Well, unless you’ve been hiding in a cave somewhere, it’s obvious we’re in a presidential election year. It just boggles the mind to think, given the needs in the world, that hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to get one man to become the most powerful man in the world. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to do that. It is the ultimate pursuit of power. People will go, frankly, to almost any length to get that power and to retain that power. We’ve seen it down over the years. People will compromise, sacrifice their morals, will do whatever it takes to get to high office and attain that power. And once elected, guess what? The first day on the job, what’s their first priority? Is it to serve the people? No, their first priority is to get reelected, and it starts on the first day because they want to retain that power.
This is not the only example in the pursuit of power that we see in the world today. What about Syria’s Assad and what he has done recently to keep in power? He has killed over ten thousand, by all reports, of his own countrymen just to stay in power. This has happened down through history. We could spend the rest of the time just giving examples. One example is Joseph Stalin, from 1932 to 1933, just twelve months, he was responsible for the starvation of seven million Ukrainians and the reason he did it is Ukraine was pushing for independence and he would not allow that. He did not want to lose power and control over the Ukraine and so what he did was manipulate the system so that the Ukrainians had no food. Young and old, little babies, little children, seven million were starved to death inside of one year.
You know the second temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., why? Because the radical Jews were a threat to the Roman Empire, they were not going to allow any kind of revolt or any kind of rebellion. They leveled the temple; they destroyed and sacked Jerusalem because they would not tolerate a threat to the emperor’s power; it just wasn’t going to happen.
When you look back in history, other than volcanoes, hurricanes, tsunamis and bad weather and all of that, most major events in history are the result of men seeking power and men attempting to retain power. The wars, the fighting, the persecution of people has been nothing more than men seeking power and seeking to retain power.
So, in this election year it seemed logical to ask the question, what about inside the Church of God? Should people, men and women, be seeking power inside the Church of God because after all, God’s word says (we won’t turn there, we’ll come back later) but in I Timothy 3 and verse 1, Paul says …
I Timothy 3:1 This [is] a true saying, If a man desires the office of a bishop,
Which means overseer and implies a certain amount of power and authority.
1b) He desires a good work. (KJV)
So how do we reconcile that with what we see in the world today? Should men and women seek power inside the body of Christ? Good question. The title of the sermon is “Does God want us to seek power”, and the answer which may surprise a few people is, no and yes. We will explore that in the sermon today. But first we want to establish, where did all of this seeking of power begin? That’s the first point, where did the seeking of power begin? I think we know. Let’s go to Isaiah Chapter 14 and we’re going read verses 13 and 14. This is one of the commentaries about Satan and we glean some ideas about the history of Satan and his attitude and his rebellion. Isaiah 14 and let’s begin in verse 13. Notice what we’re told about Satan’s motivation, his attitude and his heart.
Isaiah 14:13 For you have said in your heart,
Meaning this is the core of Satan’s belief.
13) I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars [or the angels or the other spirit beings] of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14) I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
In power, in authority, in rank, in title; “I will be like the Most High.” This is when it all started. We won’t turn there, but you know, in Revelation 12 in verse 9, we are told that Satan deceives the entire world. And so what is happening, what we view in the political arena and in nations all around the world, the world is simply following in Satan’s footsteps. That’s all that’s happening. Satan has broadcast the spirit of seeking power into the minds of men and frankly women. Look at the women’s’ liberation movement over the last several decades, seeking power, seeking authority and seeking control. It all comes from Satan. It’s broadcast into the minds of men and women. That’s the first point. Where did it come from? It comes from Satan.
The second point and this is something we really need to let sink in. If power by men is to be effective; and when I say by men, I mean power apart from God’s Holy Spirit and just humanly speaking. If power by men is to be effective, it ultimately requires instilling fear. I’ll say it again, if power is to be effective, it ultimately requires the instilling of fear on the part of the subjects. When a human being, (apart from God’s Spirit) gets power, it goes to the person’s head. I think we’ve all seen this happen where somebody who has never had any power gets a little power; it could be in school or in an office situation or a work situation. Someone who has never had any power, gets a little of it, and it goes right to their head. We’ve seen people strut around and bark orders and act like a little Hitler going back and forth because that power (even just a little bit) goes to somebody’s head. We even see it in kids. Now what happens, you see, is the power gives them control over other human beings, and then the power gives them praise from those who want to be close to that power. We call them “sycophants” or in the modern vernacular, “suck-ups”. You see the entourages of people that surround someone with power. It could be in the Church, it could be the entourage of the President of the United States or it could be the entourage of a dictator somewhere. We see it all the time. When people get power, they seek to retain it and to grow that power. That is human nature, because they want to keep all that goes with it, power, control, praise of men and all the other perks that go along with that. Then, in that effort to get more power and retain what power they have, they seek to instill fear as a means of retaining control of people and growing that power.
