Sermon delivered at Kingdom night at TFI Ministries on 9th March 2012
It’s a greeting you find in Paul’s letters to the churches he had founded by the administration given him by God. You would often hear Paul term himself as a servant of Christ for the sake of the church. His greetings would often go like this.
“Grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ” Phil 1:3
“To Timothy, a true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ” 1st Tim 1:2
“Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. “1st thes 1:2
Most of the time we take the words of Paul as his own words exclusively and we categorize Paul as the preacher of grace and while we are mesmerized by his wisdom and diligence in dispensing the gospel to almost the uttermost areas of his world, many are the times we fail to capture the energy and the passion behind him.
Paul’s words are not merely his words but words from God. He tells us grace and peace to us from God. Grace and peace has been commended to us from God and Paul has become its servant by the administration of God.
Perhaps the first thing we need to establish is that grace is not another woiye (pity party) feeling. Grace is not just any other ability that gets us by through a tough situation.
Grace is the ability and the influence of God coming from him to us. It’s an unmerited favor working for us. Grace and peace that comes from God is for us. Grace and peace serves us to unleash to us the heart of God. Grace is the ability of God realized in the kainos creation. Its the energy of God that influences Godliness in a believer which as overwhelmingly revealed by the gospel .
Paul in his epistle to Philippians tells them that he thanks God every time he remembers them. How is this possible? How can a single man like Paul remember all the believers in Philippi? Perhaps Paul is speaking in the sphere of a reality that is bigger than him. Remember he in Galatians he testifies that it’s no longer him who lives but its Christ who lives in him. Gal 2:20.
How is grace a servant to you?
You remember when they asked who among us is the greatest? The famous apostles were in contention as to who is the greatest among them, what did Jesus tell them? The greatest of you shall be your servant. (Mat 20:26)
He who was the greatest became our servant, for the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Wait a minute; the greatest of all shall become your servant! Who is the greatest of all? It’s Jesus. He is the one by whom all things were created. He was the word who was from the beginning now manifested in the flesh. He came to his own and his own couldn’t bear him but rejected him, nevertheless he is the greatest of all and he became the servant of all.
This is how grace becomes our servant. By cleansing us and washing us. Jesus was so full of grace and truth. He knew he had the possession of the fullness of heaven and yet he girded up his towel and washed the disciple’s feet.
Grace serves you by cleansing you from all your sins. The greatest of all has become the servant of all. All are invited to come to the person of grace to buy wine and milk without a price. Grace is your servant. Grace is Jesus personified. If you have seen him, you have seen the father.
Such was the persuasion in Paul’s heart that wherever he went he proclaimed the grace and peace that is from God towards men.
Paul preached in such a manner that many believed. How is this possible? It’s because of the life and the testimony of Christ in Him, he fully identified with the death and the resurrection of Christ.
We may therefore say that Paul’s words are words of Christ after his resurrection. There is something phenomenal when we discover Christ who has become our servant. We humbly rest and allow to be served.
The gospel serves you with the life of God. When Jesus was about to be crucified he talked of the holy spirit that when he comes , he will take what is Of God and declare it to you.(John 16:14)
That word declares there in Greek is annagelo which means to disclose, to rehearse repeatedly, to show, to speak, to tell.
Friends the gospel is the servant that daily declares rehearses to us repeatedly the benefits of salvation. The Holy Spirit testifies to us about Christ. The Holy Spirit serves you with the life of God. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Probably you have never heard such a manner of good news. We for a long time have thought that servant; serving is simply a tireless efforting procedure of proving our allegiance to God. The term servant of God has been misappropriated and abused today? What is true servant hood?
Grace as a servant; true servant hood, the greatest of all shall become the servant of all
Jesus says that whosoever desires to be greatest among you shall be your servant. Is that what we have known servant hood to be? On the contrary servant hood has been esteemed lowly. True servant hood as exuded by Christ is towards all men. It’s serving us with life and life in abundance.
Paul says that he has become a servant of this gospel according to the administration of God himself. He defines his apostleship not as one conferred upon by men but by God himself.
