The Foot Washing Savior | Sermon 10/29/2023

Apologia Utah

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All right, if you would, please turn with me and your Bibles to the Gospel according to John chapter 13.

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We're now in chapter 13. We're going to be in verses 1 through 17 today, church.

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Title of the sermon today is simply the foot -washing Savior. The foot -washing

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Savior. So starting in verse 1 of the

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Gospel according to John chapter 13. Hear now the words of the living and true

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God. Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that he would depart out of this world to the

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Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

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During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon to betray him,

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Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper and laid aside his garments and taking a towel, he girded himself.

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Then he poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded.

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So he came to Simon Peter and he said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet?

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Jesus answered and said to him, what I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.

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

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Simon Peter said to him, Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.

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Jesus said to him, he who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but it's completely clean and you are clean, but not all of you.

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For he knew the one who was betraying him. For this reason he said, not all of you are clean.

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So when he had washed their feet and taken his garments and reclined at the table again, he said to them, do you know what

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

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If I then, the Lord and the teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

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For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly,

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I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.

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If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. Thus ends the reading of God's holy and magnificent word.

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Let's praise the church. Lord, I ask that you would bring clarity to this passage for us, that you would illuminate the scriptures today for your people.

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God, help me to speak clearly and faithfully and to be true to the text as it is your word.

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God, please continue to help us as a church to continue to grow, be sanctified, to not remain stagnant.

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Lord, that we wouldn't simply receive data and knowledge. Knowledge is so quickly able to puff us up, but it's wisdom that allows us to take knowledge and put it into practice in our

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Christian lives. So, Lord, I pray that you would help us with this text to do that today.

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Please help your people to be focused on the word and on you. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. So, as I said last week, the conclusion of chapter 12 was also the conclusion of the public ministry of Jesus Christ.

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He is now in the long and dark shadow of the cross.

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Within a relatively short amount of time, Jesus will be suspended above the earth on a wooden cross with nails in his hands and feet.

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The sin bearer will be raised between heaven and earth. And in that way, he becomes like our bridge between heaven and earth.

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In Matthew's gospel, we see before this, in John 13,

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Matthew 26 shows that Judas Iscariot went to the chief priest that week of the

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Passover, this very week, and said to the chief priest, what are you willing to give me if I betray him to you?

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And they weighed out in that moment, 30 pieces of silver. And at that exact time,

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Judas was looking for an opportune time to betray him. When was the best time to betray

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Jesus of Nazareth? And then also in this week of the Passover, on the first day of the festival,

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Jesus instructed the disciples to go to a man's house in the city of Jerusalem. There they would find this man and they would tell him, sir, excuse me, the time has come.

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Jesus' hour has come and he has need of your home to spend his final days with his disciples.

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And that's what they did. They made all the preparations. They found the home and they prepare the upper room.

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And this was going to be an important day. And so those two events happened somewhere in between John 12 and sometime in John 12 and John 13.

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Those are some background tidbits of information that will help us understand the narration of Judas.

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But also it allows us to see where they are at. They're at this house in the city of Jerusalem.

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And Jesus has yet to go to his trial. Now, have you ever read in the

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Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark or Luke, and you've seen the Last Supper dialogue, right?

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You've seen the Last Supper dialogue and the communion is set as an ordinance for the church.

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Jesus gives them wine. He gives them bread. And it kind of seems like that there's a quick moment there that all of a sudden

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Judas leaves to betray him. And we do have the question like, one of you is going to betray me.

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And they go around the room and they said, is it I, Lord, is it I? But if you've ever wondered, is there more to that day?

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Is there more to that final day before the supper there is? This is it.

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Chapters 13 through 17 in John are often called the

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Farewell Discourse or the Upper Room Discourse. They detail, these chapters, the words of Jesus to his disciples on the final day of his life.

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These chapters are the words of Jesus to his disciples on the final day of his life before he goes to trial, before he goes to the

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Garden of Gethsemane, before the Last Supper occurs. This is the day of these few chapters.

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And he's instructing them. He's encouraging them. OK, so as I said last week,

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Jesus' final moments on this earth before the cross will be himself pouring out to these men in the ultimate act of sacrifice before that final sacrifice.

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So let's get right into it. Verse one says, Now before the feast of the

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Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that he would depart out of this world to the

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Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. He loved them to the end.

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So he's going to depart very soon. He's going to go back to the Father. He's not quite done yet.

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And so I have, by God's grace and spirit, come up with several lessons today in this passage that I would like to lay out to you from the example of Jesus.

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OK, the first lesson from this text is that on a day that Jesus should be pacing and fretting and solely focused on himself and on his impending crucifixion, he puts aside all concerns for himself and he focuses on instructing and encouraging the disciples.

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We are to have this mentality as well. That's the lesson. We are to regard one another as more important than ourselves, and that includes even more than our circumstance.

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You see, you won't hear Jesus say, you know, I just realized that for the past three years

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I've given a lot of my life to these people and I'm kind of, for this last day, I just need some me -time.

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I just need to focus on myself. It's been a hard three years. He doesn't say that.

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Scripture continually shows us we are not to have a continual inward focus.

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But an outward and upward focus. And look, of course, there's nuance to this.

