FIRE Session 5: The Beauty of Christ In Grace

I want to thank Dan for leading us in worship. Dan's one of our elders and does a great job shepherding here.

And Glenna for playing for us in the morning and afternoon session, or the morning sessions.

Glenna's from New City Fellowship. And Annie Say played for us in the evening.

She's at school right now. Well, the final speaker

I get to introduce, of course, but I know this one really well.

Because Josh Haas grew up in this church. He blew things up and burned things down with my boys.

So, oh my goodness.

Oh, the stories I could tell, which I'm not going to right now. If you want any, just talk to me later.

I'll tell you one. I come home one day, and I drive in the driveway, and Josh and my boys are all laying in the front yard, just laying there.

And I walk in, and I said to my wife, what's going on out there? She says, oh, well, they decided they wanted to see the vultures, and so they're playing dead, so they get a good look.

So anyway, oh, there's more and more I could tell you. Josh is the pastor at New City Fellowship, has been there for seven years, has it been,

Josh? All right. Josh was the planting pastor there, and I think he's done a great job in leading that congregation.

A bunch of them are here today, so. Anyway, Josh, come and minister the word of God. Good morning.

It's always a little bit overwhelming to be back here.

When I come back to preach at Leroux, which isn't often, but when I do, I see a lot of unfamiliar faces, because church families, people come and go.

But this is where I grew up, and so there's something, I'm used to this, seeing a bunch of people I kind of know, and sort of know, and don't know here.

But also, what Tim was reflecting on, God has shown me so much grace.

When I'm here to preach, and I see people that watched me grow up, saw firsthand, and dealt with some of the consequences of the folly of my youth, and then they put me in a pulpit to start preaching as a young man.

And the congregation graciously allowed me to cut my teeth here, teaching and preaching.

Such grace. Today, I get to conclude our time in the word at this

Midwest Fellowship by focusing our attention on the beauty of Christ as seen in the grace of Christ.

This is redundant, in a way. It's like Paul writes in Romans, that we're justified by grace as a gift.

It's redundant. Grace is beautiful. The beauty of Christ is seen in His grace.

I'm going to take kind of a circuitous route, just as some of the other speakers have done, to get to my main text.

Eventually, we'll land in John 13. But I want to start broader. I want to start broader and ask the question, what is grace?

And what is the grace of Christ, broadly? Before we do that, let's pray.

Oh God, the Holy Spirit, put Jesus on display.

Remind us how our Savior has taken all our sins away. Father, help us now, we pray, that we would be hungry for, and that we would delight in, and that we would be nourished by the food that is your word, we pray.

In Jesus' name, amen. What is grace? Well, grace, we can start this way.

Since we're largely a group of pastors and people in ministry, we'll just start right in this way. Grace is among God's leading,

His chief attributes, OK? It's an attribute that is manifested, especially, not only, but especially, we see it especially in His saving purpose among His people.

For instance, after the golden calf episode, while Moses was on the mountain receiving the law,

God informs him he has to go down, because the people have corrupted themselves. The people of Israel, under Aaron's leadership, had corrupted themselves, and Moses went down, tablets in hand, and when he saw what was happening, his anger, like God's, burned hot.

God's appointed mediator, though, interceded for God's people, and God graciously, mercifully, listened, and relented from the disaster that He had spoken of bringing on His people.

Soon after, the Lord told Moses to cut two new tablets, to bring them up on the mountain for God to write with His own finger on, and then the text tells us that Moses rose early in the morning, so Andrew is a good example for us, rise early in the morning, went up on Mount Sinai as the

Lord had commanded him, and took the two tablets of stone, and the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the

Lord. You remember this passage? The Lord passes before him and proclaims

His name, Yahweh, Yahweh, El Rahum Vahanun. The Lord, the

Lord, a God merciful and gracious, chief attributes among them.

Slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, this is in the face of His people's sin.

You see, God's grace, if not a chief attribute in Himself, it certainly is a chief attribute as He reveals

Himself to us as Savior, as the one who forgives. He's the one who keeps steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.

God is also the God who justly judges sin. God's attributes are perfectly held, seamlessly in harmony.

