Serve Like Jesus

Last week we were in John 12 and today as we move to John 13 through the gospel of John at this point when we Transition from chapter 12 to chapter 13 things really slow down in fact for you note-takers while Chapters 1 through 12 of John cover three full years of Jesus's public ministry The next seven chapters 13 through 19 covered just 24 to 36 hours So it really slows down now and in particular Chapters 13 to 17 are known as the upper room discourse this is when Jesus has a Private conversation with his disciples in the upper room as he shares this last Passover meal with them before he is crucified If you have a red letter edition of the Bible, which is basically a Bible that prints the words of Jesus in red You might notice that chapters 13 to 17 are almost entirely in red Because these are almost all exclusively the words of Jesus in this private setting to his disciples Now this private setting is an upper room somewhere in Jerusalem that has been prepared specifically for Jesus to have his final Passover meal with his disciples before he is crucified and Although Jesus hand-selected 12 disciples the word disciple basically means Student or follower. So in that sense, even though Jesus hand-selected 12 Everyone who sees Jesus as his or her personal Lord and Savior is in essence a disciple of Christ and therefore these private words that Jesus shares with his 12 are Just as relevant for all of us today who call ourselves Disciples or followers or students of Christ now everything that Jesus says obviously is important but there's something to be said about the final counsel of A dying man because he's about to be crucified. He will rise again from the dead, but there's something particularly weighty About the final words of Jesus here in this private setting with his disciples. And so over the next several weeks Next week will be an exception because Garrett Beeler our men's teacher is going to be here But over the next several weeks I'm going to be taking themes from chapters 13 to 17 from these final words of Jesus before he's crucified and We're gonna look at these relevant themes for his followers his disciples still today

So when we leave chapter 12, we're leaving his public ministry. His public ministry is over Into chapter 13 is his private ministry now with his disciples And these are the words that we are now about to read that we should take to heart as followers of his so chapter 13 I'm going to read first 17 verses and we'll look at one theme today So chapter 13 verse 1 says now before the feast of the Passover when Jesus knew That his hour had come that he should depart from this world to the father having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end and Supper being ended the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God rose from supper and Laid aside his garments Took a towel and girded himself after that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded and Then he came to Simon Peter and Peter said to him Lord Are you washing my feet and Jesus answered and said to him what I am doing you do not understand now But you will know after this and verse 8 Peter said to him You shall never wash my feet and Jesus answered him if I do not wash you you have no part with me and Simon Peter Said to him Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head And Jesus said to him he who was bathed needs only to wash his feet But it's completely clean and you are clean, but not all of you For he knew who would betray him Therefore he said you are not all clean And so when he had washed their feet Taken his garments and sat down again. He said to them. Do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord and you say well for so I am if I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet You also ought to wash one another's feet for I've given you an example that you should do as I've done to you Most assuredly I say to you a servant is not greater than his master Nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him if you know, these things blessed are you? you if you do them. Let's pause there and pray. Father, we thank

you for this time together in your word as we begin to look at these final parting words to his disciples, we pray God that the words that Jesus speaks here would speak to us as well, that even today we would take to heart these things. And we thank you for your word. Teach us now we pray by your spirit in Jesus name we ask and everyone said amen. When Matthew, Mark and Luke record this story of the last Passover meal that Jesus shares with his disciples before he is crucified. Matthew, Mark and Luke all talk about an aspect of the Passover meal where Jesus takes the bread after supper and he breaks it. And he says, This is my body which is broken for you. Then he takes the cup of wine and he says this cup is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you. Matthew, Mark and Luke all record that aspect of the Passover where Jesus took the bread and the cup and he symbolically applied them to his body that was about to be crucified and his blood that was about to be shed on the cross. That aspect of Passover is still preserved today in what we commonly call communion or the Lord's Supper. And so regularly that's what we will do here at Cornerstone and what churches do around the world in remembrance of Jesus's sacrifice. So Matthew, Mark and Luke talk about that aspect of the Passover meal but John does not. John does not mention that aspect of what we call communion or the Lord's Supper. Instead John focuses on some different things that Matthew, Mark and Luke did not record as it relates to this last Passover meal. Which by the way is the benefit and why we have four different Gospels. Matthew, Mark Luke and John they all complement each other. They don't contradict each other and it is all intended to help us with different perspectives and different angles of the same

