El modelo

The Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Therefore, go around the world teaching and preaching the gospel to every creature, to the last of the earth. En Contacto, the ministry of biblical teaching of Dr. Charles Stanley. Today on En Contacto, El Modelo. One reason why it is so difficult for us to discover the will of the Lord for our life is that many times we notice that we are thinking like the world instead of thinking like God does. And when you think like the world does, it is very difficult to find the will of God for your life because you don't think like Him. And what happens is that we have seen the world and we have been so influenced by it that we adopt the model of the world instead of looking for the word of God, which is the model, that is, how does God want us to live? Well, we say that our beliefs are different from the world, but we act frequently exactly as the world does. We know that God says that we do things in a certain way, and we end up doing things in a different way. It is the influence of this world system in which we live. In fact, in the Sermon on the Mount, in chapter 5, Christ expressed it like this. He said, Did you hear that it was said eye for eye and tooth for tooth? But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. Before anyone hurts you on the right cheek, turn the other one as well. And whoever wants to put you on a plait and take off your tunic, also leave him the cloak. And whoever forces you to carry a load for a mile, go with the two. The one who asks you to go ahead and the one who wants to borrow from you, do not refuse him. This is a brief example of what Christ said. That is what you have heard, I say this. And I think that if the Lord lived today, this would have said,

this says the world system, but I tell you this. It is one of those areas in which anyone, seeing the world system, we say, this is how one should act, this is how you get success, this is how you progress in life. Then he looks at the word of God and thinks, wait a minute, here is a whole conflict. This is what the world says, this is what God says. And the tragedy is that often the church, in some way, is included and also involved in what the world says, instead of what God says. And then we ask ourselves why things do not work out well for us in life. And why do not they work in the church? And why are we not impacting how the world is due? I would like you to join me in Matthew chapter 20. Today we begin a new series entitled A Life of Service. Because this is one of those areas where what the world says and what God says is an absolute contradiction. And in this particular passage, Christ raises it and helps us see what the conflict is and the contrast here. And when you start reading this passage, in a moment you will realize that here is a mother looking for the good of her children. And listen to how verse 20 of Matthew 20 begins. Then the mother of the children of Zebedee, who were Santiago and John, approached her with her children, posing before him and asking him something. He said to her, What do you want? She said to him, Order that in your kingdom these two of my children sit, one to your right and the other to your left. Well, a very daring woman, don't you think? I want one of my children to sit on the right and the other on the left, as any mother would like the best for her children. Then Jesus, answering, said, You do not know what you ask. He must have turned to his children and said, Can you drink from the cup that I have to drink? And they said to him, We can. He said to them, You will drink from my cup, and they did. But to sit on my right and my left is not mine to give.

But to those for whom it is prepared by my Father. Then Jesus, calling them, said, Do you know that the rulers of the nations are in charge of them, and those who are great exercise power over them? But among you it will not be so, but he who wants to make himself great among you will be your servant, and he who wants to be the first among you will be your servant. As the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life in rescue for many. Notice the contrast, he said, in this way. This is how the world thinks of this. Verse 25 says, The rulers of the nations are in charge of them, and those who are great exercise power over them. He says, As for the worldly system, the great men are those of authority, those who govern others, those who have prominence, prestige, position, power, and all the rest. He says, If among you, he says, the greatest of all of you shall be a servant, he says, the greatest of you shall be a servant. Well, when we think of the Lord Jesus Christ, what words come to mind if we think of his person? I don't mean that he loves and preached and taught and all that. What words come to mind when you think of who Christ is, which one is it? Salvation, Lord, Master, God, all those things, normally we don't think much of Christ as a servant. Because the emphasis of the Bible, the way we usually read it, is not that. The way he himself looked, of course, was different. Christ understood it, he came to this world as a servant of God Almighty Father. He came to the world as a servant of man. And so he visualized, he saw, he understood what it is to be a servant. He understood in his spirit of humility that he came to serve. And he says in chapter 20, he said, I did not come to be served, but to serve and give my life, he says, in ransom for many.