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Of course, there are exceptions to this. I'm not going to list off every single one of them. OK, Paul says in Philippians chapter two, verse four, don't merely look out for your own personal interests, but also the interests of others.

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So he doesn't say, don't look out for any of your own interests, but don't look out for your own interests only.

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Do you get that? He doesn't say, don't look out for your own interests, just pour into other people. He doesn't say that.

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He says, look out for your interests and the interests of others. It's both. It's not an either or thing.

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And so the predominant theme in our passage today will be self -sacrifice and otherly -mindedness.

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But I understand there are qualifications. There are.

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Even Jesus went off to pray by himself. Even Jesus went off to have time with the

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Father alone. Even Paul went away from people for three years.

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He spent in Arabia in the Spirit, spending time with Jesus, preparing for ministry, being alone.

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We need recharges. We need to be in the right place to serve others. But with all that said,

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I'm concerned that our culture, this world system, has influenced us to be so individualistic, so self -centered.

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So self -focused that even as Christians, we will use the exceptions and the nuances and the qualifications as a cloak.

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We'll use it as a covering. No, because of all these things,

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I don't have to do that. That's what we often do. Some of us have been centering our energy and dedication to ourselves for so long.

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And our sins haven't actually diminished. Well, before I work on anyone else, I need to work on me.

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You've been doing that for years and it's not working. Right? You're not having victory.

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I've been focusing on myself and I'm still not having victory. We're not feeling any closer to God. And so exactly what we need to do is throw the exceptions blanket off of ourselves and admit and confess to God.

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Yes, Lord, I've been too focused on my own needs. I recognize the word says to not only be focused on my interests, but also the interests of others.

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I have put myself first always. I'm missing out, God, on one of the biggest characteristics of Jesus.

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I'm not being his hands and his feet. I've retracted my serving hands and I've kept them at my sides close to myself.

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Maybe we need to confess that to God. Let's take an honest assessment today.

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Right? Jesus took our shame. Jesus took our guilt. So we don't need that today. That's not what this is.

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This isn't a guilt thing. This isn't guilting you into doing something. Jesus bore that.

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Jesus took that. This is a spurring on and encouragement sort of thing.

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What we need, like in every single thing, is to look to Jesus, is to look to Jesus.

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He would be our example. So look at Jesus today and ask

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God to help you to be more like him in this way. There's the one who only serves themselves and they look to Jesus for a new example to change.

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Then there's those who've been working for others so long and they're tired and they're getting worn out and they're serving, serving others.

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And the answer is also the same. Look at Jesus and receive rest, receive encouragement, receive help.

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Because if you look at the Savior in either of those categories, you'll find one thing to be true.

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You have yet to arrive. You have yet to find all your rest completely in Jesus or you have yet to actually start serving people the way

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Jesus serves. Because we're works in progress. Thank God that he's the one in charge of that.

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Amen. So that's a little conditionary thing that I wanted to say.

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Back to our first lesson. Again, on a day that Jesus ought to be honestly focusing on himself and fretting of this intense labor and death that is coming.

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He puts all these concerns aside for himself and he puts it on his disciples.

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So you wonder, Pastor Wade, how can I encourage anyone?

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How can I help someone? I'm the kind of person who continually needs those things, right?

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I need those. How can I do that for other people? I'm telling you, if you have a little, give a little.

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If you have much, give much. It doesn't matter. Okay. If all you can do is pray with someone, then pray with someone.

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And look, we can pull off to the side. We can pray. We can do that.

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Number one, that act of prayer is powerful and God moves with that.

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That's amazing. And number two, praying with someone who needs it is encouraging them.

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How can I encourage anyone? What am I going to say? Well, if you simply sat with them and you both looked upward and you both went to God and for this person, you simply said,

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God, I don't even know what to give this person. This person doesn't know what they need right now.

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But in the end, we both know we need you to intercede here. And that's powerful.

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That's real. That does something. Those aren't just words into the air, church.

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That's a God who hears and a God who answers. And that's true.

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The apostle Paul was imprisoned, unsure of when the execution order might come down.

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And yet he was constantly concerned for the sake of his churches. That's amazing.

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He's waiting for a soldier to walk in and be like, Paul, it's time. It's time for you to die.

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And yet his concern was on the churches and he continued to send messengers to them.

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And he continued to talk to people where he was in prison and he continued to write letters.

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Otherly focused, focused on someone other than himself.

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He was rarely self -reflective, except when it might show a need to look at Christ.

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You see, do you know that too much self -reflection can be damaging to you? It can be harmful.

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A study showed that people who were more self -reflective were often more stressed out.

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They were less content. They were dissatisfied with their relationships and they often felt out of control.

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You know, one of the things that has often kept people sane, even in the midst of being in a, say, a concentration camp or imprisonment, persecution.

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What has kept them sane has even been serving other people in the prison, doing what little they can to be focused on others, encouraging others.

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A purpose that goes beyond self, right? When you think about it, the angel

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Lucifer was the most self -focused being when he fell.

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He loved himself. He loved to consider himself and his future.

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When he tempted Jesus, each temptation had the potential for Jesus to be selfish.

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You see all the kingdoms? Bypass the cross, I'll give them to you now, selfishness. Hey, you've fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, turn these stones into bread, focus on yourself.