Let me give you an example. After our invasion of Iraq and Saddam Hussein was captured, there were a number of documentaries on one of the cable channels, probably The History Channel or Smithsonian or something like that, about the life of Saddam Hussein, how he came into power, how he abused his own people and ultimately his end. It was interesting that when he came to power, when he became the Dictator of Iraq, there was a video they showed with a commentary behind it, of his very first cabinet meeting when he had finally gained ultimate authority. It was in a classroom session where there were probably 150 seats and they were in tiers down to the stage. There was a desk at the stage and it showed all the cabinet ministers, the top military people, all the top politicians and industrialists in Iraq who were there at this meeting. The stage was empty and then it showed Saddam Hussein walking in wearing this military uniform and he sat down at the desk and began talking about the fact that he was now the complete head of Iraq. He was talking in Arabic obviously, and there were subtitles going across the bottom of the screen. Within a minute or two, he got into the subject of loyalty and obedience, how he required this, and he said, “But some of you have not been doing this, such as …” and then he mentioned someone out in the audience. Then the camera went to that individual and that man, his eyes as big as saucers, started stammering and he stood up. There were guards at the back of the room and they came down and dragged him out, kicking, screaming and protesting. Then everyone in the audience was just petrified and started looking at each other. Then Saddam Hussein, after the commotion calmed down and the doors were closed again, started again about loyalty and obedience and he brought up another man’s name and the same thing happened. This guy was protesting and yelling and screaming about his love for Saddam Hussein and the guards dragged him out and, of course, neither one were ever seen again. Then he began to talk and he wasn’t 30 seconds into his speech and the camera was panning the audience and there were guys out there sweating; there were some in military uniforms and their underarms were drenched and you could see the water coming down their foreheads and they were trembling. Then one man jumped up spontaneously and started shouting about, “May Saddam Hussein live forever and Allah bless him and he is the savior of Iraq”, and was just going on and on. You could just see Saddam Hussein ask him to just sit down and he had a little smirk on his face like, “This is exactly what I want”. Then a few seconds later somebody on the other side of the room did the same thing and then all of a sudden the whole group got up and started screaming their approval of Saddam Hussein and their undying loyalty and “may he live forever” and all of that. You could tell by the look on his face, this was all choreographed and he got exactly what he wanted. He got complete authority, control and complete loyalty from these people.
Then they interviewed a man who was one of the inner circle of Saddam Hussein. Two or three years later, he set another example. He got this circle of people around him. They were in a factory setting, some manufacturing facility, and he had an entourage of thirty, forty or fifty people. He got them in a circle around him and he started talking again about loyalty. This man was narrating. He said he was walking around, face to face with these men as he walked around the circle and again he said, “Some of you have not been loyal, such as…” and he looked at the man right in front of him and said “You”. He said, “This is what happens to those who are not loyal”. With that, his guards grabbed this man. Off to the side there was an industrial-sized wood chipper. They put him alive, feet first, into this wood chipper for everyone else to watch. The narrator said that blood and gore were going everywhere, and then after this man died and was consumed by the wood chipper, Saddam again made his point, that he will not tolerate any disobedience; he will not tolerate any disloyalty.
Men, to obtain power and retain power must instill fear. How would you like to be the head of North Korea’s Rocket Program right now? We know they shot a rocket off with this big anniversary and big hoop-la and the thing blew up. My guess is that this individual is in a gulag somewhere. After all, there are 300,000 North Koreans in gulags in the country … slave labor, horrible conditions for those who don’t agree with the ruler’s power or don’t agree with his political views.
We’re going to see this fall, in political campaigns, Obama versus Romney, each are going to seek to instill fear in all of us; fear for voting for the other guy, fear that his policies are going to take money out of our pockets or there is going to be ruination of the nation if so and so gets elected. You’re going to see a lot of ads based on fear.
In the military the same thing happens. I’ve had experience with that in military school and in the military. Fear is a great motivator. I remember an occasion in studying military history. The U.S. in the very beginning of World War II in the Battle of North Africa, got their fannies kicked; they were horribly ill equipped were not very well trained. They sent George Patton over and gave him his third star (or maybe it was his second star) to go over there and shape them up. George Patton was quoted as saying just after he arrived, he said, “I don’t know if these men fear the Germans or not, but they blankety blank, blankety blank, blankety blank better well fear me!” He had very salty language and he instilled discipline and fear because if those commanders didn’t do what he said; if anybody didn’t do what he said, they were gone. The military often uses fear as a motivator.
When I say the words “IRS”, what happens? Most of us get a bit of tingling in the back of our neck because the last thing we want is the IRS coming after us. The IRS has great power, they seek more power and they get obedience by the fear of being audited by them.
The business environment today is the same thing. Men lie, cheat and undermine to gain power and title and they use fear and intimidation to keep their titles and squash people that might be a competitor to them. When Dorothy and I sold our business before working in the Church, we signed contracts with manufacturers to represent them in the Pacific Northwest. They had quotas, monthly quotas, quarterly quotas, annual quotas and if you didn’t meet those quotas, the fear was always there you would be fired, and in many cases that happened. The sales managers or the vice presidents didn’t want to hear about a bad economy; they didn’t want to hear that Boeing was in trouble; they didn’t want to hear that Portland had high unemployment; they didn’t want to hear any excuses. You either make the quota or we will get somebody who will. Fear in business happens all the time.
