Bonus Study Two: Part One

Bonus Study Two:

Part One

This is a study about “Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth”. It began with all of five scripture references. Jesus is the only source of the expression ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’. It goes without saying, therefore, that these are all New Testament verses: Mat. 8:11-12, 22:12-14, 24:50-51, 25:30, and Luke 13:25-28. There are no Old Testament parallels. But, this New Testament time, in which Our Lord spoke these words, was a transitional time in which the Christian church was breaking away, and becoming distinct, from the Jewish synagogue. The people to which Jesus directed these words were both Jewish, and future Christians. I had to ask myself who, exactly, was the intended target for this communication of doom.

When I began a more thorough scrutiny of the wording, I had to begin including more reference sources. I had to include such terms as ‘servant’, ‘hypocrite’, ‘hell’, and ‘friend’. I ended up with eight typed pages of resource notes. Historically, we tend to think of the children of Israel as God’s servant; (and here, we might consider the Jewish religious belief structure (the synagogue) as a type of face for the national body) however, contemporary Christianity likes to place the church in the role of the servant of God.

Understanding the uses of the word ‘servant’ is key to this study. So then, whether a synagogue (as

a body of one type of believers) or a church (as a body of another type of believers), we must determine if a body of believers constitutes a ‘servant’, and we must determine what exactly is the nature of a servant. I have many telling scriptures to work from.

Let us begin with the most generalized meaning of the word, as found in the book of Revelation, the third verse in chapter 22: “His servants shall serve Him.”

That is a simple statement which leaves no room for deviation - God’s servant will serve God. The concepts of allegiance and servitude go hand in hand. When given a choice, or when a choice is thrust upon one, the natural mechanics of allegiance will spin into life to settle any nagging doubt about actual position. In America, we have a pledge of allegiance; I learned it as a child; most of us know it by heart. Americans who pledge their allegiance to America, but serve the will of foreign interests, are usually tried as spies and traitors.

Scripture has two things to say about such divided allegiance. We find just how easy one may switch sides in John 8:34, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”

It happens just that fast and it is most often the regularity of our deeds that place us on the one side or the other. We end up, if not with positive and negative feelings, at least with positive and negative inclinations.

Luke 16:13 says this, “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.”

I should mention, here, that the word ‘despise’ is not used as an active emotion but, rather, as the consequence of a choice – as when Esau chose a bowl of meal over his birthright: and therefore it is said that he despised his birthright.

In any body of believers, there is a division, at least in common knowledge, between good and bad, right and wrong, light and dark, up and down, true follower and hypocrite. The ‘servant’, then, must take sides between those who truly serve, and those who do not ‘truly’ serve. I have notes on the attributes both of ‘servants’ and ‘hypocrites’. I want to begin with the attributes of a servant.

I began with a preconception of what a servant was – it was that of a slave; beaten, abused, in want

of basic necessities. That preconception evaporated when I read how important people came to Jesus

desperately begging for the life and health of a servant. It was as if the servant held the place of a relative or dear friend. It seems, then, that a servant can hold a high rank, a place of favor – a servant can be a confidant. There is trust involved, respect and even love. Also, servants were paid; they had possessions all their own.

Luke 15:17 has the prodigal son making this statement, “How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!”

As for trust, Matthew 25:14 shows us this, “For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.”

So, a servant can be a trusted confidant. What else can a servant be? A servant is positioned, if not authorized, to deal with matters gone awry.

In Matthew 13:28, we find the servant represented as such, “He said unto them, an enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?”

Having managed workers, I know from experience that a man will settle in a routine. Oft times, when something had gone wrong and I asked that it be ameliorated, I was told to my face, ‘It’s not my mess, I didn’t make it. Why do I have to clean it up?’ The servants in the parable said nothing like that, their first response was allegiance to their master, no matter what the job.

In Mark 13:34 we see servants given authority, “For the son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.”

So, a servant can be authorized to achieve a certain end. Firstly, on my part, I would have to be able to trust the man I sent to do the job. Secondly, I would not want to send the wrong man out, but rather the man most qualified to do the work. I would not send a cook to do a soldier’s job. Servants may also be authorized to use force.

Luke 14:23, “And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”

Yes, ‘compel’ may also mean very strong persuasion, but masters use servants to enforce their will, and sometimes that means force.