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Bypass the cross and get what you need. Bypass the cross, worship me now,

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Lucifer said, and I'll give you everything that's mine here in sight. Selfishness, self -focus, those were the temptations of the devil towards Jesus.

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But Jesus came, not for himself. He came at the orders of his father and he came for every single one of us.

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Every single one of us were in his mind. And so he did that because of love.

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The verse says that he loved his own and he loved them to the very end.

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They are his own, it says. Jesus came into the world to save his own.

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And so now do you see that there's a delineation between the world and those who are his own, who are in the world, there's been a change.

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The world is now separated between those who belong to Christ and those who belong to this fallen world.

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They are not simply the ones who follow Jesus, they are his. There is possession here.

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There is possession here. Do you get that? That changes things. These aren't just followers of Jesus.

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He says they're his own. You're his. You belong to him.

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You're not just following Jesus. You belong to Jesus. That's a game changer.

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There is possession here. John 3 .16 showed that Jesus came to save the world for God so loved the world to send his only son.

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But now as his coming and mission is ending and the community of the elect to the called out ones, the church is forming.

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The church is forming and his love is directed there. His love is directed there in that community and they and we belong to him.

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We belong to him. This is our second lesson from the text.

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Every single action and motive of the son of God was based on love. It's based on love.

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Love for his father, love for us, love for his own. And that honestly should shock us, right?

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I don't know about you, but I'm not particularly, especially before Christ, a love worthy person.

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In fact, the Bible says we're not love worthy people. Before the divine intervention of God, we wanted to maintain a self -focus.

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We didn't want a God focus. The Bible says that we were rebels by nature,

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God hating creatures, but he loved us. In fact, Romans chapter five says this. For while we were still helpless, we could do nothing.

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At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man, someone would even dare to die.

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But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

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And so it wasn't after he regenerated us that he loved us.

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It wasn't after he changed our hearts to love him that then he loved us.

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In fact, first John chapter four, verse 19 says we love because he first loved us.

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We are able to love because he first loved us. And I don't need to go over it again.

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I've gone over it several times, but here in John 13, verse one, this is agape love.

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This is a unique kind of love. It's a selfless love, sacrificial love accompanied by grace.

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He loved the apostles. He loves us so much. That's why he's pouring out to them on this final day.

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And he knew, he knew John would write all of this down. He knew this would come to us.

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When he said these things, when these things were written, they were for you too. They were for me.

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He loved them to the end. He loved them to the end, it says. Now, this is somewhat of a double meaning.

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This word end in the Greek is the word telos. It can mean the end of a particular era.

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It can mean to the uttermost or it can even mean eternally. And so therefore, Christ's love did not end when he died at the cross.

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In fact, Christ's love exploded at the cross. His love bridged the gap between heaven and earth that day.

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Never had God's love ever been so tangibly manifest except in that cross.

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And so it seems fitting that we might say he loves them. He loves his own, even us, into eternity.

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Forever, he loves us. A forever love. And this is an example for us once again.

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First John 4 .20 says, If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar.

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For the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

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Now, someone says, but you don't know what they've done to me. You don't know what they've done to me.

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But neither do you fully understand what you've done to God. We don't fully grasp how much every single day all of our lives are spent against the holy

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God. And yet he loves us. And so don't hate

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God's forgiven people. Love them and let God handle them.

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Love ought to be our motive for service as well. You know, a long time ago,

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I heard a man ask a pastor. He said, Pastor, how do

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I become like you? How do I become a pastor? And this pastor looked at this young man and he said, you've got to be able to preach.

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You've got to be able to lead people. And you better start serving people because you're going to be doing it a lot.

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OK, but you know what this young man heard? You know what I heard in those moments?

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Do these tasks, tasks to get this position. Do A, B and C to become a pastor.

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You know what he didn't say and what he should have said? Well, young man, it has to be wrought from the deepest places inside of you by the spirit of God.

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That number one, you love God and that number two, you love His word so much.

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And number three, you love God's people so much that you want to serve them.

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And that's how you become a pastor. It ought to be because of love. Otherwise, you're simply a talking head in a suit on Sunday.

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You're an imposter. He didn't say that. You see, the only way that one does lesson one of our sermon rightly is if you're doing lesson two rightly.

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In other words, the only way you can serve and encourage others rightly is if you love

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God and you love them rightly. You know, you can serve people, but you could do it with hatred.

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You could do it with no love in your heart. And God rejects that. So continuing on, go to verses two through four.

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During supper, the devil, having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him,

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Jesus, knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper and laid aside his garments and taking a towel, he girded himself.

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So John mentions the devil. The devil put the betrayal of Jesus in Judas's heart.

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Judas's sin, I would say, his own sin, opened up his heart in letting the desires of Satan come into him.

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And so the attack of Jesus, the betrayal of Jesus is satanic. It is satanic in that way.

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But also we see here that Jesus knew that the father had given all things into his hands and that he had come forth from God and he was going back to God.

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What this shows us, and what John, I think, is trying to show us is lesson number three, that the plans of men and the plans of the devil are not outside the sovereignty of God.

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They're under the sovereignty of God. The plans of man and the plans of the devil are under the plans of God.