Sadly, it happens in personal relationships. People manipulate other people to get them to do what they want. You see manipulation is a form of power and control. People say and do things to get power and control. That can happen between mates. It can happen within families. It can happen with associates at work. People do things, put on acts or do certain things to get others to do what they want. It’s a form of power and control. Wives, for example, walk on egg shells around their husband because they fear some kind of violent outburst from him. It happens in reverse too. I’ve talked to husbands who walk on egg shells because they’re afraid of what their wife might do. You see, manipulation is a way of gaining power. It’s a device for getting power.
It happens in religion. Remember James Jones in California? He used fear to get people to move to Guyana. The government was going to come after you, the IRS was going to come after you. They’re going to persecute you. They’re going to take your children away. They’re going to jerk you out of your homes. You’re going to go to jail. He convinced all those people to move to Guyana and then it wasn’t long after, they all drank the Kool Aid and died. But fear was a motivator.
Seeking of power and instilling fear has also happened within the Church of God. We know that. Men sought rank in office. They retained power and sought power by instilling fear; fear of being disfellowshipped or if you were an employee or a minister somewhere, fear of being fired or saying you’re not going to the place of safety if you don’t follow me or if you’re not over here or over there. You see, it’s ruled by fear. Back in the day in the Church and unfortunately it still happens today, husbands sought power and control of the wife. Rather than cherish the wife as a gift from God, by the misuse of scripture, they used fear to gain power and control over their wives. Sometimes they did this by putting the wife down and degrading her. Other times they just amplified her fear of displeasing God, that if she disobeyed one little thing, she was going to end up in the lake of fire. Those things happened within the Church. We won’t turn there, but in Matthew 15 verses 7 through 9, remember what Christ said…
Matthew 15:7 You hypocrites, [he was talking of the religious leaders of the day] well does Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,
8) This people draws near to me with their mouth, and honor me with [their] lips; but (what?) their heart is far from me. [He even went so far as to say]
9) In vain do they worship me, teaching [for] doctrines the commandments of men. (KJV)
Guess where those commandments of men come from … Satan. Christ prophesied it and it certainly happened, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. So let’s understand, closing point number two here, that fear is how Satan works. It is not how God works.
That leads us to the third point. Rule by fear is not God’s way. It is just not God’s way. Some of us grew up in the Church thinking it was God’s way because that’s the government we came under, but it is not God’s way. Fear is not compatible with God’s Holy Spirit. Let’s go to II Timothy 1, we’ll look at the beginning of verse 7. Fear is not compatible with God’s Holy Spirit. We’ll read just the beginning of verse 7. We’ll finish this verse later on in the sermon.
II Timothy 1: 7 For God has not given us the spirit of fear…
When fear is used as a motivational tool, when fear is present in the pit of our stomach, that does not come from God. Neither is the fear of men. The fear of men does not come from God. Let’s go to Hebrews 13 and verse 6. What we’re being told here is we have to look to God and not look to men and not be afraid of men.
Hebrews 13:6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord [is] my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to me.
We should not be afraid of the Saddam Husseins of the world or government officials who come after us, or people who threaten us. When I say fear is not part of God’s Holy Spirit, you could say, well aren’t we supposed to fear God? So how do we reconcile that? So what we want to do here in this third point is examine this concept of fearing God and what it actually means. We’re going to take an Old Testament example and a New Testament example. Let’s go to Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 13. Solomon is summing up the Book of Ecclesiastes. He’s trying to give us an overview of the entire book. He’s telling us something that says we should fear God.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
What does he say? First thing…
13b) Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this [is] the whole [duty] of man.
Now, let’s look at the Hebrew word that’s translated “fear”. It’s Strong’s 3372. It’s the Hebrew word pronounced “yaw-ray”. It is spelled “yare” in English and it has two meanings. It means to fear or be afraid and we understand that, but it has a second meaning. The second meaning is a moral meaning. It means to revere. To be afraid emotionally on the one hand, but morally to revere. Now that word is used in the New Testament obviously in Greek and we’re going to see that it has the same two meanings. Let’s go to 1 Peter Chapter 2 in the beginning of verse 17. Let’s look at the Greek word that’s translated “fear”. Notice what Peter says.
