Foot Washing Forgiveness –Part One (John Part 41)
Text: John 13:1-17
Just a quick announcement before we begin this morning. There’s been some questions about whether or not we’re going to continue with the livestream after the Coronavirus pandemic ends, and the answer to that is – I don’t know. And I’ll tell you why that is… Each week, we post this on our Facebook page, and then many of you share it, and I guess you all get notifications about how many shares the video gets… and each week, we’re getting between 800 and 1000 shares. That’s potentially over 1,000 people each week who are hearing the Word of God being proclaimed… Which is mind boggling to me because there are so many great preachers out there that someone could be watching on a video… men like John MacArthur or Alistair Begg, Voddie Baucham, or videos from Ligonier or G3 Conferences… all of those dudes and those ministries are fantastic. But still, potentially a 1,000 people (maybe more), are hearing God’s Word… so that’s a reason we might keep it going.
But on the flip side… The Bible is very clear that the local Church is to gather together in one place in order to worship the Lord corporately as one unified Body of believers, we see that in Acts 2 where believers are meeting in homes, but then coming together as one Body in one place, and also in Acts 6 and in other places… We do that for corporate worship, for disciple making, we do that to keep watch over one another, over our lives, our doctrine, and our practices, we do that for the mutual edification and benefit of one another, and because we are a unified, local body, not a disconnected organism. So the one thing we don’t want to happen is for folks to say, “Oh I can just watch on Facebook and I’m good.” No… no, no! We are commanded to gather together to be this visible representation of the Body and Bride of Christ. There may come a time when we have to gather in smaller groups in homes, but thank God we haven’t reached that level of tyranny in Oklahoma yet.
So I ask you all to be praying about what we should do concerning our livestream going forward after the Covid-19 thing calms down, and continue to pray that God would bring revival and repentance from all of this as well… because as you all know, we’re going to see things like this happen from time to time, throughout our lifetimes, until Jesus comes. It may be 5 months down the road before the next crisis, it may be 5 years, but we’re going to see things like this happen again.
Ok… so that’s my announcement… let’s pray and go to God’s Word (Open with Prayer)
Well, we’re back in John’s Gospel this morning. And we’ve been in John for some time now, we paused to celebrate the Resurrection, but we’re back to it today, and we’ve come to chapter 13. And just an FYI – chapters 13 – 17 are what we call the Upper Room Discourse. In other words, this all takes place in the Upper Room between Jesus and His disciples. Jesus is going to spend a whole lot of time, giving His disciples some final instructions, because He’s about to be arrested, and crucified. So He wants them to really understand some things, and get a good grasp of what it means to be a Christian, how God is working in their lives, and what it’s going to mean to follow Him and serve Him. So let’s look at it, John chapter 13 verses 1 – 17 (READ John 13:1-17).
So the text begins by saying that Jesus knew His hour had come… In other words, Jesus knows that His earthly ministry is about to come to an end. He knows what lies ahead. He knows that He’s going to be betrayed by Judas, and that He’s going to go to the cross. John wants to make sure that as we read this, we understand that none of this took Jesus by surprise. This was His plan and purpose from the beginning… and when I say, “from the beginning”, I’m not only talking about the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry, but I’m talking about the beginning of time. The Bible tells us in Revelation 13:8 that Jesus is the Lamb slain before the foundations of the world. Ephesians 1:3-4 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…”
So before God created the heavens and the earth, before God made angels, or animals, or man; He had a plan to lay down His life for the elect. To give Himself for His people. And Jesus knew this… He knew it was drawing near that time… but there, also in verse 1, John writes that Jesus loved His own who were in the world, and He loved them till the end. What John is saying here in verse one of our text is that all of the things we’re about to read… all of the things that Jesus is going to say and do in the Upper Room before He gets arrested, are coming from a place of love. It’s almost like a parent instructing their kids.
If I can, let me give you an example: Before the girls went off to college, MJ and I really drilled down on some things. I mean the entire time we were raising them, we were loving them and teaching them but before they left for college there were certain things we really emphasized to them, because there were certain things we wanted them to understand better, or be aware of, or to put into practice more. Well that’s kind of what Jesus is doing here. He’s really bearing down on certain things, and He will do that for the next few chapters in this Upper Room Discourse. And the reason Jesus is doing that – John tells us – is because He loved His disciples.
So… from this place of love, look at what Jesus does: He rose up from supper, He laid aside His outer garments… in this time and place, and culture, men wear robes… they have this kind of outer robe. It’s usually long, with sleeves and open in the front. You can pull it closed and tie it with a belt, or leave it open, but it was your outer robe, or outer garment. You can still see men wear this today in the Middle East. That’s what Jesus took off. Then He took a towel and tied it around His waist, poured water into a big bowl, and began to wash the disciple’s feet and dry them with the towel.
