Series: God’s Best for One Another
Part 3: Looking Out for One Another
John 13:1-17, Gal 6:1-2, James 5:16-18, 1 Thess 4:13-18
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - Sept. 13, 2009
BACKGROUND:
*Does God care how we treat one another in His church? -- He most certainly does. We know this because He talks about it over 60 times in His Word.
*Last week we looked at some definite don’ts, -- things God doesn’t want us to do to one another. And we started this series by looking at the crux of how we should treat each other: It’s the Lord’s command to love one another with His kind of unconditional love.
*Today our focus is on looking out for one another. And our first Scripture takes place on the night before the cross, just before Jesus gave us the command to love one another. Let’s begin by reading John 13:1-17.
INTRODUCTION:
*Have you seen any selfishness in other people this week? -- Sometimes all I have to do to see selfishness is look in the mirror.
*This little poem describes how we are sometimes:
I had a little tea party
This afternoon at three.
‘Twas very small –
Three guests in all –
Just I, Myself and Me
Myself ate all the sandwiches
While I drank up the tea;
‘Twas also I who ate the pie
And passed the cake to me. (1)
*We live in a very self-centered world, but God doesn’t want us to be selfish like that. Jesus wants His followers to look out for one another, and today’s Scriptures show us how.
1. First: Serve one another.
*Jesus Christ is our greatest example of humble service, and we see the Lord at work here in vs. 3-5:
3. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God,
4. rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.
5. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
*The King of kings stooped to wash His follower’s feet!
*Eric Ritz explained that “in the holy lands, feet were coated with dust because of the dry environment. When it did rain, feet and toes were caked with mud.
-Remember, the Jews wore sandals not Florsheim shoes.
-Remember, the streets were traveled by beasts of burden, not Buicks, so you can imagine the raw sewage lying around everywhere.
-There were no street cleaners or garbage pick-ups, so you can imagine the filth and dirt which would have accumulated on their feet!
*Because of this, in every house there was a copper urn and basin with a pitcher by the door to wash the feet of those who entered. (2)
*Angela Akers tells us that in Jesus’ day the washing of feet was a task reserved not just for servants. This job was given to the lowest of servants. (3)
-But the King of all creation stooped down that night to wash His follower’s feet!
*Jesus showed His followers how to look out for one another. Then in vs. 12-15, He began to teach them:
12. So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?
13. You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am.
14. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
15. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.”
*The Lord wants us to follow His example of humble service to one another.
-Does this mean that we are supposed to wash each other’s feet? -- Missionary Doug Meland and his wife would say, “Maybe.”
*The Melands were Bible translators among the Fulnio Indians in Brazil. When Doug first got there, he was simply known as “the white man.” That was not a compliment, because the only white men those natives knew had burned their homes, and robbed them of their lands.
*But after the Melands learned their language and began to help the people with medicine and in other ways, they began calling Doug “the respectable white man.” And when the Melands began adopting the customs of the people, the tribe began to call Doug “the white Indian.”
*Then one day, Doug began to wash the dirty, blood-caked foot of an injured Indian boy. And he overheard a tribesman say, “Whoever heard of a white man washing an Indian’s foot before? -- Surely this man is from God!”
-From that day on, whenever Doug would go into an Indian home, they would say, “Here comes the man God sent to us.” (4)
*Christian, God may never ask you to wash a dirty foot. But He certainly wants you to have a servant heart, because it will bring glory to God and lost people to Jesus. The Lord wants us to follow His example of humble service to one another, intentionally and willingly putting ourselves under one another.
*God’s Word is clear on this. For example in Eph 5:18-21, Paul tells believers:
18. Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,
19. speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,
20. giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
21. submitting to one another in the fear of God.
*1 Peter 5:5 says, “You younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’”
*The meaning is for us to voluntarily put ourselves under the control of one another. That’s kind of scary. And it will never work, unless we love one another. So Gal 5:13 in the New Living Translation tells believers: “You have been called to live in freedom -- not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love.”
*Jesus wants His followers to look out for one another. How can we do that? -- Serve one another.
2. But we also need to bear one another’s burdens.
*God wants us to bear one another’s burdens. We see this truth in Gal 6:1-2, where Paul said:
1. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.
2. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
*In vs. 2, Paul is talking about the law of love in John 13:34&35. There Jesus said:
34. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
*The only way that we can fully obey the law of love is to bear one another’s burdens. The word picture is for us to take those burdens up with our hands to carry them away. This takes kindness and love, but sometimes it also takes forgiveness and mercy, because Gal 6:1 reminds us that Christians can be overtaken in sins and failures.
*Paul is not talking about a sinner being caught by other people. He is talking about a believer being caught by sin. That could be you. And it could be me.
*So what are the rest of us supposed to do? -- Paul says: “You who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.” God wants us to “restore” them. It means to mend or repair or strengthen or supply.
*The word picture is a medical term having to do with a dislocated joint.
-So, what you have here is a dislocated member of the spiritual body.
-And I have never had a dislocated joint, but it hurts to even think about having a shoulder or hip ripped out of place!
*Restoration can be a painful process, but God wants us to forgive.
-The Lord wants us to gently help the person to repent, and find the forgiveness that God wants to give.
*But why should we forgive? Why should we bear one another’s burdens?
-Because we have been forgiven!
-Because someone else bore our burdens on the cross! Jesus Christ took our stripes. He carried our cross to Calvary. He took all the weight of all our sin.
*Now the Lord wants us to bear each other’s burdens. And this burden bearing is necessary, because all of us will have burdens to bear. All of us will have sorrow and pain from time to time, and God doesn’t want you to go through it alone. As time goes by, you will bear burdens for others, and they will bear burdens for you
*The Lord wants His followers to bear one another’s burdens.
3. And He wants us to confess to one another.
*God’s Word gives this command in James 5:16, which begins by saying, “Confess your trespasses to one another. . .”
*James is not necessarily talking about public confession. First of all we should confess to God. But who else should hear our confession?
*Here is part of Charles Finney’s explanation:
[1] (We should confess) to those especially who have been injured by our faults. That we are under obligation to confess to them, and make what reparation is in our power, is too plain to need comment.
[2] Public sins are to be confessed to the public. By this I mean, that if sins have been injurious to the public, to the Church, or to the world, or to both, the confession should be as public as the injury.
[3] But especially does this text require confession to our praying friends. James intended to (instruct) the duty of confessing our faults to praying friends, for the purpose of enlisting their sympathies and prayers in our behalf. (5)
*This means we should confess to someone we are close to, someone we can trust, an accountability partner. We ought to be able to say, “I’ve got a problem. Will you pray for me? Will you help me do better?”
*Confession is good for the soul, but it can be a challenge, because we have to be willing to listen to each other, and we need to listen with a compassionate heart. We also need to be able to keep some things in confidence.
*Sometimes we are like this 4-year-old girl named Lindsey. One day they were hiding a birthday present for someone else, and Lindsey’s grandmother didn’t want the secret to get out.
*So Grandma Margie asked Lindsey if she could keep a secret. Lindsey replied, “Oh yes, Grandma, I can! -- But sometimes the people I tell the secret to can’t.” (6)
*There’s a lot of that going around, and it makes it harder for us to trust each other. But God wants us to love one another enough to bear the burden of confession. So He tells us, “Confess your trespasses to one another.”
4. He also tells us to pray for one another.
*We also see this command in James 5:16. Listen to the whole verse: “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
*God surely wants us to pray for one another. In this case James tells us to pray for healing. It is not always God’s will to heal. This world is not our home. But many times God does heal. And we can always be comfortable asking Him to heal, because that’s what He tells us to do right here. One thing for sure: It is God’s will to answer prayer, at the right time in the right way, so we should pray!
*And we should pray with great energy. The words “effective, fervent” in vs. 16 come from one Greek word. It’s the word that gave us the English word “energy.” So James is telling us to have energized prayer.
-This is the kind of praying that you usually do by yourself. It’s the kind of prayer that James talks about in vs. 17-18:
17. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
18. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
*We see Elijah praying this prayer for rain in 1 Kings 18:42-45:
42. So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees,
43. and said to his servant, "Go up now, look toward the sea." So he went up and looked, and said, "There is nothing." And seven times he said, "Go again."
44. Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said, "There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!" So he said, "Go up, say to Ahab, ’Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.’ "
45. Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel.
*Vs. 42 tells us that when Elijah prayed, “he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees.” Jack Hayford and some other preachers say that Elijah was in the same squatting position that the Hebrew women used when giving birth. Exodus 1:15-16 mentions the birthing stools they used.
*I’m not certain about Elijah’s position in prayer, but I am certain about his passion in prayer. He certainly prayed with the same kind of energy women have when they are having babies.
-It’s the kind of passion that the Apostle Paul had for the church in Gal 4:19. There Paul said: “I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.”
*I had the privilege of being present at the birth of my three children, and Mary decided to have natural childbirth for the first two. Now it was exciting for me, but she was a whole lot more than excited! She was energized! She wanted those babies to come!
*James tells us to pray with that kind of passion, and we can, but only by the grace of God. The last part of vs. 16 says: “The effective, fervent prayer of a RIGHTEOUS man avails much.”
*This statement might make us lose hope in praying, because as we honestly examine our lives, we can see faults and failures. But James is not saying that only the prayers of perfect people get answered. If that were case, he wouldn’t have asked us to confess our faults in the very same verse.
*The only real righteousness we ever have is the righteousness we receive from Jesus Christ. I love the way the Lord put it in Jeremiah 23:
5. “Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
6. In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
*God surely wants us to pray for one another, and so He made a way. Jesus is the way! Through His cross, He is “the Lord, our righteousness.” So we can surely pray for one another, and that’s what the Lord wants us to do.
5. But He also wants us to comfort one another.
*God wants us to help those who are hurting. He wants us to share comforting words about our hope in Christ. This is the message of 1 Thess 4:13-18, where Paul said:
13. I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
15. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
16. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
18. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
*Comfort one another with these words of hope. Christians, sometimes we will hurt. But we have hope!
*People can’t make it without hope. Listen to the “Rule of Threes” from an instructor for the Air Force Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape Unit.
-The Rule of Threes: “You can survive 3 weeks without food; 3 days without water; 3 hours without shelter; 3 minutes without air, -- but you cannot survive three seconds without hope.” (7)
*People can’t make it without hope. But we have hope! We have the only real hope for the world, because we have the good news about Jesus Christ.
-We believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins!
-We believe that He took the punishment for every single one of our sins.
-We believe that Jesus rose from the dead, conquering death forever for all who will trust in Him.
-We believe that Jesus is coming again with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
-Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
*God wants us to “comfort one another with these words.”
-And He wants us to share our hope with everyone we possibly can.
-I can’t think of a better way to follow the Lord’s command to love one another.
*Today’s Scriptures show us that Jesus wants us to look out for one another.
-Wash one another’s feet.
-Submit to one another in the fear of God.
-Serve one another in love.
-Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
-Confess your trespasses to one another.
-Pray for one another, that you may be healed.
-And comfort one another with words of our hope in Christ.
*Christians, there is no doubt that God wants us to look out for one another.
-And we can do it! -- Let’s ask for His help right now.
1. SermonCentral sermon “Commitment to the Lost” by Steve Shepherd - Matt 18:12-14
2. Adapted from ChristianGlobe.com sermon “The Messiah Who Cares about Feet” by Eric Ritz - John 13:1-17
3. ChristianGlobe.com sermon “The Servant-king” by Angela Akers - John 13:1-17
4. By James C. Hefley - SermonCentral illustration contributed by Eric Peloquin
5. Adapted from “The Oberlin Evangelist” - Nov. 4, 1840 - Professor Charles G. Finney’s Lectures - LECTURE XXI - “CONFESSION OF FAULTS” - James 5:16 - www.gospeltruth.net/1840OE/401104_fault_confession.htm
6. Today’s Christian, November/December 2007, p.15 - (Found in “In Other Words” - February 2008 #3 by Dr. Raymond McHenry, - 6130 Barrington ~ Beaumont, Texas 77706 (800) 553-4697 www.iows.net)
7. Online sermon “Christmas and Covenant” by Rodney Buchanan - Luke 1 68-79 - 12/10/06
