The First Shall Be Last
There is plenty of pain in this world to go around. Jesus said, In this world you will have tribulation, but be off good cheer, for I have overcome the world.
After leading the children of Israel into the Promised Land, Joshua said to the congregation, “Chose you this day whom ye shall serve, as for me and my house we shall serve the Lord.”
To serve the Lord is to be useful for the Lord’s purpose. Ultimately it means to serve the Lord our God from a heart of love, respect, honor, and gratitude. The world thinks that a life of service is dishonorable and undignified. However, a heart of humility is the requirement to serve the Lord as a good and faithful servant.
A servant’s heart is guileless, pure, honorable, and valuable to his master. Whom shall you serve? According to Romans 6:26, Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are their slaves, whether slaves of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
The first and great commandment is to love God above all. The second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Because God loved us, we have been freed from the bondage of sin. Therefore we have been called to liberty in Christ. Galatians 5 says, only use not liberty as an occasion to sin, but to serve one another in love.
Love for Jesus commissions a man for service. Jesus himself was the ultimate servant. For God demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. We were deserving of death, for the wages of sin is death. But because of Jesus’ sacrifice of his innocent blood in exchange for our guilty blood, he who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.
Through the challenges and pressures of this life, God will teach us the meaning of His character in us. In the depth of the storm, the question is, “Lord what are you teaching me thorough this.” We will not know his quality in us unless it is tested and tempered through the storms of life.
The spirit of the living God will teach us all things. When the student is ready the teacher will come. The Lord uses trials and tribulations as well as our brothers in Christ who reprove us to reveal his character in us. The word of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfectly furnished for all good works. To reprove means to prove over and over again his quality in us that persists through his refining fire.
God is love and in him there is no darkness at all. To know him is to love him. To know him we must spend time in the presence of our Lord. Jesus said, “abide in me and I in you. I am the vine and ye are the branches.” The life is in the vine. When you’re attached to the vine, you shall bear much fruit.
We’re called to fill our hearts with His love and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. From a heart of the love we can cast our cares upon him for he careth for us. Then in his strength we can tend to the needs of those whom God has called us to serve.
God placed us in the body of Christ to build up one another in the love of God. Church is the gathering of the called out ones to edify one another in love.
When we spend time in his presence in meditation on His word, we’ll develop an intimate relationship with our Lord. Then when our verticals are aligned, our horizontal relationships will be blessed. When we delight ourselves in the Lord, he will give us the desires of our heart. When his delight is our delight and his good pleasure is our good pleasure, then it is God who worketh in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. What is our father’s good pleasure? The Lord said, I have no greater joy than to see that my children walk in truth.
The disciples wanted Jesus to serve them and give them places of honor. Jesus asked his disciples, …are ye able to drink the cup that I’m about to drink?And to be baptized into the baptism into which I’m about to be immersed? The disciples said, yea Lord. They didn’t know what Jesus was asking them. They could not yet perceive truth from a spiritual perspective.
The greatest blessing is not in being served. Calling them to himself Jesus said, the ones who compete for power in this world, lord it over those whom they have power to control. Worldly power seeks to control others. Controllers find their self fulfillment in their power, prestige and authority over others to effect their own self serving will. Jesus said, but it is not so among you. Servants of Christ don’t seek to exert power over others. Whoever wishes to be great among you must be servant of all.
The truth of the Word of God is paradoxical in an upside down world. To go up we must become low. To be exalted we must be abased. In our own weakness we find strength in the Lord. He that is last will be first. The true leader is not the one who commands from the front. Instead he serves his people from a heart of love.
Jesus Christ is the ultimate servant-leader. He gave his life as a ransom for many. The blessing is not in the praise of men but in rejoicing in the Lord. A servant of the Lord says, Lord come help yourself to my life. The joy of a servant is to present his body a living sacrifice wholly and holy acceptable unto the God as his reasonable act of praise and worship.
The servant’s heart beats according to the rhythm of his Lord’s pace-maker. He is attuned to his master’s heart’s resonant frequency. His utmost desire is, to serve his Lord. His prayer is , “Here am I Lord, send me. Thy wish is my command.”
Through the trials of life, God tempers us through the crucible of fire and pressure. Pete recalls that he was called to a new minor league baseball team and his assignment was to sit on the bench. Once he was called to pinch hit. He thought to himself, this is my opportunity to graduate to the starting lineup. Unfortunately Pedro Borbon was on the mound. Pete says that his contribution in the minor leagues was to get many minor league pitchers to the big leagues. Pete struck out. Bourbon was called up to the Bigs and became a hall of fame pitcher for the Cincinnati Big Red Machine.
The night Borbon stuck him out, Pete was reading the new Good News for Modern Man version of the Bible. God spoke to his heart. He said, I know you think that you deserve to be in the starting lineup, but some things you can only learn on the bench: You’ll learn to put your team mates first and to cheer for their success. You’ll learn to support others and encourage them to do their best for the team. Most of all, you will learn to serve from a heart of meekness, humility, and the love of God.
In an upside down world Jesus’ words still ring true today: “the last shall be first and the first shall be last. He that is chief among you must be servant of all.” Why? Because when we love others we love our Lord Jesus Christ for he has said, “in that ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.“
May this prayer of Saint Francis also be our prayer:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life…
…that we may ever live to the praise of the glory of Thy grace!
In the name of our living Lord,
Amen
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
