Text: John 13:1-17, Title: Sweaty Devotion, Date/Place: NRBC, 3/17/13, AM
A. Opening illustration: Cleaning up my dog’s vomit, maybe even having Buddy come in on the stage with me.
B. Background to passage: The public ministry in the sense of preaching, teaching, and miracles in over. From
chapters 13-17 his ministry is private.
C. Main thought:
Last Passover (v. 1)
1. This is the last divinely sanctioned Passover. The death angel would be assuaged no more. The blood
would be received no more upon the altar as an acceptance for the payment for the sin of the people under
the first covenant. The first covenant was over, new one was renewed
2. Argumentation
3. Illustration:
4. Application
A.
B. Truly Great Love (v. 1)
1. John records this whole
episode to demonstrate the love that Jesus had for them. He doesn’t even mention
the elements of what we know as the last or Lord’s Supper. The whole point was to show their Lord and
Master stooping down below the level of a hired hand to do the job that they would have never done.
Jewish slaves couldn’t even be required to do this task, only gentiles. John says that He loved them to the
very end, which was the cross. This was probably the most powerful display of devotion and love that
could have been shown at this time, maybe with the exception of the cross. “…both the foot washing and
the atoning death are supreme displays of Jesus’ love for his own. The foot washing was shocking to the
disciples, but not half as shocking as the notion of a Messiah who would die the heinous and shameful
death of crucifixion, the death of the damned.” –Carson.
2. Rom 8:38-39
3. Illustration: Jewish love story of Joseph and Asenath where a wife desired to wash her husband’s feet,
and when he argued that she would not be demeaned as such and sends for a servant girl, she said, “No,
my Lord, because you are my lord from now on and I am your maidservant. For your feet are my feet,
and your hands are my hands…another woman will never wash your feet.” There was a famous Rabbi
Ishmael whose mother took it to the Jewish high court to win the honor to wash her son’s feet because he
refused to degrade her in that manner,
4. Here he was laying down his dignity for them, soon he would lay down his very life. No greater love
than this than a man lay down His life for His friends. This is a demonstration of the lengths to which he
would go for his disciples. This demonstrates his commitment to us. We are never to doubt his care for
us. No matter how bleak the valley is, or how hard the trial gets, or how dark the blackness is, nothing can
separate you from His love.
C. Satanic Influence (v. 2)
1. Here we see a truth that
is widely overused. “The devil made me do it.” It is evident from this text that
Satan and/or his minions can have influence upon an individual to varying degrees. This text is not
enough to provide us with a full explanation of the extent of Satan’s power to affect or our power to resist.
It would be fun in a message to dive into the depths of this question. And these circumstances may be
special, and also may be most helpful because we might have the most revelation about them.
2. Argumentation
3. Illustration: Charlie Daniels wrote a song one time that the kids suggested that we use as a theme for VBS
4. In brief, without erring to the extreme, here is what we can say: Satan desired to have Jesus betrayed
and he prodded Judas to do it. However, we know that Jesus said that it would be better if the man who
would betray him had never been born. We know that Judas made the decision to betray, and later felt
guilty, even to the point of suicide, having caused the arrest and death of the Son of God. Humans are
responsible for their own sin, and they can be used of a satanic strategy as well, but it is not as though it is
against their will.
D.
Divine Authority (v. 3)
1. John tells us that Jesus knew where he came from and where he was going, and that God had given all
things over into His hands. This was John’s preface to the foot washing. Before all that goes on the in
the next 10-20 minutes, in fact, before all that goes on in the next 10-20 hours, remember you are dealing
with the man who calms the raging seas, causes the blind to see, and raises the dead to life—all things
have been committed to his hands. Only what Christ determines will happen will happen, nothing more,
nothing less. That puts another angle on the one Judas/Satan thing, huh?
2. John 19:10-11
3. Illustration: “man is responsible. God is sovereign. believe both, and you can wake up in the morning w/
purpose & go to bed at night w/ peace.” –Matt Papa
4. Now, imagine orchestrating your own death. These chapters begin the last few day of Jesus’ life, which
are the most significant, and the reason for which He came; and they have been committed to His hands.
Sometimes we pay lip service to the idea of God’s sovereignty in our lives when we actually picture Him
as a hurried deity hoping and manipulating, biting His fingernails, straining, with a worried look on His
face, waiting to see how it will turn out. The reason that he can slowly, deliberately rise, take a towel,
and calmly go about the purposeful task of demonstrating his care for His disciples is that He is in control
of all things. And he is in control of all things in your life. That unforeseen occurrence this week didn’t
catch Him by surprise. He never lost His grip on the world this week for a moment. He made Pope
Francis the pope for a reason, and held onto me as I had a seizure on Monday morning. All things are in
his hands, from his death to a sparrow that falls to a hair that turns white or black to a baby’s first cry.
E. Lowly Service (v. 4-7)
1. Washing the dirty, dusty
feet of men who had just walked the festival swollen streets of Jerusalem was
one of the nastiest duties one could perform. This was much the point. The point was not so much feet
being washed, but who they were being washed by. Jesus, the Lord of Glory, bent down on his hands and
knees with a towel and a basin, and washed nasty feet. This would have been shocking to the disciples.