Now why does Jesus do this? I mean… was He just sitting there and got a whiff of someone’s feet and said, “Man, we’ve got to do something about this – it’s ruining my appetite”? No… actually the Gospel of Luke gives us some insight into this. Luke 22:24-27 says, “A dispute also arose among them (meaning among the disciples), as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And He (that’s Jesus) said to them ‘The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I Am among you as the One who serves.’” So the disciples are sitting there squabbling about who’s the greatest, who’s the best. Who is going to have the most authority and power, the most prominent position, and Jesus is like, “You guys really don’t get it do you? You’re sitting there trying to jockey for a temporary position in a temporary world, and you’re missing the big picture of eternity!” They were so self-centered, and consumed with self-interest that they were missing the point, missing the mark, and missing the truth. Jesus said in Matthew 16:26, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and yet loses his own soul?” So this isn’t about getting everything you can in life… this is about loving others… remember – John’s tying in what Jesus is doing here with His love for the disciples.
So Jesus loves them, and is going to show them, what it means to stop being so self-centered, and to start focusing on others. Now at the same time, this isn’t some kind of woke, social justice garbage. It’s about the love of God, that is shed abroad in the heart of a believer, coming out in a tangible way… There’s a lot of people who do a lot of good things, but it’s not coming from a place of love. It’s coming from some other motive. But remember, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:3, “If I give away ALL I HAVE… but have not love, it amounts to nothing.”
So Jesus corrects their wrong thinking… that it’s not about gaining status or prominence, but it’s about putting the love of God into action. And He not only talks about it, He shows them how that looks. He starts washing their feet. And what’s really cool is that Jesus is going to take it even further, and teach them an even deeper spiritual truth with this.
Now again; it’s helpful to understand the historical, and cultural, and geographical context here.
These guys lived in a dusty place. A lot of the roads weren’t paved. There weren’t a lot of sidewalks. And they walked pretty much everywhere. Along roads, through fields… and they wore sandals. So what you’d do, is you’d get to where you were going, and you’d take off your sandals, and the owner of the house would have a servant wash your feet. It was a menial and lowly job, that the lowest servant on the totem pole would do. So what Jesus is doing here is performing the job of the lowest servant. And He comes to Peter, and Peter’s like “Woah! Hang on a second? Are you going to wash my feet Jesus!?” Now I don’t know about y’all, but I really can relate to Peter in this instance. I would be really bothered by that. I’d be bothered by anyone trying to wash my feet, but Jesus isn’t just anyone – He’s God in human flesh! He’s the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! And we can’t be too hard on Peter for his lack of understanding… All He had at this point was a flawed understanding of the Old Testament. He didn’t have the full revelation of Christ. He didn’t have the New Testament. He didn’t have the illumination of the Holy Spirit at this point. I mean… we who are Christians have all that, and there are times when we still struggle to understand and question what God is doing.
So Peter’s like, “No, no, no Jesus. You’re not my servant. You’re my Lord.” And I love what Jesus says to him in verse 7, He says, “Peter, you don’t understand it now, but you will later.” Man that’s every single Christian ever… every one of us… as we’re walking with Christ, we’re growing in our understanding of His will and His ways. As we spend time with Him through studying His Word, and through prayer, we’re getting to know Him better and better. Getting to know His will, and His ways. From the time we are born again, until the time we go to be with the Lord, God is working in our lives. He’s growing us in our walk and in our understanding. And there are times when we see tremendous growth and progress, and other times when that growth gets stunted by sin, or stubbornness, but even then, God is still working and conforming us to Christlikeness. That’s why we always want to be gracious to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We want to disciple them with gentleness and patience, because we need that too. Now I’m not saying we tolerate sin. The Bible is clear on that. We don’t tolerate sin, or wickedness, or false teaching and things like that. To tolerate sin is an unloving act. The Bible never says that we’re to do that. We’re to lovingly call people to repent of sin and trust in Jesus, so that they can escape the wrath to come. But what I’m talking about is the brother or sister who just isn’t where you are spiritually. They haven’t gotten to that point of understanding. They’re a Christian, but maybe they’re not as far along as the path as you are. So it’s good for us to remember that… but also we need to remember that we’re not as far along on the path as others.
Now a little while ago, I said to you that Jesus was not only showing the disciples love in action, but that He was going to teach them a deeper spiritual truth through all of this as well… and He does, but we’re not going to get to that today. We’ll address that next Sunday if the Lord allows.
So you’ll want to be here, or watch it on the livestream if that’s still going on. Ok???
So let me close with this. Jesus does what He does here because He loves His Church. He never does anything on a whim, or without a plan and a purpose and a reason. Even the hard things that He allows to come into our lives have a greater purpose. That’s why the Apostle Paul says in Romans 8:28 that, “… All things work together for good to those who love God, and are called according to His purpose.” And Jesus has shown the love of God by giving His life on the cross, so that we could be reconciled back to God, forgiven of our sin, and brought into a right standing with God forever. I pray this morning that you know that. That you have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb who was slain from the foundations of the earth. That you have been saved by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ. But if you’re here this morning, or watching online, and you do not know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I would love to talk to you about that. I’d love to share the Good News of God’s grace with you. So come by the Church, call, or talk to another Christian friend who can share that with you today
CLOSING
