Show Me the Savior
CCCAG September 16th, 2018
Scripture- John 13:1-17
Intro:
Well here we are. With the exception of a brief detour into the Imagine Series we have been in the Gospel of John since January of this year.
John chapter 13 is the center break within the gospel of John. Chapters 1 through 12 dealt with the three year gospel ministry and life with Jesus Christ on this earth but now John turns a microscope into the final 24 hours of Jesus’s life.
Over the last 18 months, Jesus has alluded to the fact that he was going to be dying on a cross. Jesus would be dropping hints all the time, seemingly out of nowhere but every time he did it he had a purpose to prepare those who are following him for his eventual death.
So here we are, the cross is looming. Its shadow is Being cast larger than it ever has before. Jesus knows his time is very short. He is going to the cross. He is going to die substitutionary death to pay for our sins.
His relationship with these 12 men is going to change from a face to face, living a life before them type of relationship and be changed into a life of faith in what he has taught them up until this point.
Jesus is going to wisely use these last hours of face to face contact with these men and he is going to spend these hours summarizing the last 3 years and bringing it all together.
No more parables , no more allusions, no more examples. This is the end and Jesus has to get his last bit of teaching into them before his relationship with them changes forever.
That is what John chapter 13 through chapter 17 is all about.
Make no mistake Jesus words and more importantly his actions during this time are very very deliberate and very very thought out so it is no mistake that he begins with this example of washing his disciples feet.
That is what we're going to be looking at this morning.
Why did Jesus use these precious moments of the few hours he had left to give his friends a bath?
From our modern-day way of looking at things you would think HE would have a white board up and he would be outlining the last bit of theology or the last little bit of gospel planning (compass directions for the apostles) that he's going to want his followers to do after his death.
Or you would think you would be gathering them in a prayer meeting and preparing them for the dark moments ahead.
But he doesn't do any of that. God's ways are not our ways, amen?
Prayer
So let's explore Jesus’ actions here and see what they meant and how we can apply them to how we live our lives today.
The first thing John 13:1-20 teaches us is that-
I. Jesus shows us before telling us
From about 1921 until his death in 1955, Albert Einstein Was a professor of theoretical physics at Princeton University. Everyone knows who Albert Einstein Was. When it comes to the realm of physics, he had one of the greatest minds that has ever existed. His Theory of General Relativity summarized as E=MC2 opened the door to our modern understanding of everything from space travel to our ability to harness nuclear power both militarily and as a power source for electricity.
Within the University system you have graduate students and PHD candidates who would be teaching the undergraduate courses as part of their work toward earning their advanced degrees. One of these students was teaching in elementary 101 course in physics to some undergraduate students as part of their required electives. Everything was going well until the student instructor saw Professor Einstein enter into the back and take a seat to watch him teach. The student teacher immediately changed his style taking it from a very basic physics course and started teaching it at a doctoral level in order to impress Einstein.
People who witnessed this event said you could see the eyes of the students glaze over and they stop taking notes because they had no idea what the student instructor was trying to teach them because he hadn't even gone through the basics yet.
At the end of the lecture the student instructor asked if there were any questions from the class. In the back of the room Albert Einstein raised his hand.
Now imagine how nerve wracking that would be- Albert Einstein the father of modern physics is auditing your class and listening to you teach, and now is raising his hand to ask you a physics question.
The student instructor recognized Albert Einstein who stood up and walked to the front of the room and asked for the chalk that the student instructor was holding and in 2 and a half minutes of writing on the blackboard summarized everything in a way that everyone could easily understand what the student instructor had spent the last 90 minutes trying to teach.
That's the sign of a truly gifted teacher.
Jesus has been teaching Christian theory to his disciples for the last 3 years. They have heard the parables, they have seen the miracles, and they have witnessed his character first hand.
But they still didn't get it. They had no more understanding of what the Kingdom of God really was now after 3 years then they did when Jesus first called them.
So it's time for an object lesson.
John 13:1-2 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
I have to be honest with you. When I was downloading this video and putting it into a video editing program to prepare it for this morning service and I was watching the actor playing the role of Jesus actually taking his clothes off until all that was left was this essentially his underwear, it made me a little uncomfortable. In my mind when I think about Jesus I'm not thinking of him so much as a servant as I am thinking about him from the Revelation 19 aspect-
A mighty king riding in on a white horse conquering the enemy and being King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s. That’s usually how I view Jesus.
Intellectually I know that he was our suffering servant.
I know and have largely memorized much of Isaiah 53 so then I knew that he was wounded for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities the punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed. I knew that from an intellectual standpoint and I could quote the scriptures, but to actually see it was another thing entirely.
Back to the question- why did Jesus choose to take the last few hours he had with the men who would be responsible for spreading his gospel message throughout the entire earth and use some of that time to wash their feet?
Because the disciples were people just like you and me. These men were the same kind of people that live right here in Trempealeau County. The people of the first century are very similar to the people of the 21st century in this aspect-
You can tell me about Jesus all you want but I need you to show me HIM in practice.
Over the last 4 years of being the pastor of this church I said many times how the most humble and even humiliating job a servant could do in the first century was washing feet. Yet, Jesus used this example to summarize his teaching that had been going on for a little over 3 years.
