SERVANT LEADERSHIP - The Blue Letter Bible Institute

Servant Leadership – Lesson 15 10
Jesus, Part III by Gayle Erwin
There are a couple of problems with owning things. First, when you purchase something
you have to maintain it. It takes time and energy. You have to protect it. It takes time and
energy. You can own just enough things that all your time and energy goes into
maintaining and protecting your things. And Jesus, who came to redeem people, was not
going to be fooled by things.
There is another problem. If you are rich, do not tell me because if I think you are rich, I
get real friendly. Isn’t that amazing how wealth messes with our minds? And Jesus comes
in a way that says, “If you follow Me, it will be for the right reasons, not for greedy
ones.” I am amazed of the various theologies that arise and feed off of greed. What can
you get? Jesus did not found that principle.
But if that was not enough, He had what I can only describe as a rather strange advance
man. See, if I were forming the Gayle Erwin Evangelistic Crusade today, I would want to
send someone ahead of me who had some dignity. I would choose somebody who could
just really put things together and organize them. John the Baptist was the original hippie.
He lived out in the desert wearing funny clothes, eating organic foods and yelling at
people, “Repent!” And when they do, he dunked them in water.
But if that was not enough, He also had what I can only describe as a motley crew. I
could have helped God so much if He would have let me advise Him. I would have
recommended that He first go to the theological seminaries and get three or four
professors who understand the ramifications of the theological questions that arise. Then
I would recommend that He go to Hollywood and get someone with charisma who can
command the attention of the crowd and explain to them what it was you meant when
you said “such and such.” Then I would recommend that He go to Wall Street and get
three or four millionaires. They are nice to have on the team. Then I would recommend
that He go to Muscle Beach and get about six bodyguards, because they will crucify you
around here if you do not watch out. That is the way I would have put it together.
But Jesus did not do that. He went to the streets and got the strangest bunch. If you had
been walking fifty feet behind Him you would have said “I smell fish.” He had a zealot
and a tax collector with Him. What can I say? It is kind of like having Saddam Hussein
and George Bush on the same ticket. And some of those fellas had the worst accents you
have ever heard in your whole life. And with that crew He proposed to turn the world
upside down. Amazing!
But I like it because if He can work with them He can work with me and you.
But if that wasn’t enough, He died a very bad death. Now we believe that but we do not
really believe it.
I was reading in 1 Corinthians where Paul says, “The preaching of the cross is to them
that perish, foolishness” (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18). And I thought, “No, no! It is not
foolishness. The cross, I see it everywhere. It is on lapels. It is on necklaces. It is on