Servant Heart of Jesus

When we gather as a church, it's easy to think the building is what makes us the church. But here's the truth: the church is not this building, the church is you. The church doesn't exist in these walls until you show up. It's about each one of us bringing what we have together.

Hebrews 10:24-25 reminds us not to forsake gathering together because we're supposed to love and serve one another. The person sitting to your left and right, that's the church. The church should go everywhere you go. You should reflect Jesus everywhere you go.

Today, I want to talk about Jesus as the heart of a servant. And here's what I've discovered: the why we serve is more important than that we serve. When you get your why, you'll serve from your heart, not from duty.

Servantship is living to serve and love others selflessly, following Jesus's example with humility and compassion. It's a readiness to meet the needs of others without seeking personal gain or recognition.

That second part is crucial. Often, we stop serving when we don't get the recognition we expected. We're looking for the wrong person to validate our service.

In Mark 10:43-45, Jesus taught his disciples something radical: "Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Notice Jesus makes a distinction. If you want to be great, you'll be a servant, someone who chooses to serve. But if you really want to get it, you'll be a slave, someone completely owned by and surrendered to God. A slave doesn't even have a choice to serve. It's who they are because they reflect their master.

The more we serve, the more we lead. It seems backwards, but in God's kingdom, the only way up is down.

Jesus was a master at using parables, simple stories that everyone could understand to illustrate spiritual truth. He used them to challenge cultural norms and say, "I know that's what the world does, but God does something completely different."

The Good Samaritan
In Luke 10, a religious teacher asked Jesus, "How do I get eternal life?" Jesus responded: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. And love your neighbor as yourself."

The teacher questioned, "Who is my neighbor?"

So Jesus told the story of a man beaten and left for dead on the roadside. A priest walked by. A Levite walked by. The very people who should have helped did nothing. But a Samaritan, someone the Jews despised, stopped. He had compassion. He took the man to an inn, paid for his care, and promised to cover any additional costs.

Jesus asked, "Which of these was the neighbor?" The answer: the one who showed mercy.
Your neighbor is everyone you come in contact with. The Samaritan understood that people mattered no matter who they were. Jesus said, "Now go and do the same."

There's an eternal impact to our service. We'll stand before God one day, and how we served the "least of these" will matter.

Jesus didn't just teach about service, he lived it. In John 13, Jesus washed his disciples' feet. This was the lowest, most humble act imaginable. Yet God himself in human form humbled himself to serve.

He told them, "If I then, the Lord and the teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I gave you an example that you should do as I did to you" (John 13:14-15).

If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. Not just knowing, doing.

Jesus never elevated himself to a position where he expected people to bow down. He modeled the opposite. He was literally God with skin on, and he chose to serve.

Here's what sets Jesus's service apart: he served out of compassion, not duty. He didn't serve because he had to. He served because he loved.

Look at how often Scripture records Jesus being "moved with compassion":

• When he saw the crowds, he had compassion and healed their sick
• He touched the eyes of the blind with compassion
• He reached out to the leper with compassion
• He saw people like sheep without a shepherd and taught them
• He fed the hungry because he had compassion
• Even on the cross, he said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"

Time after time, Jesus was moved by compassion. It was never out of duty. He looked at people, saw their value, and said, "I will serve because I love you and I'm glorifying the Father."

Why are you serving?

In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus describes the final judgment. He'll separate people like a shepherd separates sheep from goats. To those on his right, he'll say:

"Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me."

The righteous will ask, "When did we see you like this?"
And Jesus will answer: "Just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me."

Service is an outpouring of your relationship with God. He moved with compassion for us and sent his son to serve us. Now he expects us to do the same, to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Jesus lived out the ultimate act of service when he died on the cross. John 15:12-13 says, "My commandment is this: to love one another just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that one lays down his life for his friends."

Jesus didn't just talk about service, he walked it out. The day he died, he had no bed to lay on. He didn't even have his own tomb. He came to pour it all out for humanity, and then he called us to do the same.

Not out of duty. Out of love.

After everything we've explored, let me redefine servantship for you: Servantship is love in action. That's it. It's showing that you love people with your actions.

You shouldn't serve because someone's telling you to. Service isn't about a name, a logo, or branding. It's about the overflow of your love for people.

If you serve in kids' ministry, don't do it because the church needs you. Do it because those kids need to see someone pursuing God. They need godly men and women to show them what that looks like.

If you serve on the Welcome Home team, it's not just to hand out papers. It's because you don't know what that person walking through the door has been through. Your smile and "you matter" might be exactly what they need.

Every act of service should come from a place of compassion, not duty. It should pour out of you because you're in an authentic relationship with Christ. When you see people the way God sees them, service becomes natural.

Here's my challenge: Where are you serving? Not because an organization asked you to, but because Jesus modeled it and expects it.

We have opportunities to serve all around us, in our church, in our community, in quiet moments when no one's watching. The man beaten on the side of the road. The person at the grocery store who has to put items back. The lonely neighbor who never gets visitors.

Serve because you care about people. Moved with compassion. Not waiting for recognition or applause, but knowing that the Master sees every act done for the least of these.

One day, we'll stand before Jesus. And when we do, may he look at us and say, "Well done. You cared for the least of these. You served as I served. You loved as I loved."

That's servantship.

That's love in action.

That's the heart of Jesus.