Throughout the Old Testament, two words, Hanah, or Hannah, and the word

Chesed are translated to mean merciful or loving or gracious. These words express

God's covenant kindness and favor. We find that God's grace is holy, it's unique to who He is in Himself.

And we see in the pages of Scripture that in His grace, God does not permit sin. God's grace is not permissive of sin.

Rather, His grace is what makes Him patient to pursue and persuade sinners according to His promise.

And so we praise Him for His grace. After all, God's grace is His free, unmerited favor.

It's a gift to us. And grace is not cheap. Indeed, one shorthand definition that I've heard many times, even recently, is this, that grace, what's the definition of grace?

The acronym, grace is God's riches at Christ's expense. This acronym gets at biblical truth and it certainly highlights, in a sin -cursed world,

God's grace towards sinners being a costly grace. This acronym gets at biblical truth and it's helpful, but it doesn't give the full picture.

This definition, that God's riches are at Christ's expense, highlights the beauty of God's grace as that which conquers our sin.

Sin, indeed, again, highlights the need for and the beauty of God's grace. But I would propose to you, to begin with this morning, another, a similar but admittedly more clunky definition, the acronym does not work as well, that grace, if we take a step back, is

God's riches through the eternal word's mediation. Pause with me and reflect for some moments on God's grace in creation before sin entered the world.

The first man, Adam, enjoyed God's grace, free unmerited favor.

In the sense that his life in Eden was 100 % free unmerited favor from God.

Adam had done nothing to merit his existence in paradise. Adam had done nothing to merit the rivers, the gold, the beautiful trees with their delicious fruit.

Adam had done nothing to apply for or to receive his job description. He didn't have to pound the pavement or form a resume.

Adam did nothing to merit the gift of the helper, the strength fit for him,

Eve, his wife. As it is now, it was even then all of grace.

As creatures, we have nothing except by God's grace. Our creator is indeed, to quote

Peter, the God of all grace. And so James exhorts us, do not be deceived because we are prone to being deceived.

So don't be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights with whom there's no variation or shadow due to change.

Brothers, we are awash in God's grace. It is marvelously common, mediated to us through the eternal word.

I sang a song in this room when I was little. Another way I see

God's grace here, growing up in this church, is I was probably the most difficult junior choir student that Mrs.

Mitchell had. I think I outdid the Mosier kids, I don't know, later on. But we sang a song, and I didn't realize the meaning of it then, but it came back to my mind as I thought about these things.

Grace is alive and well and living in my town. It's seen at birthday parties and in hospitals too, and grace has painted flowers 1 ,000 different colors, and grace has taught each kind of bird a special song to sing.

We have right now in our garden, well, of course, it's late season, and life is busy, we have a lot of weeds, right?

But towering above the weeds are the sunflowers, and in the sunflowers are the goldfinches, grace.

This morning, I woke up and I looked out, and it's kind of a misty, hazy morning, and we live on the edge of town.

We have neighbors that are not too close, but close, and I looked out across the way, and between me and the misty fields was a doe with two fawns, grace.

Marriage and children, grandchildren, homes, and food, which is delightful to see and to eat, and it's nourishing to us.

Work and rest, authorities instituted by God for our safety. America, America, God has shed his grace on thee.

God's common grace is everywhere. All the more amazing, because we're rebels living in a sin -cursed world.

I've taken, last couple years, I've started milling my own lumber. I bought a chainsaw, and I can turn logs into boards, you know, and one thing

I like about that is when you walk up to the log, recently I did a big oak tree, it's over 200 years old, and you walk up to it, it just looks old and messy, right?

And kind of boring, but when you start slicing in to that log, the grain that pops out, the beauty of what's inside that tree, and it always strikes me,

A, this is like Christmas morning. I'm the one that gets to open this and see it, and B, God has been enjoying this for the last 200 years.

But the point is, brothers and sisters, I would submit to you that common grace is the manifestation of the grace of Christ.

All that is good and beautiful in this world, that which we enjoy and give thanks for, it is ours to enjoy, because Christ is good and beautiful, and because he is exceedingly gracious.

Common grace is mediated to us through the eternal word. In other words, common grace is the grace of Christ.

As John begins his gospel, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was

God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. John makes it clear there in verse three.

