The Portrait Of The Two Kinds Of Pastors As Depicted By Jesus

Our Lord Jesus intervened in a controversy between His disciples as to who was the greatest among them.

Our main dish of the day is His concluding words to them in the account written by Mark.

These words are recorded in Mark 10:45:

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served; he came to serve and to give his life to redeem many people.”

Encapsulated in the words of our Lord Jesus is the character of leadership in The Kingdom of God.

He said He did not come to be served, but to serve, and to lay down His life for us.

In other words, His leadership was characterized by love and servanthood.

We will continue our meal with the entire record of the dispute as is written in Luke 22:24–27:

(24) Now an argument sprang up among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest.

(25) But he told them, “The kings of the gentiles lord it over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors.

(26) But you are not to do so. On the contrary, the greatest among you should become like the youngest, and the one who leads should become like the one who serves.

(27) Because who is greater, the one who sits at the table, or the one who serves? It is the one at the table, isn’t it? But I am among you as one who serves.

The disciples had been arguing as to who was the greatest among them.

In His intervention, our Lord Jesus contrasted the leadership profile of the kingdoms of this world with that in the Kingdom of God.

He stated that the leaders of the kingdoms of this world lord it over their people, and are called providers for the people.

They exalt themselves over their subjects.

Put otherwise, the leaders in the world of Satan love the recognition and the acknowledgment, and the praise of men.

After He defined the character of leadership in the kingdoms of this world, He turned to the then potential leaders in His church, and said to them:

But you are not to do so. On the contrary, the greatest among you should become like the youngest, and the one who leads should become like the one who serves.

Our Lord Jesus stated clearly to His disciples that they were not to be conformed to the leadership profile of the world of Satan.

He said that those that are in the highest position in His Kingdom should humble themselves and take the lowest place amongst the brethren.

Furthermore, He said the leaders in His church should become in heart and in deed like servants to the saints.

Our Lord Jesus concluded His intervention in His disciples’ controversy in these words:

Because who is greater, the one who sits at the table, or the one who serves? It is the one at the table, isn’t it? But I am among you as one who serves

In today’s parlance, He said He was in their midst like domestic help.

We will pay particular attention to the fact that His words are present-continuous.

Simply put, His servitude was neither a one-time demonstration, nor was it sporadic, but it was what characterized His entire three years plus of His fellowship with His disciples.

Our KING exemplified for us that leadership in His Kingdom is not lordship or exaltation but is being a servant to our brethren.

We would take a third witness of our Lord Jesus as THE SERVANT-KING

This is seen in His actions at the end of the miraculous feeding of about five thousand men after He had taught them many things.

The full account is recorded for us in Mark 6:32–46.

Verse 45 reads:

And immediately He constrained His disciples to get into the boat and to go before to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He sent away the crowd.

After the men had been fed, He compelled His disciples to go ahead of Him to Bethsaida while He waited behind to disperse the crowd.

And if you would, our Lord Jesus Himself cleared up after the church service.

The Sauls vs the Davids

The leadership profiles of the kingdoms of this world and that of The Kingdom of God contrasted by our Lord Jesus were prefigured for us by King Saul and King David.

King Saul typified fleshy leadership in the church of God.

King David personified spiritual leadership in the church of The First-Born.

Now, God had forewarned His people as to the character of worldly leadership they desired in 1Samuel 8:10–18.

In spite of His warning, rejecting God as her King (1Samuel 8:7), Israel craved conformity to the world.

God gave in to her request.

Their king, Saul, used her, the people of God, for his selfish ends.

And King Saul ended ignominiously.

On the contrary, God’s chosen king, David, knew God’s purpose for leadership as is revealed in 2Samuel 5:12:

And David perceived that the LORD had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel’s sake.

He knew he was not ordained king by God for himself, but for the sake of the flock of The Great Shepherd.

He loved and served his generation by the will of God.

And King David’s throne endures forever.

Men, brethren, and fathers, as leaders in the church of Christ, whichever one of these two crowns — King Saul’s/King David’s, fits anyone of us, let him wear it.

We will take a look at The Son of David’s interaction with His disciples when the time of His departure drew near as is recorded by His Apostle in John 13:1–17:

Verse 1 reads

Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

The One who sits on the throne of His Father, David, loved His disciples till He left this world.

The import of this to you and I is that the root of leadership in The Kingdom of God is that because we love The Lord, we love the sheep of The Great Shepherd placed in our care.

Verses 4 and 5:

(4) He rose up from supper and laid aside His garments. And He took a towel and girded Himself.

(5) After that He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

Our Lord Jesus took upon Himself the lowest estate as a slave and began to wash His disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel wrapped around His waist.

• The significance of this to you and I is that the leaders in The Kingdom of God are not puffed up, for Love does not seek preeminence.
• Love serves.

We will continue with the 13th verse:

You call Me the Teacher, and Lord, and you say well, for I AM.

Our Lord Jesus knew His identity and thus was fully secured in Himself.

He stated unequivocally that He was their Teacher and Lord.

Here is the point:

• When He assumed the position of a slave amongst His disciples, He was not “self-abasing outwardly”.
• “Outward self-abasement” is repulsive to God for it is pride disguised as humility”

Verse 14:

If then I, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

He left us an example that we should serve one another.

Verse 17

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

He concludes by saying that any one of us who hears what The Spirit is saying and does them is blessed.

We will begin to gradually wind down with the words of the Apostle of our Lord Jesus written to us in 1Peter 5:1–4:

(1) The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:

(2) Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

(3) neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.

(4) And when the chief Shepherd shall be manifested, ye shall receive the crown of glory that fadeth not away.

The Apostle Peter exhorts the under-shepherds to The Great Shepherd of the sheep to tenderly nurture the flock of God in their care.

He urges us to discharge our duty heartily, with a view to pleasing God.

However, he warns us not to fleece the flock of God which He purchased with His own Blood.

Simply put, we should not oversee the church of God in order to enrich ourselves.

Neither should we seek to dominate and exalt ourselves over the flock.

Rather, we should be examples of love and servanthood to them, even as our Lord Jesus was to us.

The Apostle concludes by stating that at the appearing of The Chief Shepherd, any of His under-shepherds who discharged the responsibilities of their exalted position accordingly shall receive the unfading crown of glory.

Amen.