life and ministry of Jesus. So what John writes is just a different angle that Matthew, Mark and Luke don't record. And one of the things that John writes about that Matthew, Mark and Luke don't is this foot washing scene with his disciples. Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. Only John records this. Now when Jesus said what he did in verses 14 and 15 you can glance again at the text. When Jesus said in verse 14, if I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet you also ought to wash one another's feet for I have given you an example that you should do as I have done. When he said that some have concluded that Jesus was establishing another ordinance or sacrament of the church much like water baptism is an ordinance and communion or the Lord's Supper is an ordinance. And so some, some a few within Christianity not many but a few within Christianity believe that Jesus is implementing yet a third ordinance or sacrament and that is that foot washing should be a regular part of worship services. If you go to a church of the brethren foot washing is part of their regular worship services. Certain sects within Baptists practice foot washing as a regular part of their worship services. So if you ever visit one of those churches you better have a pedicure before you go because you don't want to be showing your stinking feet because that's a regular part of the worship service. Now you might be happy to know that most Protestant churches ours included do not believe that Jesus was actually implementing another ordinance of the church and suggesting to us that we should practice regular foot washing. So you can relax all those of you with fungus toenails and hammer and hammer you know toes you can relax. We're no judgment here no haters. All right. Your secret is hidden

with us. We're not fungophobic. We are not hammer haters. OK. So you can take your hammer toes and your fungus nails and keep them covered. We don't need to see them. Why is it that we don't believe that this is an added ordinance of the church. And the answer is because unlike water baptism and communion which the New Testament church practiced regularly as part of the worship services there's not another reference in the New Testament to the early church practicing foot washing as a regular part of worship services. So that's the reason we don't with respect to those who believe otherwise. That's fine. But the reason we don't is because there's not another example in the New Testament of this being incorporated in worship services. That said what then does Jesus mean in verses 14 and 15 when he says I want you to follow my example. I want you to do this. See what I doing and follow my example. And so what Jesus is saying to us in terms of what the example is we should follow, for those of you taking notes, is that we should serve one another in humility. That's what he's saying here. In verse 15, I have given you an example that you should do as I have done. What he means is I want you to serve. I want you to serve one another in humility. This is an example to us that he was setting of a humble servant of others. So it tells us here that the Passover meal ended. Jesus gets up from the dinner table, takes off his outer garment, girds himself, wraps around his waist a towel, and then he takes a basin, it says, and he fills the basin with water and he goes around to his disciples one by one and he washes their feet and he dries off their feet with the towel that he had girded himself with. Now in those days, anyone who girded himself with a towel and washed people's feet was either an indentured servant, and there were many indentured servants in the day, these were Jews who were indentured servant to each other because that was often a way that they would pay off debt. If you owed somebody something, I would be your indentured servant until the debts paid off. He was either acting like an indentured servant or the only other person who girded himself with a towel and washed

people's feet was a Gentile slave. So take your pick. He's either acting like a Jewish bond servant or a Gentile slave. Either one is a picture of humility. He's gonna serve these men that he has ministered with for the last three and a half years by washing their feet. So Jesus takes on this posture of a bond servant or a slave and what he does teaches us several things about serving one another in humility. I'm gonna share four with you from this passage. The first is serving others is never beneath you. This is the example he wants us to follow. One of the things he's showing us by way of example is serving others is never beneath you. I don't care how important you are. I don't care how wealthy you are or how famous you are. Serving others is never beneath you. Think about what Jesus did here. Recognize who he is and what he did. This is the son of God. This is God in flesh and he stooped down to wash the feet of dirty sinners. Now imagine this. Divinity served humanity. The creator cared for the created by washing their feet. This is the God of the universe who stoops down to wash the feet of his disciples. So think about this example and think to yourself, if God can do that, who are any of us to think that serving others is beneath us? And if you think either consciously or subconsciously that you are too good to stoop down every once in a while and serve other people, then you must think you are better than God because God did it. God in flesh served humanity by washing their feet. Now if I had a bad example of this, I'd be discreet and I wouldn't share the name but I actually have a good example of this of someone serving and I'm going to share the name. He doesn't attend here anymore. He and his wife Lindsay have moved to Texas but I'm referring to Alfred Morris. Alfred Morris used to attend our church here for the years that he played for at the time. They were called the Washington Redskins. He was a starting running back in 2014 and 15 and other players on the team would say to me, you got to know this about Alfred. What? Because Alfred won't tell you. What? After every game, Alfred would go around the locker room and pick up all the wet, dirty towels of all the players and throw them in the hamper. Wouldn't say anything. Just walk around and pick up all the dirty towels of everybody. It was just doing something by way of his convictions as a follower of Jesus. A reporter picked up on it. A reporter noticed it too and wrote about it. And so I asked Alfred, Alfred, you know what I mean? I knew that he loved the Lord and I just said, why did you do this? Like I wanted to hear his answer. Why did you do this? I heard you

