Services | Washing Other Peoples’ Feet

Bulletin

Hymn # 88 “Joy to the World”

SCRIPTURE READING – 1 Thessalonians 4:15 - 17
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings

OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate

Praise and Worship
“House of the Lord”
“Raise a Hallelujah”
“Overcome”

Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Washing Other Peoples’ Feet”

PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
Hymn # 375“’Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus” vs 1 & 3

“There Is Freedom”

Sermon Notes
John 13:1 Jesus knowing the situation, loved His disciples until the end
John 13:2 They were not all His disciples
John 13: 3 – 5 Jesus got up from the meal, girded Himself and washed His disciples’ feet
John 13:6 – 10 Jesus and Peter have a discussion about washing Peter’s feet
John 13:11 Jesus says not all of His disciples are clean
John 13:12 – 17 Jesus teaches about what He did so they might understand
Matthew 20:25 – 28
John 13:18 & 19 Jesus tells them before it happens that He will be betrayed so they might believe
John 13:20 Jesus tells them those He sends that believe will believe Him and the One that sent Him

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Scritpures

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Transcript of Service

It is common to have to teach somebody a particular thing several times before they get it. When Jesus celebrates a Passover which is the last Passover he will celebrate with his disciples here on earth, what we call the Last Supper, Jesus is going to teach them, but he's going to do it in a unique fashion. He's going to teach them by an example, and then he's going to teach them what he meant by doing what he did. Come and listen to what Jesus did and what Jesus taught, which is so different than what the world expects us to do.

If you have your Bibles, as I constantly say, and you ought to, please turn to the Gospel of John chapter 13.

The interesting thing about the Gospel of John is starting with verse 13 and going through chapter 17 will just be Passover celebration.

The whole Gospel of John comprised of 21 chapters, and yet 5 are devoted to an evening, and a portion of chapter 18 is dealt with that evening.

So obviously John considers this activity of Jesus to be extremely important, that he devotes so much of his attention to that because again his purpose in writing this Gospel is for us to become believers, that we might have faith.

Jesus is going to celebrate with his disciples this Passover meal.

In the beginning of a Passover meal, through their requirements of cleanliness, is that they would do some ceremonial aspects of it. So before the meal would start, they would wash their hands in a basin, and so that would happen and then that would signify their cleanliness both in the sense of ceremony and the sense of when they are going to be partaking of food, that their hands are clean. But Jesus is going to add to that something very significant. Jesus, what he teaches this evening, what we are going to take a look at, is nothing new.

Because unfortunately, as teachers know, and as parents know, almost never does the student understand something the first time you tell them.

It's one of those things that you repeat and repeat and repeat, and for those, for instance, like teachers, you will go through, let's say, the fifth grade, and then you go to the fifth grade, and then you start the sixth grade, and what do the teachers do? They review what you did in the fifth grade because during the summer you forgot everything that you learned. And so Jesus understands that, so he's going to emphasize his teaching, he's going to add a few other things to his teaching, and we'll deal with those in subsequent weeks, but he's going to do, again, something unique. Not only is he going to teach, but he's going to teach by example. So he's going to do something very odd, and then he's going to teach to reinforce his teaching. And so in the Gospel of John chapter 13, starting with verse 1, it says this, "Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, and that he would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end." Now, this tells us a couple of things. This tells us that what's going to happen to Jesus doesn't take him by surprise.

There are those who want to say, "Well, Jesus got caught up in the activities of the world, and the world just kind of crushed him." No, he knew exactly why he came, what his ministry was, and what his purpose was, and how he was going to glorify the Father. He knew all these things. It didn't take him by surprise. So he knows these things, and still, even knowing these things, he loves, notice his own.

It doesn't say he loves the whole world. He loved his own till the end, which should give us great comfort. For us, what we're going to see in the subsequent chapters, and some of the things that he's going to talk about during this evening, is that if we are his, even when we do despicable things, he still loves us.

He loves us. He loved his own until the end, which means what they did and didn't do didn't affect his love for us.

