Let's start off today talking about Wi-Fi connections. With a good signal, we feel like the world is at our fingertips. We can digitally go anywhere. Unfortunately, we don't always have that good connection. It is frustrating to say the least.
We might feel like a Wi-Fi connection is important, but a connection to Jesus is critical. Thankfully, Jesus makes that connection possible, and He makes the connection strong.
On Wednesday nights we have started a study on the Gospel of John. As I was reading through the book of John, I found that in chapters 13 through 16, Jesus shared a last meal with His disciples before His arrest and crucifixion. In that setting, Jesus gave them, and us, a gold mine of truth about humility, faithfulness, power, love, and victory. All of these are things that we can experience as we look to Jesus and choose to live our lives fully connected to Him. That is the direction I plan on going in the next few weeks.
Several of the ladies here have formed somewhat of a book club where they pass books back and forth between one another. They become connected as they share the stories that they read.
I'm not sure that men would get involved in something like this. If they did, they would probably read books about war and battles and things like that. There are a lot of books written about medieval times and battles. King Arthur and the knights of the round table and other books about kings, swords, and medieval battles. In most of these stories, strong kings crush the weak ones. The fastest blade wins. The frail ends up serving the stronger.
Even though we don't live in a time of swords and kings, our world is still one in which those with strength many times oppress the weaker instead of supporting them. In the real world, many in positions of power abuse it, but the strongest person in history set a different example. Jesus walked this Earth with the power of God Himself, but He didn't crush, kill, or overwhelm. He had power the world had never seen, but He used that power to serve.
We should be the same way. Since being connected to Christ gives us an opportunity for abundance, and since being like Jesus means becoming the person God wants us to be, then we should treasure humility. Jesus came down here to earth from the beautiful realms of heaven and put on flesh and served the world. He set that example for us to follow. If we are going to be more like Jesus, then we should reflect Christ powerfully. One of the ways we do that is when we serve with humility.
Being humble. That is sometimes a hard thing to be. It was Mac Davis that sang the song that said, "Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way." Even though Jesus was perfect in every way, He still humbled himself and served with humility.
John 13:3 – “Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God.”
Jesus knew the power He had. He knew the miracles He was capable of performing. His disciples knew it as well. Throughout John's Gospel of Jesus's life, we see evidence of the fact that the father had given everything into His hands.
-In John's gospel alone, we see that Jesus healed an official's son. Jesus simply said, your son will live, and the dying boy was healed.
-Jesus fed over 5,000 people with only five loaves of bread and two fish. After telling His disciples, “have the people sit down”, Jesus proceeded to multiply the food.
-Jesus walked on water. His power over nature was so unsettling He had to encourage His followers, “don't be afraid.”
-Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. It didn't matter that Lazarus had been dead for 4 days. When Jesus shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out”, Lazarus wasn't dead anymore.
That's what the power of God looks like. Everything had been given into Jesus's hands. He knew it, and He demonstrated it, but He also demonstrated humility.
This passage in John 13 gives us a glimpse into this unusual exchange between Jesus and His disciples. The apostle John helps us appreciate Christ's act of service by reminding us of where Jesus came from and where he was going.
As we read this passage, let's not be so focused on what Jesus did on this occasion that we forget who He is. Jesus certainly didn't forget. Yes, Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into His hands, that He had come from God, and that He was going back to God.
If you have been in our Wednesday night Bible study, you will remember that John's gospel began by pointing to the divine origin of Jesus. He writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created.”
Jesus created everything. Jesus has authority over everything. Jesus was about to die for the sins of this world, conquer death by being resurrected, and return to heaven to rule forever. Jesus knew all this, yet with all that power and authority, what did He choose to do in this moment? He washed feet.
John 13:4-5 – “So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself. 5 Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him.”
God washed feet. God, the God of the universe, wrapped a towel around His waist, poured some water, and washed some feet. That is incredible. Of course, when the God of heaven inhabited a human body and lived a life with regular people, it surely was going to lead to a few remarkable interactions, but Jesus washing His disciples’ feet has to be one of the more surprising scenes of His life.
Jesus demonstrated what it means to be a servant. Don't believe for a moment that this was simply a ceremonial act. No, Jesus's example of service made a powerful point, but it was all the more powerful for the fact that it was lowly, filthy work. Usually, the lowest of slaves were assigned the duty of washing the feet of those who would come into someone's house.
There were no paved roads back then. They wore sandals. People's feet would become filthy as they walked on the streets. A slave would meet a guest at the door and wash his feet before he entered the home. It was the lowliest of duties.
And yet the One with the authority of everything in His hands knelt before the sandaled feet of working men who walked these dirty roads. And He scrubbed. He didn't just make the point, He did the job until their feet were dry.
What an example Jesus set for us when it comes to humble service. There's really no greater model of humble service than what we see here. We are called to be like Jesus. We have been given the privilege of being connected to the one true God who has everything in His hands. And if Jesus can work, we can work. If Jesus can die to Himself, we can do likewise. When we see how He served through His miracles, through His selfless acts like this one, and ultimately through His death on the cross, we're changed, and we're moved to be like Him. Through Jesus, we have the joy of humbly serving others.
