Markham Baptist Church Sermon

Preached in Markham Baptist Church, October 3, 2004

You will remember our starting point as we began thinking about the purpose of life. You will remember that I spoke of the fact that you and I were created to give glory to God. That’s our purpose, to glorify God. And I defined “glory” as God’s character, it is His nature, the radiance of His splendour. The glory of God is the character of God. So we discovered that if that’s what “glory” means, then it follows that we who have been created to give glory of God have been created to reflect God’s moral character. We have been created so that when people look at us they see what God is like.

The problem though is that we have all fallen short of the glory of God. We have all failed to reflect God’s image. And then I tried to show that the good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ came as the one who fully reflects God’s character, there is no falling short of the glory of God in Christ. He came to give His life so that we can be reconciled to God through faith in His death. We need to believe that. But there is more, when we believe, we also receive the very Spirit of God and He takes up residence in our life and reproduces God’s character in us. And when people look at us, as people see the way we treat the cashier at the Garden Basket, as they see the way we relate to our spouse, treat the hungry and the needy, the way we respect one another and those in the community they see what God is like.

So it is as God takes up residence in our life that we are able to fulfill the purpose for which we were made, to give glory to God.

Now let me be clear - I do not mean by that that we become God-like. No, God alone is sovereign, God alone is all-powerful. God alone is all-knowing, God alone is God. No - we do not dare make the same mistake that Satan made in trying to be like God. No, the point is that He comes and lives in us so that we may demonstrate His moral character.

So while we have missed the mark, fallen short of the glory of God, Christ in us our hope of glory (Colossians 1:27), Christ’s spirit in us is our hope of hitting the mark, of reproducing the moral character of God and fulfilling our purpose in life.

That’s what we discovered last week.

Now let me stress why this is important. If you do not understand that now you are Christian - Jesus Christ now lives in you, in order to reproduce Himself in you, then you will always feel frustrated and disappointed in trying to fulfill your purpose in life.

Why? Because you will be trying to reproduce a godly character in your own strength. You may get along fine for a while but then you will fail, and you then you will re-dedicate your life to God. Then you will fail and then you will have to re-rededicate your life to God again. You will make promises to God, “I promise to try harder”. And you’ll try to refine yourself and make yourself better, and then you will fail and then you will re-re-rededicate your life to God. And you will fail again and again and again.

You will be doomed to live a futile Christian life until you realize that it is Christ in you that is our hope of glory. It is Christ in us that is our hope of reproducing the Godly life. It is Christ in us that is our hope of living a purposeful life. This is what Jesus clearly teaches us in John 15 where He says,

“Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5)

That means that apart from Christ we have no hope of reproducing the character of God. We have no hope of fulfilling our purpose in life.

So the next question may be this – how does this happen? This is a good question, because the display of the glory of God in our lives, the fulfillment of purpose in our lives just doesn’t accidentally occur. No, it is a direct consequence of conditions that enable it to take place.

So what are the conditions? If the purpose of life is to glorify God, and the only way I can glorify God is by having Christ live in me, how does it happen? What concrete conditions must be in place for this to happen?

And it is this question that I want to dwell on this morning.

And we find the answer to this question in a conversation that Jesus has with His disciples in response their quest for a deeper spiritual life. In their quest for a life that glorifies God Jesus asks the disciples a series of questions in Luke 17: "Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'?"

And you can imagine the disciples' reactions as they are hear this question. There would be guffaws and bursts of laughter. Someone over here would perhaps say, “As if! Tell my servant to sit down and eat! I don’t think so. What a silly question. ”

And Jesus continues with another question: "Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'?"

Again the disciples would respond, "That’s right. That’s what servants are for. First the master is served, then the servant."

You see in the ancient world a servant was a slave, one who had no rights, they were bought and owned by the master and they existed to serve their master.

Jesus continues at verse 9: "Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?"

And you can imagine the disciples agreeing with Jesus again and by this time perhaps getting a little peeved with Him, saying, “Jesus, why are you asking us these questions? They are all so obvious. Why are you asking us all these silly questions?”

And Jesus says, “Why?” “Why?” Hold on tight. Jesus says, "So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty."

You see this is conversation is the key to having more of Christ in your life.

Think of it, Jesus says, “so you also.” What’s he saying? So you also are slaves. We are slaves. It appears then that one of the conditions to having Christ in us is to realize that we are his slaves. So we read in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body."

You see, at one time you had another master - sin. You were a slave to sin. But now through faith you have been purchased out of that household by Jesus Christ. He purchased you by giving His life on the cross for you and now you belong to Him. He is your master and you and I are His slaves.

This is very different than what we sometimes think. We sometimes treat Jesus as our slave. We come home from a hard day at work or with the kids and we expect Jesus to say to us, “Come along now and sit down and eat”. In other words we expect Him to serve us. So we say, “Jesus we want a smooth ride into work today, Jesus we want good health. Jesus we want safe travels. Jesus we want a bigger office and more money.” But Jesus is not our slave. He does not say to us servants who have been working in the fields, “Come along now and sit down to eat.” No - we serve Him.