He says that of this gospel he has been made a minister/ servant according to the stewardship from God for the benefit of believers. (Col 1:25)
True servant hood therefore is inspired by the stewardship from God through the gospel. Do you want to become a true servant of God? Succumb therefore to the stewardship of God which is manifested through the gospel. If you are busy condemning people and adding burden to people and intimidating and instilling fear on the people of God and you call yourself a servant of God then you are not a true servant?
We need to go back to the definition Jesus expressed of true servant hood which was to give his life as a ransom for many.
What kind of a gospel are you dispensing to people as a servant of God? Is it a gospel that adheres and draws inspiration from the finished work of the cross or it’s a gospel that points people to the law (Moses)?
Do you feel you have served God when you place demands on people to follow in order to be accepted by God? Does your satisfaction come when you see people around you try to prove themselves before you as a minister/ servant?
Do you give people a list of to do’s in order for them to be blessed by God? Check these out. These are all signs of Old covenant servant hood where the servant, Men of God were sent to give people instructions on what they should do in order for God to bless them more, to receive the favor of God or even to relate with God. They did so because according to the Old covenant there seemed to be distance between God and his people. People were required to do things outwardly for them to be blessed, accepted and to receive favor from God.
However we have been made competent ministers of a new covenant. We are pointing people to Christ and his finished works of the cross. What do I mean? The distance that existed between God and his people have been eliminated by Christ in his physical appearance, By the body of his flesh. Col 1:21-22.
Paul said it clearly
2nd Cor 3:6-7He makes us worthy to be the servants of his new agreement that comes from the Holy Spirit and not from a written Law. After all, the Law brings death, but the Spirit brings life.
The Law of Moses brought only the promise of death, even though it was carved on stones and given in a wonderful way. Still the Law made Moses' face shine so brightly that the people of Israel could not look at it, even though it was a fading glory. CEV
Friends we have been made worthy servants of this new covenant not the letter/ the law for the law kills but the spirit gives life. We are ministers of this new order which has come from God and by his stewardship through the gospel.
What an opportunity to serve God through this administration which is of the spirit? What a joy to become a servant of the gospel to the nations? If we would grasp the bliss of this new covenant then we would run to the ends of the earth and flow the love of God to all men.
True servant hood, true apostleship, derives its inspiration from the gospel. This is a charge to you; that you have been made competent by the administration of God to be a competent minister/servant of the gospel.
No more serving two covenants
It’s time to stop serving another gospel and serve the gospel which we have been entrusted with. You may ask that if it would suffice to mix the Old and the new. After the entire bible is made up the Old Testament and the New Testament right? Wrong!
The Old Testament is a servant of the New. It serves the purpose of bringing us to Christ as Paul teaches us that the Law was a school master to bring us to Christ (Gal 3:15-23).
The Law which represented the Old covenant/ the old way of God relating to his people kept us captive until the revelation of faith, until the seed Christ should come.
The Law therefore has served the purpose of tutoring us to Christ. Gal 3:24. The law served us simply in revealing transgressions of men. It served the purpose of locking us up until Christ is revealed. In fact the Law was not given to gentiles but to the Jews to serve them that purpose.
The Law / the old covenant served us the purpose of bringing us to Christ. How do we view the Old Testament scriptures as a kainos creation?, Do we do away with those old Pages no? We view those scriptures with absolute awe of God in revealing us how those scriptures serve to reveal Christ for the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. Christ is the one who has been from the beginning.
The law and the prophets testify of Christ (luke24:27) There the Bible now serves you with the revelation of the knowledge of Christ.
This is the summary of the bible, the gospel. The gospel in the garden of Eden, the gospel preached to Abraham, to the children of Israel, through the prophets and now the word has become flesh and is dwelling in us. You are a kainos creation in christ. The life you live in the flesh you live by the faith of the son of God who died for you. Amen Let him serve you and behold the manner of of a being you are, he serves you so that you can serve him in the nations, amen.
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