those seats. And Jesus called them and said to him, said to him and said to them, You know that those who were supposed to rule over the Gentiles lorded over them.

And their great men exercised authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. I didn't come to be served, he says.

I didn't come to be served. I came to serve. I came to serve the Father by serving his people even unto death.

And I call you, he says, to serve me by serving the Father with me. I die for you to set you free so that you can serve God. And I raise you from the dead with me to make you a servant of God.

And from now on, that's what you are. In this world and in the next forever and ever, know who you are and know what you are. You are a servant of God.

Sons and daughters of the King, sons and daughters of God, yes, but all are servants. And the simplest way to keep remembering, never forget, that I'm a servant of God is to serve. As long as you keep serving, you won't forget it.

And you'll know who you are. Serve God in three ways. Serve God first with a life of worship.

Serve God second by serving his body. And third, serve God by proclaiming the kingdom. First of all, serve God with a life of worship.

Really the only thing we have to offer God is our worship. And this worship is something we give not just with our mouth, but with our mind, our body, our possessions. Everything we have goes into this worship of God.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all you ask. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing.

It's not only the angels who worship God day and night. It's not only the stars of the universe that sing God's praise as they move in their courses. It's we who are his servants who serve God with a life of worship.

We offer to God worship in everything we do. When we're alone, prayer and praise is to rise from our heart up to God day and night, all the time. That's the atmosphere of our life.

When we are together, we come into his presence with thanksgiving. We enter into his courts with praise. When we go to our daily work, that daily work becomes our worship of God, no matter what it is.

And if it can't be worship of God, switch your job. But most jobs, it's got to be either robbing banks or selling dope. Apart from a few little things like that, anything you do is worship of God.

Scrubbing floors, changing diapers, fixing automobiles, adding up figures, selling, buying, whatever you're doing can be worship of God. We worship God by our eating and our drinking. Even when we're asleep, we worship God.

And when you begin to forget that you're a servant of God, the simplest thing to do is start worshiping him. Just worship him. Utter a psalm, sing a hymn, praise him, thank him.

The chief function of our life in this world, the primary function of our life in this world is to worship God. The most practical thing you can do, the most satisfying thing you can do, glorious thing, worship God. If you find yourself getting stale and stagnant, worship God.

Things are going bad, worship God. Things are going well, worship God. Secondly, serve God by serving the body.

Jesus called them to him and said to them, you know that those who were supposed to rule over the Gentiles lorded over them, and their great men exercised authority over them, but with you it shall not be so. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. He's talking now about serving the body.

In simple, down-to-earth, foot-washing ways, when you stay after the service and you talk to somebody and listen to somebody, take an interest in that person, you're serving the body. If you help in the nursery, work with the children, work with the young people, you're serving the body. You get to a choir rehearsal every Thursday night, you're serving the body, provided you can carry a tune.

Even so, you're serving the body without carrying a tune in the congregation, but in the choir, try to carry a tune. You're serving the body by making phone calls, writing a letter, taking somebody to the doctor, and you are especially serving the body when you lift their name before the throne of God. These people, by name, every day, you're praying for these people who are your brothers and sisters.

Faithfully doing this. You're serving the body when you calm down an angry brother, or quiet and comfort a troubled sister. Every single one of us, if we're committed to Jesus, has been ordained by God to be a servant of the body.

See, and not to be a servant of the body in some theoretical sense, yes, I serve the body wherever I find myself going, you know, and we forever float around and never get anywhere. You serve the body in a specific place among specific people, and if this is where it is, then this is where it is until God shows you to go to Hong Kong or wherever you're supposed to be. Until then, these people, with their needs and their problems and their hopes and their joys and their fears, when you see yourself as a servant of this body, as a servant of this body, not a client, not a patron, not a friendly visitor, but a servant.

Of this body, your eyes will open, and you will see the people in a new light, and opportunities to serve God by serving them will become richly abundant. Finally, serve God by proclaiming the kingdom. You are the light of the world.

A city center on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Again, every time we quote this, this is Jesus, you know, and yet as soon as we quote him, people think, gee, they don't believe in salvation by grace alone through faith.

The good works that they see and the light that they see is the light of the kingdom, and the good works are the signs of the kingdom produced by people who have the light of the kingdom in them. The harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few. Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

Who are these laborers? They are the servants who proclaim the kingdom, who announce that the kingdom is here, and welcome people into it, call them to repent, and come on in. Luke chapter 9, verse 59, to another Jesus said, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father.

But he said to him, leave the dead, bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. And that charge, go and proclaim the kingdom of God, is given to every servant of God. Each of us in the place where we find ourselves now, and tomorrow, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and so forth, is put there to proclaim the kingdom of God, to announce to the people with whom we have dealings, that the door to the kingdom is now open through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The Father waits, the door is open, a new life can begin. And anybody who responds to that message, however garbled it comes out of our lives or our mouths, anybody who responds to that message is visited by God. The word is confirmed, power flows into their lives and gets them started on a new road.

It doesn't take fancy words, clever arguments, or eloquence. It takes people who aren't afraid to let their light shine, who aren't afraid to speak what they've been given by the Lord. And that boldness and that clarity is given by God to those people who trust God's answer to the question that they lift up to Him, who am I? And when you believe that you are His servant, when we believe that, then we will do these things.

We will serve Him with a life of worship. We will serve Him by serving His body. And we will serve Him by proclaiming His kingdom.

And we will know beyond the shadow of a doubt who we are. And Jesus called them to Him and said to them, You know that those who were supposed to rule over the Gentiles ruled it over them and that great men exercised authority over them. But among you it shall not be so.

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for men. Let's just take some time in silence and let the Spirit just speak to our hearts.