Title: “The Lesson From Maundy Thursday
Text: John 13: 1-17
Introduction:
I want to thank you tonight for inviting me to deliver the evening message. What you don’t know is that this is the first time I’ve ever spoken at a Maundy Thursday service. So tonight I’m making personal history I find that personally motivating. Jesus isn’t asking us to die for him is he, but he is asking us to live for him. And I’m going to say, it’s not easy to live for Jesus. I’ve spent over 25 years in the full time ministry; I know by personal experience it’s not easy to be servant of the cross of Christ. They’re so many things that need to be done that the mind becomes over-whelmed. For example, in the last week within Jesus life the disciples had situation after situation comfort them. I would say at this point and time keeping up with Jesus during that final week of his life must have been like trying to get a drink of at a fire hydrant. How do you take it all in? As I understand it, Maundy Thursday has to do with what took place in the Upper Room where Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, but also around that same time he washed his disciples feet, and it’s here that we learn that Judas is going to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, and it’s prophesied that Peter would deny his Lord three times, and where Jesus prayed that famous prayer in John 17 that his disciples would remain strong and endure the hours of testing that lie ahead of them by being sanctified by the truth of God’s word, and form that point on Jesus is taken away and arrested and he’s taken before a kangaroo court made of false witnesses, and so this and this and this happened. You see what I mean? It’s like trying to get a drink of water at a fire hydrant. How do we take it all in? Which event do you pick out from all that list and draw out its applicational significance?
I’m going to take you back to the event that I think got everything started. Even though that final week in Jesus life was filled with all kinds of activity, I think there’s at least one common thread that unites all these events together. Jesus was a master teacher and often he used everyday experiences in his own personal life as well as his disciple’s lives to teach about matters of servanthood. And you remember Jesus started off one of those evening’s years ago with these insightful words unto his disciples in the form of a commandment. He said, - “A new commandment I give you that you love one another and by your keeping of this commandment you will prove to all others around you that you are my disciples. Folks, I think perhaps the remainder of Jesus life was spent applying that teaching of loving one another. Let me show you what I mean.
Transition:
Turn in your Bibles to John 13 this is where it all begins. I asked your minister for permission to speak upon this section of scripture found between vs.1-17, which is a section having to do with the washing of the disciple’s feet by Jesus. Let’s walk out of here tonight with one main thought we can apply together. What is this common thread woven throughout the final events within Jesus earthly life?
FOOT WASHING CEREMONY (We Can’t Pick How You We’ll Servant the Lord of Hosts)
Understanding Jesus Example of Love
I’m going to pick it up at V.1. (Read – The Message, Eugene Peterson) – “Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that the time had come to leave this world to go to the Father. Having loved his dear companions, he continued to love them right to the end.” You see what I mean? A new commandment I give you that you love one another and by the show of this love you will prove that you are my disciples. Well, it was suppertime. The Devil by now had Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, firmly in his grip, all set for the betrayal. Jesus knew that the Father had put him in complete charge of everything that he came from God and was on his way back to God. So he got up from the super table, set aside his robe, and put on and apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with his apron. When he got to Simon Peter, Peter said – “Master, you wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You don’t understand now what I’m doing, but it will be clear enough to you later.” How much later? Well, I’m step out here and I’ll say since Peter is the main character of this message, it took him a life time to learn how to love in the way that Jesus needed him to love the other disciples as well as all mankind for that matter. Right now we’ll just say Peter has some dirty feet and he’s struggling over the idea of someone else doing something for him and he feels less deserving. Or, is that the real issue that needs to come to the surface in Peter’s life?
Peter says, “No Lord, you’re not going to wash my feet – ever! Jesus said, “Peter, if I don’t wash your feet, you have no part within me.” In other words, you can’t be apart of what I’m doing.” So, Peter said, “Lord, not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well.” Well, this isn’t what Jesus wanted to do. He didn’t want to give him a bath. So he says, “Peter, I’m not here to give you a bath, I just want to wash your feet.”
1. Rule # 1 – Make Yourself Available
Well, I’m only going to share with you two rules of servanthood and I’ve already arrived at the first rule. The first rule of being a servant is to make yourself available. God doesn’t care so much about your inabilities; but he does can take care about your availability.
Illustration:
They say that servanthood is an “acquired” taste. How many people here tonight enjoy coffee? How many of you that yes, enjoyed drinking coffee as a small child? You see what I mean?
None of us grew up being Folgers’s coffee drinkers; the taste for coffee came with the maturing of life didn’t it? Well, by the same token developing a servant’s heart does not come naturally.
When God has his hand upon our life, and we’ve agreed to be used for his glory; to become his servant with a servants attitude sometimes matter get worst before they ever get better. However,
The same goal is to there, acquiring a taste for that which takes maturity.
What is servant? That’s a question we have to answer. This concept has largely been abandoned by our culture. I’ve wondered why the Community Planning Committee’s have somewhat disbanded. We were doing so much this past year and the excitement was high. Is this because we don’t want to be the servants of our community? I don’t know about you and your ambitions, but the our community is in need of some action groups here and now. In his book, “The Jesus Style,” Gayle Erwin described servant-hood this way: "A servant’s job is to do all he can to make life better for others - to free them to be everything they can be. A servant’s first interest is not in himself but others … Servanthood is a loving choice we make to minister to others."
