The Reality Series
06/20/2004 - Power
Power. What exactly is power? Is it wealth? Is it influence? Is it the ability to control the people around us? Or maybe it's just the ability to make things happen and get things done.
Whatever it is, Bill Gates has it. In an issue of Forbes magazine, Gates was listed as the number one most powerful billionaire in the world. Gates founded Microsoft Corporation about 30 years ago whose software drives 93% of the world's desktop computers. He has an estimated worth of over $40 billion dollars and he's not even fifty yet. But not only is he one of the world's richest men he's also one of the world's biggest givers and donates more than $1 billion a year mostly to vaccine research and other charities. I'm still waiting for his first check to Valley View Community Church ! He's a very powerful individual.
What is it about power that fascinates us and drives much of our behavior? All of us are well aware of the kinds of power struggles that go on at our jobs between employers and employees, union and management, or in our homes between husbands and wives or parents and children or even in our friendships. In fact, when you stop and think about it we can spend lots of our time thinking about ways to gain or to keep the upper hand.
Friedrich Nietzsche, the famous German philosopher, argued that the desire for power is one of the strongest human drives. The will to rule and reign, to gain control of people and circumstances, to exercise authority over others, to have people look up to us, respect us, serve us and carry out our plans is extremely strong in every human being.
You don't have to read very much of the Bible to see that at the root of the very first sin in the very first people is the issue of power. It's not money that caused Adam and Eve to fall. It's not sex that got them into trouble. It's power.
The first sin that Satan brought to the first man and woman was the temptation to stay in control. He promised Adam and Eve that they could become like God. They didn't have to submit to their creator. They could be their own gods and control their own lives. And they bought into it. And we've been paying the consequences ever since.
This morning we conclude our series called The Reality Series with a teaching on power. Money, sex and power form the unholy Trinity that our society worships. They're the three values that our culture is fixated on and that we all wrestle with every single day.
There's a strong undercurrent in our culture that tries to convince us that true fulfillment in this life can only be achieved when we gain power and prestige and popularity in our arena of expertise and then exercise that power over as many people as possible. The more people we control, the more powerful we are and the more satisfied our souls will be.
Some of us start thinking those kinds of thoughts when we're real young. Often kids can't wait to grow up so that nobody will tell them what to do anymore and they can be their own boss and boss other people around too.
This week I read about the little boy who walked home from school everyday, but always got home at a different time. One day his mother asked, "You get out of school at the same time everyday. So why can't you get home at the same time everyday." The boy said, "It all depends on the cars." "What do you mean, the cars?" she asked. The boy said, "Well, the kid who is the safety at the corner makes us wait to cross the street until some cars come along so he can go out and stop them!" He loves that power.
But is that the kind of power that really satisfies our souls? Is it the kind of power that makes cars stop and has nobody tell us what to do and bosses other people around?
Jesus, the Son of God, who created the universe out of nothing and who has a resurrection on his resume knew a little something about power and had some very poignant things to say on the subject that are found in Mark 10.
If you have a Bible turn with me to Mark 10:35-45. In Mark 10, Jesus has just revealed to his disciples that he's going to Jerusalem to die. There he'd be betrayed, tried, denied and crucified on a Roman cross. But three days later he'd rise again.
Jesus has just revealed that he is standing on the edge of the defining moment of his life, an agonizing moment, a life altering moment, but his disciples, his closest friends, didn't hear a word he said. They were too caught up in themselves and in their own agenda about power, position and prestige and who would be the star disciple when Jesus ushered in his kingdom. It was like they were arguing over the will, whose going to get what, right in front of Jesus, before he was even in the grave.
Look at Mark 10:35, Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him, "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask." That sounds like a lot of our prayer requests doesn't it? "God, do whatever we ask." There's nothing subtle about that. Here's a blank check, Jesus, sign it!
Verse 36, "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked. They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory." "You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?"
Verse 39, "We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared."
James and John come to Jesus with a bold request for power. They had heard Jesus talk often about the kingdom of God. They believed in their hearts that Jesus was a King and would soon set up his kingdom on this earth. And they wanted a piece of the action. They wanted two big, fat thrones one on Jesus' right side and the other on his left with big brass nameplates engraved on the back, James & John. But it wasn't that easy.
Jesus says, "You don't know what you're asking. Can you drink the cup I am going to drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?"
Jesus uses two metaphors to ask them if they're really ready to experience what it takes to be given that kind of power in God's kingdom. Are they really ready to enter into the same kind of pain and suffering that he was about to experience on the cross. It was the custom of a king at a royal banquet to hand his royal cup over to his guests to drink. It meant that he wanted to share his life with them. Drinking from the same cup in this passage is a symbol of sharing the suffering that Jesus was about to experience.
The baptism Jesus is referring to here is not water baptism. Instead, the term baptism literally means "to dip or immerse." Jesus is saying are you willing to be immersed into the same pain and suffering that I'm going to be immersed in.