I Peter 2: 17 Honor all [men],
“Men” is added. It’s in italics
17b) Love the brotherhood. Fear God. (KJV)
So we’re told in both the Old Testament and New Testament to fear God. Now the Greek word for “fear” here is Strong’s 5399 and it’s the Greek word “phobeo” from which we get the English word “phobia”, which means to be afraid. It has two meanings, just like the Hebrew word. The first meaning is to frighten or in a more passive sense, to be alarmed. Somebody has a fear of snakes. They are alarmed when they see a snake. They jump and run out of the way. The second meaning, it says by analogy, to be in awe of or to revere. Zodiades says about I Peter 2: 17, he says, “In regard to the Lord, to reverence God; to stand in awe of God.” That is the meaning of fear relative to God. Therefore, in relation to Him, let’s understand that fear means to admire, to respect, to look up to, to be in awe of and to worship God. God wants us, as we all know, to love Him with all our heart, with all of our being. He wants us to admire Him, to respect Him, to be in awe of Him and to worship Him. Why? Why does He want us to do that? Because we have a gun at our head? No. He wants us to be in awe of Him and respect Him because we want to and we want to because of who He is. We voluntarily worship Him. We voluntarily are in awe of Him, respect Him and look up to Him. He wants us to do that because we want to, not to have the fear that the man had as he was being put into the wood chipper. Now think about that. How would you like to spend an eternity with that kind of relationship? You spend an eternity thinking any minute you could be thrown into the spiritual wood chipper. That’s not what God wants. God wants us to have a relationship with Him, to admire Him and worship Him because we want to, because we understand who He is relative to who we are. So the conclusion of this third point … rule by fear, is not God’s way. Let’s understand that fear is not from God. It is from Satan and it is from this world.
That leads us to the fourth point. The motivation behind seeking power comes from pride and vanity and when we try to seek power, it comes from our own human nature, our own pride and vanity. And, once again, where did it begin? It began with Satan. Let’s go to Ezekiel 28, the parallel account of Isaiah 14. We’ll just read one verse. Verse 17. Because it’s talking about Satan’s motivation. It’s talking about what was inside him when he decided to rebel and to seek the throne of God.
Ezekiel 28:17 Your heart
That means your innermost being, your motivation.
Ezekiel 28:17 Your heart was lifted up
Oh, okay. That’s his motivation
17b) because of your beauty
Impressed with his own beauty and because of that,
17c) you’ve corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: (KJV)
Or beauty, and looking to the self. Thinking more of the self than one ought to think and then our heart begins to be lifted up. Then we begin to seek power, authority and praise of men.
17d) I will cast you to the ground, I will lay you before kings, that they may behold you.
In other words, I’m going to set this straight in due course, but we will allow this to happen”, because this is part of God’s plan.
Now that same attitude continues with world leaders. Let’s go to Daniel, chapter 4. This is the example of Nebuchadnezzar. We’ve been there before. I think you know where we’re going. We’re going to read verses 30 through 32 of Daniel 4. Nebuchadnezzar had a problem. He thought Babylon, being the first world ruling empire, the first major empire, was because of him, his wisdom, greatness, power and his intelligence.
Daniel 4:30 The king spoke, and said,
Looking over his kingdom from his palace undoubtedly,
30b) Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power,
He’s taking credit for it all.
30b) and for the honor of my majesty?
Look what I’ve done! Look at all this! It’s because of me.
31) While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, [saying,] O king Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken;
Remember. He was warned before not to do this.
31b) The kingdom is departed from you,
32) and they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling [shall be] with the beasts of the field: they shall make you to eat grass as oxen, and seven times [years] shall pass over you, until you know that the most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He will. (KJV)
You see, the politicians are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to get in office and in the end, God’s going to put in that office who He wants. They can strive and labor and spend all these big bucks and yet God’s going to have as president of the United States, the man who He wants. That’s why we shouldn’t be concerned about it and start politicking and taking sides because God is going to put there who He wants. But it continues with worldly leaders and you can see it in the local politicians, the state politicians and the federal politicians. You can see it in dictators and kings all over the world. You can see this pride and vanity. “Look at me! I can do it better than anybody.”
That pride and vanity creeps into worldly religion. Look at the pope and the cardinals. Look at the rings on their fingers. Look at their robes with golden thread. Look at the jewelry around their necks and the gold crosses and all of that. Look at St. Peter’s Basilica and all of that. It’s vanity and pride to elevate men. When President Obama went to England, he took over 200 people with him as part of an entourage; cooks, valets, tailor and all kinds of things to impress world leaders by this entourage and then Air Force One comes flying in. It’s all vanity and pride.
You know it happened in the greater Church of God, going back to the days when we came in the Church. There was emphasis on title and rank, emphasis on who was in charge. Power and control. The fact is, pride and vanity take people away from God. They think they’re doing God’s work and I’m in this office and I’m going to exercise authority because God wants me there, but if pride and vanity is present, it takes us away from God. Let’s go to Psalm 10 and read verse 4. This is a very astute verse here. It gets right to the heart and core of the fact that pride and vanity take us away from God and don’t bring us closer to God. Notice what we’re told here.
Psalm 10:4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance,
That means his whole being.
4b) will not seek [after] God:
Why?