All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

This, by the way, and I'll take this as an opportunity to argue my case. I don't think

I'm the only one who's ever had this thought, but I really think, and I would enlist your help in making the change over time, if we band together and push for this,

I think John should be the first book in the New Testament, because then Luke would be right beside Acts, right?

So prequel, sequel, and then the first words of the New Testament would be the same as the first words of the Old Testament in the beginning.

But John makes it clear to us that this word that was with God and was God in the beginning is the one through whom all things were made, the one without whom nothing was made that was made.

And again, the beauty in creation wasn't so much at Christ's expense as it was at Christ's exuberance.

If you read Proverbs 8 and see wisdom there as a type of Christ who is wisdom incarnate, then you can't help but see this in Proverbs 8, that as wisdom speaks, when he established, when

God established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limits so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then

I was beside him like a master workman. I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.

So grace is God's riches at Christ's expense, but more fundamentally, grace is

God's riches at Christ's exuberance and creation, all that we have good in the world mediated through him.

But now let's focus our attention. Grace is also, to be sure, God's riches at Christ's expense.

Both John and James say this in the immediate context of the verses just cited.

After saying that this word, this eternal word, it has life and in him was the light of men, it says in John 1, verse 5, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it or seized it, comprehended it, grasped it.

That's our state, we don't comprehend it, we don't grasp it until we are grasped by God in his grace.

But we who are in Christ can say that God has graciously said, just like he said, let light shine out of darkness.

In Genesis 1, he has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

This unchanging, unswervingly gracious God who is the source of every good and perfect gift of his own will.

Brothers and sisters, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

Ephesians 2 makes clear that the doom of our sin was relieved only when the grace of God appeared.

For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which

God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. In consideration of such passages in the definition of God's grace as his free unmerited favor,

I have another improvement for us to consider. It's not so much that God's grace is his free unmerited grace, like it was in creation, but now on this side of sin, it's his free dismerited grace.

Or rather, his free dismerited favor. William Plumer in his book, he wrote a book,

The Grace of Christ, right? Read it, it's really good, super helpful. He has in that book,

William Plumer in his book, The Grace of Christ, he quotes John Newton. He says, John Newton in few words states with great clearness what grace is.

And here's Newton's definition of grace as God's dismerited favor that's free to us in Christ.

Here's what Newton says, to bestow gifts upon the miserable is bounty, but to bestow them, to bestow gifts upon rebels, this is grace.

The greatness of the gifts contrasted with the characters of those who receive them displays the exceeding riches of the

Redeemer's grace. He came to save not the unhappy only, but the ungodly.

He gives pardon, peace, and eternal life to his enemies whose minds are so alienated from him until he makes them willing by his grace.

Plumer goes on to say our own merits are of no avail for salvation. Man never deserves the favorable regard of God.

He goes on in that same passage to speak of what limits us. One of the dangers for us as Christians who want to obey

God, and Andrew, you talked about this yesterday, this, when we take righteousness, our own standard of righteousness into account,

Plumer talks about that. The more self -righteous anyone is, the worse it is for him. He who is found with a little counterfeit money on him may be suspected.

Oh, you ended up with a counterfeit 20. But he who knowingly carries much of it may be convicted.

Self -righteousness is spurious coin. As creatures, and again, even more so, as repentant, not self -righteous sinners, we cast ourselves upon the grace of God.

As David prays in Psalm 86, incline your ear to me, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.

Preserve my life, for I am godly. Save your servant who trusts in you. You are my

God. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you,

O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.

Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer. Listen to my plea for grace. I'm a creature, and I'm a sinner, and I'm in trouble.

God, I need grace. God is gracious. Again, in Peter's words, he's the God of all grace.

And by God's grace, we have come to delight in and to know our creator and redeemer, and God's grace in him.

And to study his grace, I would submit to you that we must study his son, who is full of grace and truth.

God has shown his grace ultimately, and in its most clear and exquisite detail in his son.

If you were to assign the attribute of grace to just one person of the trinity, it would belong to the son.

Now, don't actually do that, because you'd be dancing with heresy. But we have in scripture the spirit's own designation in that wonderful Trinitarian verse, 2

Corinthians 13, 14, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the

Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Christ shows us God's grace, for from his fullness, we have all received grace after grace.

