Nurturing the NationsReclaiming the Dignity of Women

in Building Healthy Cultures

ServanthoodServanthood

Outline

• Authority: A Dirty Word

• Defining Terms

• The Trinity: Archetype of Servant-Leadership

• Humility in the Godhead

• Hierarchy in the Universe

• Servanthood

Modern Secularism and Feminism

• Subordination and equality are contradictions– To be under authority is to be inferior– To be equal is to be autonomous

• To obey God or any human authority is to restrict freedom. This is bad!

• Freedom without restraint is the modern virtue.

Form and Freedom

• Tyranny – Form without freedom

• Anarchy – Freedom without form

• True freedom is within form

• The biblical balance establishes that we are most free– when we are under authority– when we are obedient to God’s ordinances

Subordination

• Derived from – Ordination: the state of being ordained or

appointed– Order: Regular disposition or methodical

arrangement of things; as the order of troops or parade; the order of books in a library

• Subordination is to be under the appointment or ordination of another

Submission

• Derived from mission:– sending or being sent– delegated by authority, with certain powers

for transacting business– commission– as sent on a foreign mission

• Submission: To be on a mission, with another and under their authority

Does submission mean inferiority?

• Yes:– If humility and servanthood are considered

vices– When tyranny is a virtue, then submission is

a vice

Does submission mean inferiority?

• No: When humility and servanthood are virtues

• Making distinctions:– In being, there is no inferiority!– In function, there is a distinction in rank or

degree

• Submission recognizes authority, the legitimacy of governance, administration and leadership

Submission:Manifesting the Divine Image

“It is often by submitting to others that we best display the ethical components of the divine image. How better to demonstrate God’s love, His patience, His gentleness, His self-control, than by submitting to others.”

John Frame

Authority

• Legal power, or a right to command or to act; as the authority of a prince over subjects, and of parents over children

Godly Authority

“Authority does not authenticate my person. Authority is not a privilege to be exploited to build up my ego. Authority is a responsibility to be borne for the benefit of others without regard for oneself. This alone is the Christian view.”

Human & Divine Viewpoints

• Modern man sees: – Service (and self sacrifice) and humility as

vices– Power (and self fulfillment) and pride as

virtues

• God honors humility, self sacrifice and subordination in man; these are virtues that are a reflection of the nature of the love of God

Archetype vs. Anthropomorphism

• Archetype is an ideal model, based on eternal principles, after which earthly activities are to be patterned

• Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristic or behavior to non-human entities

Four Loves

• Love for a detail of life, “I love my dog.”

• Phileo: Love for a friend, “brotherly love,” affection

• Eros: Romantic love, the love of a husband and wife

• Agape: Self sacrificing love, God’s love!

Agape Love

• Set 1 - Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12

• Set 2 - Matt. 26:39; John 3:16;

John 17:24b

• Set 3 - Philippians 2:1-8

• Question: What do these verses reveal about the nature of God?

Agape Love

• Humble

• Selfless

• Thinks of others first

• Is self-sacrificing

• Serves others first

Agape Love

“… love in its fullness, …, meets two criteria. First, it will never make withdrawals, but only deposits. Second, it seeks to fill vacuums not in oneself, but in the other.”

Professor Henry KrabbendamCovenant College

Agape Love

• Philippians 2:9-11

• Questions:– What is the reward for self-sacrificing love?– What does this reveal about the nature of

self-sacrificing love?

God the Servant-God

“It was because Jesus was voluntarily and sacrificially willing to be a servant that God exalted him with the ultimate expression of Glory. He has been given the highest position that could be given. He has been given a name that supersedes every name. Every tongue will confess that this Servant is Lord. This is exaltation greater than any being has had or will have….”

God the Servant-God

“ …. Why did God do this? The answer is in the first word of verse 9 – ‘therefore.’ God honored Jesus in this exalted manner because Jesus fully reflected what God intended when He created man. Jesus fully expressed the highest expression of God’s image – voluntary and sacrificial servanthood. God is a servant. Incredible! God is a servant, and Jesus modeled that servanthood.”

Two Kingdoms

• The Kingdom of the World– Pride– Self-serving– Power

• The Kingdom of God– Humility– Self-sacrifice– Service

The Servant God – His Character

• Hesed – Means loving - kindness – 250 times in the Old Testament – Refers to God’s loyal and steadfast love

• Agape – God’s self-sacrificing, other-serving love

Two Images

• Psalm 23

• Question: What do these two images (verses 1-4 and 5-6) reveal about the servant heart of God?

The Servant God – The Incarnation

• Set - John 1:14; Colossians 2:9; Mark 10:45

• Questions:– What does this reveal about the nature of

God?– Is Christ’s serving a contradiction with His

being God? Why or why not?

The Excellencies of Christ “infinite highness and infinite condescension …

infinite justice and infinite grace … infinite glory and lowest humility … infinite majesty and transcendent meekness … deepest reverence towards God and equality with God … infinite worthiness of good, and the greatest patience under sufferings of evil … an exceeding spirit of obedience, with supreme dominion over heaven and earth … absolute sovereignty and perfect resignation … self-sufficiency, and an entire trust and reliance on God.”

The Cross

The cross is an affront to the modern virtues of power, pride and self fulfillment.