4c) God is not in all his thoughts. (KJV)
It says, God is not in all of his thoughts. In other words, to be Godly, to be a Godly leader, or to follow God, God must be in all of our thoughts. Not some of them, not a majority of them, but all of our thoughts. This means everything we do, everything we think about should be God centered. But when we have pride as we see the wicked and the pride of the countenance, guess what? The minute we get our mind off God and we put it on our self, that takes us away from God. Because God then is not in all of our thoughts. Our thoughts then become on us and on me and what’s good for me and my image and my power and my authority and are people looking up to me and all of this. Am I impressing people enough and all of that. You see, when God is not in all of our thoughts, then our mind goes to pride and vanity and our self. Then Satan has a field day. You see the message here in Psalm 10 and verse 4 is that God should be in all of our thoughts, all of the time. Everything we do should be God centered. Pride and vanity are not from God. Let’s go to Proverbs 6 and we’ll read verse 16 and the beginning of verse 17. This is a very familiar scripture because we are told …
Proverbs 6: 16 These six things does the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto Him.
That’s a way of phrasing in Hebrew that means added emphasis. Where they say well, “Ten things are this way and yea eleven of them”, that means it’s adding more emphasis. So six things God hates; seven are an abomination. What is the first one? The very first one is …
Proverbs 6:17 A proud look
We’ve seen it outside the Church, strutting politicians walking to the microphone, “Look at me.” Also, we’ve seen it inside the Church; strutting people gaining attention to themselves. So, the fourth point is that seeking power comes from pride and vanity. We could give another twenty scriptures on that, but we’ll just give these two.
That leads us to the fifth. Christ taught just the opposite of gaining power and authority. Christ taught to give up power and not seek power. We will learn before this is over, that if we seek power and want power, we are not going to get it. Ultimately, we will come down. That refers to anybody. Luke 14. We’ll read verses 7 through 11. Christ attended a wedding feast and He was remarking about the conduct of some people to His disciples.
Luke 14:7. And He put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying to them,
Some people came and they would go right to the living room in front of the fire in the big seat, right at the head table in the dining room or whatever.
8) When you are bidden of any [man] to a wedding, do not sit down in the highest room; lest a more honorable man than you be bidden of him; (KJV)
9) And He that bade you and him come and say to you, Give this man place; and you begin with shame to take the lowest room.
You then with shame have to go down into the basement, rec room or the garage.
10) But when you are bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade you comes, he may say to you, “Friend, go up higher:” then you shall have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with you.
He would say, “Friend, no don’t sit here, (with his arm around you;) let me take you upstairs and I want you sit in the living room and sit at the head of the table.”
11) For whoever exalts himself
Now this is in God’s world.
11b) shall be abased; and he that humbles himself will be exalted.
You see, exalting the self is a form of seeking power; when you exalt yourself; raising up above other people. Look at Matthew 11:29. Notice what Christ taught. He said even of Himself that He didn’t come to take power. He didn’t come to exercise authority.
Matthew 11:29) Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me,
Meaning, learn about me.
29b) For I am meek
The Greek word means “to be humble”.
29c) and lowly in heart; and you shall find rest unto your souls.
The Greek word means to be have a low degree of thought and feeling for yourself. He says, “I am humble and meek and lowly of heart and if you do that, you shall find rest for your lives.” You see, when you give up power and control, you don’t fight anymore. When you give up power and control, you let others take it who want it and who seek for it. Then you can have peace. You see, Christ did this when He came to this earth. He could have come like He will come in His second coming, but He chose not to, He did not. Notice how He taught us and the disciples. Notice Mat. 20:25-28. He’s talking about how the world does it versus how He wanted His disciples to do it and how He wants us to do it today.
Matthew 20:25 But Jesus called them [unto him], and said, You know that the princes of the Gentiles
Obviously, He’s referring to the Roman Empire and the administration, the government and all of that and the rulers of Jerusalem, the Gentiles.
25b) exercise dominion over them.
Over the ones that they rule.
25c) and they that are great exercise authority upon them.
You could see that in the military in Jerusalem; you could see it in the influence of the Roman Empire and governors and his minions in Jerusalem and Judea. Notice verse 26…
26) But it shall not be so among you:
Wish we had taken that to heart back in Worldwide days and take it to heart today.
26b) But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;
Now the Greek word for minister is Strong’s 1249, and it’s the Greek word “diakonos” where we get our English word “Deacon or Deaconess”. It means an attendant, such as a waiter at a table or an attendant that does menial duties. It technically (and I’m reading out of Strong’s) means a deacon or deaconess. But Christ said that if you want to be great, then you be like a servant, a menial servant, a waiter at a table. Then in verse 27 He said,
27) And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:
When I gave a sermon on slavery a while ago, we emphasized this word. The Greek word for servant is Strong’s 1401 and it is “doulos” in English. It means a slave. It should have been translated slave instead of servant. That’s a bad translation. It means a literal or figurative slave; it means an involuntary slave or a voluntary slave. Christ is saying, “Whosoever shall be chief among you, let him be a slave.” As we know, slaves have no authority at all. Their task is to obey their master, not exalt the self. You would never see a slave in the Roman Empire exalting himself, because that slave would not be in very good health after that or would not even be alive. Going on in verse 28, He says…
28) Even as, (as a slave) the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life as a ransom for many.