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They can't go outside of them. That's what I think John is trying to show us here.

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And they will not ever, nor have they ever thwarted the plans of God, man and the devil.

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Judas sought riches for himself, but this betrayal would end in heavenly riches untold for a vast multitude, you and me.

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This crucifixion organized by Satan is the prophesied bruise on the heel by the serpent to the seat of the woman from Genesis 3.

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What Satan thought would come and bring his uprising is actually what brought his downfall.

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You see what I'm saying? This death will end in life.

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The Christ lives forevermore, so the people of God may live forevermore. So this is not simply the works of men and the devil to rid themselves of the

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Messiah. All at the same time, yes, that's true, but also at the same time, this is

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God ordaining all things that come to pass. He's bringing about the redemption of men and women through His Son who came forth from Him, and now

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His Son must go back to Him. Men and the devil are not simply killing the

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Son of God. The Father is bringing His Son back. You get it?

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The mission is close to completed. Soon Jesus will say on the cross, it is finished.

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You know that? It'll be at the end of our book in John here. He'll say it is finished.

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Now, what's interesting is when the devil sees Jesus breathe

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His last breath on the cross, the devil might think in his head, it's finished, and he'll say it in the way that he thinks of it.

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And when Judas betrays Jesus, and Jesus goes to trial at the

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Garden of Gethsemane, and Judas is holding the coins in his hand, he'll think to himself, it's finished,

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I did it, it's over. But when the

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Son, when the Son of God willingly, willingly yields up His own

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Spirit, and every single last drop of the holy wrath of God is spent upon Himself, He will proclaim in that moment, it is finished.

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And when God proclaims that it is finished, His proclamation supersedes and supplants every other being that thought that their plan was finished.

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You get what I'm saying? They might say in their minds, the deed is done, it's finished.

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But when Jesus says, it is finished, it throws theirs down the tube.

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And now what that means for us, and this is something that I've sought to drive into us through John, is that every single thing that we perceive as good, or even bad, will work, what, towards your good.

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I've said it so many times now. And Jesus will look at the work that He's done in you, and at every impurity that He's skimmed off by the heating of every fiery trial in your life, and He'll even look at you and He'll say,

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He's finished. She's finished. His mastery in you will be complete.

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It will be done. You will go home. You'll go to be with Him. It'll be over. All things are working to that end.

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Whatever man does to you, whatever the devil does to you, they are not outside the sovereignty and power of our great

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God, and His will shall stand. He'll use the harmful intentions of man and the devil, and He'll turn them around and intend them for your good.

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And that's a promise. That's a guarantee. So at this point in our text, the disciples and Jesus, they're reclining on these thin mats, okay?

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So they're in the upper room. There would have been a really low table, okay? There would have been a really low table, and they would have been reclining on these mats.

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In fact, the way it kind of works is on these mats, you're kind of on your side, and the feet would be outward, extend outward away from the table, if that makes sense.

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And they're all kind of around this low table in the upper room. And so Jesus gets up from reclining with the disciples, and He lays aside, and He takes off these garments.

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And He takes a towel, and He girds

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Himself, okay? It's like when someone is about to perform manual labor, right?

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You kind of take off the outer garments, or you take off what's most important to you.

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Maybe a man has a white undershirt, and so he takes off the stuff that, of course, his wife would get mad if he ruins, and he's got the white undershirt on.

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And so Jesus comes down to that point, and He girds Himself with a towel around His waist.

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Now, when Jesus girded Himself with the towel, He was then in the same clothing as a slave.

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With no outer garments, with no beautiful clothing, down to the basic element with a towel around His waist,

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Jesus looked like a slave. He looked like a common slave. Someone looking like this were looked down upon by others.

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They were considered less than. And so honestly, this is literally the

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Philippians 2, 6 through 7, and He became like a slave. He took the form of a slave.

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The apostles must have been sitting there reclining around the table, and wondering, what in the world is

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Jesus doing? What is He doing? Why is He putting on slave clothing?

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It was astounding for them that the Messiah would do this. And yet in the end, the cross would astound them even more, right?

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So go to verses 5 through 11. It says, So He came to Simon Peter.

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He said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet? Jesus answered and said to him,

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What I do now you do not realize, but you will understand hereafter. Peter said to Him, Never shall you wash my feet.

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Never! How could you do this, Jesus? You're dressed like a slave. You're becoming lower than us.

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You're elevating us. We're just your disciples. What are you doing, Jesus? He says,

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If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. You have nothing to do with me.

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And so that's when Peter proclaims, Lord, then wash not only my feet, but my hands and my head.

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And Jesus proclaims that those who are bathed need only to wash their feet.

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And He indicated that some of them are not clean, though. So the disciples must have been greatly embarrassed.

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My wife always says, I feel like I have secondhand embarrassment for you. And I was like, really?

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I never felt any primary embarrassment. But she's always saying, I feel secondhand embarrassment for you.

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So don't feel it for me. I do funny things sometimes. But look, they must have had secondhand embarrassment for Jesus.

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What is he doing? And so they were silent. It's like, what do we say to him?

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What is he doing? And so Peter is the only one who couldn't take it. He speaks up. Jesus says they don't get it now, but they'll get it later.

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This foot washing act will only make sense after the cross and resurrection.

