Love Serves Series

John 13:1-17

I want to start this week by declaring some simple biblical truths over us about how God sees everyone who has placed their trust in Jesus, because I want to stir our hearts and touch our emotions.

We are all sons and daughters of the Lord most high, Children of God by right, adopted in to his family by our faith in Christ.

We are accepted by God for who we are, you are who you are because you are created that way for the sole purpose of pursuing God with all your heart, all your mind and all you soul.

Paul tells us in Colossians that we have fullness in everything through Christ Jesus, that means that no matter what life throws at us, both the good and the bad we can know that we are secure in who we are because of Christ.

We are one with Jesus in Spirit. This means that we are never alone, he is always with us.

We are created in the Image of God, both men and woman bear the image of our creator God, this marks us out as unique in all creation because we are the only things that have a resemblance to the one who created everything.

We are foreknown. The prophet Jeremiah tells us that God knew us as we were formed in our mothers wombs, and it was at this point our journey was appointed, so we can know that nothing surprises God, he isn’t going to drop the ball on anything because he already knows!

We are a chosen people, royalty, a holy nation and God’s special possession (REPEAT!)

We are temples of the Holy Spirit! This means that everything that we do is worship of some kind or another of God.

We are lavished in the Fathers love because we are his Children. That means that he doesn’t just love us a bit, or love us sometimes, it means that we are totally and utterly smothered by his great love for us. Think of marinating meat or pickled onions the flavour and the influence of what has been poured over the food permeates to the core and transforms it’s flavour and character.

There are loads more that I could highlight but I want to just focus in on one so lastly for this morning.

We are clothed with Christ – what does that mean; it means that Christ gives us our dignity. Ever since the garden when sin came into the world we’ve been trying to cover up our shame, the first act of Adam and Eve was to sew clothes out of leaves to hide their shame because they were exposed. Now I am not suggesting that because we are people of faith we should all become naturist but we no longer need to be ashamed of who we are and try to hide our identity.

So why start a message on Jesus washing his disciples feet by reminding us of who we are in Christ. Well if you look at v3 you’ll see that it says that Jesus knew that all authority in heaven and earth was given to him and that he was about to return to the Father. SO he got up from the table…

You see this whole transaction took place because Jesus knew who he was, what authority he had and where he was going. This act of service - which by the way we all know is a pretty demeaning thing to do even in today’s society where we all wear shoes and socks and bathe regularly – is done from a position of power and strength. It’s done from a place that few actually achieve, he knows who he is, where he is going, he is so secure in his identity that he moves seamlessly from a position of authority and teaching to that of a servant and then back again to a teacher.

What we need to note is that it is not his task that drives Jesus identity, it is his identity that drives his task.

This is why we must remind ourselves of who we are, because once we are really secure in who we are once we know that our identity comes not from what we are doing but through who God says that we are we are released to walk in so much more authority and blessing.

You see our culture is a very task orientated, the world tells you that your worth is found in what you do and what stuff you are able to acquire because you’ve worked hard to attain what you have and you have a right to show that stuff off. The problem is that this means that we are never really satisfied, because there is always more stuff to get, there is always better holidays to go on, there are always promotions to chase after. The job is never done.