That should give us great confidence that he loved them to the end, even though he knew what they would do, but he knew why he came and what he was to do. Now during supper, the devil hadn't already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him. So this didn't happen during the supper.

Judas developed this plan to betray Jesus before this. Now we're told in the other gospels that when Mary had used this expensive perfume to anoint Jesus that he was upset and said you could have sold this and paid for the poor, and as the scripture said, he wasn't at all concerned about the poor. He was concerned about being able to steal from the treasury because he was the treasurer.

And so having that, he then decided to betray Jesus and had gone to the chief priests and Pharisees and developed a plan how he would let them know where Jesus was and who Jesus was, and he got 30 coins of silver to do that. So that whole plan of betrayal had already been done.

And Jesus, knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hands and that he had come forth from God that was going back to God. So again, what John is specifically saying is that Jesus knew exactly who he is.

Again you'll hear theologians and other people have no clue about things as that. As Jesus grew up in the boyhood and the manhood and whatever, then he kind of discovered that maybe God was using him. No, he knew he was the son of God. He knew that God the Father sent him into the world to do something to save us.

And that he came to do that and after doing that he was going back to the Father. He knew all these things.

Doing all these things which is incredible what he's about to do. Because what he knows is that he is the son of God, God.

Now I want you to understand this. This is God doing what God is going to do.

So he got up from the supper and laid aside his garments and taken a towel he girded himself. So he's going to kind of interrupt the meal.

And he's going to take off his outer cloak, he's going to take it out and he's going to gird himself so that he can do what he's now going to do. Now our church in the past has celebrated a number of Passover meals. And I've given those who participated two ways of celebrating the actual part of the Passover meal itself.

And the Old Testament version is that you're supposed to stand with your loinsgirded, with your staff in your hand, ready to go and you eat quickly the meal because it's a meal of haste and you're going to take out. And so I always ate it that way because I always said that this body is still struggling with sin and I'm looking forward to the freedom and so I'm ready to get out of here. So that's my statement of faith. But in this situation, they ate more like the Romans did because they ate in the sense of being a free people. And so they would, there would be a short table and they would recline at the table and that they would eat and their feet would be out. So they'd be lying down.

So the beautiful portrait of the Last Supper is wrong in a couple of areas. It's wrong because they weren't sitting and it's wrong because they probably didn't have fish on the table.

Supposed to have lamb and whatever. And so it's a beautiful painting and I'm glad I saw it and I'm glad I saw the door cut out on Jesus' feet because it taught me a lot of things. So thank you, Prue, for making me go there because I didn't want to go.

So anyway, that's the situation. They're kind of laying with an arm and that's why when Jesus will say some things that Jesus says, they're going to, well, ask John what he said because, and so John is close to him. So they're almost like laying, almost chest to chest kind of laying out. So he gets up during the supper. So he's kind of doing something different than they normally do because it's a very formalized celebration. You do this, you do this, you do that and there's certain things you're supposed to do to have a Passover meal. So Jesus does this thing. He gets up, lays aside his garment and it takes a towel and girds himself. Then he poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. Now in Middle Eastern society, the least honorable part of the body is the foot.

To raise your foot means to disrespect someone.

We kind of think of other parts of the body as being less honorable. They think of the foot.

So Jesus is going to do, he's going to take their least honorable portion of the body that they consider and he's going to go as they're celebrating them and he's washing their feet and drying it with a towel.

He's acting as a slave, as a servant.

But this is God.

This isn't your high school teacher or coach.

This isn't somebody you respect or who's older. This is the Son of God who voluntarily got up and washed his disciples' feet and wiped them dry with a towel. When they began the meal, they washed their hands and now Jesus is washing their feet.

And so he came to Simon Peter and he said to him, "Lord, do you wash my feet?" So it gets to Simon's turn. And I don't know how many people Jesus has been washing.

Obviously he's at least the second one because all of a sudden he asks this question, which I kind of find interesting, how come the first guy didn't ask the question?