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And probably most likely after the pouring out of the

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Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Giving them understanding. Right? And so this act of foot washing, what is

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Jesus doing here? I'm going to give you the answer right now. What does this act of foot washing in John chapter 13 mean?

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Three things. Very simple. It shows us, number one, Christ's love for us.

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Number one. Number two, this foot washing in John 13 shows us a foreshadow of the cross that brings cleansing by his own self -denial.

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And number three, this foot washing here in John 13 is also an example for us on how we ought to serve one another.

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Those are the three things. Showing his love for us. Showing us the cross.

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And showing us what we ought to do to one another. That's basically what he's doing here in John 13.

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Now, Jesus would have taken a jug of water. There would have been a shallow basin, okay, empty.

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And he'd take that jug of water and he'd pour it into the basin and he'd fill it with the fresh water.

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And he went to all 12 of these men. John makes it clear that Judas was still there.

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He didn't go off. He didn't leave yet. Judas was still there. And Jesus, the

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Son of God, the King of glory, the one on the heavenly throne in Isaiah's vision, washed their feet.

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He took the bowl of water. He kneeled beside each one of them as they were reclining.

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I mean, they're still reclining and he's going around the table and he's washing their feet.

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He uses his own hands and he took the towel on his waist and he wiped their feet and he dried their feet.

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I've told you this before, but in the ancient world, feet were considered some of the dirtiest parts of the body.

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Someone is out there going, amen, amen, right? Feet. Back then it was even worse.

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Don't let those things touch me, right? The host of a party would never do this, never.

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They would never wash their own guest's feet, never. A doulos, a slave, a servant would do that.

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Someone who's very low. This is unprecedented church. Simon Peter, we could see why he's appalled.

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Lord, do you wash my feet? Oh my goodness, how could you? Because what does that mean?

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What does that say about you, Jesus? Jesus assures him that though he doesn't understand now, he will later.

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Let me proceed. He says, Peter exclaims, never shall you wash my feet.

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How could the one who they determined in John chapter 1 when they first met him, they're like,

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Andrew tells Peter, this is the Messiah. And then Nathaniel goes, this is the son of God.

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This is the king of Israel. This is the one whom the prophets and the law wrote about.

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How could he wash my feet? If he washes my feet, what does that mean?

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Isn't he those things? Aren't those titles his? But no, if Peter doesn't let him wash his feet, what does that make

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Peter? Jesus replied, if I do not wash you, you have no part with me.

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You have no part with me if I don't wash you. This is almost as serious as when

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Peter protested that Jesus ought not to be killed by the chief priests in Mark chapter 8.

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You remember that? He said, never, you shouldn't go to death. And he says, get behind me,

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Satan. This is almost as serious as that moment because this foot washing, as I said, is also an act that foreshadows the cross.

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If Peter won't let him do this, then he stands in the way against the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

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I must cleanse you. I must. Otherwise, you have no part with me.

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And this stands for every single person today.

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If Jesus doesn't cleanse you, you have no part with him. That's the reality of the gospel.

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If Jesus doesn't cleanse you, you have no part with him. Part or portion is typically in regards to an inheritance in Jewish culture.

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It had to do with inheritance, portion, part. We can conclude then that what

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Jesus is saying by you have no part with me means that you have no forgiveness from me.

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You have no eternal life with me. You will not dwell in the kingdom of God with me.

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Heavenly riches will not be yours. And above all, you will not be reunited with me again if you don't let me do this,

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Peter. And so Peter recognizes who this is and what he's trying to say in some capacity.

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And he says, Lord, then wash not only my feet, but my hands and my head.

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You might be thinking, what does he mean by that? What comes to my mind is,

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Lord, then I have feet that are swift to shed blood. Lord, I have hands that move quickly to sin, that do deeds of sin.

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And Lord, my head has all these thoughts of lust and anger and jealousy and envy.

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This head of mine continues to think these terrible things. Clean all of me.

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He says, what he said here, he doesn't understand fully what

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Jesus is doing. This cleansing that he wants is going to come, but it's going to come through the cross.

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They don't get it yet. He doesn't get it yet. It's like Psalm 51 when

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David says, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Wash me thoroughly and cleanse me from my sins, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.

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It's hitting Peter now. Good. He sees the need. He sees the issue.

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And so he'll see the solution. The Lord replies in verse 10, He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean.

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And you are clean, but not all of you. And from this we derive our fourth lesson for the sermon.

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This is the fourth lesson. The Lord throughout Scripture desires obedience from His people over honor.

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That's the lesson. All throughout Scripture, God desires obedience over honor from His people.

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And we know Peter was genuine. We know he was humbly pushing back.

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Trying to maintain the honor of Jesus Christ.

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He had good intentions. He even had good intentions in Mark chapter 8.

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When he said, no, let no one kill you. But he didn't understand church. He didn't get it.

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And so God desires obedience over that perceived honor. Obedience is more highly valued than any kind of honor or service in God's economy.

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And that especially goes for someone who isn't genuine, right? Because there are people who will praise

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God. And it doesn't matter how great they speak about Him.

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It doesn't matter how well they defend Him in their workplace. It doesn't matter how well they speak of God in front of family or peers.