This would have been shocking to the first century audience as they heard it read to them. Only in rare
instances among peers is anything like this ever recorded in the ancient world and only for demonstrations
of extreme love and devotion, but NEVER is it ever attested to of a superior toward an inferior. This is the
only known instance in the ancient world.
2. Phil 2:6-8,
3. Illustration: tell the story of Robert McQuilken’s wife getting progressively sick while he was the
president of Columbia Bible College and Seminary, and the counsel he received to put her in a home, and
the response that he gave—“It is all more than keeping promises and being fair, however. As I watch her
brave descent into oblivion, Muriel is the joy of my life. Daily I discern new manifestations of the kind of
person she is, the wife I always loved. I also see fresh manifestations of God's love - the God I long to love
more fully.”
4. There is nothing beneath us. There is nothing too low for us. We are not too important for any task. We
don’t need to find servants to do things for us. Can you imagine Jesus’ knees on the mud stone sandy
floor. Can you imagine what the disciples must have been thinking. More on this in a minute
F. Humble Arrogance (v. 8-10)
1. Peter got the shock. He couldn’t
believe it. This is what all the hearers would have been feeling. “Jesus,
what are you doing? Are you crazy!” Jesus even explains in his gentle fashion that he would understand it
better by and by when the morning comes. But that wasn’t good enough for Peter. So he yanked his feet
away.
2. Argumentation
3. Illustration: “Peter is humble enough to see the incongruity of Christ’s action, yet proud enough to dictate
to his Master.” the person using the Rant and Raves to wish the Rant and Raves would go away,
4. Word of application here: if you are sure that Jesus is doing something in your life, even if you don’t
understand why, please resist the temptation to tell him how to do it. He is God, he is fully capable of
supervising your life and that of the entire universe. How arrogant are we to instruct God?
G.
Eternal Inheritance (v. 8-10)
1. Jesus’ answer here gives us three truths. First is that this act of devotion carries with it a great deal of
symbolism. It symbolizes the washing of our souls with the blood of Christ. Secondly, Jesus clarifies that
if we are not washed with him, we have no “part with him.” The language used is that of “inheritance.”
Jesus is letting Peter and the others know when they are washed in him, their inheritance is secure in him.
Thirdly, once they are washed in Christ, there is no need to overkill. Once your faith is in Him, you are
totally clean.
2. Argumentation
3. Illustration:
4. You must be washed in the blood of Christ. There is a fountain that flows from Immanuel’s veins by
which you must be plunged into by faith if you want an eternal inheritance. There is no other way. Pope
Francis can’t get you there. I can’t get you there. Your grandmother can’t get you there. It’s Christ, and
Christ alone. And once you are clean in Him, you are always clean! But you gotta get the ‘once clean’
part right—think with me about the exception. Imagine what it would have been like for Jesus to wash the
feet of Judas. From Judas’ perspective. From Jesus’ perspective. We are called to love and be devoted to
our enemies, even to the ones that will bring us to our deaths.
H. Desire to Serve (v. 12-17)
1. So here Jesus gives the
meaning of this display. I, your Teacher and Lord, stoop down, wash your feet,
and give you an example. Go and do likewise. A servant is not greater than his Master. You are not
greater than the One who sent you. You ought to wash each other’s feet. You will be happy, blessed by
God if you do. fortunate or happy because of circumstances, fortunate, happy1 If you serve others.
2. Gal 5:13-14, Mar 10:43-45, Rom 15:2, 2 Cor 4:5, 1 John 3:16-18
3. Illustration: the college class doing a foot washing, but choosing siblings so it wouldn’t be too gross,
4. We must remember that it is not about the rite. All the commentators that I read felt like Jesus was
not establishing an ordinance like baptism or communion. He was establishing a principle. He was
establishing an attitude. He was upping the ante for Christian love. He was teaching the inner attitude,
with which the outward expression is meaningless without. How have you served this week? How have
you served today?
Closing illustration:
Recap
Invitation to commitment
A.
B.
C.
Additional Notes
We blink and wince and then ask. “Is this what grace is all about? How can a loving God expect us to go through
all of this?” Author James Packer writes: “Grace is God drawing sinners closer and closer to him. How does God
in grace prosecute this purpose? Not by shielding us from assault by the work, the flesh, and the devil, nor by
protecting us from burdensome and frustrating circumstance, not yet by shielding us from troubles created by our
own temperament and psychology, but rather by exposing us to all these things, so as to overwhelm us with a
sense of our own inadequacy, and to drive us to cling to him more closely. This is the ultimate reason, from our
standpoint, why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities of one sort and another -- it is to ensure that we
shall learn to hold him fast. The reason why the Bible spends so much of its time reiterating that God is a strong
rock, a firm defense, and a sure refuge and help for the weak is that God spends so much of his time showing us
that we are weak, both mentally and morally, and dare not trust ourselves to find or follow the right road. When
we walk along a clear road feeling fine, and someone takes our arm to help us, likely we would impatiently shake
him off; but when we are caught in rough country in the dark, with a storm brewing and our strength spent, and
someone takes our arm to help us, we would thankfully lean on him. And God wants us to feel that our way
Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early
Christian literature (3rd ed.) (610). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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through life is rough and perplexing, so that we may learn to lean on him thankfully. Therefore he takes steps to
drive us out of self-confidence to trust in himself, to -- in the classic scriptural phrase for the secret of the godly
man’s life -- ‘wait on the Lord’.” (James Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986
