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Session 1: An Effective Servant Defined
Luke 11:37-12:7 (ESV)
"While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. "But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it." One of the lawyers answered him, "Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also." And he said, "Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,' so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering." As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say. In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops. "I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows."
You came to Emmaus to be equipped to serve the Lord. I assume that you want to be effective. You will need Bible training, you will need the support of your home assembly but those won't be enough. When my wife and I went to Mexico to serve the Lord and we thought that we were done being grown and trained. We found out that that was not true at all.
Four Characteristics of an Effective servant of the Lord:
An Effective Servant believes God.
An Effective Servant knows God.
An Effective Servant fears God.
An Effective Servant submits to God.
The Mexico City Earthquake of 1985 showed that many buildings that were thought to be solid were not strong as they seemed. I think of the Pharisees in this passage when I think of the earthquake. They were who people would turn to in a time of need. They tried to be moral, upright people on the outside; but because they neglected their inner condition, they were exactly the wrong people to turn to in situations like that.
Had you been on the scene just before Jesus arrived and asked the Pharisees what they thought about the effectiveness of their service of the Lord, they would have most certainly said “yes!” They thought they were pretty good servants, but the opposite was true.
We are inadequate judges of our own effectiveness. Jesus said great things of John the Baptist, yet John sat in prison disillusioned and wondering about who Christ really was. Jeremiah also wondered about the effectiveness of his service. In Matthew 25:32-46, when the sheep are divided from the goats, it is not surprising to see that both the sheep and the goats misjudge their worthiness.
My admonition to you is this: do not rely on your feelings. These feelings are not only irrelevant, but can be misleading also. The heart is deceitful above all things!
Others are inadequate judges of our effectiveness. People are easily mislead by appearances. I was chatting about the gospel with two women in the market. They thought I looked like a catholic saint, but they didn't realize that my paleness was a symptom of typhoid! Man looks on the outside appearance but God looks in on the heart. Men are fallible, near sighted, outwardly focused. Beware of satisfying yourself with impressing others, with having others judge you and your ministry's worthiness.
Results are inadequate criterion of ministry effectiveness. Today, numbers are a huge part of judging the effectiveness of a ministry. The Lord is not going to ask us what out ministry's mission statement was. The pharisees looked great on the outside, but were rotting away on the inside. You could have a great following, have books published, have all men's praise, and still not please God. Look at Jonah and how his preaching turned 120,000 people to God; but then you would have to pull out the kind of microscope that God uses and examine the parts of a man that God does.
There will be those that, when face to face with God, will say “look at the great things we did in your name!” but God will tell them to depart from himself because he is not pleases with their inner condition even though they had great results.
Christ is the only judge of ministry effectiveness.
1Co 4:5 (ESV)
Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
2Co 5:9-10 (ESV)
So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Christ is the only true and faithful judge of ministry effectiveness.
Effectiveness in ministry is not judged by yourself, or by others, or by the results. It is not you who will do the judging at the Judgment seat of Christ, it will be Him! It is my desire for you students to hear at that time: “well done good and faithful servant.”
We also need to remember that we do not have the authority to judge another's ministry. That is the place only for Christ. Who are we to usurp His rightful place? You should not judge your own ministry, and likewise you should also not judge other's ministries. Search the scriptures to see what will make a man an effective servant of the Lord. Let His standards from His word judge your ministry.
These are four principles that I believe create a profile of an effective servant:
An Effective Servant believes God.
An Effective Servant knows God.
An Effective Servant fears God.
An Effective Servant submits to God.
May the Lord bless you.
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Thanks to Ben Gates for the excellent note taking
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