Well, let's look at this for a moment. When he speaks of a ransom, what did he mean when he speaks of it? Listen carefully. He meant this, he says, here is the ultimate expression of my servitude. The ultimate expression of my servitude was to give my life in ransom for many. A ransom was the necessary payment to free a slave. Jesus said, I came to pay the price to free the captive. I came to give my life in ransom for many. Pay the price, free whoever is captive. This is a very important word because this word constitutes the core of everything we all believe here about the cross and why Christ was crucified. Well, all doctrine in the word of God is important. But if you asked me what I personally believe is the most important doctrine in the whole Bible, I would not even hesitate to tell you the doctrine of the cross. When Jesus Christ went to the cross, he surrendered his life, he gave his life as a voluntary substitute and vicar for his sins and mine. What he says here in each word of this verse is important. Notice what he says, he says he came to give his life in ransom for many. For is an important word. He came to give his life as payment and he came, listen, he came to give his life in exchange for making you and me free from our sins. The expiation of Jesus Christ is the payment of the life of Christ by dying for his sins and mine. The ultimate expression of the servitude of Christ was to give his life in ransom. And so when someone says, well, what is the cross about? The cross is that Jesus Christ paid the debt of sin. The expiatory death of Christ is the price that Christ paid, only for his sins and mine. There is no salvation separate from the cross. There is no such thing as redemption separate from the cross. There is no such thing as forgiveness without having the cross. When we get to this issue of the ransom, that's what the ransom is about. The ransom refers only to God and what does he do? He pays the price to free us from the power of sin in this life and from the power of sin that would separate us for eternity. That's where we see the cross, listen, I would never worship anything in this world. But when I see the cross, I often feel like I want to prostrate and thank God.

Because without the work of his grace in the Calvary, I would be lost, condemned, sentenced, totally hopeless. Because it is through the cross of Jesus Christ and his blood that all our hope is found in that sublime act 2000 years ago in the Calvary. And Christian life is just about that. Everything else we say must be about the cross of Jesus Christ. Well, we must ask ourselves how we explain, that is, what is the explanation of this servitude? Because the question arises, how can he be God and also become a servant and still be God? How can Jesus Christ be God, deity, become a servant and still be God? I would like us to see a biblical passage, a very important passage. I would like you to accompany me to Philippians chapter 2. Paul, in his explanation here, begins by bothering us and says in verse 5 of chapter 2, he says, He says, as a thing to be clung to, but was stripped of itself, taking the form of a servant, making himself like men, and being in the condition of a man, he humiliated himself, making himself obedient to death, to the same death, and the death of the cross. What does he mean by this? He says he stripped himself. What did he strip himself of then? He never stripped himself of his deity. At no point did he strip himself of his deity, then he stripped himself of something else. That is, he must have discarded something else. No, never. If he had discarded his deity, having taken human flesh upon himself, if he were not God, he would have sinned. He was God incarnate, and he walked among men as a servant. He could not discard his deity and fulfill the purpose for which he came. What he did not discard was his deity. So, what did he discard? He discarded several things. One of the things he discarded was this. He discarded his favorable position before the divine law. He did not discard his deity. What he discarded was his relationship with the law of God, his relationship with sin. Look at this. This happened to him. Coming to the cross, and seeing Christ in the garden of Gethsemane, he remembered that he was sweating, and he said, Lord, is there another way? What was he asking? He was not going to go to the cross or not, for which Christ was struggling. He was struggling for something that he had to face, and he had never faced. He had to fight, he was fighting for something he had to deal with, and he had never dealt with. Something was going to happen to him that was never, never, never even close to being a reality in his life. And what was that? Let's look at what it was. Look at verse 21 of 2 Corinthians chapter 5. It says, let's look at verse 20. So we are ambassadors in the name of Christ, as if God were to pray through us. We pray to you in the name of Christ. Reconcile yourselves, return to communion with God. He, God, whom Christ did not know sin, did sin for us, so that we might be made just of God in him. Look, this is one of the longest comments that Paul made, and let's look at what he says. He says that the Lord God sent the Lord Jesus Christ into the world and did this. He did this, that is, when Christ went to the cross, God the Father put on him, look, all the guilt, all the punishment for the sin of man. He suffered what he had never experienced. He suffered the atrocity of sin, his perversity, his evil, his weight, his burden, and he felt his eternal condemnation. That is what this cup that I was talking about was about. And he says that what he did was suffer for us, and without sinning he sinned for us, so that we might be made just of God in Christ. What does that mean? There are some people who say, when I get to the door of heaven, I don't know where they got the idea from. I'm sure they discovered it in the Apocalypse. They say, well, I'm sure God will let me in. Let him in what? What is God based on to let anyone in heaven? I assure you that there is only one thing. I assure you that there is only one way to enter. Revealed of the justice of Jesus Christ. It means that we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, that our debt of sin was paid in Calvary, and that he gave us what only he could give us, which is the very justice of Jesus Christ, because now every believer is clothed in the justice of Jesus Christ. That makes it possible for us to reach heaven, because we have received Jesus Christ as our Savior. And that says in this passage, listen, it says, so that we might be made just of God in our relationship with Christ. We don't always act with justice. God knows that. We don't always show what we are, but the truth is that we are sons and daughters of God Almighty, whose sins were forgiven on the cross. And the one who came as a servant, the ultimate expression of his servitude was that he took upon himself our sin, exchanged his justice for ours, took my sin, died for us, and in doing so, expressed his servitude to the extreme. That was the goal of Christ. And that's what this passage is about. Look, it says that he took upon himself, and he took upon himself not only that, he took upon himself his riches. For example, and if you think about it, how much do you like people who always ask for a loan? They always ask for a loan. Nobody likes it. Well, I'll give you a different perspective, because if you think about it now, you'll see it. that he renounced Christ when he came, renounced everything and finally gave up his life. But the truth is that when he came to the earth, he lived as a carpenter for a while, and then he undertook his ministry. It is interesting to think about Jesus Christ and what happened in his life,