The Cross

“The cross would have been an impossibility without self-denial, self-sacrifice and submission….It hardly needs to be argued that the cross, or anything even remotely resembling it, could never have been initiated or achieved by man. Self-interest, self-service, and self-preservation would have precluded that.”

Humility in the Trinity

• Set # 1 The Father: Gen. 1:26-28; 2:20; John 3:16

• Set # 2 The Son: Matt. 26:39,42,44; 27:46; Philippians 2:5

• Set # 3 The Holy Spirit: John 14:16; 15:26; 16:7

God’s Humility Towards the Created Order

• The Father’s divine humility is found in – Human freedom Genesis 2:16– Man’s naming the animals Genesis 2:19– The Cross John 3:16

God’s Humility Towards the Created Order

• Jesus subordinated Himself, not only to the Father but to – Human requests (water to wine) John 2:3-8 – Came to serve Mark 10:45; John 13:1-17

(wash disciples’ feet)– Unjust authority (1 Peter 2:19-25)

God’s Humility Towards the Created Order

• The Holy Spirit is the Paraklete – the “helper”– John 14:16– John 15:26– John 16:7

Definition of Hierarchy

• Webster’s 1828: An order or rank of angels or celestial beings; or a subordination of holy beings

• Etymology: – Greek hieros - sacred – Archos - ruler or literally sacred rulers

Hierarchy’s Contrasts

• “hierarchicalist” who structuralizes hierarchy at the expense of its glorious movement – the dance of interdependent beings.

• “egalitarians” who deny any hierarchy in the created order. There is no inferiority because there is no subordination.

The Universe

• “The collective name of heaven and earth, and all that belongs to them; the whole system of created things.” Webster’s 1828

• Universe = Unity of all the diversity– Contrast with monism of Hinduism – unity

without diversity

The Glorious Hierarchical Order

“….what I see as the arrangement of the universe and the full harmony and tone of Scripture. This arrangement is a glorious hierarchical order of graduated splendor, beginning with the Trinity, descending through seraphim, cherubim, archangels, angels, men, and all lesser creatures, a mighty universal dance, choreographed for the perfection and fulfillment of each participant.”

Hierarchy in Creation

• The Spiritual Realm– Angels– Human beings

• Animated life– Animals– Plants

• Inanimate objects: rocks, minerals, etc.

Unity and Diversity

Unity Diversity

Transcendent God Father/Son/HS

Angels Angels/Archangels

Humankind Female/Male

Living Animals Phylum

Plants Divisions

Non-Living Minerals Class

Revelation (Word and Works) Discloses

• The one and many in – The Trinity – Creation– Humankind

• The authority structure between kinds:– God over all creation, – Angelic over humankind, – Humankind over the rest of creation

The Fall Corrupts Hierarchy

• The tyrannical rebellion of Satan against God and the angelic order

• Humankind’s dominion over nature the rape of nature

• Husband’s headship of wife domination

• Women or men in leadership roles tyrannical

Hierarchy in the Trinity

• Hierarchy in function, but not in essence, within the Trinity

• To be subordinated in essence is subordinationalism: inferiority of being or nature of Jesus and the Holy Spirit

• This does not reflect the biblical balance of equal in essence and diverse in function

Submission within the Godhead

“… in the Trinity the ‘Parties’ are there not for themselves but for the others in a radical and total manner."

Henry Krabbendam

Covenant College

Functional Subordination of the Son to the Father

• In Time (e.g., Matt. 11:27; Phil. 2:5-8)

• In Eternity (e.g., John 3:17, 34; Rom. 8:32)

• In Eternity present and future (e.g., Acts 4:27,30; Hebrews 1:3, 13)

• Jesus is under the Father’s authority in both time and eternity

Functional Subordination of the Holy Spirit to the Father & the Son

• John 14:26

• John 15:26

• John 16:13-15

When did the ideals of submission and service begin?

They did not begin! They have always existed in the character of God!

Our Model

The Father’s divine humility, the Son’s modeling servanthood, and the Holy Spirit being our helper are examples of the nature of God’s servant heart and divine subordination.

Service is the Highest Form of Being in the Image of God

“God does not command sacrificial service for its own sake. He invites it because it results in the demonstration of his greatest attribute, love. True love always results in the action of sacrificial serving. Loving service heals brokenness. It restores. It redeems. This is God’s agenda and when it is fulfilled those who serve are honored and he is glorified.”

Dr. Robert Moffitt

Servant-Leadership

• Christ was a servant leader (Mark 10:45; Phil. 2:7).

• Serving and leading are not contradictions; they are two sides of the same coin:

– leadership is defined in the context of service

– service is defined in the context of leadership

Just as serving was essential to Christ’s identity as God,

it is essential to our identity as human

beings!

Differing Value SystemsThe World

The Great Man

Servants

The Kingdom

Those Served

The Great Man

The Dominion Mandate

• Male and Female function as – servants of the living God– Vice Regents of creation

• Submit to one another as Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve

• Both male and female are to function as servant-leaders

Limitations

• All service roles are open to men with the exception of carrying a baby to term and nursing the baby

• All leadership roles are open to women with the exception of headship in the home and eldership in the church

Servanthood is not a prerequisite for greatness.

It is the standard for greatness!