So this is the first important condition in having more of Christ in our lives, it is realizing the nature of the relationship we have. We are the slave and He is the master.

In the words of Charles Price, “There will be no demonstration of the glory of God without a submission to the government of God.”¹ We cannot demonstrate a godly character if we are not submitting to His Lordship in our lives.

Michael Cassidy tells of a time when he was doing a city-wide mission in the city of Johannesburg with 300 churches participating. A man came into the office where the mission was being prepared and he came in with a suitcase a little hat in his hand, he demanded to see Michael and he said to Michael, “Michael I am finished with that woman. I am sick and tired of that woman. She is driving me crazy, she is so irritating me, she has got me so upset, I just can’t stand this woman I have left home today. I’ve packed everything it’s all in my car. I have walked on out and I’ve come here and I want to work for the Lord full-time. I’ll do anything."

So Michael said, “That’s great! We love full-time workers like that. That’s wonderful - I have your first job. Please take your little hat, take your little suitcase, get in your little car. Go back to your little wife and say, 'Sweetheart I am so sorry I walked out on you like that. I am so sorry.' "

He said, “You can’t ask me to do that!”

Michael said, “No, no, that’s your first assignment for the day.”

Do you know he did that. When I gave the appeal in the stadium later that week I saw these two people probably in their mid 40s walking across holding hands like a couple of star struck teenagers. ²

Wouldn’t you agree that it was then when the two of them displayed the glory of God when they submitted to the government of God and worked out their relationship in reconciliation.

Yes. For there is no demonstration of the glory of God without submission to the government of God. And we can rejoice that we have a loving Master. Jesus says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, For I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

We have a loving Master and we have a generous Master. He not only fills our cup but He fills our cup to overflowing with joy and peace and goodness, and all that is necessary for living a full and rich life. We have a loving Master who, it is true often serves us, but it is never true that He is our servant. We must acknowledge and submit to Him as our Master. We must get the order right. For if we are recognizing Him as slave and we as master, Jesus will not have any part of that. And His fullness cannot dwell in us.

Jesus says, “So you also?” Now here is the second condition. We must focus on pleasing our Master. In verse 8 Jesus says, "[wouldn’t the master say to the servant], 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'?"

Yes! Our focus must be pleasing the Master. So Rick Warren begins his book in chapter one with the classic sentence “It’s not about you.” And he begins chapter 7 with the words, “It’s all for Him.” That’s what Jesus is saying. Our focus must be on pleasing the Master.

And do you see the benefits of this? When we focus on pleasing the Master we escape from self-centered Christianity. It is prevalent in our day. A Christianity where you, you, you, matter more than Christ and His cross. Go to any Christian bookstore and you see how many books are focused on how you can become more Christian, more spiritual, more holy, more sanctified, more happy, more joyful. Why don’t we have more books on servanthood, in placing self last? Because they don’t sell!

So the gospel message is – do you want to find yourself? Do you want to truly be something? Do you want your life to be filled with purpose? Then die to self. Put Jesus Christ first. And as you die to self, as you die to your agenda, to your purposes your goals and live for Christ then His life is reflected in you. So Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:11: “For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.”

As we live for Christ we escape selfishness.

And when we seek to please the Master we have a proper perspective on being driven. Sometimes we think and speak negatively of people who are driven. They tend to be single-focused, A-type personalities who push everything and everyone out of the way to get what he or she wants. But do you know that there is a godly drive, there is a Biblical drive? Yes! It is to please our Master, to live for Him, to glorify Him. So Paul writes 2 Corinthians 5:9: “So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.”

And when we seek to please the Master it gives us a motivation to keep on. Perhaps one of my biggest difficulties as a person is my dependence on human encouragement and appreciation. I need to be thanked for work that I do, I need to be appreciated for efforts that I make. To be sure a certain level of that is normal but there are times when I need to remind myself that I don’t work for you. I don’t do what I do for you. You aren’t the one I have to please. I, and all Christians, we work for the King, We take our orders from Him and our work is to please Him. And really when we have done everything that Jesus calls us to do, all we can say, is that “we are unworthy servants we have only done our duty.”

So there you have it – our purpose in life is to glorify God. We can only do that as we allow Christ to live in us fully. Two conditions for that to happen – first recognize Him as Master, second serve Him and serve Him alone. Truly life is not about you, and it’s not about me, it’s all about Him.

ENDNOTES:

1. Charles Price, Alive In Christ (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publications, 1995), p. 106

2. Michael Cassidy, cassette tape, "Leadership in a World of Conflict", World Shapers conference sponsored by The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.

3. Quoted by John Gladstone in his sermon entitled, "I Believe in the Comfortable Pew"