What it Means to be a Servant Leader

Dr. Ryan Rush | John 13:1-5

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

If I were to tell you that you had 24 hours to live, what would you do? How would you spend those next 24 hours? Would you? Would you see some things that you used to do is less important? Would you make something a priority? Who would you call? What would you do? I can tell you this. In our passage today, Jesus knew that he had less than 24 hours to live. And you know what he did? He served. Would you find your copy of the Word of God? John chapter 13. John 13, and we're going to look at this very famous passage of Jesus washing the disciples' feet in the upper room just before they observed the Lord's Supper. Incidentally, we're going to observe the Lord's Supper as we come out of this message today. It's the perfect transition, I think. As you're turning, let me share a couple things. If you're new to Kingsland, we're so glad that you're here. I want you to know this is not our normal decor. In case you're wondering, what in the world is that about? We begin tomorrow with Vacation Bible School. This is a really special year because it's the first time since we've had two campuses. We have uh one church in two locations that we've had two vacation Bible schools. Normally everybody comes here to the central campus from North Katy, but we want to reach our neighbors there. And so that continues to gain steam and word gets out. So tomorrow, buckle up. I heard at the beginning of this service that we had over 1,600 children registered for vacation Bible school. So pray for all the volunteers, pray for those children that the name of Christ would be lifted high, and we are so grateful. Also, thank you to all of you who signed up so far for the 250 hours of prayer. I haven't done the math, but just eyeballing. I think we're about 70% of the way there. Thanks, especially. I think the middles of the night are filled up. Like, way to go. So uh, so the rest of them, like some of you can take 2 p.m., something like that. We're gonna pray, Lord willing, for 250 consecutive hours for our nation. And so on this flag day, go out to the flags and and sign up your household, be a part of that very special observance. All right, servant leadership. That's really an over overused term, I think, today. Uh people use it all the time, sort of a buzzword, and used in improperly many times. Sometimes uh it's just people put servant on the front of the title just to give somebody an excuse to boss others around, right? That's not servant leadership. Well, I'm gonna boss you, but I'm gonna say I'm a servant leader. No. Nor is servant leadership the idea of serving only. It's good to serve, but it's more than that. When you're a servant leader, that means you're serving others to empower them to accomplish a certain mission. So you're moving towards something, you're serving them to get behind them so that they can accomplish what they are called to do. That's servant leadership. And there is no greater example that we can find than our pastor today, John chapter 13, beginning in verse 1. You look on as I read. Before the Passover festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own, who were in the world, he loved them to the end. Now, when it was time for supper, the devil had already put into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot's son, to betray him. Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, and that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God. So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, tied it around himself, and next he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet and to dry them with a towel tied around him. I'm going to paraphrase the next few verses, but what happens is he begins to wash feet, and Peter says, No, no, no, you're not going to wash mine. Jesus says, No, I need to fulfill this. I'm going through it. He said, Well, if you're going to wash my feet, wash my whole body. So Jesus begins to talk about what we talked about last week. The idea that once you're washed, you don't have to continue to be resaved and resaved. Once you're saved, you're fully forgiven, set free. Now you continue to come to the Lord. We confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And he says, but Judas was not yet clean. Judas Iscariot is there. He's not saved, clearly. We're going to see that, and will not be. And so, first of all, I want to say to those who are here, if you've never trusted Jesus Christ, the greatest gift that could ever be afforded you has been given because Jesus, the perfect Son of God, has paid the penalty for your sin. And you can be saved today. Now, if you have been saved, I pray that today we go back and we recognize the magnitude of what Jesus has done. And we understand a little bit better, all of us, what it means to be a servant leader. I want to share with you three wonders of servant leadership that we find in this washing. Here's the first we need to see the magnitude of the washing. See, many of us, if you've been around church before, you've maybe heard the story of the washing of Jesus' feet a thousand times and you've heard it so often that you're no longer really impressed by it. You might say, Wow, isn't it something that he was willing to serve? That is so humble of Jesus. But if you had been in the room that day, if you you wouldn't have thought that was just nice of Jesus, you would have thought it was shocking. You would have seen it as uncomfortable because foot washing was among the lowest, most degrading jobs in the ancient world. They wore sandals with no socks. They walked on dirty, grimy, sometimes muddy roads. They walked on the same roads where animals walk. Do you understand what I mean? It's nasty. They walk in with nasty feet, and somebody has to wash those feet. Nobody wants to wash those