The law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen

God, the only God who is at the Father's side. He has made him known. This is so fundamental to the

Christian's way of thinking that it almost goes without saying. It's the saints' and angels' song, after all, redeeming grace.

But we need reminded, we need to be reminded, and so Paul writes to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 8.

In this passage where he's reminding them to provide what they promised for the poor, right?

Paul's coming to receive the collection, and now he's reminding them and encouraging them to follow through with what they had said they would give.

And in that passage, he says to them, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor.

So that you, by his poverty, might become rich. In Titus 2,

Paul summarizes the incarnation of Jesus this way. The grace of God has appeared.

Again, my most, my primary text, and I'd have you turn here now, is John 13. This is the text that I've landed on and aim to go through with you for us to look together at the exquisite beauty and detail of God's grace in Christ.

John 13. Interestingly, this is a passage that doesn't mention grace by name, and yet it demonstrates

God's grace clearly. John 13, starting in verse one. Now before the feast of the

Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper.

He laid aside his outer garments and, taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet?

Jesus answered him, what I am doing, you do not now understand, but afterward you will understand.

Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet. And Jesus answered him, if I do not wash you, you have no share with me.

Simon Peter, in typical fashion, said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.

Jesus said to him, the one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean.

And you are clean, but not every one of you, for he knew who was to betray him. That is why he said, not all of you are clean.

When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, do you understand what

I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your

Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet, for I've given you an example that you should do just as I have done.

Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. Let's put together now some thoughts in this way.

This act of Jesus washing his disciples' feet is an extraordinary expression of his grace, as this is the one, the one washing their feet, this is the one who is the image of the invisible

God. The one who is stooping down to wash dirty feet is the firstborn of all creation.

This is the one by whom all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

This is the one for whom all things were created and through whom all things were created.

This one who is washing their feet is before all things. This one is the one in whom all things hold together.

This is the one who dresses, or rather undresses himself to appear to be the lowest slave and magnifies his menial mission by graciously directing his disciples' gaze to the cross.

He does this by washing their grubby feet. So let's walk through this passage.

Let's walk through this passage, and there are really three movements in this passage that highlight the beauty of the grace of Christ.

First, in verses one through five, we behold an expression of Christ's love, an expression of Christ's love in verses one through five.

Then in verses six through 11, we are instructed that this is a symbol of Christ's salvation, his saving work.

And thirdly, in verses 12 through 17, we behold an example of Christ's grace that we, by God's grace, are called to follow.

So first, an expression of Christ's love. The text tells us that this is before the feast of the

Passover, sometime before. We don't have a real clear timestamp, the chronology of these things.

Commentators like to debate them, but it's before the Passover. I don't think this was the Passover meal itself, but I don't know.

The point is, this is the Passover that is the last Passover in the

Gospel of John. Before the Passover, this is the final one, the one on which the

Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world would be sacrificed. This Passover theme is all through John, and it comes to completion here.

Before this Passover, it's before this final

Passover that Jesus demonstrates his love, his love particular to his disciples.

All the way through chapter 12, he's with crowds of people, and now he's with his disciples, and he's telling his people, this is how

I love you. Jesus knew precisely that this was his hour, that his hour, his time had come to depart out of this world and to return to the

Father. As Joel pointed out last night, this is a shift in John's record.

All through John's Gospel, Jesus had said to his mother, my hour has not come yet, in John chapter two.

But now, having entered Jerusalem triumphantly and having just stated in John 12, 27, he says, now my soul is troubled, and what shall

I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose, I have come to this hour.

Notice, Jesus calls it my hour, the hour that will most clearly put on display the truth about him, for the purpose in his life and his impending death to be made known to the world.

Jesus knew that this was his hour and that the time had come, and more than just the hour for his display of God's love on the cross and God's justice on the cross, it's also his hour of returning to the

Father. Indeed, an hour of trouble, of bearing the cross for the sins of his people.

Now my soul is troubled, and an hour of great hope, of returning to the

Father. I would ask you to pause and reflect about this in your life, and so we can see the beauty of Christ's grace here.

When you are stressed, when your soul is troubled, when you are anxious, how do you typically respond to the people around you?

Do I need to go into detail about how I treat my kids? On a Sunday morning, when we're running late for service?

