Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness
Titus 1:1[1]
It never fails. When you meet someone for the first time, the subject of work always comes up. What is it that they do for a job. To make money. To support themselves and the ones they love.
No matter who they are or what they do, they start out about their job. They could be the president some multi-billion-dollar empire that flies around the world in a private jet. They could be a laborer that picks up odd jobs around town. It never fails. No matter how much money they make, or don’t, they always, always, always talk about their job. But that’s not exactly true. They don’t just talk about their job; they only talk about the great stuff about what they do. How what they do is special. They go on and on about the best part of their job. How no one else could do it as well. And as an example, they’ll talk about some special thing they did that shows just how great and special they are.
While I’m not exactly sure why people do this, I do have a theory. They desperately want to impress us. They want us to think that they’re special. How they’re respected and admired for what they do. How they bring something special to their job that no one else could.
This may be how things are done today, but it isn’t how the Apostle Paul did it. He doesn’t talk about all the great things he’s done. He doesn’t list all the places he’s gone. All the churches he’s started. He doesn’t talk about how many books he’s got available on Amazon. He doesn’t even point people to his website where they can read and download all their blogs or videos.
When Paul introduces himself in this letter to Titus, he goes in the total opposite direction. Instead of ranting on and on about how he’s the great and mighty Apostle Paul, he describes himself with a word that makes us very uncomfortable.
Servant. The first thing Paul says about himself is that he’s a servant. He’s someone who wakes up each and every morning with one thought in his head: what can I do for the one I serve? How can I be a better servant for the one who’s so much greater than I am?
But Paul’s not just any servant. He immediately points to who he reports to. The one that tells him what to do. Where to go. What to say. The one he represents. The one he wants to please. The one to who he owes his live and everything else.
Without flinching, Paul says that he’s a servant of Jesus Christ. This means that he’s fully committed to do anything and everything that Jesus tells him to do. No matter what Jesus says, or when he says it, Paul publicly says that he’s ready, willing, and able to jump through any hoop and just do it.
But why? Paul was born into the people of God. He’s been trained in the Navy Seals of Judaism. He’d been successful at every religious activity and organization. He’s been promoted up and up the organization. He had climbed Mount Religion and was at the top[2].
And when Paul got to the top, something happened. Jesus appeared to him. Jesus made himself known to him. Jesus came to Paul and showed him just who he was fighting against. And when Paul saw Jesus, three things happened.
He fell down. The sight of Jesus was just too bright and wonderful for Paul. He naturally fell to the ground.
He asked. After hearing that it was Jesus in all this brilliant light, Paul calls him Lord and asks what’s next. What is it that Jesus wants him to do.
He obeyed. Paul didn’t just take this new information under advisement. He didn’t noodle about it. He didn’t ask anyone’s opinion. He did it. Period.
Maybe we don’t want to hear it. But because we’re so unfamiliar with the idea of servants, it needs to be said. These are the exact same things that all servants do. It’s the same things that we need to do in front of Jesus.
We fall down. The image and idea that the God of the universe, the one that died for us, should make us want to fall down and worship.
We ask. There’s an immediate something that we want to do to prove to God and ourselves that we really get it.
We obey. After God speaks, we get up and start doing it. Even if we need help like Paul did, we start following right away.
Some people think that all we have to do is recite some magic words. That everything’s OK between us and God if we just repeat the words some priest, pastor, or preacher says. That wasn’t good enough for the Apostle Paul, and it’s not good enough for us. When we come to Christ, our job title becomes servant of the most high God. We should fall down in front of him. We should ask God what it is that he wants us to do. Then, we get going and do it. How are you doing with your job title?
Noodling Questions
How do we introduce ourselves? What are the top three topics? Why?
Which is easier: Fall down, Ask, or Obey? Explain
What’s stopping our job title from become Servant of the Most High God?
[1] Unless otherwise noted, all Bible references are from the New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
[2] Philippians 3:5,6
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