feet, and it's certainly not going to be the guest of honor. That's a chore they would not do. I think every household has chores that nobody wants to do, right? Sometimes you got to grab the plunger. Sometimes you have to scoop the litter box if you have cats. Somebody's got to pull the hair out of the drain. Nobody signs up and says, Can I please do that? It doesn't happen. I find this in my house that sometimes when things happen in the middle of the night, you know, that all of a sudden you can sleep a little harder. So I'm not confessing anything. My wife is here, but there have been times where, let's say, the dog is sick and in the morning she'll say, You know, the dog was up four times last night, and you sure did sleep hard. I said, Really? I didn't know that happened. That's amazing. I just I was just tired, I guess. Well, you sure did seem like, you know, would have woken up after the fourth time. No, no, no. I just I just slept right through it. So some of you have a family member like that, just can sleep through anything, right? But there's jobs nobody wants to do. Somebody has to pick up the towel. Dwight L. Moody was undoubtedly the most famous evangelist in the late 1800s. People came from all over the world to hear him. He traveled all over the world to share the gospel, and he used to have a pastor's conference in Chicago. One year, a number of European pastors came to this conference, traveled all the way to Chicago to be there. And while Dwight L. Moody was walking up and down the halls at night praying for these pastors who were staying in dormitories, he noticed that their shoes were outside lining the walls. He remembered he'd been in Europe enough times to know that in Europe it was a common practice that you'd take your shoes and set them outside, and a servant would come along while you were sleeping and wash and shine those shoes. Well, he let uh several of the students know, and history tells us the students weren't really interested. So that night, Dwight L. Moody went up and down the halls and shined every shoe that was in the hallways. The guy that they traveled the world to see was doing the most menial job. Why? Because he understood the meaning, the magnitude of the washing. Now, even talking about Dwight L. Moody shining shoes doesn't come close to demonstrating the impact of what Jesus has done here. We can read rabbinical writings of the first century and understand two things. A student who was under a disciples a rabbi or a disciple under a rabbi had to do almost anything that the rabbi said. Anything. But one exception that's written in that literature is they didn't have to wash the feet. It was too low for them. So who was gonna do it? Very often it's gonna be a servant if they wanted to, or it might be a family member, it might be the children, or you wash your own feet, but it's certainly not gonna be him. So put yourself in that room that night. The King of Kings who came willingly from the throne of heaven, takes a towel and a basin of water, and Jesus washes Peter's feet. Peter would deny him. And Jesus washes Thomas' feet. Thomas would question him. James and John had just gotten through arguing about who would be greater. Jesus washes James and John's feet, even though they're worried about greatness. Listen, Jesus washes Judas's feet who would sell him for silver. Jesus knew every future failure in the room, and he knelt anyway. The magnitude of the washing. I want you to see something else here, though. It wasn't just something to be impressed by, the incredible act of service and kindness and humility that he shows. We also see the model of the washing. You see, when Jesus washed the disciples' feet, he didn't just demonstrate his own humility, he called us to do the same. He was giving them a pattern for their own lives. He's given us one too. Look at verse 12. When Jesus had washed their feet and put on his outer clothing, he reclined again and said to them, Do you know what I have done for you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you're speaking rightly, since that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you also should do as I have done for you. Truly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master, a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. Jesus not only washed the disciples' feet, but then he says in verse 15, I have given you an example. Verse 17 is one of those passages you just breeze right by without really thinking about it. Go back and don't read it too quickly. If you know these things, you're blessed to do them. He's saying there's a difference between knowledge and obedience. The blessing doesn't come from the knowing, it comes from the doing. When I thought about this message and the opportunity that God has given us to move in the direction of people who are hurting and to set aside our pride and to serve, one name came to mind, a dear friend of mine named Dr. Elmo Johnson. Elmo has been the pastor of Rose of Sharon Baptist Church in the fourth ward, downtown Houston, since 1984. Stayed the course in one very difficult place, loving people all around there. And I have memories of just time spent with Elmo, uh, where he's uh he's just rolling down the window of his old truck and sharing uh hellos to people on the street and walking up and down there and being at a restaurant, people walking up saying, Elmo, would you pray for me? Uh, you know, there's sometimes when you attain the status and done all the things that Elmo's done, you cut sort of big time people. And here's Elmo with a pickup with tools in the back, ready to serve and ready to help whoever's in need. And he's done it for over 40 years. I'd love for you to meet him if you haven't. Would you give a warm welcome to King to uh Kingsland here? To uh Elmo Johnson. Elmo, thank you, brother.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

