WWUTT 927 Jesus Serves His Disciples?

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In Mark 10 .45 Jesus said that the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to lay his life down as a ransom for many.

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One of those acts of service Jesus did for his disciples was at the Last Supper, when we understand the text.

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You're listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to the sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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And don't forget our website, www .utt .com. Here's our host,

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Still in our study of the Gospel of John, we're jumping into Chapter 13 today.

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And I'm going to open up with verses 1 through 20 to start things off. The Apostle John wrote,

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Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to 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, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,

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Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, 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.

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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.

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

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What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.

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

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

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The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean.

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And you are clean, but not every one of you. For he knew who was to betray him, and that is why he said,

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Not all of you are clean. When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place at the table, he said to them,

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Do you understand 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, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

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For I have given you an example that you should also do just as I have done to you.

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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.

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If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of all of you.

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I know whom I have chosen, but the Scripture will be fulfilled. He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.

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I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place, you may believe that I am he.

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Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.

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So we've entered into Act 2 of John's Gospel with Chapter 13.

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We had the prologue in John 1 verses 1 through 18. Then we had the first act in John 1 verse 19 through the end of chapter 12, which we finished up yesterday.

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That was the conclusion of Act 1. Now we've jumped into Act 2. So in Act 1,

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John was showing that Jesus is the Christ, the one who was sent from God, and he had seven signs in addition to the discourses of Christ affirming that he is the one that is sent from the

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Father. He would do a sign, and he would explain the sign that he is from God.

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So those seven signs are to show that Christ is the one who made all things.

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In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and by him all things were made.

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Without him, nothing was made that was made. All of that was in the prologue. That was in John 1.

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So John was showing that Jesus was the one who made all things through these signs that he performed, that he had the power over creation itself because he is the one who made it.

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So that was all in chapter 1 verse 19 through chapter 12.

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Now we get to chapter 13, which is the next act, and John spends the rest of his gospel focusing on Jesus' discourse with his disciples that's considered his farewell address and the high priestly prayer, then his arrest, his trial, crucifixion, burial, resurrection from the dead.

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That's all coming up here in chapters 13 through 20. Then chapter 21 is going to be an epilogue.

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So just as John started his gospel with prologue, he's going to end with an epilogue.

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But that's the way that John is divided out. So the greatest thing that Jesus came to do is now what is going to be focused on in the remainder of the gospel, and that is laying his life down for his sheep, which he explained back in chapter 10, his sacrifice for atonement, for propitiation, to appease the wrath of God for all who would believe in Christ, being raised up so that all who look upon him and would believe in him would find forgiveness of sins and fellowship with God.

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And Jesus shows the fellowship that he has with his disciples and therefore God's fellowship with his own through this act that he is doing,

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Jesus serving his disciples. Now before we get into the particulars of what we've just read related to this act that Jesus does, washing his disciples' feet,

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I want to articulate something here at the very beginning, and I'll come back to this at the end. Jesus is still serving us now.

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So he is teacher and Lord. He makes that point with his disciples. You call me teacher, you call me

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Lord, and you are right, for so I am. But he is also serving.

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He serves his disciples here, and he is still serving us now. Jesus is our mediator,

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I believe I talked about that yesterday as well, our mediator between us and God. He is the one who is advocating for us before the

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Father, according to John 2 .1. He is our advocate. So he is speaking favorably for us before God.

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Through Christ, we have been justified, we are also being sanctified. As Paul says in Philippians 1 .6,

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I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ.

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So Jesus started this work with our justification, by faith, and through him we are being sanctified.

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In this way, Christ is still serving us even now, in the way that he advocates for us before the

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Father, as our great high priest who has entered in the Holy of Holies for us on our behalf.

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He is still that good shepherd who is working for us even now.

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So he is Lord, but he is the Lord who had stepped off his throne and taken on human flesh and died for us.

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For our sake he became sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

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So Jesus did not just serve his disciples here in John 13. He had always been serving his disciples from the moment of his incarnation, and even now being seated at the right hand of the throne of God, he is still serving for us.

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The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to lay his life down as a ransom for many,

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Mark 10 .45. So in this way, Jesus continues to serve.