We got it all backwards in our history in the Church. Ministers are there not to be served, but to serve. Members, all of us, are not there to be served, but to serve. Christ is saying, “Be like one of them, be like a slave; follow Christ and don’t exalt the self; don’t lord it over as the Gentiles do.” To seek power is to seek the way of Satan. We read in Isaiah 14…”I will exalt my throne above the stars of heaven; I will be like the Most High.” If we seek power, we are following in the footsteps of Satan, and that’s where we got it all wrong in our past, to exalt the self; to build up a hierarchy where people were exalted in ever increasing degrees. When we seek power, we make room for Satan in our mind. When we seek to exert authority and control over others, it’s like renting a room in your mind. It’s taking an apartment in your mind and renting it out to Satan and letting him operate there. We can’t do that. Therefore, concluding this fifth point, we must not seek power for ourselves because Christ taught us not to.
The sixth point relates to that same thing. The fifth is, Christ taught us not to. The sixth is, Christ did just the opposite. He gave up power; He did not seek power in His first coming. He did that for our benefit and our example, to understand and to know how He wants us to conduct ourselves. Let’s just look at some examples of Christ’s last day on earth. Let’s go to John 13. We read this at the time of the foot washing ceremony, but let’s read this from the standpoint of what we just read of doulos, a slave. Now understand, the apostles, the disciples at that time were not slaves, but Christ was indeed their Master. They were following Him and they gave up all to follow their Master, and in that sense, they looked at themselves as servants or slaves of Christ. That’s why their minds were so blown when we read in John 13 beginning in verse 4.
John 13:4 He rose from supper and laid aside His garments; and took a towel and girded Himself.
5) After that He poured water into a basin, (you can imagine, what on earth is He doing?) and He began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe [them] with a towel that He had around His waist.
6) He came to Simon Peter: and Peter said unto him, (he was astonished) “Lord, do you wash my feet?”
7) Jesus answered and said unto him, “What I do, you don’t know now (you don’t even begin to comprehend what I’m doing to you, but you’re going to know and understand later). (KJV)
12) So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, “Do you know what I just did unto you?”
13) You call me Master and Lord: and you say well; for [so] I am.
I am your Master. When you used the word master, everyone in the Roman Empire understood exactly what you were talking about because they understood the relationship between master and slave.
14) If I then, [your] Lord and Master have washed your feet; you also ought to (stoop down) and wash one another’s feet.
This blew their minds.
15) For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
And it’s all tied into the verses that we read earlier. It said, “You see the Gentiles exercising authority.” He said, “It shall not be so among you. You should do as I do and I’m kneeling down and washing your feet.”
16) Truly, I say unto you, the servant (that’s the Greek word doulos which means slave) is not greater than his lord; (they fully understood that) neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
That has multiple meanings and is a whole other subject.
17) If you know these things, happy are you if you do them.
Christ was saying, “I as your Master”, it would be equivalent to a master getting his slaves together and the master washing their feet. Unheard of. Unbelievable. He said, “This is what I am doing to you because I want you to have the same attitude toward other people” … not to exalt the self, being willing to serve as a servant does. They had servants that when you walked in, the sandals were off, the servant knelt down and washed their feet and then you would come into the house. That was common. They understood what He was saying, but it blew their minds. You see, Christ gave us an example of giving up power, giving up control and authority. He never resorted to fear. He never resorted to using fear or violence. Look at Matthew 26. This was just after Judas had betrayed Him. The minions from the high priest had come and they had taken Christ; Judas had already betrayed Him.
Matthew 26:51 And behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out [his] hand, and drew his sword and struck a servant of the high priest’s and smote off his ear.
Good thing he didn’t hit him in the middle of the head; it would have cleaved his head in two, but it took off his ear. Obviously, there was a lot of blood, a lot of confusion, the ear laying on the ground.
Matthew 26:52 and then Christ said to him, “Put up again your sword into its place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”
53) Don’t you think that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?”
He knew He could do that, but guess what? He could have, but He didn’t. He did not resist the authority of the high priest; He didn’t resist the authority of the Roman Government. In all the hours following, He never defended His innocence. He didn’t do that. Talk about giving up authority, giving up power. Look at Chapter 27. We will read verses 11 through 14.
Matthew 27: 11 Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked Him saying, “Are you the King of the Jews?” and Jesus said “You said it”. (Those are your words).
12) And when He was accused of the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing.
He could have defended himself, but He chose not to.
13) Then Pilate said unto Him, “Do you hear how so many things they witness against you?
All these lying witnesses.
14) And He answered him never a word; insomuch that the governor marveled greatly.