Steven bless you.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

So pray for Elmo. Elmo's been trying to teach me to play golf for about six years, and I'm terrible. I'm it I'm just bad at it. We just go to the driving range every now and then, and he hits it beautifully, and I'm just terrible. But at least we get to preach to one another what we're gonna preach that Sunday. And uh, if you spend any time with Elmo, he does not have an inside voice. And so when he's preaching voice, right, when he's preaching his sermon, uh everybody at the driving range is hearing the message. We might as well just give an alpha call. And I'll say this every time we come back from eating together, yeah, um, Lana's so glad that I'm back because I'm encouraged by you. But she also says, What are y'all doing? Because you always have syrup on your shirt, gravy on your shirt every time. So I blame you, you know. Yeah, I took him to this is it. There's a there's a soul food restaurant called This Is It, in case you wonder what This Is It is, and it's it. And so, yeah, we do some Elmo 1984, Fourth Ward.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Yeah, describe that place at that time. I began 1984 in Fourth Ward, where AIDS had come through and a lot of people were dying. Then the 90s, early 90s, crack came through and devastated the community. On every block, you had crack dealers, and you had shotgun houses where you can look through the house. You look through the front door, and you can shoot a shotgun straight through the back door. So we had rows of shotgun houses out there, rats and roaches all over the place, and sewer coming up in the back, and and uh I just got out of those four walls, the Lord said, get out of those four walls and serve the community. So just got out of those four walls and walk through the community, learn what the needs were in those community in that community.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

So as you're doing this, Elmo, there's so many things that go with it. I I chair one story that we were going to eat one day, and he had a like a policeman's badge on his dashboard, Houston Police Department. I said, Elmo, you buy vocational now? Like, what's that about? And he said, Well, they they deputize me because there's sometimes where the police can't break it up, they call the pastor in. I could break it up. So, how did that happen?

SPEAKER_00 14:29

And the police would come. One car would come and had a police, they call him Carl Lewis. He would run those crack dealers down and tackle. And the whole community, everybody kin to everybody out there. So the whole community came out, and then they'd come getting Revan Johnson, they down there, they got a crack deal on the ground, and and the families, everybody kin, they coming out, they got to call other cars, and we had to come out and say, wait a minute, don't hold it, just stand back, let him go to jail, because if he don't, he can get killed, uh maimed here on this corner, let him go to jail. Because our pastor's their mother, their grandmother, aunties and uncles, and so they back up and they let him go to jail. Sometimes we rode around in the cars with them.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

