Series: Being A Disciple [#3]
A DISCIPLE WASHES FEET
John 13:1-17
Introduction:
I am sure you already know this; but I am very competitive. I want to be the very best at what I do.
Matthew 23:11-12
This week, we are going to look at a story about the Disciples and Jesus in John 13. Here we find Jesus and the disciples at the Last Supper. It was going to be just a few days before Jesus was going to be crucified. In Luke, we found out that they were having a discussion, actually an argument. Guess what they were arguing about? They were arguing about who was the greatest. This week we are going to find out that a disciple of Jesus washes feet.
John 13:1-4
We need to catch what is going on here. The key word is “so”. Jesus knew when He was going to die. He knew when His hour was up. In about 2 days, He was going to be tortured and crucified. Jesus knew that Judas Iscariot was going to betray Him. Jesus knew that He was the Son of God. He knew that God had given Him all the power.
Jesus did exactly what He came to do- Served. Jesus took off His outer garment, grabbed a towel, and put it around His waist. In the 1st Century Jewish culture, other people that would wear similar type of clothing, a towel, some kind of garment that they could use to clean, were slaves, servants. So, here’s Jesus putting on a towel in such a way as a slave would do, and the Disciples are in the room thinking, “What is going on?” Jesus was doing this outward reminder of an inward truth that “I am here to serve.”
How about you? Why are we here at Bel Aire Baptist Church? Are you here to serve, or are you here to be served? Be honest. Are you here to really be a part of what God is doing in people’s lives every week here, or is it sort of a spiritual consumer idea where you get in, listen to the message, and then you are on with life? Or are you more of a spiritual contributor that when the sermon is over, you begin to serve those around you? You begin to have the heart of Christ to serve.
John 13:5-17
To wash feet is not something that everyone was jumping up to do, (especially in this time). Who was the kind of people that would wash feet? Some hosts would wash the feet of guests; but usually it would be a Gentile servant- The lowest of the low. The Disciples knew what this task was and who usually performed this task. The fact that Jesus was doing this was shocking to them.
Now, take that principle and plug it into the contents of your life. How is God asking you to serve others? How can you be sure that you have the same heart as Jesus did on that night when He washed the disciples’ feet?
Ask yourself these 3 questions to determine if you have the same heart that Christ did when He served.
1. What is your motivation?
Jesus was motivated by love.
2. What is the need in front of you?
Not what you are planning to do next week or the volunteering you signed up for. Jesus had a huge thing coming up. In 2 days, Jesus knew that He was going to suffer like no other and be crucified. I mean, this is the greatest act of service and humility that has ever been seen in the world, and yet, in the middle of that kind of knowledge, He looks at the need in front of Him. You’ve got to ask yourself, what’s the need in front of you?
3. What do you have to give?
Remember Peter and what he went through in that upper room during the foot washing, and then later, we find him preaching that Jesus has risen from the dead, that He is the Messiah. We see him walking in Jerusalem, and he’s going to the temple during an hour of prayer, and he sees a beggar on the side of the road and the beggar is asking him for money, and he hasn’t walked since birth, and Peter looks at him, and says, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
What do you have to give? Is it time? Is it an ear to listen to someone’s problems? When Jesus washed the Disciples’ feet, it was not some task that He was trained to do. He was not gifted in foot washing. This was the task that fit the need at hand. What do you have to give?
Conclusion:
Jesus used a basin to wash the Disciple’ feet; but there was another basin used shortly after that. When Pontius Pilate was going to release Jesus to them, the people were screaming, “Crucify Him, crucify Him, crucify Him.” Pilate’s reaction was to take a basin of water and wash his hands clean of this crucifixion.
We all have a basin of water in front of us and you have 2 choices in how to handle it.
* You can take the basin of water and say, “I wash my hands of this. I don’t have anything to do with it. I don’t want to have anything to do with this kind of being a disciple and what that means.”
* You can take that basin of water, and you can kneel down and wash feet. You can serve just like Jesus did.
Mark 10:45