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But he shows to his disciples, as I am serving you, so you must do this for one another.

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Jesus has set this example before them, so now they must follow that example with one another, and also the way that we interact with the world, those who do not believe.

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We are to serve them also. We serve them the gospel. That's what it is that they need to hear, the life -changing message of Christ for all who believe.

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So let's come back to this story now, John 13, beginning in verse one. Now, before the feast of the

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Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to 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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So John is speaking in a present tense, in a sort of way, because he's telling the story of Jesus washing his disciples' feet, but he's also speaking in kind of a future tense.

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That all the way to his death, which is inevitably coming, we're setting the stage for that, and then even his resurrection and ascension into heaven.

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He loved his own to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,

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

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He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, he tied it around his waist. So this is going on at their

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Passover meal, which they are eating a day earlier than everybody else would end up eating, which would actually be on Friday.

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It's going to be the next day. But for reasons that are not disclosed to us, they have slaughtered the lamb and are enjoying their

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Passover meal on Thursday, probably because Jesus wanted to participate in this with his disciples before he had to go and be crucified.

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Now, some things related to this here in John 13 get kind of complicated. I don't know in how much detail

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I'm going to go into, but let me just say on the outset, it would be the summary of my argument.

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Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all in agreement in these events. There are some people that want to pit the

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Gospels against one another, but it is very clear from what is stated to us in all four

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Gospels that Jesus was enjoying his supper with his disciples on Thursday night.

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He was crucified and buried on Friday. He was in the tomb Saturday. He rose again

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Sunday. All of the Gospels are in agreement where things get confusing is the way those days are is the way in which those days are referred in those

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Gospels. So here at the start of John 13, it says now before the feast of the

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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.

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That's probably a verse, a single standing verse, John 13, one before, before we actually get to the supper part, because then verse two is during supper when the devil had already put it into his heart.

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So before the Passover meal is just talking about the love and affection that Jesus had for his disciples, and then we get to during supper.

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So it's almost like that's kind of our introduction into what is going on that particular day.

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John 13, one. So some people will take that verse though, and they will think that John is referring to some sort of gathering or feast that is taking place before Thursday.

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So Matthew, Mark and Luke talk about the last supper on Thursday, but John is actually talking about a supper that took place before that, possibly at Bethany before.

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Then Jesus came to Jerusalem and then had his last supper on Thursday with his disciples, which is relayed differently in the synoptic gospels than we have in John.

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So that means that if that's the interpretation that you're going to take, when you get to John 13, we're actually flashing back.

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We're going back to Bethany to something that happened, you know, around the time that Jesus would have been anointed by Mary, for example, for in the gospel of Luke, it is accounted for us that it was there.

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Judas had made up his mind that he was going to betray Jesus once Mary had anointed Jesus. That was when

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Judas kind of got up, got fed up with the whole thing and decided he was going to go see the Pharisees about turning

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Jesus over to them. Because we have this statement here during supper when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him.

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So therefore, that would be the correlation between this and those events that happened in Bethany.

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So therefore, we're talking about a supper that happened at Bethany, not one that was taking place in Jerusalem. The reason why

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I don't agree with that is because when you get to the very end of this meal, chapter 17, well, chapter 17 is the high priestly prayer.

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So it's chapter 18. At the end of all of this, which goes from chapters 13 to 17, the last sermon

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Jesus has with his disciples, the high priestly prayer in chapter 17, chapter 18 starts this way.

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When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook

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Kidron, where there was a garden which he and his disciples entered. Now, Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place for Jesus often met there with his disciples.

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So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the

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Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. So we're talking about once Jesus finishes this discourse with his disciples, he goes to the garden of Gethsemane and is arrested.

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So we are talking about the last supper. That's what's going on here in John 13 through 17.

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Maybe I am mentioning something to you you had never heard before. Maybe you're going,

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I don't know. I don't I don't remember ever hearing that about John 13. Well, there are some notable scholars that have considered that this meal is not the last supper, at least the way that John is talking about it.

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But this is actually a preceding meal that happened before Jesus had even gone into Jerusalem, before the triumphal entry, or maybe would have been in one of those days during Holy Week when

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Jesus was going back and forth between Bethany and Jerusalem. But this meal is happening in Bethany.