So if you go to Rose and Sharon now, you meet some of these young men who are now dads, fathers, uh husbands, who have turned their lives around uh because they saw a better way. Uh let's talk about housing for a second. So, all these houses that are just falling down, and you have a landlord that you keep staying on because you're saying you've got to help these people who are falling through their floors and things. And he said, Mr.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Candela said, Reverend Johnson, you need to teach these people how to pay their rent. They're not paying their rent. He had drug dealers in there, and you had prostitutes and of course drug addicts, they don't they don't have any money left over. So he said, I say, well, Mr. Candela, you want to sell a house? And he said, Yes, and I'll finance them. So Mayor Lanier had a program, uh community development program, that he would build a house, a three-bedroom, two and a half bath, for $92,000. Uh somebody at Kroger's or H.E. Bome Depot that can own a house. And I sit across the table with them just weeping, saying, I never thought I live in Allen Parkway. I lived in CUNY homes, and my grandmother raised me up in CUNY homes, and I never thought I could own a house. And I say, Yes, God had a house for you.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Well, well. So you have you go from tenement housing that's falling down to how many homes now when you drive through Valentine Dallas Avenue around Roshere?

SPEAKER_00 16:40

We build over a hundred houses out there for the load of modern income.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

You see why I like hanging out with this dude? He's he's got a vision and and it's making this huge difference. It didn't start in 1984, though. So I want to go back before that to Louisiana.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Nackadish, Louisiana. I was born in Nackata. Somebody, somebody asked, somebody said, Yeah. Nackedish, Louisiana. I was born in Nackadish in the 50s, early 50s. And my mother was, my grandmother was a sharecropper. My mother remarried, so my grandmother took me and my brother and said, Let me raise these boys. You and your husband going around. He was in the service, he trained nurses, and so we stayed with my grandmother. She had a sharecrop. She had about 12 or 15 kids, and so they would a share. Somebody asked me earlier, say, what is a sharecrop? Well, the the owner, Dr. Pratt, owned the land, and then mama, they would develop the land and put cotton, cotton, and soybeans, and we would chop the cotton and pick the soybeans, and pick the cotton. And if we pick 12 bales of cotton, they get six and we get six. And so our six, we get paid for it. See, that's sharecropping. Some of some of you that grew up.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

We all learned something today. All right.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Yes. So there's a little church in that community. Morning Star Baptist Church. Yeah. That has a bell. Yes, tell us about the bell.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

One of my favorite stories.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

My grandmother had a brother, his name is Uncle Johnny, and he would take me down to Morningstar Baptist Church, had a big old rope on the bell, and I would swing and ring the bell. Well, in the country, you everybody shared. You kill the hogs, a few hogs would kill, they cut the meat up, and everybody in the community would share. Somebody coming from the army, we would greet them in. They'd have their uniform on and rang the bell. Somebody got sick, we'd ring the bell. Somebody passed, we'd ring somebody getting married, we rang the bell. So my perspective of pastoring Pastor Ryan was not just inside the four walls, but the whole community. Because I got that perspective from growing up with my grandmother because we rang the bell. So that's I believe in getting out of the four walls and serving the community. Serving. And that's what you're preaching on. And that's what this church has done for us down in Fourth Ward because you've come down. A lot of young people came down from years serving down there, helping me, ringing the bell.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

Yes. If you go to Rosa Sharon Baptist Church some Sunday, you'll see on the back wall their mission statements, three words. We love people. That's not bad. We love people.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

Yeah. You want to thank Young Mo Johnson? Love you, brother. Thank you, man. Love you, brother. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

