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Series: What Jesus Came To Do – Shape a People for His Father’s Glory Today: A God-Glorifying Fellowship of Dearly Loved Slaves (assorted texts)
Intro:
*** The gospels (& the rest of the NT) clearly reveal that Jesus is shaping us into a community of dearly loved __________ of God.
I. Question #1: _____ should you & I ______ to be the slaves of God?
II. Question #2: _____ should you & I serve as the slaves of God? · with our _______ totally surrendered to God.
· with our ________ totally devoted to God.
· with our _______ totally dependant on God.
· with our _______ totally in step with God.
Concl:
Digging Deeper Into Being a “Slave of Christ” … from Pastor Jeff The Bible uses many different metaphors to describe the believer’s relationship to the Lord. For example we are His children (sons & daughters), disciples, friends & even “the bride of Christ”. No one “image” is complete. We need all of them to begin to understand just what it means to know the Lord. Probably less recognized than any other metaphor is that we are the “slaves of Christ”. One reason that we overlook this image is that most English Bible versions often translate the primary words for “slave” as “servant” (particularly the Greek word “doulos”). While “servants” is sometimes a better translation, often the word doulos really means “slave” (as I hope to have shown in the sermon). The reason for this mistranslation is probably on account of the fact that real physical slavery was (& is) such a terrible practice. However, slave imagery should not be eradicated from our Bibles because the words for slavery are in our Bibles for a reason. To be the metaphorical slave of Christ is a great thing. There is no higher privilege than have the Lord God as your Master/Owner/Redeemer & to be His exclusive property - His willing bond-slave - His approved representative. I invite you to meditate with me on the following scriptures (I limit myself to a small selection of the 185 uses of the word “slave”/doulos & its related 6 root words. There are also another 12 Greek words for “slave/servant” that I have not taken the time to list that bring the total # to well over 200). · The expression “slave(s) of God” is used 26+ times in the NT including Luke 1:38, 48, 2:29; Acts 2:18, 4:29, 16:17; Tit 1:1; Jam 1:1, 1 Pet 2:16; Rev 1:1a, 1b, 7:3, 10:7, 11:8, 15:3, 19:2, 5, 10, 22:3 & 22:6 & 9 (“fellowslave”/syndoulos in Rev 6:11, & the verbal form of slave/douleo (serve as slave) is used in Mt 6:24; Luke 16:13; 1 Th 1:9 & probably Rom 7:6 (see 7:4). · The expression “slave(s) of Christ” is used 19+ times in the NT including Rom 1:1; Gal 1:10; 1 Cor 7:22; Eph 6:6, Phil 1:1; Col 4:12; 2 Tim 2:24; Jam 1:1; 2 Pet 1:1; Jude 1; Rev 2:20 (“fellowslave”/syndoulos in Col 1:7 & 4:7, & the verbal form of slave/douleo (serve as slave) is used in Acts 20:19; Rom 12:11; 14:18; 16:18; Eph 6:7 & probably Phil 2:22 (see 2:11). · A few significant OT uses of this metaphor include Ps 89:3; 105:42; Num 12:7; Neh 9:14; Dan 6:20; Jer 25:4; Ezek 38:17; Amos 3:7; Zech 1:6; Ps 116:16 & Lev 25:25. · An excellent book treatment of this is Slave of Christ by Murray J. Harris (IVP, 1999).
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