“For I Have Given You An Example – Serve” John 13:1-17

“This Time Next Year” A Sermon Series

“For I Have Given You An Example – Serve”

John 13:1-17[1]

Introduction

Matthew 20:20-28 Sons of Zebedee wanting special places of honor

Matthew 20:28 “But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,3 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Prayer

The Focused Message at the Close of the Day (v. 1)

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

As you read all the gospels as they approach the end (when the hour finally arrives) you get the feeling of extreme focus by Jesus, and His attention to making sure the disciples understand His ministry. Even if they don’t understand now, later it will make sense. So, there is this sense that Jesus does not have forever to complete His ministry – there is a timeline and it is quickly drawing to a close, “Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world.”

Along with this sense of urgency in mission, is a love for what John calls, “his own.” But who were these people? “They are those who have been given to Christ by the Father (6:37, 44). They are those for whom Christ was about to die. (10:11, 15). They are those who were born, ‘not of natural descent, nor of human decision or of a husband’s will, but born of God’ (1:13). They are those to whom Christ gives eternal life, who shall never perish, and who therefore shall never be plucked from Christ’s hand (10:28-29).”[2] It is those who were in the world, out of which Christ called them.

Jesus has shown His love for His own, and helps us to define love. While we are not given and answer to “why God loves them,” we are given “how He loves them,”

1) He will give His life as a substitutionary atonement for their sin. He lays down His life for the sake of others (10:11, 15).

2) He is going “to prepare a place,” for them in heaven and promises to return to gather them (14:3). He wants his own to be with Him.

3) He is going to send them the Holy Spirit, the Helper (14:16).

4) and Jesus is going to send His own out, filled with the Holy Spirit, to do His work, to share the good news of Jesus, the gospel (15:16).

5) He also tells those who are His own, that He is interceding for them, praying for them, as He sits at the right hand of the Father (Romans 8:34). In v. 1 “he loved them to the end,” or “having loved His own, He saw it all the way through.” He completed the task that He was called to do.

“the way Jesus displays his unflagging love for his own is in the cross immediately ahead, and in the act of self-abasing love, the foot-washing, that anticipates the cross. ‘Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends’ (John 15:3).”[3]

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all include Jesus’ introduction of the Lord’s Supper right before the passion. John is the only gospel to include Jesus washing the disciple’s feet and he does not include Jesus’ introducing the Lord’s Supper. Why would John not include a major sacrament of the church, and why would the other gospels not include Jesus washing their feet? Some theologians believe that before the Passover there would be a time of instruction or teaching.[4]

So John includes it because of what Jesus taught them the last time they would be together before the cross. John tells us in 20:31 what he is hoping to show through his gospel account, “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” So, John wants to show how foot washing will point you to believe that Jesus is the Christ (message) and follow His mission (method/love)?

So, with this pressing sense of mission urgency, and a deep love for His own – what does He do as one of final moments with His disciples? What can He give them, as a reminder of how they are to live their lives in light of this mission and love? What is His final sermon? One last parable.

The Heart’s Desire Followed (vv. 2-5)

2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands,[5] and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 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.

“Jesus, knowing the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God” – We are told three things about Jesus’ state of mind as he was about to wash the disciple’s feet: 1) He knows the Father has put all things in his hands – this is Jesus’ authority. 2) Jesus knows that He has come from God, this is His divine origin, and 3) Jesus knows that he is about to return to God, this is His future glory.[6] So knowing that He is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, knowing He is God in the flesh, and knowing He will be worshipped by everything that exists,[7] he sets an example for “His own.”[8]

Typically, when people would gather on special occasions, like the Feast of the Passover, they would bath before the social gathering. They would leave their homes and walk to where they would celebrate the meal. Because you would be wearing sandals, and had walked through dirt roads, when they would arrive, a servant or a low-ranking person would wash the dirt off the traveler’s feet.

It was just the disciples, and Jesus who had gathered, and there were no servants present – so no one washed their feet. The meal has started, and they are all sitting down at the table. Luke tells us that during the meal 22:24 “A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.” So Jesus teaches his last parable (but it’s not about a man on a path scattering seeds, or a good Samaritan), He “rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet.” There is horror and silence.

“Emperor Caligula who, Suetonius tells us, required his senators to attend him at table. Succinctos lineto (wrapped in a towel), like waiters!” Jesus did not demand that his followers wait upon Him, he leads them to serve others instead – to serve Jesus we serve others. Matthew 25:40 “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

Look at how John describes the room, “taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin” – to wash their feet they needed: water, a basin, and a towel. All that was needed was already there to complete the task. There just needed to be a person willing to do it. Remember Jesus is passing on a mission (the gospel) and a love that He is expecting to continue on in His followers. “ . . . He is passing on the responsibility of love to them.”

Bellevue Baptist Church exists to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

We have everything we need to complete this task.