John 13:6-10 – “He came to Simon Peter, who asked him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.”
*******8 “You will never wash my feet,” Peter said. Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”
******* 10 “One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For he knew who would betray him. This is why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
And then Jesus comes to Peter. Peter, being Peter, was the only disciple that spoke his mind in this situation. But in this exchange of words, Jesus taught us some valuable and deep lessons about what He came to Earth to do. Jesus wanted Peter and the other disciples to understand that they needed to be washed and made completely pure by the cleansing He offers. Like the physical water washes away filth and dirt from our bodies, Jesus wants to wash away the filth of our sin. That's why Jesus came. He came so that through His perfect life, His sacrificial death, and His miraculous resurrection, the unclean could be made clean and fully take their place with Him.
Peter didn't fully understand at first. But through Jesus's example, Peter was humbled. Peter hadn't volunteered to wash feet, yet it made much more sense for him to be washing Jesus's feet, so in typical Peter fashion, he stood his ground and protested. “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus responded beautifully and revealed that He offers more than clean feet. “If I don't wash you, you have no part with me.” If we look deeper into that statement, Jesus is telling us that He forgives our sin and makes us righteous. He makes us completely clean.
Peter's foot washing protest set Jesus up to share an important truth. He can forgive sinners and make them clean. Just like Jesus humbled Himself and took on the servant’s task of washing feet, He humbled Himself further by taking our sin as His own and dying on the cross. Paul said it this way in:
Philippians 2:8 – “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross.”
The humility of Christ isn't just the greatest example of power being used to serve others, it brings with it the most stunning and gracious outcome of serving others that the world could ever know. Jesus’ humble act of dying on the cross for us was also so generous, because by it He offers us forgiveness, holiness, freedom, joy, and eternal life.
Peter wanted Jesus in his life. So, Peter said, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” If it meant lining up with Jesus, Peter wanted the full bath. Jesus corrected Peter since such a bath wasn’t necessary. It has been suggested that what Jesus was really saying to Peter was this. “Such a cleansing as you indicate is not necessary. Anyone who has lined up with me, has identified with me, has been washed by me, has no need to supplement that washing. That person is wholly cleansed. And so, Jesus, the humble servant, doesn't leave us half dirty. He gives us the full measure of His forgiveness and makes us completely clean from the inside out. Yes, we have been washed by the blood of the Lamb.
And then Jesus encourages us to do likewise. A story is told of a Young Man who watched his grandpa dive, head first and fully clothed, into a dirty pond in an attempt to catch a catfish with his bare hands. The boy had caught the catfish and it was flopping off of his hook, so his grandpa dove in, grabbed the catfish, and hoisted it out of the water before it could flip free and swim away.
Grandpa later admitted his regret to his grandson. He said, I reckon I spent too much time hunting and fishing to amount to anything. Then he encouraged the boy to give his time to the pursuit of Jesus and the mission of the church. The boy said, my grandfather had shown me an incredible example of passion and commitment, but then he said, don't do as I did, because it isn't worth it.
So, what is worth it? Jesus pointed us to the answer in verse 14.
John 13:14 – “So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
This is another reminder of just who was doing the dirty work of washing feet that day. It was Jesus, their Master, their Lord. The One with the authority was also the One with the towel. And I wonder if any of us devote enough time, energy, and commitment to pursuing Jesus each week as we should. If not, we can change that by starting today.
John 13:15-17 – “For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you. 16 “Truly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
So, in these verses, Jesus is calling us to serve others. We are supposed to follow His lead. “Do as I have done,” Jesus said. Jesus could have said that for no other reason than because He is God. He created us. What He says to do is what should be done. But Jesus wasn't just ordering others to do something merely because He said so. He was just calling us to be like Him. Isn't that what we're striving to do each day, to be more like Jesus? It really should be.
And the reward for it all is that Jesus is promised blessings to those who obey him. We know now that Jesus went on to perform the greatest act of service, He sacrificed Himself. The one who told us to humble ourselves died for the very ones He commands. But even still, He isn't just the Creator and the servant and the sacrifice.
In verse 17, He reminds us that He is the blesser. He says, “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.” Shortly before Jesus went to the Cross to pay the price for our sins, He promised to bless us for our humble obedience. This promise can be found throughout Scripture.
Leviticus 26:3-4 – God says, “If you follow my statutes and faithfully observe my commands, 4 I will give you rain at the right time, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.”
Isaiah 48:18 – “If only you had paid attention to my commands. Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.”
It was Charles Spurgeon that said, “Faith and works are bound up in the same bundle. He that obeys God trusts God. And he that trusts God obeys God.
And so it all comes down to this. Jesus has called us to reflect Him by how we serve others with humility. He modeled this service for us beautifully and clearly. And some of you do an excellent job at this. He's motivated us by making us the beneficiaries of His gracious service. And He has promised to bless us as we obey.
Luke 11:28 – “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”