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If you don't obey Him, He doesn't care about that. You could honor Him from your lips all day long.

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But He wants your obedience. He wants your faithfulness. Actions speak louder than words.

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So as much as we shouldn't simply be a hearer of the Word only, so we should not simply be a speaker of the

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Word, but in both cases also a doer. And so Jesus was in full authority here.

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And He acted as He did for a reason. By now Peter should know that everything

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Jesus has done has been purposeful and with greater meaning. Peter, trust

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Him. You, trust Him. Me, trust Him. You don't get it right now.

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Why is He washing my feet? Why is He making Himself low?

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Trust Him. Obey Him. Just let Him do it. Right?

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And so some of us have even been kicking against the goads. Some of us have even been trying to walk away from that.

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Let Him cleanse you. Let Him do what He's going to do in your life.

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Stop running away from it. Stop trying to get away from it. Obey Him. A disciple of the

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Teacher does what He says. Notice then Jesus does a play on words.

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You are clean, but not all of you. Verse 11, for He knew the one who was betraying Him. For this reason

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He said, not all of you are clean. Betray here literally means to hand someone over. You hand them over.

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Judas won't offer his hand to Jesus. Judas won't take

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Jesus' hand. He'll hand him over to his enemies.

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And that leads us to our fifth lesson in this text. Fifth lesson. Get this, not a single apostle knew who was going to betray

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Jesus. Why is that important? They went around the room and they said, is it I? Is it I?

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No one knew that Judas was going to betray Jesus except for Jesus. No one knew.

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So what am I trying to get at? What that tells us is, is that Jesus didn't treat

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Judas any different than the other disciples. All three years of this earthly ministry, and even in this moment when

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He washed their feet, Judas wasn't treated any differently. There were no exceptions.

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He was treated like everyone else. He may have been washed, but he wasn't cleansed, right?

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That's the reality. Now, of course, the Lord had a specific purpose in keeping

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His enemy among them for as long as He did. We know that. But from this, we can derive some general principles on how to treat your enemies.

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And so I suppose the first thing to say is, we often look at Judas and the

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Pharisees as the enemies of God. And in the story, we look and we see

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Jesus as the hero. But then we look at the apostles and ourselves and we think we're the good guys, right?

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Oh no, the bad guys are just the Pharisees. The bad guys are Judas. We're the good guys.

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But that's not true. That's not true. Apart from Christ, the

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Bible says we're all enemies of God. So that's the first lesson. The first aspect about this lesson.

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The second one comes from the

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Sermon on the Mount. Go to your printout or go to your Bible. Matthew 5 verses 43 through 47.

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Matthew 5, 43 through 47. Let's read this. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

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But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your

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Father who is in heaven. For he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

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For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

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If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the

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Gentiles do the same? And so to this day, church, in God's common benevolence, in God's common goodness that he shows to all mankind, he has given rain.

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He has given food. He's given shelter. He's given marriages. He's given unbelieving,

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God -hating people marriages and babies. That's a good God. Those are blessings.

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He's done these common things of goodness to other people. And so God gives and God gives and God gives and God gives to these people, but he never gets anything from them.

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He never gets a single thing from them after all this giving. And when you show a common love and concern for your enemies,

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Jesus says that that will make you like your father. He says here, so that you may be sons of your father in heaven if you love like this.

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If you love your enemies like Jesus, you will be like the sons of the father.

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If you're going to be a disciple of Christ, you must not simply deal with or put up with the enemies of God or enemies of yourself.

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You have enemies? Sure. God has enemies? Sure. You're not simply to put up with them or just kind of deal with it.

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We don't put up with people. We love people. If you only love those who loved you, you would never share the gospel.

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If you only love those who loved you, you would never share the gospel. The gospel would never be offered if we hated our enemies, right?

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Tax collectors were hated. And so they had to band together in Judea.

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They loved each other for that reason. And the same goes for Gentiles. In Judea, Gentiles were hated by the

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Jews. So what does that do? If you're hated by this large group and you're the smaller group, you love each other, you treat each other like brothers.

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And so Jesus is like, how are you any better than tax collectors or Gentiles?

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They even do these things. They love each other. They love each other because they receive love from one another.

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But what about loving those who hate you? Right? And so think about it.

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Aren't we here in the state of Utah the minority? Aren't we only something like 2 -3 % evangelical

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Christian in the whole state? It's one of the least Christian states in the whole union.

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Is not the Christian community incredibly small here? So when you are small and the majority doesn't like you, you love one another more.

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And that's kind of a blessing a bit, right? That's a blessing. We're the minority. We love each other.

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Us conservative Christians in Utah are more tight. I've seen it.

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I've said it before. It's really unique. We have to come together. We stick together. But if you're going to be like God, if you're going to be like Christ, then you will show a common love and benevolence to everyone.

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And so if you hate Mormons, if you hate your neighbor, if you hate the majority here who are over you, you are no better than your greatest enemy.

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None. Not in any capacity. If you hate these people, then you are not doing what

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Christ said. What reward is there in only loving those who love you?

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If you love someone who doesn't love you, what happens? If you love someone who hates you, you're going to treat them well.

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You're going to give them the gospel and they might just turn to Christ. And then they might love you.