He never resisted the scourging, He never resisted the beating, He never resisted the mocking, He never resisted being nailed on the cross. Now, we understand that’s God’s plan, but you see, Christ never exerted power and authority in His first coming, and He’s saying to us that we should do the same thing. In fact, He used His power to forgive. Remember on the cross, the men on either side of Him, one man was against Him and one man later understood. They were dividing His cloak down at His feet and they were spitting on Him and He said in Luke 23:34 (we won’t turn there), He said, “Father, forgive them.” He had the power to forgive, so He used His power not to kill people, not to exert authority over people; He said, “Father, please forgive them, they don’t understand what they’re doing.” That is the power He used. You see, we must seek to serve and not seek power for ourselves.
Let me give you an example of a pastor that Dorothy and I had. I won’t name his name, but he is a pastor to this day, not of our group but he is a very fine man and good pastor. He was transferred out of the Boston area and we were talking several years later; I believe it was at a ministerial conference. He moved to Florida and he and another minister were being considered by headquarters (this was in the 70’s) to be the regional director, as they had in those days. The other minister, frankly, was politicking pretty hard to get that job. This minister that Dorothy and I know, called headquarters and said, “Look, why don’t you just give it to this guy.” Just let him have it because he wasn’t going to get into the fight or politick and he wasn’t going to try to exalt himself, so he said, “Just give it to this guy.” And sure enough, they did. Within a year, this guy got into all kinds of trouble and went downhill very quickly because those who exalt themselves shall be abased. This other man with all humility didn’t want it and he wasn’t trying to exert himself and so he did that out of humility.
Rather than seek to exalt the self, what should we seek to do? We should seek to serve. We should seek to help others. We should seek to make a positive difference in the lives of other people by our example … getting down in the trenches and serving God’s people, not to exalt the self. Christ said we should do just the opposite of what you see in the world. So, the sixth point is, Christ set the example of not seeking power, not exerting the authority that He even had. We don’t have that authority, but He did and did not exert it.
Point seven, last point. The only power we should seek; remember I said, “Should we seek power?” The answer was no and yes. There is a power we should seek. The only power we should seek is the power from God Almighty. That’s the power we should seek. Look at Luke 24: 49. We’re breaking into the context where Christ is appearing to His disciples after His crucifixion and they were bewildered and didn’t understand fully and He miraculously appeared in their midst.
Luke 24:49 And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but wait you in the city of Jerusalem, until you be endued with power from on high.
The King James says until you be endued. That’s a word we don’t often use today. The Greek word means “clothed” with power from on high. He said, “You’re going to receive power from on high. Wait here until I give it to you, until it happens. Now let’s go back to chapter 11. Notice what He says. This is the power we should ask for. We shouldn’t ask for power and authority and office and title. This is the power we should ask for. This is a parable and we are breaking into the context of the parable.
Luke 11: 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children; how much more shall [your] heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?
Previously He said, “Which of you, being a parent, if your son asked for a piece of bread, are you going to give him something that’s poisonous or awful? Are you going to give him a snake or serpent or reptile if he asks for a fish, etc? He says, “Of course not. You know how to give good gifts to your children, so how much more will God the Father give you, His children, the power of His Holy Spirit when you ask? But you must ask.” So there is the power that we need to ask for. When we ask for anything, it’s something we seek. When our little granddaughter wanted me to twirl her around, she asked for that. That’s something she wanted. Now when we ask for God’s Spirit, that’s telling God that we want His Spirit in us. We want to be like Him. We want to be like our Daddy.
Well, what should the motivation of our asking be? Think about that for a minute. When we ask for God’s Spirit, there is a reason for it. What should that reason be? Should it be for the self or something else? I referred to earlier, II Timothy 1:7. We read the beginning of that verse. Let’s go read the rest.
II Timothy 1: 7 For God has not given us the spirit of fear;
We stopped there, but notice the rest of what the verse says.
7b) but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
So when we ask for more of His Spirit, we’re asking for power. That’s where the “yes” comes in. We ask, should we seek power? You bet we should seek power in this one narrow area; ask for the power of God’s Holy Spirit.
Now, what should be our motivation in asking for the power of God’s Spirit? To exalt the self? Let’s see. There’s a very potent example of that in Acts 8:18-21. Here’s an example of someone wanting God’s Spirit, but for all the wrong reasons and we should learn from this example. Talking about Simon Magus and there’s a whole history about Simon Magus that we don’t have time to get into. He was a sorcerer. He used the spirit of Satan, demonic influence, to exert power and control over other humans.
Acts 8: 18 And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands, the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money.
19) Saying, Give me also this power,
He wanted the power for himself, to exalt himself.
19b) That on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Spirit.
He wanted power so that people would come to him and ask him for the power and, therefore, he could have control over those people who came to him. People use money for the same reason.
20) But Peter (obviously inspired by the Holy Spirit) said unto him, your money perish with you, because you have thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.
It’s a gift. You can’t buy it.
21) For you have neither part nor lot in this matter: for your heart is not right in the sight of God.