did this. And he was very humble, just kind of put his head down and he said, well, first First, I was just doing the way I was raised, and second of all, he has great parents. And second of all, he said, I just was trying to serve like Jesus would. And he didn't say to himself, I've made it into the NFL, I'm the starting running back of an NFL team, picking up towels is beneath me. No, this is a guy who just was like, I just want to live out my life for Jesus, and I'm just going to serve. And that's the way that he wanted to serve. Because it doesn't matter who we are, what matters is that we serve others with humility like Jesus. Ask yourself, what are the simple ways that you can love and serve others in humility like Jesus? Number two, here's an important point, serving others is never about who they are. It's about who Christ is and how he wants us to follow his example. Let me show you something from this story that may not be all that obvious. It tells us here that Jesus girds himself with a towel, takes a bowl, fills it with water and then one by one goes around and washes the feet of his disciples. You will notice if you jump ahead in the same chapter that it's not until verse 30 of chapter 13, verse 30, when Jesus calls out Judas Iscariot and then Judas Iscariot leaves the room. That's not until verse 30, which means what? That Judas was there when Jesus was washing all his disciples' feet. Now let that sink into you. Jesus knows that Judas is about to betray him. In fact, in the chapter that we did read, it talks about how Satan had already, the devil had already prompted Judas to do this. It was already in the heart of Judas to betray Jesus. This wasn't a new idea when he left the room. He was already planning on doing it. And Jesus comes to Judas like he does the other 11 and looks him in the eyes with tenderness and washes the feet of his betrayer.

This is very challenging. Because when we serve people, it's not about who they are. It's about what God wants us to do in his example of Christ. Now I want you to think for a moment. Who has betrayed you? Who has deceived you? Who has wronged you or lied about you or gossiped about you? Serve them. Now why? Why would Jesus do this? You know, in the providential timing of things, God could have arranged it such that Jesus calls Judas out first at the beginning of the meal. That's what I would have done. I've been like, you know, one of you is about to betray me so why don't you just leave now so we can enjoy our dinner, OK? But that's not what Jesus did. He has the Passover meal. Now it does appear when you look at Matthew, Mark, Luke and the inference in where John is in the story that Judas does leave before communion, before the Lord's Supper. But he's there for the whole dinner and he's there for the foot washing. God in his providence arranged it so that Jesus would wash the feet of his betrayer and for what reason? Instead of just dismissing him early. Here's the reason. Because Christ wants to set the example of how you treat people who have mistreated you so that anger and bitterness and resentment does not set into your heart. Here's the reason he did it. You see, when people wrong us, betray us, deceive us, it's easy for our hearts to become bitter, resentful, angry. And now we're captive to that.

Now those things dominate us. So you know how you break it? You serve those who wrong you. You bless those who persecute you so that you can be freed from any kind of resentment, anger or bitterness. I have an example of this. There was a pastor friend of mine years ago who, with his church, bought 75 acres of land from a farmer on which to expand their church. He's telling me the story. He was a good old boy from South Carolina and this is what he said to me. He goes, yeah, you know, I'm a good old boy from South Carolina. Your word is your bond. And he said, so I had this deal with this farmer. He agreed to sell it to me. I shook his hand and I've done a lot of deals on a handshake. That's just the way I've grown up. That's the way I live. And the farmer said to me, I agree, shook my hand, just get a contract to me by the end of the week. He said, great. So my pastor friend's telling me this story and what he tells me is that he told another pastor about this deal. That other pastor went behind his back, went to the farmer and bought the land out from underneath him. Well, shame on the farmer that he wasn't a man of his word. But my pastor friend said to me, Gary, I was all bitter, I was all angry that this other pastor went and bought this out from underneath me. I said, what'd you do? He said, this is what I did. He said, I called up this other pastor and I'll just make up his name, Bob.

He said, I called up Bob. I said, Bob, meet me for breakfast if you don't mind at this local restaurant. He said, I got there early. Bob saw my car, he pulled up right next to me. He said, I rolled down my window, I said, Bob, I don't really have any intentions of eating with you in the restaurant, but I would like to have a word with you. Could you come and sit in my car? So he came over, sat in his car. He said to him, you know, what you did was wrong, but I just want you to know, no hard feelings. And this pastor friend of mine reached in his coat jacket in his pocket and pulled out a check from his church to the other pastor's church to help with the building fund. It was $10,000 and he gave it to him. I said to my pastor friend, did he take the money? He says, of course he did. He was a snake. But my pastor friend said to me, but I was free. I was free of any bitterness, any resentment, any anger, because I just blessed him and served him and God could deal with him and I was free. You know something as a side note, that other pastor who had the contract on those 75 acres ran into a lot of zoning issues, could never build on it, never did. My pastor friend was free. See when we serve and we just do what God tells us to do in order to minister, bless or serve other people, it doesn't matter who they are. It matters who Christ is and who he wants us to serve in following his example. If Jesus can serve Judas, you can serve whoever is wronged you in some way that would help to free you from any anger, bitterness or resentment. Number three, humility is seen in not only how we serve others, but in how we allow others to serve us. Think about this.