I mean, my hour has come, right? So how do I treat those around me? Hurry up, let's go!

Do what I tell you, right? Jesus wants you to obey me, right?

We tend to go inward. When we're feeling this kind of pressure, we tend to go inward.

If not, getting snappy with others, we seek to distract ourselves by frivolous things, or in an effort to deny reality, procrastinate, these sorts of things.

What did Jesus do, though? The text tells us that having loved his own who are in the world, he's done that up until now, he loved them, it says, to the end.

Loved them to the end. Some versions have to the uttermost, it's to the telos. What does this mean?

Well, here's my attempt at understanding what John means here. It's a little bit difficult. I see in this act of washing his disciples' feet a precursor to the cross itself.

This act of washing his disciples' feet is what begins John 13 to the cross, right?

It begins this period of John, this major section of John. And so we could apply this, having loved his own who are in the world, he loved them to the end, to the whole of the rest of John.

But it begins with this act of washing his disciples' feet.

But it points us to the cross. After all, greater love has no man than this to lay down his life for his friends.

And while Jesus would ultimately do that on the cross, bearing their sins, he does it here provisionally and as a preview by washing their feet.

He didn't wash their feet to distract himself from the impending cross. Jesus washed his disciples' feet to graciously prepare them to understand the cross.

As he tells Peter in verse seven, what I'm doing you do not now understand, but afterward you will.

And this gracious work, this loving action, displayed in purposeful humility and incomprehensible condescension was all in the face of betrayal.

Did you catch that? The time stamp that John puts here is, it was during supper when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him.

Few things distract me more than when I perceive that there is some conspiracy against me.

Jesus knew that something foul was afoot. Indeed, that diabolical betrayal was about to take place.

But he also knew, verse three, that the Father had given all things into his hand and that he had come from God and was going back to God.

That is an important verse. That's the source of Christ's grace in this passage.

Jesus's gracious act of washing his disciples' feet was rooted in his knowledge of who he was, where he was from, and where he was going to be.

There was betrayal and confusion in his immediate vicinity, but exceeding joy was set before him.

And so he prays in John 17, which we heard preached last night, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

It's in this way that Jesus graciously endured the cross and despised its shame.

Before the cross, then, Jesus provides his disciples with an elementary lesson in washing their feet.

Truly, this act of uttermost love points to the cross, to the laying down of pride in life in service of others.

The text says he rose from supper, laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist, and poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

The one whose feet had recently been washed by sinners' tears, the one whom

John had said with accuracy that would come after him, the strap of whose sandal

I'm not worthy to untie, this one untied his outer garment and laid it aside. A lot of people here see connections between this event that John records for us in chapter 13 and Philippians 2.

It says, though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant.

By being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Perhaps this event even inspired that hymn that we have recorded for us in Philippians 2.

It's a fun exercise. There's lots of parallels. The point is that Christ, in incomprehensible humility, graciously loves us.

And he does this in the bright light of the hope of his homecoming as gracious Lord.

As Philippians 2 continues and is recorded for us in John 13, Jesus was operating on the hope of exaltation, of basking in his

Father's glory. Philippians 2, the song goes the same way. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

So we see first in John 13 an expression of Christ's saving love.

Now we see in John 13, verses six through 11, this next part of our passage, we behold a symbol of Christ's salvation.

The connection between foot washing and Christ's unique crosswork is made clear in this section.

We come to receive this interpretation via Peter's reaction to Christ's grace.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet?

Jesus answered him, what I'm doing, you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.

And then Peter outright rejects, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I do not wash you, you have no share in me.

This washing clearly points then to spiritual cleansing. It's not as though a dirty part of your physical body would keep you away from Christ's inheritance.

Rather, it's our consciences defiled by dead works that must be cleansed by the washing and regeneration renewal of the

Holy Spirit that must be cleansed with the precious blood of Christ. Perhaps this interaction in John 13 between Peter and Jesus is what was behind Peter when he wrote in first Peter chapter three that baptism, which corresponds to Noah's Ark in the flood, corresponds to that not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

First Peter 3 .21 and following, but how do you respond to Jesus's grace? Peter's reaction calls us to account.

How do you respond to Jesus's condescension? Have you already lowered him so much that it's not a big thing that he serves you this way?