The highest rewards in God's kingdom are reserved for those who suffer the most for Christ. And James and John say, "Bring it on! We're so convinced you're the Messiah we're ready to take a beating or a bullet for you!" And they would. Both these boys would suffer for Jesus. James would be the first disciple to die, beheaded within a few short years and John would make it into his nineties, but he wouldn't have an easy life. He'd finally die in exile on the island of Patmos, the Alcatraz of the Roman Empire, after a long life of persecution.
Look at verse 41, When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.
These two brothers didn't want to broadcast their request, but eventually it leaked out. And when the other disciples heard about it they were ticked off, probably because they wished they had asked Jesus first! So things get real tense and finally Jesus calls a time out and seizes a teachable moment to give them and us a pep talk on power.
Look at verse 42, Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Jesus says, "You want to be powerful in my kingdom? You want to rule and reign with me? Then take a page out of my book. Learn to be a servant, because that's what I am. The King of Kings came to serve and to give his life for others. And that's what I want you to do. That's how power is expressed in my kingdom and by my followers."
You see for Christ followers, the name of the game is not how to get ourselves into a position where we can exercise all kinds of authority over people. We may find ourselves in those positions, often. But it's not the position of authority that's going to satisfy our souls. It's what we do with it. The world says, "Rule." Jesus says, "Serve." The world says, "Overpower people by ruling them." Jesus says, "No. Empower people by serving them."
The power we wield as Christ followers is the power to serve and to empower others in whatever arena we find ourselves in. And so let's see how this approach to power plays itself in the church, at work, in a marriage, and in a family.
In the church, it's the responsibility of leadership to serve the community by equipping believers to do the work of ministry. It's not the pastor's job to do it all. Instead, it's the job of leadership to empower others to serve God.
Turn to Ephesians 4:11-13, It was he (Jesus) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare (or equip) God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
In a healthy church community, people are not treated as tools or helpers or bodiless batteries used to keep the machinery of the church grinding along. Instead, in a healthy church community, people are equipped and empowered by the leadership to discover and use their gifts and talents to serve God and others inside and outside of the body of Christ.
The pyramid of power is inverted in the church with the leadership at the bottom, not at the top, underneath equipping and supporting and motivating others to be all that God created them to be.
How does that happen at Valley View ? It happens through worship and teaching and training and modeling and praying and serving and counseling and providing all kinds of environments where God shows up and changes lives. It's not a leadership development program. It's a leadership development atmosphere where believers are continually invited to discover their gifts and to put them into play by serving God and each other in community.
All those who lead at Valley View in any capacity have first demonstrated their heart and ability to serve without recognition. They're not looking for accolades or a position of prestige where they can be noticed or overpower people by ruling them. Instead, they're looking to empower others by serving them and that heart is what qualifies them to lead.
That's the church that Jesus died for. And when it's functioning well there's no other place like it in the world. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. That's what power looks like in the church.
What does power look like on the job? The New Testament was written in the midst of a slave culture, where master's had almost unlimited power over their servants. There were 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire in Jesus' day. They were everywhere.
Aristotle said that there could never be a friendship between a master and a slave, for they have nothing in common. Slaves were living tools to be used and abused. And when your slaves were too old or too sick to work anymore, you just put them out on the curb with the garbage to die.
Yet, into that culture God says some radical things to masters, to those who wielded almost unquestioned power in the marketplace. Turn to Colossians 4:1, Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
Paul says, "Bosses treat your workers right and fair, the way you want your boss in heaven to treat you. Provide for them. Empower them to serve you well."
Paul adds this thought in a parallel passage in Ephesians 6:9, And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
Treat your workers with respect. They're not tools. They're human beings and their net worth before God is equal to yours.
There are all kinds of articles out there in business magazines and journals that talk about this very thing. One of the keys to a successful business today is having a workforce that feels empowered, where management is on their team and not on their back.
One business article I read this week put it this way, "People are your most important asset. In the new knowledge economy, initiative is needed throughout the ranks of your organization. Managers assume more leadership and coaching tasks and work hard to provide employees with resources and working conditions they need to accomplish the goals they've agreed to. In brief, managers work for their staff and not the reverse. Empowerment is the oil that lubricates the exercise of learning. Talented and empowered human capital is becoming the prime ingredient of organizational success."
Wow. It only took 2,000 years to figure out that what God said in the Bible really works. Use power to empower and not to control the people who work for you.
That's what power looks like in the church and at work. Now what does power look like between husbands and wives?
Turn to Ephesians 5:21-28, Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
This is the classic New Testament passage on the way husbands and wives are to relate in a marriage. Unfortunately, in many marriages it is used to justify that the husband is the boss in the relationship and it's the wife's duty to do whatever he tells her to do. But is that what God is saying here? No. That would be a total departure from all that Jesus taught on human relationships.
Paul begins this passage with a call to mutual submission. Believers are to submit to one another out of respect for Christ. The word "submit" literally means to "come underneath." The word assumes equality of worth and value and the choice to come underneath one another to serve each other. Again, it's the power pyramid turned upside down.