Jesus washing feet was the visual example of the beginning of his greatest sermon in Matthew chapter 5 through 7 called the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus began that incredible sermon with these words
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
What Jesus was showing them is physically demonstrating what He is about to do spiritually on the cross.
Jesus is actions are speaking loudly here and saying-
“I am going to take all the filth that you have walked through in life and wash it away. Every evil place your feet has taken you into I am going to cleanse it through my blood which is going to rundown Calvary’s cross.”
Paul describes it like this in Philippian’s 2?
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
You see you can tell some people about the gospel, But most people you're gonna have to show them the gospel.
You can hand a homeless person a Bible tract, but it's better to buy him a meal and sit down with him and share it and talk with him get to know them and see what you can do to help them.
We can all come to church on Sunday and we can worship, we can study we can discuss, and we can listen to a sermon but come Monday morning are you willing to live everything you have learned on Sunday?
You see this is a question that the world is posing to the church right now. They may not be asking you directly but they're telling us it through their lack of wanting to be here.
Jesus is showing us the gospel way right here. This is how we win the Lost in these last days and it all has to do with going back to the beginning in doing what Jesus told us to do in the 1st place.
I do want to warn you though, some people are going to be suspicious of your good works. They are going to assume there's an agenda behind it. That's why it's important not to do it to try to earn a goal in seeing them be saved. Our goal in serving others is because Jesus is our Lord and we serve others as he has served us.
Jesus saw that resistance here
II. People will resist (verse 6-9)
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”
10 Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.”
Let me break this down for you
A. Peter’s Pride
You see the number one reason that people don't want to accept Christ as their savior isn't as much disbelief or honest questions about the veracity inaccuracy of the bible. They might use that as an excuse not to come to Christ but that's not the central issue.
The central issue is their pride. They see no reason to humble themselves and admit that they were wrong. The love of sin has a lot to do with blinding people that way but at the end of the day it's their pride. That's what's driving Peter here
Peter is sitting there in the upper room in front of all of the other disciples thinking “But Jesus, I'm the rock you're building your church on. These men all look up to me and are ready to follow me and I can't make myself to look like I'm on the same level as they are. I can't let you diminish me in front of them.”
Jesus had to throw down ultimatum- You better let me do this or you aren’t with me anymore. So Peter switches tactics
B. Peter wanting it on his terms
Peter said (paraphrasing), “Look I'll let you wash my feet but you and I are going to have to go in another room and you're going to watch every part of me then. If you're going to wash some part of me you’re going to do all of me and we're not going to do that in front of everybody.
That's a second point of resistance that you will see among those who have never truly accepted Jesus Christ. They will say if I come to God I'm going to do it my way.
And that is one of the fastest growing heresies that we see in our day today. It's the lie that says all roads lead to God and it's up to each person to find the path that they want to take.
But Jesus doesn't leave that door open for us. If you are going to claim to be a Christian then you need to follow the Christ and what he has said.
He specifically tells Peter he has to be the one to do the cleaning.
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
Jesus is saying here “Peter if you're going to accept me as your Savior then you're going to accept me as your Lord. As your Lord I'm telling you that I'm the one that's going to be doing the cleaning here.”
It's not your will it's my will.
And this is the point that rubs against many people in our world today. They simply don't want to except lordship.
They don't want to admit to a power higher than their own intellect.
They don't want to follow rules that they haven't created in their own minds that match their own wants and desires.
They don't want to follow a system that tells them that their favorite thing to do isn't the right thing to do.
It's all about pride.
Before we go on to the next subpoint here I just want to point out that Peter did learn his lesson and he learned it well.
In the book of acts chapter 3 and 4, Peter and John are at the temple and they see lame man. Peter miraculously heals him through the power of Jesus. All the religious leaders gather and ask him by whose authority that he healed this man?
Peter launches into a sermon and he summarizes Jesus’ insistence in showing Peter that Jesus is the one responsible for cleansing-
Peter says
11 Jesus is
“ ‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’ k
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
This isn't my way, this isn't your way, this isn't the most popular way; this is the only way in which people can be saved and that is through accepting the lordship of Jesus Christ and becoming his disciple.
Amen?
Let’s bring this to the application. How do we live what Jesus is teaching us here-
III. We show Christ through doing what He did (vs 14-17)
Several years ago, an actor named Cubing Gooding Jr played a professional football player and won the Academy Award for best supporting actor in the film Jerry Maguire. His signature line in that movie to guide his agent in negotiating the best terms for him regarding his career-
“Show me the money”
Earlier in the message I said that the world is tired of hearing us talk about Jesus.
The world is telling us “Show me the savior”
They want to see him.
They want to see him and how we live our lives .
They want to see him and how we treat other people
They want to see him and how we lift up the poor
They want to see Jesus and how we provide for the needy
They want to see Jesus and how we break the shackles of the oppressed
They want to see Jesus in us as we feed the hungry
And most of all they are begging to see Jesus in us in how we treat each other in the church
The world is crying and I would say even spiritually begging for the church in America to show them the savior.
Let's all rise
Is that your prayer today? If so, lift up your hands and then lift up a name of someone who needs to see Jesus through you this morning.
Show me the savior
Conclusion
Altar Call
