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 HOW TO JOIN THE UPPER CLASS Based on Luke 22:24-30By Pastor Glenn PeaseWhen soldiers for the 6th Massachusetts Militia were attacked, and many werewounded at the start of the Civil War, they were brought to Washington, D. C.Clara Barton had been a teacher in Massachusetts, and she recognized some of thewounded soldiers as her former students. She went to the hospital to help, and shediscovered that no one was prepared for this emergency, and the supplies wereshort. Other trains began to arrive with the wounded, and Clara appealed to herfriends for supplies. Barrels of food and bandages were being sent to her.Many of the wounded died because it took so long for them to get treatment.She kept moving closer and closer to the scene where they were wounded until sheended up right on the battlefield. She became known as the Angel of the Battlefield.She escaped death through all four years of the Civil War, even though woundedmen she was treating were shot as she was aiding them. She was like a angel beingguarded by an angel.After the war Lincoln asked her to take on the enormous task of locating the 80thousand missing men, and report to the families if they were found dead. This wasanother four years of work. In 1869 she went to Europe for her own health. Whilethere the Franco-Prussian War broke out, and she volunteered her services. Shewas again nursing the wounded. She saw the efficiency of the Red Cross at work.She came back to America and for 5 years labored to get legislation throughCongress for the United States to join The International Red Cross. She succeeded,and in 1882 the U. S. branch was established. At age 77 she was on the battlefieldagain in the Spanish-American War. She died at age 91 in the year of 1912.Her lifetime of service to others all began with service within her own home.When she was 11 years old her brother had an accident and was ill for two years.She became his nurse and developed such a love of meeting the needs of thesuffering that it became her passion for the rest of her life. She gave her life toserving others, and was very conscious of the presence of Christ. She quoted Jesus:"In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye havedone it unto me." Then she added, "I never in my life performed a days work at thefield that was not grounded in that little sentence." She was asked how she couldendure all the horror of the battlefield, and she replied, "You must never think of anything except the need and how to meet it. Then God gives the strength, and thething that seemed impossible is done."Her life illustrates one of the hardest lessons in life for us to learn, and that isthat greatness is not measured by what you get, but by what you give. We have thesame problem as the disciples had because we think greatness and successful living
 
has to do with the position, power, and prestige we get in life, rather than the servicethat we give in life. It is such a hard lesson to learn because all of the mediaconstantly bombard us with the opposite message that life does consist in theabundance of your possessions, and that the key to greatness is power, position andprestige. It is hard for our minds not to conform to this message when the Christianworld tends to promote the same value system.There is little in our culture that causes anyone to aspire to be a servant. That isa thing of the past. Servant-hood seems so archaic and obsolete. Sid Frank in ThePresidents tells of how two of the presidents of the United States were indenturedservants as boys. The two were Millard Fillmore and Andrew Johnson. They wereunder contract for 5 to 7 years, and for all practical purposes were owned by theirmasters. Andrew Johnson was indentured to a tailor and he hated it and ran away.A reward of ten dollars for his capture was advertised in the Raleigh, NorthCarolina Gazette, but he was never captured. Fillmore purchased his freedom for30 dollars after he served a couple of years. This kind of servant hood links it withit with slavery and this is repulsive to freedom loving Americans.It is hard for modern American Christians to get their minds open to the mindof Christ on this issue because it goes against the grain of our culture. The NewTestament, however, is loaded with teachings about being servants. To makematters worse the primary word for servant in the New Testament is the worddoulos, and it means slave. In Matt. 20:6-7 Jesus said to His disciples who wereindignant at James and John trying to get places at His right and left hand in Hiskingdom, "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, andwhoever wants to be first must be your slave." In the parable of the talents themaster says, "Well done thou good and faithful servant." He uses the word doulos,which is slave.The study of this word is time consuming, for it is used so many times. But letme point out that Paul called himself, and his companions, slaves of Christ, and heconsidered all Christians slaves of Christ. James, Peter, and Jude likewise proudlywore the same title. It would take hours just to read all the verses that exalt the roleof servant in the Bible. When we come to the text in Luke 22 we see Jesus is using adifferent word than doulos. Here He uses the word diakoneo, from which we getthe word deacon. Jesus came into this world to be a deacon, which is one whoserves. The word means one who waits on and ministers to others. Jesus did notcome to be waited on, but to wait on others, and to be their servant.There is no escape from this reality that Jesus both taught and lived. Truegreatness can be found only in service. Therefore, whenever people are aware of the presence of Christ there will be a desire to minister to the needs of others. If weopen our homes to Christ, it means we will have no problem with the issue of submission to one another. Submitting simply means ceasing to play the role of master and taking on the role of servant. Since this is the highest role we can play, itmeans the husband never stands taller than when he serves the members of his
 
family by meeting their needs. The wife's calling to submit to her husband is notthen a call to a place of second class lowliness, but rather, it is a call to the mostChrist-like role of the servant.The reason wives and mothers are more honored and exalted by holidays, and inpoetry, is because their role as servants meets so many vital needs of the familymembers that everybody knows they are the greatest factor in family harmony,health and happiness. It is service that makes them the greatest in the kingdom of the home just as it is service that makes any of us great in other realms of life. Jesustook the little lads lunch, and that service that his mother rendered to her one littleboy was used to feed 5,000. Her family service was multiplied to minister to amultitude of families. Jesus does this for all of us. Whatever service we render toanother member of the family enhances their potential to be of service to others.This means that the Christian home is a service center. It is a place where weare served, and a place where we learn the art of serving. Someone said, "Nomatter how small your lot in life there is always room on it for a service station."Each of us can be great in the kingdom of God by means of service. We want tolook at two aspects of service in this text.I. THE SUPREMACY OF SERVICE.Jesus said the servant is the greatest, and the whole of the Bible and historysupport this. Moses was a great many things. He was a leader, a law giver, amiracle worker, a man of prayer and faith, and a man of courage and compassion.There are so many things one might remember him for, or put on his epitaph to sumup his life. But in Joshua where God comes to him to tell him he was the new leaderof Israel he referred 4 times to the fact that Moses was his servant. That is the onecharacteristic that God selected to describe this great man. There is no greatercompliment that God can give a man, for to be a servant is to be the greatest of all.Many of the great men of the Bible are called servants of God, and so the onlyupper class in the Bible is the servant class. When you get into this class you are atthe pinnacle of your career for God, for there is no place to go that is greater andhigher. If your goal in life is to be in the upper class, then service is the only way togo. The final proof of this is that the Son of God Himself came into human life, notto be a king and ruler before whom masses would bow, but to be a servant of themasses. Our Savior is supremely a Servant. He not only taught this truth, Hedemonstrated it. Jesus is Lord of all men, not just by right of creation, but by rightof redemption. He is the only being in the universe that has provided a vital servicefor every person who has ever lived. He provided the way of salvation so that allcan be forgiven and have eternal life.There is not way to be like Jesus without being a servant. In Acts 10:38 Petersums up the life of Jesus by saying that He went about doing good. Jesus was theservant of every man, woman and child He met. That was the whole point of the
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