Do you realize that in Middle Eastern countries, it was slaves who washed the feet of guests; and here Christ took the place of a slave? He makes it clear to His disciple if he washes their feet, then they should wash one another’s feet. This must have been a striking rebuke to the twelve disciples because just earlier that same evening they had been debating over who’s the greatest! (Luke 22:24–27) So, the first rule of servanthood is to make yourself available the Lord of all creation. What’s the second rule?
2. Rule # 2 - Identify With Christ
Peter had it right folks! “Lord, not just my feet, but also my hands and my head as well. In other words, Jesus, let your will, let your life saturate my life. Isn’t that the picture? Now, the only problem Peter was making was his inability to see the larger picture. And folks, I have to admit I’m a lot like Peter I’ve got a one-track mind. Often because of my inability to see the bigger picture around me, I need to gather men and women around me that have that ability. Someone told me that is a sign of a great leader knowing your abilities form your inabilities. Well, Jesus
is the one that sees the bigger picture and he says to Peter, “Peter, you need to identify with me.” Folks, that’s the other rule of servanthood. It was important that Peter as the main leader of the disciples identify himself with Christ, and boy was he in for a world of change, but Oh the glory of being a leader of God whose appearance was unlearned, uneducated, untrained, but one in whom people would marvel in way that God could work in a life, that was Peter. However, look what he had to go through to identify with Christ.
Insight
Wasn’t it Peter who said, “Lord, although all others turn away from you I will never forsake you?” And then during that time of resurrection appearances, Jesus challenged Peter to demonstrate a servant’s heart and attitude? You remember the challenge, right? (John 21:15-25) Jesus said, “ Peter do you love me?” And Peter said, “Lord you know that I love you,” but there were two different types of love being used that section of scripture? In other words, the word that Jesus used for love was the Greek word for agape love. Peter, do you love me regardless of the results to yourself? Do you love me more than this boat, this career of fishing, all this livelihood that you’re returned too? And Peter responded with a lesser form of love, which was the phileo type of love, which is the love of tender affection. In other words, he was saying in return, “Yes Lord, you know that I’m your friend.” Well you see, three times Jesus questioned Peter with that phrase, “do you love me,” as if to atone for the sin for the three times that Peter denied him and at the end each time came the command – feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep. Two times Jesus used the word agape, the highest raking form of love known to mankind. The same kind of love that’s found in John 3:16, but on the third and final time Jesus looked at Peter and said, “Alright Peter, are you really my friend?” In other words, Jesus put himself down on the same level of love as Peter. And the Bible says Peter wept because the Lord asked him a third time “Peter, do you love me.”
Now you see Peter learned a great lesson that day. He learned that real service to the Lord demands a sacrifice. Kind of Like what Paul said to the Romans, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God— this is your spiritual act of worship. (2) Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is— his good, pleasing and perfect will. A lot of areas of weakness had to be pointed in the earlier chapters of the Roman people’s lives before Paul spoke those words. He didn’t command people to become better servant’s, he begged them to become better servant minded.
Peter also learned that real servant hood demands a cross. Continuing on there in John 21:18, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, Peter, I say to you when you were younger you used to grind yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old you will stretch out your hands and someone else will grid you and bring you to where you do not wish to go. (19) Now Jesus said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. Tradition has it that Peter was crucified upside down on a cross because he chose to not be crucified in the same way as his Lord. It says here that when Jesus had spoken these words in said to Peter, “Follow me.”
You see the connection between John 13, and a foot washing ceremony and John 21? Peter unless I wash your feet you’ll have no part within me. A lesson on love and humility becomes a lifetime lesson for Peter. And I’ll say it’s probably a lifetime lesson for us as well.
Application:
I’m just about through with the message. Who are you? I’m not talking about what your name is or where you work because those markings seems to identify us in this world, but who are you in Christ? Do we stand with Peter and say, “Jesus, you are the Christ the son of the Living God?” and then later find reason to deny our Lord? If we don’t know who we are in Christ, I guarantee you we’ll spend much of your life trying to do those types of things that will help us attain some type of identity. And yet no amount of human accomplishment, or attainment, or honor will adequately define our identity with Christ. Why? Because our identity is not discovered in what we are, but who you are by the grace of God. That’s why the struggle to identify with Christ is a life changing one.
CONCLUSION:
In the Upper Room Peter is wants to be the one in charge of his life’s investment. In John 21, Peter still wants to be the one is charge of his life’s investment. In Acts 10, Peter is still struggling with the Lord’s call upon his life and he wants to be the one in charge of his life’s investment. So I guess I’ll just close tonight by asking everyone what does Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 6:20 mean to you? Paul says, “You’ve been bought with a price, and the price was Christ redemptive work upon the cross, which I’ll seek to make you more aware of tomorrow night. Since Christ has paid the price the challenge is, “Therefore glorify God within your body.” What do those words mean to you? You know what they mean to me? Feed my lambs, Mel! Tend of my sheep, Mel! Feed my Sheep, Mel until I return. Christian, unless you let Christ be in charge of your life, you’ll have no part within him. What a lesson within love.
Read John 13:12-17
What’s the lesson on love we’re learned tonight? We can’t pick and choose the times and ways we’re going to serve our Lord when we have committed our lives to be servants of the cross. Real love demands a sacrifice and a cross. Thank you for allowing me to be with you here tonight, may God bless you, may he bless your walk with him as you discover more and more of his plan for your life.
