PREACHED:OL,5-09-04,PM

“THE PLACE OF A SLAVE”

1@ SLAVES AND ANCIENT ROME

A. Described by Will Durant, Caesar and Christ:

1. “Every week slave dealers brought their human prey from Africa, Spain, Gaul, Germany, the Danube, Russia, Asia and Greece to the ports of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It was not unusual for 10,000 slaves to be auctioned off at Delos in a single day. In 177 B. C. 40,000, Sardinians, in l67 B. C., 150,000 (of another nationality) were captured by Roman armies and sold as slaves…at approximately a dollar a head…The wages of the slaves on the great estates were as much food and clothing as would enable him to toil from sunrise to sunset every day…barring occasional holidays…until senility. If he complained or disobeyed, he worked with chains about his ankles and spent the night in an ‘ergastulum’—a subterranean dungeon that formed a part of nearly every farm. It was a wasteful as well as a brutal system…”

B. Historians tell us that at any given time there were as many as 30 million slaves serving in the Roman empire.

C. Slavery was an accepted practice all over the world in that day and age.

1. Thus, when Jesus spoke about a slave, the people immediately understood what he was saying.

2@ WE DON’T UNDERSTAND BEING A SLAVE.

A. Slavery in our country was abolished 140 years ago!

B. JUAN CARLOS ORTIS in his book, Disciple:

1. “The servant in the first century was a genuine slave—a person who had lost everything in this world. His liberty, his freedom, his will, even his name was gone. A price had been hung around his neck, and people bargained for him. Someone had eventually bought him, taken him home, and bored a hole in his ear so he could wear a ring with his master’s name on it. He had thereby lost his name; he was no longer John or Peter, but the slave of Mr. Johnson or Mr. Brown.”

B. Of course, a slave was not paid for his work except his food, meager clothing and bare shelter. And then he received merely what was necessary for him to stay alive to serve the profit of his master. It was an unwise business decision not to take care of your investment, especially if the slave was of good quality.

1. When he worked hard, life was miserable, and when he didn’t it was worse!

C. A slave had no will of his own. His was to unquestioningly respond to the commands of his master.

1. Example:

a. Roman Centurion who came to Jesus regarding his paralyzed servant for whom he sought healing. He said:

1) “I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one ‘Go,’ and he goes and I say to another ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant (dulos, bondslave)’Do this,’ and he does it.”

3@ THE BIBLE DESCRIBES CHRISTIANS AS SLAVES.

A. For example, Paul taught:

1. Everyone is a slave to one of two things: Righteousness or Sin, Romans 6:16-22.

a. We move from cruel slavery to the Devil into willing slavery to Christ when we obey the gospel, Rom 6:17.

1) In Romans 6:4, Paul says we rise from baptism to a new life.

a) From the rest of the chapter we learn that an important aspect of that new life is one of a willing slave!

B. Paul, Peter, James and Jude introduced their letters and John began the Revelation with the appellation of “dulos”—bond-slave!

1. Not unique to the New Testament.

a. “Bond servant or slave” is the most common term used in the Old Testament for a servant of God.

1) For example, What Eli told Samuel to say to God: “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.” (I Sam 3:10) is the Heb. Word for “bond-slave.”

3@ BRINGS US TO AN ANOLOGY USED BY JESUS:

A. Luke 17:7-10. “Will any one of you who has a servant (bond-slave) plowing or keep sheep say to him when he comes in from the field. ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink’? Does he thank that servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

B. What applications can we find the Lord’s Analogy?

1. We must rid ourselves of the American, democratic, “I’m-free-and-21” attitude when we think about our Christian responsibility.

a. This is imperative!

b. Ironically, we have been set free from slavery to sin, and out of appreciation, voluntarily, we enter willful bondage to Jesus!

1) I Pet 2:16. “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants (bond-slaves) of God.”

2. We then must begin viewing our service to Christ with the attitude of a slave:

a. I Pet 5:5. “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

C. I must realize that my first obligation as a Christian is not to self, but to my Master!

1. John 20:25-28. “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant (diakonos, deacon, table server) and whoever would be first among you must be your slave (dulos, bond-slave) even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

D. Christianity is not like an 8 to 5 job; my life belongs to the will of Jesus!

1. A slave is 24-hours-per-day subject to the call of his/her Master!

a. Col 1:9, 10. “…we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understand, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

2. What does that say about setting our own limit on what we will do for God?

a. What about people who complain, “I do more than most…” or “I don’t want to get too bogged down in church work…that’s too much…” or “…I can’t come to worship, I work seven days a week at my job (by the way that’s for me) and Sunday’s the only day I have free to relax…” ?

CONCLUSION:

1F THE WORDS OF A FAMILIAR HYMN PUTS IT ALL IN PERSPECTIVE:

“My life, my love I give to Thee,

Thou Lamb of God who died for me;

O may I ever faithful be,

My Savior and my God!

I now believe Thou dost receive,

For Thou hast died that I might live;

And now henceforth I’ll truth in Thee,

My Savior and my God!

O Thou who died on Calvary,

To save my soul and make me free,

I’ll consecrate my life to Thee,

My Savior and my God!

I’ll live for him who died for me,

How happy then my life shall be!

I’ll live for him who died for me,

My Savior and my God!”