But he does.

"Lord, master, you're going to wash my feet."

And Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do, you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter."

Do you understand? Wait a minute. I know you're having some problem with this. We're having a discussion. But I'm doing something that you quite don't understand now, but you're going to realize later. So just let me finish what I'm doing.

Peter said to him, "Never shall you wash my feet."

Now I think somewhat it's an admirable response.

Because here's the Son of God, God, who's going to act as a slave and wash my feet.

I totally understand what Peter's saying.

I don't want you to do this, Lord.

That's beneath you.

And Jesus answered him, "Wow, this is a stinging statement. If I do not wash you, you have no part with me."

Now I want you to notice he didn't say, "If I do not wash your feet, if I do not wash you." It's the blood of Jesus who washes away our sins.

That is what makes us a part of him. So Jesus is not saying, "If I don't wash you," he's saying, "If I don't wash you, if you don't understand what I'm going to do, and this is the least cleansing that's what's going to happen to you." He said, "If I don't do this, you're not mine."

And Simon Peter is 100percent this way and 100percent that way. So first he says, "Never are you going to do this, Lord." And then notice what it says, that Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, didn't wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head." He's going, "Give me a bath, Lord. Don't just, if I'm not going to have any part of you, just didn't wash all of me."

It's nothing or everything.

Some of you really understand Peter.

And Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean, and if you are clean, but not all of you."

So Jesus says, "Once you're clean, because you go out into the world, and the dust of the world can affect you." So Jesus says, "The effects of the world you need to be cleansed from." So he's doing that.

Now I'll go on a little bit.

"For he knew the one who was betraying him. For this reason he said, "Not all of you are clean."

So he understands because he knew he was going to the Father, because he was sent by the Father and going back, that he knew the plan. And the plan was one of his was going to betray him.

And knew that one who was going to betray him was there eating with him and having Jesus wash his feet.

Can you imagine the evilness of your heart?

If you know you're going to for 30 pieces of silver betray this one who has probably showed you more love than you've ever experienced in your life, and is washing your feet, and you know in a few hours from now you're going to kiss him on the cheek and betray him.

So when he had washed their feet and taken his garment and reclined at the table again, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you?"

So he's now going to teach you. He's going to ask that question, which always seems to proceed when God is going to teach us something.

He says, "Do you know what I did?" So for those of you who have been in Bible study, we took a look at Revelation and talked about the tribulation saints and he says, "Do you know who these are?" The answer is, "My Lord, you know." Which is, I don't have a clue, but you're asking me a question, you know. So frequently the scriptures start teaching us by asking us, "Do we know something?" To make it obvious, we have no clue.

So he says, "So when he had washed their feet, they had taken his garment and reclined at the table again, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you?"

And I suspect not one of the twelve had any clue at all.

So you call me teacher and Lord, and you're right, for so I am."

Notice something, because they have called him teacher-rabbi, and they have called him Lord Master.

But he's more than that.

He doesn't at this point say, "Well, you call me Lord, you call me teacher," but he's also the Son of God.

But he's looking and showing at a point of his hierarchy here on earth. He's their rabbi, he's their teacher, he's their master.

"If I then the Lord and the teacher wash 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."

So he's saying, "What I've done, you call me rabbi, you call me teacher, you call me Lord, I've given you an example to do for one another."

Now there are those, when they do celebrate communion, the Lord's Supper, whatever you call it, that they have what's called a foot washing.

Now we don't do that, because I understand what's going to happen is we have a foot washing, that even the men will show up at the local nail salon and have their feet pedicured so that they look beautiful while you're washing their feet, which is an absolute no reason to wash their feet, because they went to a nail salon, had them soaked, had them nailed done and for you ladies had them polished, and from some of you guys had them polished, and whatever. And so we do it proformal, but that's not what Jesus taught. He's not saying, "I'm adding a new requirement to the Passover." He's saying, "I want you to wash their feet," but he's not talking about washing their feet. He's talking about serving them.