His heart was not right because he wanted power for the wrong reasons. He wanted power to exalt the self, to have control over other human beings. Well, okay, that we know is wrong. So why should we ask for more power through God’s Holy Spirit? The Bible tells us very plainly. Romans 12:2. This should be our motivation for asking for more of God’s Holy Spirit. We should ask every day, not to exalt the self, but for what Romans 12:2 says.
Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world;
Christ said, “Don’t do like the Gentiles do. Don’t lord it over other people.
2b) but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what [is] that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
We should ask for the power of God’s Holy Spirit to transform our minds into the mind of God so that we know His will. We know what He wants us to do. We know how to act and what to say and what to think. So the power that we should seek is to transform ourselves, not to exert control over other people. Also, we should seek that power so that we can become like Jesus Christ, to follow in His footsteps, to follow His example. Let’s go to Ephesians 4: 11-13. Verse 11 was read and read regarding Church government for years, but then we kind of ignored the following verses a little. This is what our motivation should be in asking for more of God’s Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 4: 11 And He gave some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers.
Yes, those offices are there for a purpose. Verse 12 tells us the purpose.
12. For the perfecting of the saints, (meaning to help the saints become mature. The word really means complete) for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13) Until we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, (this is the goal now) unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:
In other words, we should ask for more of God’s Spirit, which is the Spirit of power, to give us the strength and power to have the mind of Christ, to become like Jesus Christ, to overcome our human nature and to overcome Satan. Remember, Christ went into the wilderness and fasted forty days and forty nights and then was tempted by Satan. You see, He went there to gain more power from the Holy Spirit in order to confront Satan and to gain the victory over Satan, which He did. We should ask for that same power, not to exalt, not to get into the spotlight, not to strut and parade around, but to give us the power to become like our Savior, Jesus Christ by the transformation of our very mind. You see, we need also to seek power to follow Christ’s example. Now let’s go back to I Timothy 3:1. I mentioned it in the introduction that if a man seeks an office of a bishop, he desires a good work. In other words, you seek an office. This office happens to be an overseer, so there’s a certain amount of authority in that office, but what should be the motivation … to exalt the self?
I Timothy: 3: 1 This [is] a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work.
Now let’s emphasize the word “work”, because the office of a bishop isn’t to sit back and be served. To sit at a head table somewhere and have people wait on you hand and foot. No, it’s to do a work. The Greek word for work is Strong’s 2041. It’s the Greek word Ergon in the English and it means to toil as you would in an occupation or by implication, it can mean an act, a doing or labor. In other words, it doesn’t say he desires to be put in the limelight, no, he desires to work. Labor to do what? Labor to exalt the self? Absolutely not. Labor to serve as Christ did. Christ gave His life for us. His whole time on earth was dedicated to serving the people that would ultimately become the children of God.
I think we all learn that we are happiest when we are making other people truly happy. I’m happiest when Dorothy is happy. When she’s singing and acting goofy as she often does; that makes me happy. And when your grandkids are giggling and squealing and you’re tickling them. I would push little Mattie on the swing and I was facing her. Every time the swing would come, I’d grab her stomach and she would squeal and giggle and put up her hands, but then when you’d stop, that’s when she would say “Do dat again!” And we would start all over again. You have joy when you’re making others happy. As I said, when you’re making a positive difference in other people; helping them be like Jesus Christ, helping them along the path that Les talked about; helping them stay in the center of the path, not over on the shoulder, not on the cliff looking over and swaying back and forth, but in the center of the path. If we can help people do that, that is when we feel the best, because we’re doing what Christ wants us to do. We’re doing what He did.
Final scripture of this seventh point of the power we should seek is through the power of the Holy spirit, this is the ultimate goal of that power. Philippians 2:4-5. We know what verse 5 says. That’s a memory scripture, but look at verse 4. This is what the mind of Christ should be used for, not to exalt the self.
Philippians 2: 4 Look not every man on his own things, (don’t have your mind on your self) but every man should look on the things of others.
Not to be a busybody or to be nosey, but to serve and help.
5) Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus:
Now you put these two scriptures together, it says Christ’s mind should be used to serve others. Christ’s mind should not be used to elevate the self and say, “Look at me, you know, I’m the spiritual giant among all of you.” It should be used to serve other people and to look on their things and to help them. Look at what the Nelson family is going through. Look what Arnie and Cleo and that family is going through. The mind of Christ to do that; to serve others. We should ask for that power every day … every day. We should ask for the power to transform ourselves, the power to shape ourselves in the image of Christ and the power to have the mind of Christ.
So in conclusion, what have we seen? We’ve seen that Satan first sought power and control and men followed in his footsteps, and we see that this is done through fear.
We’ve also seen that God’s way, Christ’s way, is not a way of fear, but it’s a way of love. Christ not only taught it, but He did it. He set us the example that we must take the lowest place. We must never exalt the self. We must never seek power to have that power exalt us. But we must everyday seek the power of God through His Holy Spirit to be a servant of all just as Christ did for us.
Transcribed by RV - 06/04/2012