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What reward, what amazing things can come with loving your enemy? What amazing restorations and healings and reunifications and reconciliations have occurred when you've hated,

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I'm sorry, when you've loved someone who's hated you? Amazing things have happened.

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That's the reward. And look, if you love someone who doesn't love you and they continue to hate you,

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Jesus says your reward is in heaven. Blessed are you, those who persecute you and revile you and speak many evil things of you.

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Blessed are you, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.

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They don't have an inheritance. You're expecting to live forever.

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They aren't. They're going to be in perpetual death, essentially. The Bible says they're going to go to hell.

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You have everything to live for. They have nothing. So love them. Love them.

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Either you love them and they hate you and your reward is in heaven, or you love them and then they end up loving you.

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And so it's a win -win either way. There's no losing in loving your enemies. I keep saying that backwards. So here,

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Judas is being treated by Jesus in an amazing way, in a loving way.

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He's giving the same loving treatment to this man, even though he wasn't even elected to salvation and betrayed our

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Lord. That's what's radical. So after Jesus finished washing everyone's feet and having his dialogue with Peter, verse 12 says he put back on his garments.

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He took off the towel and he reclined once again at the table. And here comes the teacher's message, verses 12 through 17.

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Do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord and you are right for so I am.

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If I then, the Lord and the teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

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For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.

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If you know these things, you are blessed. If you do them, if the highest and most marvelous being, righteous being could do this act, one of the lowest acts as a despised person, then we can do the same.

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We can do the same. Pride is something to be erased from the

01:00:14

Christian experience. You know, when you look into this foot -washing thing, some churches have adopted foot -washing into their, what's called their liturgy, their worship.

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And look, I understand we have liberty to do certain things. And Andrew kept joking with me.

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He's like, you need to get a pail and a towel at the end and be like, so get in the line, you know, which would have been so weird and I wouldn't do.

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But look, imagine in these churches, they do this foot -washing ceremony.

01:00:53

Often, sometimes they'll do it once a year on a specific day. And these men with these great cloaks and these great outfits in front of a whole sea of churchmen and people, they'll be so humble.

01:01:05

They'll come before the common lay person. And they'll come up on stage and they'll wash their feet.

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And who do you praise? You praise the man doing it. You don't praise Jesus who did it 2 ,000 years ago, right?

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This act, which is supposed to be so humble, such a humble and humiliating thing that points to the cross of Christ.

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Look, men have adopted this. And again, I'm sure maybe sometimes it's done right, okay?

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But these ceremonies often puff up these men and we end up worshipping the pastor or the reverend or the priest or whoever did it and go, wow, look how pious and holy he is.

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He's washing people's feet. But it doesn't point to Christ. So, these are qualities at the heart of Jesus' words, humility, humbleness, self -sacrifice.

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No messenger has the right to skip out on the things his superior is willing to perform.

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No slave has the right to judge a task as below him if his master was willing to do it.

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And so we ought to ask ourselves, are we above doing what Jesus did?

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Are you higher than the Son of God? Are you better than Him?

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Are we above doing what He's done? What makes us better? What makes us better than Jesus?

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Nothing. Nothing makes us better. A slave is not greater than the master who owns him.

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A messenger is not greater than the ruler who sent him. So, you get what

01:02:55

I'm saying? If the master was willing to do a low thing, then the slave ought to be willing to do the same.

01:03:02

If a ruler sent a messenger and a ruler did a low thing, the man that he normally sends out with that message ought to be willing to do what he did.

01:03:14

That's what Jesus is saying here. If I did this low thing, if I served you in this way, you ought to be able to serve one another in this way.

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You're not greater than the master, you're not greater than the ruler, and you're not greater than the

01:03:29

Lord and Teacher who is He, Jesus. And so that leads us to our final lesson, lesson number six.

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Since Jesus serves, we will serve. Since Jesus was wrongfully treated, we will be wrongfully treated.

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Since Jesus was humble, we ought to be humble. All in all, whatever

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Jesus did, if you and I are His disciples, we will do what He did. We will follow

01:04:00

His example. We aren't above what Jesus has done. Just as much as if Peter didn't let

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Jesus wash his feet, He would have no part with him, so we too don't serve and give our life in this way.

01:04:20

He says later on, if you love me, obey my commandments. Then if that way, if we don't do this, we would have no part with Him.

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The Christian does what the master says. The Christian does the example of the master after they've been saved and regenerated.

01:04:43

Christian discipleship isn't simply a free ride to heaven. You say, what?

01:04:49

What are you saying, Pastor Wade? Christian discipleship isn't simply a free ride to heaven.

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It's a free gift. That's certain. It's free. It is completely free, but it's no ride.

01:05:02

There's no ride. You're not just simply carried there. He carries you in many ways.

01:05:12

But you know what I'm saying? Your Christian experience, you still have to go through this life. You aren't saved and then teleported to heaven.

01:05:20

You have to walk through trials. It's a free gift, but it's no ride.

01:05:27

There's a journey to the heavenly kingdom. There's no traversing the streets of gold without traversing and traveling on streets of peril.

01:05:38

You don't get to hear harps without having broken hearts. You don't hear angels singing without first suffering.