He's talking to saying, "My disciples, you guys, and the people who become disciples after you because you've heard the testimony, are to serve one another. If I, as your teacher and Lord, do this, and if I have this significant situation of what I am, then what prohibits you from doing that? Are you so important that you can't serve your fellow believer when the rabbi and teacher and son of God has done this?"

And he's going to say this, "Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him."

He's saying, "The slave is not greater than the master.

You as my disciples are not greater than me.

And if you're not greater than me, then what prohibits you from doing what I have done?

Nothing, because you're not greater than me, and I've done this."

If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

So Jesus is telling us, "You want to be blessed."

I dare say, most of our prayers are involved with, "Jesus, do this for me."

Avoid this situation, "May I win the lottery? My enemies be destroyed?" Whatever it is that we're looking for, we're asking God to do.

He tells us, "Here's something that you can do to be blessed, and you don't even have to ask for it.

Do what I told you to do. Serve one another."

It doesn't matter if you're the pastor, it doesn't matter if you're the deacon, it doesn't matter if you just showed up and have been part of the congregation for an hour and a half.

We are to serve one another.

And in serving one another, God is going to bless us.

I'm going to skip to a different gospel. This is in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 20, sorry, with verse 25, it says this, "But Jesus called them to Himself and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles loathed over them, and their great men exercised authority over them." See, the way of the world is this. If you have power, you hold on to power, you exercise power, and I tell you what to do.

Unfortunately, the church has kind of done that. I'm pastor, you do what I tell you to do, because I have authority.

Then I misquote the scripture, "All authority has been given to me, I tell you to do something." So, you know, I never see Jesus say, "All authority has been given to me, you've got some."

He's saying, "This is the way of the world."

The way of the world is you get power, you hang on to it, and you tell other people what to do.

It is not this way among you. He said, "There's a break between what the world does and what we as His disciples are to do.

But whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant,

and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave."

For just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. Jesus said, "This is the way to become great." The world says the way to become great is to acquire power.

And in that power, exercise it for your benefit, for your glory, and to tell everybody else what to do. And the way of the world is, no, instead of me exercising whatever power I may or may not have, is that I become a slave, which we don't like in this country, I become a servant and say, "What is it that you need? What is it that you want?" And God's saying, "If you do that, you're going to not only become, you're going to become great in the Kingdom."

Now, as I've shared in the past, one of the reasons I wanted to become a lawyer was because I wanted to be President of the United States.

As you can tell, it didn't happen.

But I've come to the conclusion by my observation, and you may say, "Well, this is just your way of justifying your failure," is that if I became President and I got re-elected,

and during my two terms, I had a 98percent approval rating,

and everybody thought that I was a wonderful President, and that I led the country in peace and prosperity and whatever,

because of the Constitution, at the end of two terms, I would have to leave.

And I would leave, and I know what the world does. The next idiot will change everything I did.

And whatever I did will maybe be a footnoted history, but that's about it.

So I'll have eight years of fame and power, and they've been re-alligated to a, "Well, hello, Mr. President." It's a nice title.

But if I do what Jesus says, to be a slave, to be a servant, to serve others, to think about the needs of others more than myself,

then I can become great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Now, in the history of the United States, we have had 46 people be...actually, we've only had 45 people be President. Here's a trick question.

The current President is 46 President, but there's only been 45 people who have been President.

So you might want to check it out. So in the history of this country, 45 people have been President.

Since I am now in my 70s, I don't think, and since I'm not campaigning, the likelihood of me becoming President is like, "Eh, next to impossible."

But I have a great opportunity to be great in the Kingdom of God.

And in the Kingdom of God, my greatness will not be just eight years.

And I won't have to care about whether I'm popular or not. I just want to hear, "Well done, thou good and faithful slave."

We are so concerned about the 80 years that we are given here, as opposed to the eternity that we will spend with Him.