In a culture where women were treated like things, not people, where they had no rights, no opinions, no choices, and weren't even conversed with in public the apostle Paul says, "Wives, submit to your husbands. Come underneath them to serve them. Before you had no choice, but now 'in Christ' you do have a choice. And with that choice I want you to voluntarily submit to your husbands out of respect for Christ."
And to husbands, who were used to dominating their wives, Paul says, "No more domination. I want you to submit to your wives, come underneath them, by loving them and serving sensitively and sacrificially. You lay down your life for your wife the way Christ laid down his life for the church. You empower your wife to be holy and blameless. You love her like you love your own body and she won't have any problems at all respecting you."
The word "head" in this passage is often used to justify the fact that the husband is the boss of the wife. He's the ruler of the home. What he says goes. But that's not it at all. That's the pagan model of marriage that Paul's challenging here. The Greek word for "head" is the word kephale and can also be translated "source or origin," like the headwaters of a river. The husband is to be a life giving source to his wife, the way Christ is the life giving source to his church. In fact, it's translated that way almost exclusively in the New Testament, "life giver, not boss." The church submits to Christ because Christ first submitted his life for the church by giving himself up for her.
The power in a marriage is the power of mutual submission and servanthood. The goal of a Christ centered marriage is to out love each other and to out serve each other and to be a model to a self-centered, power hungry world of Christ's love affair with his church.
Submission is not a woman thing. Submission is a man thing too, because submission is a God thing. It is at the core of what it means to follow Christ. I love the way Jill Briscoe describes the submission of Jesus as our example,
"When the Son of God came to earth he was filled with the Holy Spirit. He submitted himself to his Heavenly Father. He laid down his rights to the throne room. And God walked down the stairway of heaven with a baby in his arms and laid him on a bale of hay setting the world on fire. The Holy Spirit had overshadowed a teenager's body and imparted Christ. God in embryo form grew into a helpless baby boy. That's submission."
"At the age of 12, Jesus of Nazareth said, 'I must be about my Father's business' when his parents came looking for him in the Temple at Jerusalem. But part of his Father's business was to spend thirty years of his life in Podunk Nazareth. So he returned home with his parents and submitted himself to their authority. Then it was time to submit himself to three years of punishing people, serving, touching wet leprosy, holding hot sticky, dusty, dirty babies, mending mad minds, damaged psyches, and sick souls. Laying down his life daily for his friends. That's submission."
"And in the upper room he strips to the waist, ties a towel around himself, dresses in the manner of the lowest of the lowest of the lowest slaves and he washes men's feet. That was women's work. That's submission."
"And after that the Holy Spirit helps him climb a tree, a crooked, awful tree in the shape of our redemption. And there hangs our sin up to dry. But he couldn't do that without being hung up to dry himself. That's submission."
"You want to know what submission looks like. Look at the cross. It demonstrates itself right there on top of that garbage heap. And when we think about submission we cannot think about it apart from thinking of Calvary." Husbands, our call to submission is every bit as strong as the call to our wives.
And finally, what does power look like in the home between parents and children?
Look at Ephesians 6:4, Fathers, do not exasperate your children. Instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
It's interesting that in this passage Paul addresses fathers, not mothers. That's because its often dad's that check out of the parenting process. And it ought not to be that way. Dads and moms together need to use their power in the home to serve their children. And we do that by protecting them and keeping our home a safe place for them to grow into all that God wants them to be. We use our power to provide for them financially and physically and mentally and emotionally and spiritually. We use our power to set boundaries for them, because kids need boundaries. And when they violate them we serve them well by disciplining them and helping them to see that actions have consequences. We use our power as parents to free our kids up to be all that God created them to be, not to fulfill the unrealized dreams of our lives. And we empower them by not comparing them to a sibling or a cousin or a friend, but by giving them wings to fly in keeping with the unique gifts and talents that God gave to them. That's how we use our power in the home.
Power is a good thing when we use it to empower, not overpower others. Power is a good thing when we use it to serve, not rule over others. And our model is Jesus, the most powerful person who ever walked this planet.
"Here was a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another town, worked as a carpenter until he was 30, then for 3 1/2 years was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book, never owned a home, never had a family, never went to college, never held an office, never went more than 200 miles from the place where he was born. He never did one of the things we usually attribute to greatness. He had no credentials but himself. And while he was still a young man the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies, went through the mockery of a trial and was hung upon a cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth while he was alive, and that was his coat. And when he was dead, he was taken down from that cross and laid in a borrowed tomb through the pity of a friend. Twenty wide centuries have come and gone and today he is the centerpiece of the human race, the leader of the column of progress. And I stand far within the mark when I say that all the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that have ever been built and sailed, all the parliaments that have ever sat, and all the kings that have ever reigned put together, have not affected the life of humankind upon this earth as has that one solitary life."