C.A.C Sunday School Manual For May 16 and 23, 2021, Lesson Nine : Topic – JESUS’ PERFECT ADMINISTRATIVE PATTERN

Memory Scripture

For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Saviour of the body

(Ephesians 5:23).

Jesus both taught and practised leadership. No wonder He had the unchallengeable audacity to rebuke the godliness, hypocritical leader of His days.

Christ is the head of the church… means that Christ is the life of the Church. Just as head and heart are essential life givers to the body. Both humans and animals lives are connected with the heart; but all belonging to higher life — the head. Paralyze the brain, and all the characteristic features of the life of man will collapse. For example, the ancient method of execution proves or all. Cut off the head from the body, the body remains lifeless. Keeping the head is to keep the life; losing the head is to lose the life. As the Head, Owner and Creator, Christ would definitely have His perfect administrative pattern that the body (the Church) must follow. Anybody who refuses to follow that pattern is no longer under the Head and no more saved …because He is the saviour of the body.

Paul compared the relationship between Christ and the Church with the husband-wife daily relationship. The mystery Paul is speaking of is the relationship between between Christ and His Church. According to Paul, just as the husband and wife are united to become one flesh in submission and love, so as Christ uniting with the Church to form one body. It is a body that must be nurtured and cared for, if it is to remain healthy. So, don’t say “I love Jesus, but I hate the church.”

The life of the Church and harmony that is the body is only secured through the common share in the life of the Head. As the Head, Christ is the guide of the Church, and bears the rule in His Church. He alone has the right to make laws and patterns for us. If you want to be part of the body of Jesus, then you must be a sheep. In other words, we must bow in submission and love to key into Jesus’ pattern of administration as the Head, if we want to be saved and endorsed by God.

Devotional Bible Reading For Week One

Mon. 10: Jesus Models Meaningful Personal Prayer Life (Mk. 1:35)

Tue. 11: Jesus’ Clear Sense Of Purpose (Mk. 1:35-39)

Wed. 12: Jesus Gathers Those He Would Mentor (Mt. 3:14-19)

Thur. 13: Jesus Preoccupies With Leading People (Jn. 4:7-30)

Fri. 14: Jesus Preoccupies With Missions (Jn. 4:31-34)

Sat. 15: Jesus’ Perfect Pattern Should Be Emulated (1 Cor. 11:1)

1. Jesus has always been very simple, clear and direct in administration. We must follow His pattern.

2. Right administration with practicable leadership can be achieved by following the pattern of Jesus Christ which had stood the test of time.

BACKGROUND SCRIPTURES: Mark 10:45

AIM: To elicit principles from Christ’s life that would help achieve effective administration at all levels.

OBJECTIVES: At the end of this lesson, readers should be able to:

i. discuss Jesus’ pattern of exemplary leadership for His disciples to follow;

ii. show that Jesus’ administrative pattern is perfect and if duly followed, it pays and elevates our leadership, whether secular or spiritual;

iii. show from Jesus’ leadership teachings and lifestyle that exemplary servant leadership consists in practising what one teaches; and

iv. defend that believers who find themselves in position of authority must not usurp powers but be servant leaders.

We really ascribe all the glory to God for how far He has helped us, right from the beginning of this series to where we are today. We have seen, heard and learnt how the Almighty God administers the affairs of humanity.

Last week and the one before, we looked at the topic GOD IN PERSIA, which ends Unit II. It is expected that we should have better understood that there is no nation that God cannot, both the ruler and the ruled, alike. God, in His divine power, orchestrated the dethronement of Vashti and the enthronement of Esther. We should not also forget that He used the Persian king to deliver the enslaved Jews who had been penciled down for total annihilation. What a great God we serve!

In today’s lesson, the ninth in the series, and the first in unit III, God wants us to better have the grasp of the fact that we have God who has laid down administrative pattern for us to imbibe, through the teaching and practical life of Jesus Christ. Jesus actually taught and practised true sacrificial leadership. We also have a lot to learn from His assessment of the leaders of His day

May we not miss what He has for us in this ninth lesson, in Jesus name. Amen.

This lesson is divided into two sections, I and II, and each is further divided into A and B, respectively.

This section talks about Jesus’ teachings and practical way of sacrificial servant leadership. He taught His disciples that whoever would be great or first in all should be servant of all. He, who is too big to serve would be too small to lead. Jesus proves this to His disciples and to us now, through His practical application of leadership in His time by stooping so low to wash His disciples’ feet. It shows Jesus’ selfless and true leadership that we must follow.

DIVISION II: IN THE ASSESSMENT OF LEADERS OF HIS DAY

This section graphically shows how Jesus examined and rated the way the so called leaders in His time led. He saw in them extreme hypocrisy. Jesus has a sacrificial servant heart. That is why He focused on the needs of others, compared to what He met on ground. He practiced His own leadership differently as God wanted it to be in the beginning. Don’t be part of, “If you can’t beat them, join them.”