Maybe we should do as He says, and to serve one another, to wash one another's feet, to be one another's slave. If Jesus, who is the Son of God, who is Rabbi, Teacher and Lord, Master, did these things, then what makes me think, "I'm too good to do that?"

Speaking of hubris, to say that I am better than Jesus. And Jesus just said, "The student, the disciple, is not greater than his Master." So I'm denying Jesus' teaching by saying that I am more important to do these things than to do what Jesus has told me to do.

Now we're going to go back to John.

And He says, "I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen, but it is that the Scriptures may be fulfilled. He who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me."

He's saying, "There's somebody who's betrayed me."

And I'm not surprised by this, in that the Scriptures are going to be fulfilled by this betrayal.

"From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He."

Jesus is saying, "I know all things. I know that one of you is going to betray me." And I'm telling you this, and you're still confused about who it is that's going to betray me.

But I'm telling you this, not that you have understanding now, but when it comes to pass, when all these things happen, you go, "Didn't Jesus tell us? Didn't Jesus know?" And it increases their faith.

Sometimes God tells us things not to benefit us now, but to benefit us later when we go, "Aha!"

Sometimes we read the Scriptures and go, "That was a nice verse."

Until all of a sudden we're in the darkness of the soul, and we can't understand what God is doing, and then we remember that Scripture.

Go, "Oh, now I see what you're doing, God.

Truly, truly, I say to you, He who receives whomever I sinned receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me."

Jesus is telling them a couple of things.

"I say to you, He who receives whomever I sinned receives Me."

Who is it that Jesus is sending?

He's sending those eleven, and He's sending those who will become His disciples by their ministry, and ministry, and ministry, and ministry, to the point that when we have become His disciples, He's saying,

"I am sending you, and if they receive you, they receive Me.

And if they reject, in essence, you, they're rejecting Me."

So don't think it's wonderful if you're being received, because they're receiving Jesus. And don't think it's terrible if you're not received, because they're rejecting Jesus.

It's not personal.

It's that the fact that they're rejecting their, the Master.

Jesus has given us an indication of how it is that we can do what He's asked us to do.

One of the indications of how to wash one another's feet, other than the fact that He told us to do it. So we ought to do what He told us to do.

But Jesus said at the beginning that He loved them even to the end.

Jesus washed their feet out of love.

Which means we ought to wash one another's feet out of love.

Now, did it necessarily mean out of loveability?

Because let's face it, I'm really lovable.

There's no one who should not love me.

I have a grandson that everybody was, when he was little, we always thought, you know, when the first person that didn't like Him, He's going to say, "What's wrong with you? Everybody loves me." So, you know, He got that from His grandfather.

The rest of you, not so much. It's a little more difficult to love.

But He didn't say because of their loveability. He said because He loved them.

And He's going to later tell us that we should love, and He's going to really emphasize that.

But there's another reason that we ought to do it. Not because we love one another like He loved, but because we love Him.

We love Him. Because we love Him, we love you.

We love Him, and He demonstrated His willingness to set aside His godness and be a servant.

And because I love Him, I can set aside my pride and my dignity and serve you.

We should do this because He told us to. We should do this because He, and we should love one another.

And we should do this because we love Him.

And in loving Him, we show that we love one another by serving one another.

And He will not say and did not say, because you build awesome buildings.

He'll know that you're my disciples. He did not say because you're an awesome pastor and you speak the word of God with, with,

the Holy Spirit just dripping off of every word.

He didn't say for those who have such charisma that they'll know that you're my's.

He doesn't even say if you know the, and you can quote the entire scriptures from Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 21, whatever the final verse is. But He said that you'll know that you're my disciples, that you have love one for another.

Now we might not be able to build the most wonderful buildings that ever were. And I'm still waiting for Him to make me the greatest orator that ever happened. And, you know, maybe before I died, it might happen. Miracles do happen.

But we can.

We can.

And we should set aside our pride and our position.

And love each other the way He loved us.

And to be willing, as He did, to be each other's slave.

And all of God's people say.