Serve Like Jesus

Discipled- Serving Like Jesus

CCCAG 2-25-2024

Scripture- John 13:3-17

Introduction:

How many people watched the Superbowl this year?

How many people saw the ad of people washing the feet of others, and it ends with the statement, “He (meaning Jesus) gets us”

Looks very Christian, but on closer inspection it was sending a very specific message.

I remember watching the video live, and not feeling good about it. Since I’m not a guy that bases opinions on feelings, I went to their website and watched the ads again several times, and then examined the pictures in the ads closely.

Most people didn’t notice that someone was washing the feet of someone outside an abortion clinic.

Some people didn’t notice someone washing the feet of a person representing an illegal immigrant

There were also a straight person washing the feet of a gay person.

A person washing the feet of a drug addict

A person washing the feet of a violent protestor.

Again looks Christian, but really what they were saying is, and if you look at their website it would also say-

Jesus gets you and why you do the things you do, and loves you anyway.

True or not?

True, but that true has a condition to it as well- a very important condition- that HE loves you enough to not keep you in that sin, but to lift you out of it and save you.

That’s the central premise of the most important verse in the bible-

Reading from the CSB (Christian Standard Bible)

Joh 3:16-17 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. (17) For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Jesus indeed gets us, but He really wants to get us out of sin because the consequence of unrepentant sin is eternal damnation.

I wanted to address this ad today because it has a lot to do with what we will be talking about this morning.

In John 13, we have the biblical reference of Jesus being a servant to his disciples by washing their feet.

The background to this is they have just completed the last supper. Jesus has given them the observance of what we today call Holy Communion. He is about to lead the disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane to begin what will be known as HIS passion- the beginning of his journey to the cross and HIM dying for our sins.

Even though Jesus does a great amount of teaching on the way to the garden, as HIS last act to HIS closest followers, HE shows them a picture of what HE is about to become for them:

So that is the background, let’s read the scripture, and again reading from the CSB-

Joh 13:3-15 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. (4) 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. (6) 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.” (12) When Jesus had washed their feet and put on his outer clothing, he reclined again and said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you? (13) You call me Teacher and Lord?—?and you are speaking rightly, since that is what I am. (14) So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. (15) For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you.

Prayer- teach us to serve like Jesus

To properly understand these passages, bear with me for a moment and Allow me to give a quick history lesson regarding the times and culture that Jesus was speaking to here in the Gospel of John