Did Jesus Have A Job?

Posted by on July 19, 1998 under Sermons

In a typical week, how often do you hear the word “Jesus”? In a typical week, how often do you hear someone say something about Jesus? In a typical week, how often do you call Jesus by name or say something about Jesus?

Do you think that you know Jesus pretty well? How would you rate your knowledge of Jesus? This evening I want you to focus on your knowledge of Jesus.

  1. Did Jesus have a job?
    1. “I guess that answer would depend on the specific question that you are asking. Are you asking, ‘Did Jesus have an occupation?'”
      1. “If you are asking about Jesus’ occupation, he was a carpenter.”
        1. “Matthew 13:55 refers to Jesus as the carpenter’s son.”
        2. “Mark 6:3 refers to him as the carpenter.”
      2. What kind of carpenter work did he do? We don’t know.
      3. What type of things did he build? We don’t know.
      4. Where did he do his carpenter work? We assume that he did much of it in his home town, Nazareth, but that is an assumption.
      5. The gospels write almost exclusively about Jesus’ ministry. Did he do carpenter work during the time of his ministry? No, there is no reference to his doing carpenter work during his ministry.
    2. “If you focus on gospel information regarding Jesus’ ministry, what was his work?”
      1. To answer that question, we need to begin with the Old Testament scriptures.
      2. There is a section of Isaiah beginning in chapter 40 that is known as the servant hymns.
        1. It is from this section that the word “servant” becomes a title for the Messiah or Christ.
        2. In some places in this series of pronouncements, “servant” refers to the Jewish people as a nation.
        3. In other places, “servant” refers to an individual.
      3. Please take your Bible and turn in the Old Testament to the book of Isaiah.
        1. We will not do an in-depth study of verses; I just want you to notice the use of the word “servant” in a number of verses.
        2. All of these verses are found in the section of Isaiah called “servant hymns.”
        3. First, notice the word “servant” as Isaiah uses in reference to the Jewish nation.
          1. Isaiah 44:1 “But now listen, O Jacob, My servant, And Israel, whom I have chosen.” (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.) He called them His servant in Babylonian captivity.
          2. Isaiah 44:21 “Remember these things, O Jacob, And Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant, O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me.” (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
          3. Isaiah 44:26 “Confirming the word of His servant And performing the purpose of His messengers. It is I who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited!’ And of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built.’ And I will raise up her ruins again.” (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
          4. Isaiah 45:4 “For the sake of Jacob My servant, And Israel My chosen one, I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor Though you have not known Me.” (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
        4. Isaiah 49 seems to be a transitional point when Isaiah refers to both the nation and to a person as being the “servant.”
          1. Isaiah 49:3-6 He said to Me, “You are My Servant, Israel, In Whom I will show My glory.” But I said, “I have toiled in vain, I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity; Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the Lord, And My reward with My God.” And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the Lord, And My God is My strength), He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
          2. In verse 3 he speaks of the nation as the “servant,” then in verse 5 he seems to talk of the person as the “servant.”
          3. God formed the person before birth.
          4. He formed the person to gather the nation of Israel back to himself.
          5. But just gathering the tribes of Israel back together again is to small a job for God to give the “servant.”
          6. So God gives the job of being a light to the nations to the servant.
          7. God’s servant will cause salvation to go to the ends of the earth.
        5. Now look at the word “servant” as it signifies this person.
          1. Isaiah 50:10 “Who is among you that fears the Lord, That obeys the voice of His servant, That walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.” (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
          2. Isaiah 52:13 “Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.” (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
          3. Isaiah 53:11 (To us, the first ten verses are one of the best known prophecies about the suffering and death of Jesus) “As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.” (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
      4. I just want you to see one thing: I want you to see the strong connection between the promise of the coming of the Messiah, the Christ, and the fact that he will be a servant.
    3. Now permit me to focus your attention on some key verses about Jesus in the New Testament.
      1. Turn to Philippians 2:5-8 and notice something important about the preexistent Jesus leaving heaven and becoming a human man on earth.
        “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”         (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
        1. The preexistent Jesus did not tell God, “I won’t go to earth; I will not become human being or live a human life.”
        2. Instead of clinging to his divine position, he willingly emptied himself of his divinity–he became a true human.
        3. Not only did he become a human, but he took on the lowliest form of human life, the life of a servant, of a slave.
        4. Not only did he become a human servant, but he went even lower–he died one of the most shameful deaths possible–he died as the very worst criminals would die.
      2. Jesus knew this was his work; he knew this was the work that he was sent to do. Turn to a statement Jesus made in Matthew 20:25-28.
        “But Jesus called them to Himself and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.'”         (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
        1. People who become disciples, who follow Jesus, who belong to Jesus, become servants just like he did.
        2. They will not be like other people–they will not seek to exalt and elevate themselves by seeking authority and high position.
        3. They will do the same thing Jesus did.
        4. He did not come to be served; he came to serve; and his greatest act of service would be dying for the benefit of others.
      3. Right up to the time of his death, Jesus was a servant.
        1. John 13:13-16 records an incident that occurred immediately before his last meal with his twelve disciples.
        2. None of them would be a servant; none of them would wash the feet of the others–the lowliest task of the lowliest servant.
        3. So Jesus took a towel and a basin and washed the feet of each one of them.
        4. Then Jesus went back to the table where they would eat and made this statement in John 13:12-15:
          “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.”
          1. “Do you know what I have done to you?” Jesus was talking about much more than just washing their feet.
          2. Jesus was not instituting a ceremony for them to duplicate and us to follow, though there is nothing wrong with washing someone’s feet.
          3. Jesus was saying, “I am the Lord. You acknowledge me to be Lord. I am the Lord, but I washed your feet.”
          4. “If your Lord and Teacher could serve you in this lowly manner, then you can serve each other in lowly ways.”
          5. If the Lord was a servant, his disciples must be servants.
  2. That was Jesus’ job–to be God’s servant.
    1. Jesus served God by serving people.
      1. He served the needs of people.
      2. He healed the sick.
      3. He fed the hungry.
      4. He taught and gave hope to the ignorant and spiritually distressed.
      5. The gospels are filled with incident after incident of Jesus serving people.
    2. Though he was God’s Son, Jesus never “pulled rank.”
      1. He never coerced people because “I am God’s Son!”
      2. He never intimidated people by reminding them that “I am God’s Son.”
      3. He came to serve people.
      4. He came to do God’s will. How?
        1. By being a great Jewish theologian in one of the rabbinical schools?
        2. Through worship?
        3. Through observance of the ceremonial system?
        4. He did God’s will through serving people.
    3. On earth:
      1. His job was to serve.
      2. His mission was to die.
      3. His purpose was to make forgiveness of sins available to everyone.

Remember that Jesus ascended to sit at the right hand of God as Lord and Christ after he was a servant.