Read John 18:36, “Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is My kingdom not from hence.”

I actually want to study three types of servant; the nation of Israel, the modern contemporary Christian church, and the individual who might be a constituent member of either body. Of Israel, these things are written down in the New Testament.

Luke 1:54 and 69, “He hath holpen His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy; and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David.”

The Christian church, in this study, has associations to Old Testament Prophets in regard to the concept of what a servant is. So far, I have touched on ‘the closest, most trusted, and most capable’ in the rendering of this definition.

The book of Revelation says about the ‘church’ in 7:3, “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.”

This verse is commonly held to refer to the martyrs and saints of the latter-day Christian Church. Before I move on to the church’s connection to saints, martyrs, and prophets, I wish to give a verse that should make certain all is not well simply because you call yourself a church. You can call yourself a church, and be all the wrong things.

Revelation 2:20 says, “Because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”

Now, a church, if it is a servant of God, is so because it is made up of individuals whose allegiance is to the Most High. Servants come in all degrees, from the best right down to the hypocrite. There is the profitable servant and there is the unprofitable servant. Let’s take a standard by which to judge.

Revelation 15:3 says, “And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.”

Moses is the archetype saint, a servant of high caliber.

Revelation 19:2 states, “For true and righteous are His judgments: For He hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand.”

That pretty much describes a martyr. So, servants, too, are authorized to die.

Revelation 6:11 says, “And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”

Zero in on the word ‘fellowservant’, I will come back to it shortly. Add to the current definition: a high caliber of commitment. We do not, at all, have to guess who the servants are; the Bible names them for us.

Revelation 19:5 says, “A voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great.”

Again, Revelation 11:18 says it this way, “The nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.”

And once again, Revelation 10:7 says to us, “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to His servants the prophets.”

This study, while mentioning prophets, is still engaged in latter-day topics as brought forth in the book of Revelation. A prophet is not simply mentioned in passing but is mentioned as having a real connection to the modern church.

Acts 2:18 says this, “And on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My spirit; and they shall prophesy.”

Now we begin to see a connection between the Christian and the prophet. Christians are ‘ambassadors’ for Christ; prophets of old were also ambassadors.

Witness Luke 20:10 through 12, “And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty. And again he sent another servant: and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. And again he sent a third: and they wounded him also, and cast him out.”

It is easy enough for anyone to see that Christ’s parable is about the prophets of God. They came as ambassadors, or in other words, they came ‘in the name of’ their master, or in his ‘stead’.

In that regard, read Luke 19:13, “He called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, occupy till I come.”

That puts me in mind of an embassy; its occupants are there instead of, or in the name of their government. The one true church is Christ’s embassy on earth and we are Christ’s ambassadors, like as were the prophets to God. We have been told to occupy till He returns.

As already mentioned, there is the profitable (or ‘good’) servant, and there is the unprofitable servant. The thing to see in this is that they both serve, they are all members of the body of service, or so they say. Let’s read of the profitable servant, and here, let’s see it as a church.

Luke 19:17, “And he said unto him, well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.”

Of course, the key word in this is ‘faithful’, but that is only one word in a key phrase (faithful in a very little). Why is “a very little” used? It is all too easy to border on mediocrity, which itself borders on unprofitability.

Read Luke 17:9 and 10. “Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do.”

Remember Moses, the servant of God? There are, unmistakably, ‘levels of service’. Moses went above and beyond the call of duty: he took it up as his own. He took it personally. So where does the profitable servant stand?

John 12:26 tells us, “If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I Am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honor.”

The profitable servant has a place; his level of faithful commitment has brought him up nearer the master, but he must always remember that he is only the messenger.

John 13:16 and 17 advise us, “The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.”

Is there an upper limit of service beyond which we may not go? Yes. One can only be so faithful and loyal as a servant. Remember the important people that begged Jesus for the life and health of their servants? They begged for friendship’ sake.

John 15:15 opens our eyes to that, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you.”

Now, do you recall the word fellowservant? Here is where the study returns to that word. This study has explored the servant as a martyr, as a saint, even as a prophet. Now I want to bring in a strange twist to the concept of the servant – that of the servant being an angel. I read Revelation 1:1 and the thought came to me, what if the verse mentions angels, not as apart from, but as a link in the ‘chain-of-command’ (speaking-of-servants-wise).