The Heart Moved Toward the Savior (vv. 6-11)

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 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.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

Simon Peter breaks the silence and says what everyone else in the room is thinking, “it’s not right for the highest (the greatest) among us, to do this act of service.” “To him it is unthinkable that Jesus should ever engage in the menial activity of washing his servant’s feet.”[9] Rabbis don’t do that. John the Baptist when referencing Jesus says, “. . . the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” To touch a person’s dirty feet and to clean them was a servant’s job.

That’s a servant’s job! Are you a servant?

Jesus tells him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”—this is a reference to the passion and what is about to happen. Once Jesus dies on the cross, and then is resurrected from the dead, and then appears to the disciples – then all the pieces fall into place, and the symbolism in the foot washing makes sense.

Peter responds, “You shall never wash my feet.” – Peter’s words are more like, “As long as heaven and earth exist, you will never wash my feet.” Peter says something like this earlier in their time together, “Matthew 16:21-23 “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord!5 This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

We call Jesus Lord, Master, Savior, only so far as He does what we want, but when He goes on a direction we don’t like, “I’m not going that way!” Jesus, in this teaching parable, has a point – but Peter brushes it aside, so Jesus responds “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Westcott says, “The first condition of discipleship is self-surrender.” Or as Jesus would later say, “not my will, but yours, be done.”[10] If we are to understand Jesus’ mission (and thereby our mission), we must fully submit to Him and His plan.

Judas is mentioned, and we will look more in depth at him next week, but I want to point out when it says, “the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,” there is an aligning of the will. Judas had willed what the devil had willed. Satan did not make Judas betray Jesus; their heart’s desires aligned together.

Jesus is teaching a couple of things at the same time. First, Peter says, “wash all of me,” and Jesus says, “that’s not necessary.” This is an image of salvation; Jesus is going to lay down his life so that they can be clean (of their sin). But once a person is saved, they still sin, and will need Jesus to cleanse them again.

But you are not born again, and again, and again – no a person is born again, and then they return to Jesus to clean them of their sin (full washing, verses washing only the feet). 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Martin Luther said, “The Devil allows no Christian to reach heaven with clean feet all the way.”[11]

Second, no matter what your role is in Christ’s kingdom, we should always follow His example of being a servant – to humble ourselves and serve others.

An Example to be Followed (vv. 12-17)

12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.[12] 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger (literally apostle) greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Once Jesus had finished washing the disciple’s feet he asks them, “Do you understand what I have done to you?” – wash one another’s feet.

Look for something that needs to be done, no matter how lowly, and do it.

 (v. 15) “For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” –

Servant Leadership

(v. 16) “Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger (literally apostle) greater than the one who sent him.” The disciple is sent by Jesus, as was Jesus sent by God the Father, and is to represent Jesus in spirit and character, as Jesus represents God the Father (17:18, 20:21). “. . .no emissary has the right to think he is exempt from tasks cheerfully undertaken by the one who sent him, and no slave has the right to judge ant menial task beneath him after his master has already performed it.”[13]

(v. 17) “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them,” – You can’t do the right thing until you know what the right thing is. But now that you know what it means to be a follower of Christ, to be His own – now you must do what He has said – then you will be blessed by the Lord. Blessed can also be defined as happy. If you want happiness, then serve others.

Jesus says, Matthew 5:3-12 “blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure of heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” The world says blessed are the those who are served, the winners, the dominant, the one’s who get their way, the loud and get to the top by any means necessary. Then you will be blessed and happy.

If you want to be happy, serve.

If you want to be unhappy, expect the world to serve you.

 Conclusion

 D. L. Moody wrote the following words next to Isaiah 6:8 in his Bible: “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, I ought to do, and what I ought to do, by the grace of God I will do.”

Isaiah 6:8: “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.”

_______________________ 

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-2e9mMf7E8 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUfh_wOsauk

[2] James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Volume 4, Peace in the Storm, John 13-17 (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Books, 1999) 997.

[3] D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids, Michigan; William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1991) 461.

[4] Leon Morris, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids, Michigan; WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1981) 610.

[5] See also Matthew 11:27; 28:18

[6] Boice, 1009.

[7] Philippians 2:10-11 “. . . so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

[8] “Jesus is fully conscience of his deity and Messianic dignity when he performs this humble act.” Archibald Thomas Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, Volume V The Fourth Gospel to the Hebrews (Nashville, Tennessee; Broadman Press, 1932) 237.

[9] Morris, 617.

[10] B. F. Westcott, The Gospel According to St. John, The Authorized Version With Introduction and Notes (Grand Rapids, Michigan; WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1981) 190.

[11] Arno C. Gaebelein, The Gospel of John, An Exposition (Neptune, New Jersey; Loizeaux Brothers, 1982) 250.

[12] A fortiori argument.

[13] Carson, 468.