You know, sometimes people say, Well, Pastor, I just want to make a difference. I want to share the love of Jesus, but I just don't know. I don't know any lost people. I don't know how to do that. Listen, you find a need, they're everywhere. Find somebody who's hurting. You go meet that need. Find something nobody else wants to do. And you love people through that service, and people want to know about the gospel. Happens all the time. What an example. We have seen in this passage the magnitude of the washing. We have seen in this passage the model of the washing. But finally, I want us to zero in on a big picture here. We need to see the meaning of the washing. You see, what's happening here is far more than Jesus cleansing, washing feet. If you study the ministry of Christ, you'll see there are three great discourses about Christ or from Christ in the Gospels. Remember, Jesus came, he is our prophet, our priest, and our king. Matthew 5 through 7, the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus clearly is coming as prophet. He's declaring the truth about the law, what God has come for us to do, what he's revealed to us. The Olivet Discourse, Matthew 24 and 25, Jesus is speaking of his second coming, and he's coming as king. He demonstrates his majesty. Huge chunk of scripture is right here. This is what's known as the upper room discourse. It begins in John 13, goes to 14, 15, 16, and then culminates probably on the journey to the garden in John 17, which is known as the high priestly prayer. In this passage, Jesus is demonstrating he's the priest, he's our great high priest. What does a priest come to do? He's the intermediary between God and man. So we need to read this with that in mind because verse 1 says Jesus knew that his hour had come. If you've been following all these months, we've seen six times in the Gospel of John that it says his hour had not yet come. Now his hour has come. What's the hour? The one major purpose for Christ's coming to earth to die on a cross. And he's about to pay for our sin on a cruel cross to satisfy the justice of God, and then he's gonna rise in victory. He's gonna ascend to heaven, and he's gonna return one day. Think about this picture in that light. What happened that day? Jesus has on his outer garment in his glory, his priestful priestly robes, if you think about it that way. He sets aside his garment. He takes on the towel of service. The one who comes from the highest stoops to the lowest. And he washes them clean. He does for them what they cannot and will not do for themselves. Doesn't say it here, but he had to do something with that nasty rag. He left that room and took that grime far from them. And then he returned. And he put back on those priestly robes. And he sat with them and ate with them. My friend, that's what Jesus has done for us. And that's the reason it's so fitting that we close this time with the Lord's Supper in a few moments. 2 Corinthians 5.21 puts it this way: He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. The uttermost act of love someone can show is to go from the highest point to the lowest point, to take the worst of people and bring them to the greatest blessing. And that's what Jesus did. Jesus took our sin on himself. So I'll say again, if you're here today, you've never trusted Jesus, that is the paramount invitation that I have for you. Would you come to Jesus and trust him? Recognize that you're a sinner in desperate need of a savior. Receive the grace that he offers. If you're a believer in Christ, you know you're a Christian. Would you go back to this time? Remember the message of the washing. Give thanks to the Lord. And say, Lord, as you give me the grace to do it, after we observe this table, we're going to leave this place and we're going to demonstrate the love of Christ through our own service. What a message. What a picture. Would you bow with me? Heavenly Father, it's an awesome thing to think about the love that you have shown us. And we're overwhelmed to imagine the King of Kings, the Son of God, stooping to wash, demonstrating love. So God stir in our hearts that we might do the same. And Father, in a few moments, when we observe this supper together, we take the elements, take us back to the cross, remind us of the magnitude of the gift that's been given. And Heavenly Father, right now, I pray for the man or woman who walked in these doors, and they know that they've never trusted your son Jesus for salvation, forgiveness. I pray that right now, even in this moment, God, you would draw them to yourself. That they might recognize their desperate need for a savior, the depth of their sin, recognize that Christ has died for us, paid the penalty for our sin. That they might call out to you and say, Come into my life, Lord Jesus, forgive my sin. God, would you do what only you can do in their hearts? Change us, mold us today, shape us to be more like you. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Hey, Pastor Ryan Rush here, and I just want to thank you for being with us at Kingsland Online today. What an honor. But I'll tell you what would be even better. We'd love to see you get connected with the physical church in the days ahead if you haven't already. And that means maybe if you're local in the West Houston area, we'd love to see you at Kingsland. Otherwise, regardless, we'd love to help you facilitate uh jumping into a local church near you, and we can do that together. You can go to kingsland.org slash online connect. Kingsland.org slash onlineconnect to find out the next steps on your journey. Listen, thanks again for being with us today at Kingsland Online.