The verse is this, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to shew unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John.”

On the surface, angels seem to be outside the servant issue. But, angels were servants, after all the first seven mentioned in this book each had authority over a church. This verse breaks down to me in this manner: Christ served God by passing on the revelation that God gave, the angel served Christ by passing the revelation from Christ to John, and John, in turn, was a servant by the same standard. I am not saying John was a servant to the angel but, rather, that John was a fellowservant with the angels.

Revelation 18:21 through 24 added to Revelation 19:1 through 10 is a long section of scripture that speaks of servants, and our connection to angels in that regard. I’ll break it down as follows: John heard a “Mighty Angel” speak (naming servants in verse 24: ‘prophets’, ‘saints’, and ‘all that were slain upon the earth’). Next, he heard many voices praising God, then the voices of the twenty-four elders. After that, a voice came out of the throne, followed by an even greater multitude of voices praising God. Finally, the “mighty angel” spoke again, telling John to write something, whereupon, John recorded that he fell down and worshiped the “mighty angel” The angel told him not to do that, and he explained it to John this way: he said, “I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Was the mighty angel one of John’s old acquaintances? Was it Stephen in an exalted state of service?

I said that I wanted to study Israel as a servant but the study was short: God remembered Israel, not because of service but because of God’s mercy. I said that I wanted to study the modern church as a servant but I have left the last part for last. When the study swings back toward the original topic, ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’, then I will bring in the last part, the unprofitable servant, the hypocrite.

For now, attention should be turned to the individual, and God’s spin on the issue. Just as the body is made up of organs, which in turn are composed of cells; so is the body of Christ constituted of churches, which in turn are comprised of individual believers. The body of Christ is an organic structure, a living thing based on the building blocks of individual believers.

Similar to a grouping of cells that are the same, or serve the same purpose, so the alignment, or

allegiance, of the individual believers, constitutes an organ in the body of Christ: a church. I have

normally seen the seven churches mentioned in the book of Revelation as a sort of historical

treatment of the body’s growth through the ages, as stages in the life of the church. I see that these

seven churches may also be viewed as seven organs within the one body. However that is, the

starting point in all of this is the individual; we want to understand the individual as a servant.

Luke 2:25 through 29 profiles an individual servant. “And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same was just and devout, waiting (watching) for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for Him after the custom of the law, then took he Him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word.”

This is a clearly etched image of a servant, someone who did not go into the temple for mere duty, or custom; but was compelled by his truer nature: he wanted to go to the temple, to be nearer God, or in other words: “he came by the Spirit”. Also, by the reading of the verses above, we can see that Simeon was a man that waited for God; he watched; he kept his attentions trained.

Let me add to that the corroboration of Luke 12:37, “Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.”

This study is presently looking at what God sees as important in a servant. I hope that anyone who might read this study will note that Christ speaks of Himself coming forth to serve the servants. A little further down in that same scripture the tenet of the above-cited verse can be found repeated: “Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when He cometh shall find so doing.” That speaks not only of watching and waiting but persevering in service. Jesus is the Most High, yet He comes forth and serves.

The Master/servant concept should not confuse if one understands that spiritual concepts are sometimes the reverse of worldly concepts.

The next verse, Matthew 24:45 and 46, may blur the lines a bit between individual and group; it may even be prophetic of either individual or church in the last day but it mirrors the last two scriptures. “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over His household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when He cometh shall find so doing.”

I want to digress just a bit and look at something before I forget. The meat in due season is worthy of notice. Jesus said to Peter, “Lovest thou me?” – “Feed My sheep.” approximately three times. In that, I see the church. But there is to be a season that goes beyond the ‘milk’ to the ‘meat’. In that, I see doctrinal upgrades somewhere by someone. I don’t see mainstream contemporary Christianity ever getting past there cherished customs – all of which revolve around the milk of the Word. It will be some rogue upsetting the church’s apple cart, much as Jesus did with the religious petrification of His day.

The spiritual concept is, in many cases, opposite the worldly concept. Jesus tells us numerous times, Mark 10:44, Mark 9:35, Matthew 23:11, and Matthew 20:27, the same message, “Whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all”; “If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all”; “But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant”; and “Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.”