What Ignites Our Service

Written by Joel Davis  

I wanted to share with you one of the verses that has been living rent free in my head for a number of months now. You’ve probably heard us say at Trexo time and time again that we teach a love-based discipleship. 

We don’t teach performance-based. We don’t disciple those who are most accomplished, or most deserving. I’m not even sure what it would mean to be most deserving of discipleship. We don’t disciple based on performance because our Father is not interested in our performance records when he calls us into His kingdom. In fact, Scripture is pretty clear on this: 

There is no one righteous, not even one. 
There is no one who understands; 
there is no one who seeks God. 
All have turned away; 
all alike have become worthless. 
There is no one who does what is good, 
not even one. —Romans 3:10-12 CSB 

So you and I were not adopted into the family of God because we had the most to offer. We weren’t called out of darkness and into light because of our theological acumen or our record of good deeds. According to Romans 5:8, Our Father proves His unmitigated love for us while we were still His enemies. So as I’m reading through the Gospel of John, I run into this verse right at the biggest turning point of the biography. It says this:  

Before the Passover Festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. —John 13:1 CSB 

Let me just set this up for us for a second, and we’ll walk through each piece: 

1. His ministry can be summarized as LOVE. 

2. His love is demonstrated through SERVICE. 

3. His service is rooted in His identity as BELOVED. 

First, Jesus’ ministry can be summarized as love. This is kind of a shocking statement when you look at all that has happened in the 12 chapters that precede this verse. Jesus has turned water into wine, healed a sick boy who was miles away from him, healed a paralyzed man beside a pool, fed 5000 men plus their wives and children, walked on water, healed a man of blindness, and raised his friend Lazarus from the dead. What an incredible range of miracles! John calls these the 7 signs of Jesus. And yet, all these wonders can be summarized as “Having loved His own…” 

This is no less true for you and me than it was for the Disciples 2000 years ago. Your Savior’s posture towards you is love. That doesn’t mean we don’t suffer. That doesn’t mean we don’t get stuck in the middle of a figurative storm in a boat we’re sure is going to capsize. That is actually sure to happen sooner or later. Maybe it’shappening to you right now. But He is with us in the storm. He suffered the pain and the worry of the storm Himself. He took it to the cross, along with all our sin and shame. And the John 3:16 tells us that was the clearest demonstration of His love: 

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. —John 3:16 CSB 

The Lord Jesus Christ stepped into our brokenness, became a man, died in our place, and overcame death because He loved us. Not because He was obligated. Not because you asked nicely enough. Not because you loved Him first. Quite the opposite! This was the ultimate act of service. But there is an act of service much closer in the timeline than the Cross, and it’sthe washing of feet. 

In this little chapter of Jesus’ ministry, the washing of the disciples’ feet, His love is demonstrated through service. It’s such a powerful reflection to me that the very first thing that happens after we read of His loving us to the end, is our Savior and Lord takes a wash bucket and a towel and begins to wash the feet of those around the table. 

Let’s be clear; this is the work of the servants. This is not dignified work. Today, we only have a positive association of serving others because of Jesus. The reason we admire humanitarian work, the reason that even as a secular society we spend tens of millions of dollars on philanthropy and aid work is because of Jesus. This kind of thing is an invention of the church of Jesus Christ and did not exist before Christianity. Before this act, it was unthinkable for someone who was a teacher, a rabbi, an influencer, to stoop down and serve his subordinates. But for Jesus, it is what epitomized His love for his friends and followers time and time again. 

And if we stop there, the message is “go serve people because Jesus served people.” But if we are looking through the lenses of Overflow, there is one more critical step we can’t miss. And that is, His service is rooted in His identity as beloved. Take a look at John 13:3. 

Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God. —John 13:3 CSB

It’s exactly the performance-based approach we want to avoid that stops at, “see what Jesus did; do what Jesus did.” If we attempt that, we will try to generate a servant’s heart all on our own. If we do that, we will try to generate love for others independent of the Father’s love. This is living on a deficit, driving on an empty tank. This is living FOR the favor of God rather than FROM the favor of God. 

Instead, I hope you can see that even Jesus lived out of His identity as beloved Son. Jesus ESPECIALLY lived out of this identity. In John 6:38, He says He came not to do His own will, but the will of His Father who sent Him. This was the fuel that ignited His service to the disciples. And in Overflow, the service we offer to others, the love that we extend to others, is IGNITED, is set on fire, when we take a deep breath and relax back into our identity as adopted sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loved us to the extent that He would send His unique and only Son that we might live through Him and with Him. 

His ministry can be summarized as LOVE. 

His love is demonstrated through SERVICE. 

His service is rooted in His identity as BELOVED. 

I pray this week, that as you sit in prayer with your Heavenly Father, that you ask Him for a fresh realization of your identity as His beloved child. I pray that identity would fill you with a sense of His love for you. And I pray that as you overflow with that love, that you would be empowered and ignited to serve those around you in the same way our Savior Jesus has served us and set an example for us to follow. 

Amen!