Or in pride, do you reject his offer of cleansing you? Do you come to him exposing your filthy feet?

Or do you hide in sanctimonious self -righteousness? Peter shows us that this is our natural reaction.

Lord, do you wash my feet? It's a gentle protest and it has some merit to it.

I'm too low, you can't do this for me. Peter's gentle protest receives a gentle exhortation.

What I'm doing now, you do not understand, but afterward you will. But then Peter persists and you see the stance of his heart.

You shall never wash my feet. Who knows why Peter said that. Maybe he was so self -conscious about his feet, but I think

Peter was making too much of himself and too little of Jesus's humility and grace.

Jesus graciously rebukes Peter. Not get behind me, Satan, as he does in another place, but graciously rebukes him.

If I do not wash you, you have no share with me. See, there's a danger. Self -righteousness comes in sanctimonious dress.

Plumer, in his book, The Grace of Christ, provides this illustration. It's kind of an extended story, but it's a good one.

I'll read it for us. A clergyman once represented the conduct of awakened sinners toward God's offer of gratuitous salvation this way.

So Plumer's getting it from some other clergyman, and now I'm sharing it with you. He says, a benevolent and rich man had a very poor neighbor to whom he sent this message.

I wish to make you the gift of a farm. Right, rich man tells a poor neighbor, I wanna give you a farm.

The poor man was pleased with the idea of having a farm, but was too proud at once to receive it as a gift.

So he thought the matter much and anxiously, thought of the matter much and anxiously.

His desire to have a home of his own was daily growing stronger, but his pride was great.

At length, he determined to visit the one who had made the offer, but a strange delusion about this time seized him, for he imagined that he had a bag of gold.

So he came with his bag and said to the rich man, I have received your message and I have come to see you.

I wish to own the farm, but I wish to pay for it. I will give you a bag of gold for it.

Let us see your gold, said the owner of the farm. The poor man opened his bag and looked and his countenance was changed and he said, sir,

I thought it was gold, but I'm sorry to say it is but silver. I will give you my bag of silver for your farm.

The rich man replied, look again, I do not think it is even silver. This was the solemn but kind reply.

The poor man looked and as he beheld, his eyes were further opened and he said, how I have been deceived, it is not silver, but only copper.

Will you sell me your farm for a bag of copper? You can have it all.

Look again was the only reply. The poor man looked, tears in his eyes.

His delusion seemed to be gone and he said, alas, I am undone. It is not even copper, it is but ashes.

How poor I am, I wish to own that farm, but I have nothing to pay. Will you give me the farm? The rich man replied, yes, that was my first and only offer.

Will you accept it on such terms as a gift? With humility but with eagerness, the poor man said, yes, and a thousand blessings on you for your kindness.

In this gospel moment in John 13, Peter, like the man with ash, only ashes,

Peter yields and he goes overboard. Simon Peter said to him,

Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. I want the full inheritance, you see.

Again, I wonder if Peter reflected on this about his initial pride toward Jesus and rejecting the offering to wash his feet.

I wonder if Peter's reflecting on this and in the gospel moment when he came to realize he's impoverished and Jesus is offering to serve him and he needs

Christ's service. I wonder if Peter had this in mind what happened in John 13 when he wrote in his epistle, clothe yourselves all of you with humility toward one another for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Plumer continues, a little humility, faith, and love would make us adopt as our creed the words of Peter. We believe that through the grace of our

Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they, Acts 15. And this is true, brothers and sisters, because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Yesterday, John 13 is passed. Today, presently, Christ continues to offer himself to the world as the

Savior who cleanses souls. Today, with non -hardened hearts by God's grace, softened hearts that bring our dirty feet as it were to Christ, we hear his voice and find rest in him knowing that Jesus Christ is presently today our great high priest who has passed through the heavens so that we can hold fast our confession.

For we do not have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. Have you ever had your feet washed?

I think, I know some of us have. I have once, I remember, you know what my thought was? Man, my feet, they stink.

Jesus knows what it means to have stinky feet, too. Unable to, he's not unable to sympathize with us.

He's one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Tim, is that where you are preaching through Hebrews right now? So part two is coming. Listen to that passage preached by tuning in.