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That's what those scholars would say. And again, I don't think that that's the case. I think that we're really talking about the last supper here, where people get hung up is chapter 13, verse one, where it says now before the feast of the

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Passover. So they read that and they go, well, OK, this had to be before Thursday because that was the feast of the

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Passover. Well, it was the it wasn't the official feast of the Passover. The Passover lamb would have been slaughtered on Friday, Nisan, the 14th, whereas this meal is taking place on the 13th of Nisan.

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So the the lamb is being slaughtered earlier for Jesus and his disciples so that they can enjoy an earlier

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Passover meal. But this is still during the feast of unleavened bread. That which is referred to as the

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Passover might actually be Saturday, which is the Sabbath day of Passover.

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So, again, like I said, this gets kind of confusing because it just depends on what day the respective gospel writer, whether we're talking about Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, wants to call the

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Passover day. And since the feast of unleavened bread was seven days, it could have been any one of those days that they end up referring to as the

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Passover. We talk about the day that the lamb was slaughtered, or are we talking about the Saturday or the

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Sabbath that falls in the midst of the feast of unleavened bread? Any one of those could have been referred to as a

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Passover day. So that's where it gets again. It gets kind of confusing in that sense.

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And this is where the Hebrew roots people jump on board and they say, well, Jesus had to have actually been crucified on Thursday.

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And some will even go as far as saying that he was crucified on Wednesday to try to account for Jesus being in the tomb for three days and three nights, just as Jesus said would be the sign of Jonah.

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As Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so will be the son of man in the heart of the earth.

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So that they're trying to take that and apply that to where Jesus was crucified, even though Jesus wasn't being exactly literal there.

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Three Jewish days, not literally three days, three nights. Anyway, I hope that I hope that you're thoroughly confused now.

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All of that, just to say I didn't know that I was going to go into that much detail. We're still going to be in this story tomorrow anyway.

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But but that's just to say that, you know, as you're reading this, you're say before the feast of the Passover, when

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Jesus knew that his hour had come and yet they're eating supper. So are they eating the Passover meal in case that had crossed your mind?

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I'm saying to you now, yes, they are eating the Passover meal. It may not been when the official

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Passover lamb was slaughtered, which could have been on the next day, Friday. And of course, that was the day that Jesus himself was crucified.

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And then you had Sabbath, which could have been the Passover Sabbath, which was

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Saturday. They wanted to get Jesus off the cross before that day anyway. So even among decorated scholars, these things are kind of argued over.

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But I think ultimately the largest consensus agreement. And I believe this is what

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Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are saying. Jesus ate the meal on Thursday, was crucified

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Friday in the tomb. Saturday was buried Friday before sundown in the tomb all day.

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Saturday rose again Sunday morning. That's the chronology of the events that we have them in the

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Gospels. There's no reason to think otherwise or split hairs over it for that matter. So then verse two during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son to betray him,

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

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He laid aside his outer garments and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and he began to wash the disciples feet.

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This was going on in the midst of this supper. So the supper had been prepared.

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He rose from supper. They actually hadn't really started eating it yet, or it could have been that they had eaten the main course and then the bread and the and the other courses of the meal, the cups of wine and things like that were still to come.

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That hadn't been done anyway. All of that's really confusing as well. But but it could be that the supper was prepared before actually eating it.

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They had to wash, had to be clean. So that was when Jesus washed his disciples feet.

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And then at the end of this, verse 12, when he had washed his feet, put on his outer garments, he resumed his place.

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So now they're actually sitting down to eat the meal that had been prepared for them. Prior to that, they're gathered at table.

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They are fellowshipping, but they haven't actually washed for the meal until the meal had been prepared. So Jesus rises from supper to wash his disciples feet.

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And we're going to come back to that tomorrow to consider more of the specifics of these things.

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But again, this is all kind of the display of Jesus serving his own. He and he served them to the end and is still serving us now, even as he is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, the father mediating for us on our behalf.

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And in this way, we are still being served by our savior and king who reigns over all.

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What a wonderful and glorious God we serve. Amen. Thank you for listening to when we understand the text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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