From the teachings and examples of Jesus Christ, we learn that to be a sacrificial leader is to a voluntary servant, who submit himself to Christ’s purpose, sacrificially and unreservedly, who uses the power entrusted to him to serve others, meeting their needs. A teacher who teaches his followers, in word and deed to become servant leaders, and he who sees leadership as a privilege, not a right, and a place to serve, not a position to claim.

But whoever wants to be a true leader should learn from Jesus, the art and act of sacrificial leadership.

ii. vv. 35-37: These two disciples of Jesus were actually getting the idea of leadership in Christ’s kingdom wrong. They thought of it as being that of positional advantage than service to God and humanity (cf. Phil. 2:3,4).

iii. v. 38: Jesus’ response here shows that assuming leadership in the things of God involves risks and sacrifices — the cup to drink (cf. Matt. 26:38-42).

iv. vv. 39,40: They thought it was a light thing and responded, “We are able”. They would indeed be subjected to the harsh treatments that our Lord went through, but as regards promotion in God’s service which they desired, it was solely God’s prerogative, the Administrator of the universe (cf. Psa. 75:6,7).

v. vv. 41,42: The reaction of the other ten disciples shows how guilty the also were of the attitude of the first two. Jesus indirectly pointed out the tendency in them to lord it over themselves, given the opportunity (v. 43). Hope Christ is not convicting you for the same tendency, now? Change!

vi. vv. 43-45: Jesus’ pattern of leadership/ administration at any level is that the leader should be servant-like, contrary to the worldly standard (cf. v. 45; 9:33-35). Leaders everywhere should follow this pattern, today (cf. Phil. 2:5ff).

vii. Know it that the servant leader is a growing leader, led and grown by the Holy Spirit. Jesus never abused His power. Follow His teachings and practise His pattern of leadership, and you won’t abuse yours, too.

B. HE PRACTICES TRUE LEADERSHIP (Jn. 13:1-17)

Rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded (vv. 4,5).

i. vv. 1-3: The hour had come for Christ’s departure, and He wouldn’t leave His disciples then, and now, without practical demonstration of His teachings on sacrificial leadership. Jesus knew that His Father had given Him all things as the Controller of all things. How would such an incomparably great Person come down to the level of a servant (or better still, slave)?

ii. v. 4: The King of kings and Lord of lords chose to rise from supper (note: He wasn’t compelled or forced), laid aside His garments (symbolic of how He laid aside His incomparable glory in heaven to become Man; Phil. 2:6,7a), took a towel and girded Himself (symbolic of Him taking on the form of a servant; Phil. 2:7b. True leadership means total submission to the will of God for the service of God and humanity in the most sacrificial manner.

iii. v. 5: Jesus showed a clear-cut practical pattern of what it means to be a true and sacrificial leader. He took it upon Himself to wash the feet of His followers; what should have been the obligation of the house-servant which none of the disciples was ready to take upon himself.

iv. vv. 12-14: Jesus was completely aware of His position (v. 14), yet He chose to serve His creatures and disciples. The disciples had severally experienced Him as their Master. At this point, they practically experienced His as their Servant.

v. vv. 15-17: What Jesus says, He does. He has given us example of servant-leadership that He has always taught. Should we do anything less, if we are truly His disciples and under-leaders?

vi. True leadership is not a theory; it is about the reality of leadership carried out in the character of Christ. It is becoming fashionable to talk or teach about sacrificial and true leadership, today. What we need now is not more teaching, but more leaders practising Jesus’ pattern of leadership.

vii. Those who are already leaders and want to be sacrificial need to practise the true leadership pattern of Jesus Christ and be strengthened again and again in His teachings, because it is harder to learn to be a servant than to be a leader, especially for those who have been leaders in one capacity, or the other for many years.

1. Jesus’ teachings and example show that being a sacrificial leader is to submit to a higher (God’s) purpose beyond one’s personal interest, to serve others.

2. If Christ could go so low to wash His disciples’ feet, should we do less in leading and administering the people He places under and around us?

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45) depicts Jesus as the ultimate example of selfless and true leadership. Discuss.

i. Jesus exchanged His divine superiority for servanthood — to serve and save lives.

ii. The leadership patterns that Jesus taught and demonstrated was neither about command and control, nor status and power. Unlike what is going on today in secular and spiritual leadership.

iii. The King, who led with a towel, shows Jesus’ servant leadership role and value.

iv. He did not teach skills, but grew character — a character centered on a Christlike servant heart.

v. The Kingdom viewpoint, makes leadership that is modelled on Jesus and focused on His indwelling holy character superior to all worldly leadership patterns.

vi. He demonstrated servanthood and challenged His disciples to follow His example to be like Him.

vii. So with all these, Jesus is depicted as the ultimate example of selfless and true leadership.

viii. Ask yourself: How can I live without Christ’s servant-heart character, teaching, pattern and putting first the concern for the led? It is impossible. You need all those spiritual leadership traits of, and from Jesus.