This focus on today helps, I believe, to understand what Jesus says in John 13, 10.

Peter, in his over -the -top response, had shifted the metaphor, right? Jesus was washing feet.

Peter says, wash all of me. And so the metaphor shifts and Jesus goes along with the shift in metaphor.

Peter says, Lord, not my feet only, but my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, the one who is bathed does not need to wash except his feet, but is completely clean.

See, this draws attention to the now. This cleansing now that Jesus and Peter are talking about isn't the once -for -all cleansing of Christ's blood at the cross, but the ongoing cleansing.

It's not the once -for -all cleansing that causes Christ's disciples to be holy and blameless before God and love.

Rather, it's the ongoing need for Christ to cleanse us. You are clean, he says at the end of verse 10.

Jesus provides the grace to cleanse you, though, not just once and for all, but continually.

John Calvin plays on this metaphor of your feet only on this theme, noting that like travelers in Judea, it's the feet that are in contact with the world and so are made filthy.

It's an analogy to our sinful flesh walking through this present sinful age.

As I thought about that, it reminded me of a Christian rock festival that me and the PASMA boys went to in Illinois, at the end of which was

Great Grace. I remember our van broke down. Honestly, it was a Saturday, well, Sunday morning at 2 a .m.

and our van broke down in Western Ohio. Celina and Tim came and picked us up. And Tim, I've thought of that many times since I've been preaching on Sundays.

Great Grace. But I remember at this festival, we thought we found the ideal camping spot.

There was this harvested wheat field that was wide open. Huge Christian rock festival in Illinois.

I think it was called Cornerstone or something like that. And the trouble is it rained a bunch and that wheat field turned into a mud pit.

I mean, we woke up and our pillows were just like wet sponges. And you would go into the shower houses, but you had to trudge through the muddy field to get there.

So you'd go and get cleaned up and by the time you got back to the campsite, you were clean, but your feet needed some more attention.

This is Christ's continual work for us. He continues in heaven to serve the saints interceding for us and sympathizing with our weaknesses and giving to us by His Holy Spirit through His word, grace in all of its various forms.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday in John 13 as He is today as we come to Christ with our sin and failures, and He's the same forever.

This is Thomas Goodwin's thesis in his book, The Heart of Christ, a worthy book, again, worth your attention.

And he argues, Thomas Goodwin, in The Heart of Christ, he argues from John 13 this, that Christ's heart remains graciously inclined to sinners that come to Him as ever on earth.

And he draws attention to Luke chapter 12 when Jesus, in speaking of His return, of the

Master's return, Jesus says in Luke 12, verse seven, "'Blessed are those servants whom the

Master finds awake "'when He comes. "'Truly I say to you, "'the Master will dress

Himself for service "'and will have them recline at table, "'and

He will come and serve them.'" Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's the one who washes our feet and cleanses us from our sin and serves us forever.

He's so gracious. To teach us to turn from sin and self -righteousness and to turn to Christ who graciously loves and serves

His bride now and forever. Finally, the last movement in this passage in John 13, verses 12 through 17, is that we behold an example of the grace of Christ, an example of Christ's beautiful grace, an example that we, by God's grace, are called to follow.

The text tells us that when He had washed their feet and put on His outer garments and resumed His place, He said to them, "'Do you understand what

I've done to you? "'You call Me, Teacher and Lord, "'and you are right, for so I am. "'If I, then, who am above you, "'if you call

Me, Teacher and Lord, "'and I have served you this way, I have washed your feet, "'you also ought to wash one another's feet. "'For

I have given you an example "'that you should do just as I have done to you.'" The cross of Christ is not merely an example, right?

It's not fundamentally an example. Fundamentally, God tells us in the cross of Christ that there's a great exchange happening where our sins are given to Christ and His righteousness is given to us, and yet the cross of Christ is also an example to us to follow, to carry our cross and daily follow

Christ. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

In His grace, God does not permit sin, you see. Rather, He patiently pursues and persuades sinners according to His promise so that we would praise

Him for His grace, His grace that has appeared, His grace that changes us. That same passage where in Titus 2,

Paul describes the incarnation this way, the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, it's this very grace, the grace that is

Christ, that trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self -controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age as we wait for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great

God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works.