because he borrowed the womb of Mary to be born, and he borrowed a stable to be born, he borrowed it to be born in him. Then he will remember that they lent him a place to sleep, he said, The Son of God has no place to sleep. He preached on a loaned boat, and they lent him the high room to celebrate the last supper with them. And what did they lend him in the end? A grave, right? The next time you think, I do not like the pedigree, there is an exception. The Lord Jesus Christ always needed something borrowed, why? He had nothing because he gave everything for you and for me. He came as a servant to give his life, he says, in rescue for many. And what happens? His relationship with sin, his relationship with wealth, he renounced everything. In fact, in 2 Corinthians, see what it says here. Chapter 8, verse 9, listen carefully. 2 Corinthians, verse 9. Again, Paul loves the word grace, because he knew that he had it all. By the grace of God and by the cross, says in verse 9. Because you already know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who for love of you, imagine, in heaven, what he possessed. He possessed everything, the creator of everything. He was rich for love of you. He became poor, being rich, so that you, with his poverty, would be enriched. Let me say, how many here believe they are rich? Is what I thought. They do not believe it. But they do not believe it because they do not see it with the eyes of God. He says he was rich, and he became poor, so that we were all rich. I do not know if he has thought it, but we are extremely rich, because our wealth is eternal. It is spiritual wealth, that will live beyond physical and material wealth. We are indeed rich, we have eternal salvation. Listen, the God who created this world with his word, is my God, and I am his son.

And listen, that enriches me, because everything I need, my father knows how to make it a reality, if I do not have it. He is so great. You and I, we are the sons and daughters rich of God. And therefore, to drag us around and talk about how bad things are, look, one reason for that is that we convince ourselves that they are bad. I must think about who my father is, and he says, he says, I will grant you every need you have, according to my will. Christ gave all his wealth, but there he says that by doing so, he made us all rich. It is something to which he renounced. In addition, he renounced his heavenly glory. If the Lord Jesus Christ, listen, if he had not renounced his glory, no, his deity, no, that, not his innate nature, if he had, look, if what was Christ had not been covered by a human body, people would have said, he is out there. The light, the light of his glory would have been such that we could not see it. Remember, we are talking about a total and perfect holiness. That is, an absolute light, pure, without stain, continuous, celestial light. There would have been no way. And so he came, renounced his glory for some time, until he fulfilled the purpose of God, and then his glory, of course, was restored to him. And when he comes, he will come, says the Bible, in glory, majesty, and power, with his hosts of angels, who will come with him, not as a servant, but as a king of kings, lord of lords, and judge of the whole universe. And so, seeing how everything happened, that is how it happened, right? We say that his maximum expression of servitude is his work on the cross. But now I will speak of a demonstration of his servitude, to bring him a little closer to where we live. I would like you to accompany me now to John, chapter 13. John, chapter 13, in verse 12.

And after he had washed his feet, he took his cloak, and went back to the table, and said to them, Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Master and Lord, and you say, Well, why am I? For if I, the Lord and the Master, have washed your feet, you must also wash the feet of one another. For I have given you an example, that, as I have done to you, you may also do. But I say to you, the servant is not greater than his master, nor is the messenger greater than the Lord. and he who sent him. If ye know these things, ye shall be blessed if ye do them. This is the Spirit of the Son of God, and he is the servitude in two extremes. Initially, he is willing to kneel with his precious hands, which will be crucified for us, and wash, and remove the dust and filth from those feet. And in just a few hours, he will be offered as the Lamb of God nailed to a cross to cleanse the sin of the human heart. That is what servitude is about. It doesn't matter what the task is. The question is, Father, what do you want to do with my life? What do you want to do with our lives? Do you want us to be servants? And he says, in my kingdom there will be no fanfarrones, because I always look for men and women willing to serve. Not to choose the position, the high position, or the middle position, which are offered as servants of the Most High God for what He orders, wherever and whoever. And then I ask something. Is the servant greater than the Lord? No.

If Jesus Christ was willing to wash the dirty feet and give His life on the cross, could I ever say no to Him? Could I say no to Christ for something He asked of me? Could I say no to God? When He says, I love you so much that I will wash your feet, I love you so much that I will die for you, that is what servitude is about. And Christ is the greatest servant of all. And remember what He said. He said, Follow Me. Not to magnify the eyes of the world, but magnify before My eyes. The greatest among you, He says, will be your servant. .