The Power of Service
The Power of Service
There is a weak kind of service that bears no fruit—this is not what we are speaking about.
There is another kind of service that is strong and effective. This is the service that God desires, and the true servant is one who is powerful in his ministry.
He is strong because he is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26), and God is strong.
God is strong in His power to create, strong in His wondrous salvation by which He was able to blot out all sins for all people in all generations. He is strong in His love, for He loved to the point of giving Himself. He is strong in His signs and miracles, and strong in His forgiveness, for He “has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities,” but “as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:10, 12).
God is strong. We proclaim to Him in the Trisagion: Holy God, Holy Mighty.
We say in the Paschal hymn: Thine is the power.
We also say: “The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation” (Psalm 118:14).
And we conclude the Lord’s Prayer with the words: “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (Matthew 6:13).
Since power belongs to God, and we are made in His image, we too ought to be strong. Strength does not mean violence, but strength of character, strength of mind, and strength in the word and its impact.
All the prophets and messengers of God were strong.
Strength in the Lives of the Prophets
David the Prophet was strong as a shepherd, for he rescued a sheep from the mouth of the lion (1 Samuel 17:34–35).
He also stood before Goliath the giant, saying: “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts… This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand” (1 Samuel 17:45–46). It was said of David that he was “a mighty man of valor” (1 Samuel 16:18).
As strong as David was in battle, he was also strong in endurance. He endured all the plots of King Saul against him and did not harm him when he fell into his hands (1 Samuel 24:6).
David was also strong in love and forgiveness. He wept over Absalom, who had rebelled against him with an army and sought to seize the kingdom. When Absalom died, David mourned deeply, saying:
“O my son Absalom—my son, my son Absalom! If only I had died in your place” (2 Samuel 18:33).
David was also strong in repentance. He wept bitterly over his sin even after forgiveness, saying:
“I am weary with my groaning; all night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears” (Psalm 6).
And in Psalm 51: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness… and my sin is always before me”
Truly, we have not heard of repentance as powerful as that of David.
Daniel the Prophet was strong in proclaiming his faith in God, even when this led to his being cast into the lions’ den (Daniel 6). He was also strong in knowledge, in interpreting dreams, and in the visions he received.
Elijah the Prophet was strong in his struggle against idolatry, in standing against the prophets of Baal and Asherah, and in his bold rebuke of King Ahab for leading Israel into sin (1 Kings 18).
John the Baptist: Strength with Humility
John the Baptist, who prepared the way before Christ, was strong.
It was said of him that he would go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, and that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15, 17).
With great power he preached repentance, so that: “Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins” (Matthew 3:5).
He was strong in rebuking the Pharisees and Sadducees, saying: “Now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:10).
He was also strong in rebuking King Herod, saying: “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife” (Matthew 14:3–4).
For this, he was imprisoned and later martyred.
Yet John was also strong in humility. When people crowded around him and glorified him, he confessed:
“I am not the Christ… He who comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry” (Matthew 3:11). He said to Christ: “I need to be baptized by You” (Matthew 3:14). And he uttered his famous humble words: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
The Strength of Christ Himself
The Lord Jesus Christ was strong, despite His meekness and humility (Matthew 11:29). Do not think that meekness and humility are forms of weakness. Christ was meek and humble in heart, yet He was powerful.
He was strong in His preaching and influence. After the Sermon on the Mount, it was said: “The multitudes were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (Matthew 7:28–29).
He was strong in persuasion. When the Pharisees complained that He ate with tax collectors and sinners, He replied: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick… I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Matthew 9:12–13).
When He entered the house of Zacchaeus and accepted his repentance, He said: “Today salvation has come to this house… for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:9–10).
He was strong in teaching that doing good on the Sabbath is lawful, and strong in His answers regarding tribute to Caesar: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21).
He silenced the Sadducees concerning the resurrection and confounded the Pharisees with His question about the Messiah, so that: “No one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore” (Matthew 22:46).
Christ was also strong in His popularity.
He fed five thousand men besides women and children (Matthew 14:21).
The crowds were so great that Zacchaeus climbed a sycamore tree to see Him (Luke 19:4).
When He raised Lazarus, the Pharisees said: “Look, the world has gone after Him” (John 12:19).
He was strong in His obedience, His death, and His resurrection. “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). At His death the veil of the temple was torn, the earth quaked, and the rocks split (Matthew 27:45, 51).
In His resurrection, He rose by the power of His divinity, leaving the sealed tomb and appearing to His disciples behind closed doors (John 20:19).
The Power of Service in the Apostolic Church
After this, we speak of the power of service in the lives of the apostles—a power they received through the descent of the Holy Spirit.
Despite spending more than three years as disciples of the Lord Himself, He told them: “Stay in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).
He explained the source of this power: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me… to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
With this power, the apostles began their ministry on the very day of Pentecost.
Through one sermon by Saint Peter, three thousand souls believed and were baptized (Acts 2:41). The word spoken by the Holy Spirit pierced their hearts, and they “gladly received his word” (Acts 2:37, 41).
After the healing of the lame man, “many who heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand” (Acts 4:4). “And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33).
Thus the prophecy was fulfilled: “The kingdom of God has come with power” (Mark 9:1), and “the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).
Characteristics of Powerful Service
- Boldness and steadfastness:
“We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20), “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). - Endurance in suffering:
After being beaten, they departed “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41). - Power in spreading the word:
“You have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine” (Acts 5:28). Those who were scattered “went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). - Power in prayer:
“When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken… and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). - Power through new servants:
Stephen, one of the seven deacons, was “full of faith and power” (Acts 6:8), and his opponents “were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke” (Acts 6:10). - Power through Paul the Apostle:
His ministry spread everywhere. He testified in Jerusalem and in Rome (Acts 23:11). He said: “I labored more abundantly than they all—yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
Saint Paul was a blazing flame of service—unceasing movement and holy zeal.
He described his labors and dangers in 2 Corinthians 11:26–28, caring daily for all the churches.
This is the kind of powerful service we seek: Service that bears responsibility, gives itself for others, and is strong in expression and influence. Even as a prisoner, Paul spoke so powerfully that Felix trembled (Acts 24:25), and King Agrippa said: “You almost persuade me to become a Christian” (Acts 26:28).
Saint Athanasius the Apostolic
In speaking of powerful service, we also remember Saint Athanasius the Apostolic, who preserved the true faith against Arianism. While still a deacon, he was a champion of faith at the Council of Nicaea, attended by 318 bishops. For the sake of the faith, he was exiled from his see four times, during which he continued preaching and teaching with great power.