You see, God's grace has appeared, His great grace in Christ, His beautiful grace to give us an example and to compel us with zeal to follow

Christ's example. Of course, in one sense, we cannot follow Christ's example in John 13.

None of us can save any of the others of us. No man can give the ransom for his life, it's too expensive.

We do not cleanse souls, that's Christ's work and His alone. But in another sense, as the metaphor shifted and as Jesus here tells us the meaning for us beyond being cleansed, this is the meaning for us in our lives,

He gives us an example as we meditate upon His extraordinary love with unveiled face, beholding

His glory, we're transformed. As we contemplate the creator and sustainer of all things, washing

His disciples' feet, who are we not to serve the saints in like manner?

How do we wash one another's feet then? Is this another ordinance? I think we're all on the same page that it's not an ordinance that we have to practice like we do the table and baptism.

Now certainly I would say and I think we would agree it's not wrong to do, there's no evidence in the

New Testament or so forth that it was required of churches, it's not wrong to do but it is too easily a smoke screen, is it not?

For arrogant self -serving hearts to give a show of humility but what we're called to in washing one another's feet

I believe has more to do with the normal everyday life of walking as a

Christian with other Christians. This again is how

Paul apparently interpreted Jesus' call here to follow

His example. Again in Philippians 2 when He gives us that song that praises

Christ for His humility and exaltation He does it for the purpose of telling Christians in a local church how to live with one another.

He tells them do nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility count others as more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among you which is yours in Christ.

So we follow Christ's example in living out the Christian life in the fellowship of the saints. This is how we wash one another's feet so to speak.

So how do I carry my cross and follow Jesus in a way that serves and loves my fellow saints in a way that metaphorically washes their feet?

And I'll give you three that came to mind. Of course there are more. The first one is prayer.

Prayer. I find that in all my ministry to -dos, all my tasks the one

I cannot do in my flesh and the one that's easiest for me to ignore or to not do with all of my heart and humility is prayer.

It's neglected or it's perfunctory. Yet we have this example of Epaphras in Colossians 4.

Paul says Epaphras who's one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you. And what's true of this servant of Christ Jesus who's from Colossae?

What's true of this servant of Christ Jesus? Paul says he's always agonizing on your behalf in his prayers.

One way that I know I can and I would submit to you we all can commit ourselves to washing the feet of the saints is to humble ourselves before our

Savior who has humbled himself before us and pray for his people. To even agonize in prayer for them.

Here's another one. Here's another way that we wash the feet of the saints through the normal everyday dynamic of forbearance and forgiveness.

Have you, can you recall a time that your feet have been washed that way when you've sinned against a brother or sister and they either come to you or you go to them and they have already forgiven you?

And there's nothing but a glance at the wrong done and then a gaze together and rejoicing in the gospel.

That's refreshing. When you have been betrayed, when you smell something foul, something's not right, remember

Christ and like him recall who you are in him and what your future is. Again, Peter says it this way.

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins.

We can wash Jesus' disciples' feet by having our eyes on Christ and being ever ready and zealous to forbear with and forgive his saints even as Christ forbears with and forgives us.

And thirdly, we wash the feet of the saints, we follow Christ's example by using our gifts to serve and build up his people.

Peter writes, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's very grace.

Whoever speaks is one who speaks oracles of God. Whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything

God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. I think that's a key way that I know

I can as a pastor who preaches and teaches weekly. Instead of doing these things for my own sake, making it through another week or getting the accolades of people or even just like preventing problems that I think might come up if I don't do them or something like this, are we preaching, brothers, are we preparing to preach and teach with our eyes on Christ and out of love for his people?

This is the way we wash the saints' feet. And that's true of every Christian. Whatever ministry

God has given you, whatever gift he's given you, to steward it in a way that glorifies

Christ's beautiful grace and that refreshes his saints. Brothers, again, the grace of Christ is the very heartbeat of our ministry, indeed, of the

Christian life. By God's grace, may we make it our habit to present to him regularly our filthy feet and thereby rejoice in the gospel and magnify his grace in the world.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word and for sending your son to show us who you are.

Now, God, take your word and make it take deep root in our hearts that Christ would be seen in our lives, that we would have strength for serving him so that we would find joy in following him.