01:05:47

You don't enter the sinless realm without first fighting sin in this realm. That's the

01:05:54

Christian life. It's a battle. It's a journey. It's a walk.

01:06:01

That's why Paul continues to use that language. Walking the

01:06:07

Christian walk. Walking to the end. It's denying oneself, picking up your cross, and following after Him.

01:06:15

It's understanding that there is so much more to life than seeking personal gain. And the astounding thing is, if you follow

01:06:24

Christ's example and you give yourself to others, he says in verse 17, look, if you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

01:06:35

Know and do. There's an action here. Knowledge meets wisdom.

01:06:43

And it works and it acts. And there's a blessing.

01:06:50

And look, if someone seeks the blessing only, and they bypass the obedience, they bypass the doing, then there is no blessing.

01:07:01

You won't receive it. But if they seek the Lord who gave them the example, and they seek the example of Christ, then the blessing comes.

01:07:13

Jesus will talk about this more in chapter 15. What happens to Him can happen to us.

01:07:20

If they wanted to silence Jesus, they may just want to silence you. If they wanted to kill

01:07:26

Jesus, they may just want to kill you. No one is better than the Master.

01:07:32

And so we need to stop capitulating and compromising so that the world would treat us better than Jesus.

01:07:40

Why do you think you deserve to be treated better than Jesus? You don't.

01:07:47

You're not above the Master. We can't expect to be treated better when

01:07:53

He's been treated this way. And so perhaps we ought to stay faithful to His example no matter the cost and leave the results to Him.

01:08:06

Well, let's wrap this up, church. What a day the disciples had. What a day.

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And it's still not over. The rest of chapter 13 and the next several chapters will be this last day.

01:08:23

And so it's not over. You know, when I saw this moment in John 13, this foot washing,

01:08:31

I couldn't help but think of a specific moment that happened almost 2 ,000 years prior to this.

01:08:39

You see, in Genesis 18, it says that the Lord, Yahweh, the only

01:08:44

God, appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre. And when Abraham looked up, it says that the

01:08:51

Lord appeared before him, and Abraham bowed all the way to the earth. Abraham then had brought water in a basin, and he presented the water before the

01:09:04

Lord. And he let him wash his feet. There the

01:09:09

Lord washed his own feet. And bread was made. And bread was brought in that moment, and they broke bread together.

01:09:18

And just like Isaiah sang God's glory, we saw last week sing the pre -incarnate

01:09:26

Christ, Abraham also saw the Lord Jesus in this moment in Genesis 18 before his incarnation.

01:09:36

And when the Lord appeared before Abraham, you remember he spoke of Isaac's birth, but also of the seed that would come through a new covenant, one in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

01:09:50

And you could say that Christ in Genesis 18 was predicting his own coming.

01:09:57

And what's amazing to me here is in John 13, the

01:10:03

Lord then appeared to men again. Do you get what I'm saying? Jesus, the pre -incarnate Christ, appeared in Genesis 18 before Abraham.

01:10:11

Foot washing was done. Breaking of bread was done. Just like on the last day of Jesus' life.

01:10:21

Lord Jesus appeared to men again. This time he didn't wash simply his feet, he washed all the men's feet there.

01:10:30

And not only did he break bread, he said to Abraham he would return again, and so he did right here.

01:10:39

So you have the promise of the seed, and now the seed is here.

01:10:47

You have the promise of a covenant of grace, and now it is being fulfilled in only a few short hours.

01:10:55

I find it remarkable. The correlations, similarities,

01:11:02

Jesus coming pre -incarnate to Abraham, washing feet, breaking bread, just like his final day, now being fully fulfilled.

01:11:14

So church, today this passage in John showed us Christ's love.

01:11:20

That we are his own. That we are his possession. And that he has cleansed us of all unrighteousness by performing the ultimate act of self -sacrifice.

01:11:34

And he says we are blessed if we know and follow his example. And so,

01:11:40

I guess you could say these are three of the essential realities of the

01:11:46

Gospel of Christ. That Jesus loves you, he gave his life for you, and now he gives his life as an example for you.

01:11:56

So remember those things. Remember what this foot -washing meant when you're going about your life in this

01:12:07

Christian walk. Don't forget that. You're his own. He loves you.

01:12:13

He gave his life for you. And now follow him. And obey him.

01:12:20

Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Lord, thank you for how sufficient it is, dear

01:12:31

God. Thank you, Lord, that it is exactly what we need when we need it.

01:12:40

And Lord, we thank you for all the things that have been presented here.

01:12:49

I'm just so wary and concerned of being jaded and unmoved by these realities.

01:13:03

As a church, as a people, in this church, as a people of God in this world, we talk about you,

01:13:15

Jesus, loving us. We talk about you dying for us. We talk about your example all the time.

01:13:21

And yet we can be unmoved. Lord, I ask that we would not be that way.

01:13:27

We would not be jaded. We would not be apathetic, Lord. God, I pray that these things would actually do something.

01:13:33

And you promise that your word will not return void, that you will do something with this. And so that's my prayer as a pastor for myself and for your people here today, dear

01:13:45

God. Let us always look with wonder at these things.

01:13:51

Let us always look in awe at the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And please,

01:13:59

God, empower us by your spirit to obey you and do these things for your glory and for our good.