See, as Jesus makes his rounds among the 12, he's washing everyone's feet. He comes to Simon Peter. The story tells us in verse six that Simon Peter says to him, Lord, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You about to wash my feet? What are you doing? And Jesus answered and says, what I'm doing now, you don't understand. You'll understand later. And Peter says to him in verse eight, you're not going to be washing my feet. And Jesus said, if I don't wash your feet, you can have no part of me. And then Peter says, all right, then give me a bath. Give me a bath. Come on, just pour it on. My head, my hands, everything. Just go ahead, Lord. Because he didn't want to be distant from the Lord, but he felt too unworthy to have Jesus wash his feet. And sometimes it's hard to be on the receiving end of someone serving you. And why is that? Well, in Peter's case, I think it was a matter of he felt just so unworthy. And some of you feel probably unworthy, like you're not worthy of somebody helping you, serving you, waiting on you, giving to you, okay? There's a sense of unworthiness that happens. But here's another reason that people have a hard time receiving people serving them. It's because it's vulnerable. There's a certain element of vulnerability when you are at the receiving end of someone's kindness because even though this isn't true, sometimes this thought comes in your head. If someone has to serve me or help me or give to me, then it must mean that I don't have what it takes. So they're having to do for me what I should probably do for myself.

And what happens is either because of a sense of unworthiness or we're too vulnerable, we deny people. Listen to me on this. We rob someone of the blessing of serving you because it's nothing short of pride. That's really what it is. It's like I'm too proud for you to serve me or help me because it's a humbling thing to have to be on the receiving end. But if we don't, then we're denying someone the blessing that they could get in serving us. And I don't know, for whatever reason, but I'm just gonna call this out, guys. Guys have it even harder in just receiving help. It's the reason why before the days of GPS, that a guy would never stop to ask for directions. Because I don't want, I don't want to be dependent on somebody else telling me, I'll figure it out on my own. I don't want to show like there's weakness in that. There's a feeling of weakness. Like you have to help me, you have to show me how to drive. Like I can do it myself, thank you very much. It's really nothing more than pride. And all of us to some degree resist someone just wanting to serve us. So, now I will give a bad example, but I'll give it on me, okay? So, back in the summer, I did a weird thing to my knee. I don't even really know what happened, even to this day. It happened, actually, as I'm in the pulpit. To be honest with you, it could have even been spiritual warfare. It's a very weird thing. My right knee just completely froze. The muscles around it, it swelled. I couldn't even finish the third service. I had to go to the ER between the second and the third service. And they were confused. They didn't know. They were draining fluid off of it.

I mean, it swelled up like this for no reason. I ended up having to go to, like, five different doctors, got five different opinions of what happened. And it cleared up fine. It's fine now. Everything's fine, so don't worry about me. And please don't tell me, well, it's probably this, and here's some herbs and essential oils. I don't need it. Thank you, anyway. I know your heart is kind. It's all better now, okay? But here's the point I'm trying to make. So after the ER, the ER put me on a full leg brace because they didn't want me bending at all after they drained it. And so I made an appointment with an orthopedic. And so, you know, I'm getting ready to go to the orthopedic doctor. Now, my wife says to me, well, I'll drive you. Now, I'm going to just admit something, okay? And I'm just confessing before you, I never want my wife to drive me in a car. It's just me. I'm sorry. I don't mean to offend anyone. I just don't want my wife driving me anywhere, okay? It feels odd. It feels weird. And it's not helpful for her or our marriage. Because even though she's a fine driver, I'm like white-knuckling the whole time, and I'm trying to tell her how to drive, and it's not good. So it's not good for many reasons. And I just don't like it. Never have.

And if you ever see me in the passenger seat and my wife is driving, it's because I'm about to die. But, you know, Terry looks at me. I said, listen, honey, listen. So I'm in a full leg brakes, and I said, I still have mobility this way, right? I just can't bend the knee, so I'll be able to get in the car, and I'll be able to accelerate, and I'll use my left foot for the brakes. She says, that's ridiculous. I said, I'll drive with both feet. It'll be fine. And then she says to me, and this is the point I'm trying to make, she says to me, you just don't know how to let me serve you. I was like, why do you have to be a Christian all the time? So I said, all right. So I get in the passenger side. She's driving with a smile. I looked at her. I said, don't you get too used to this. This is not going to last long. When we get to the orthopedic doctor, by the way, he takes x-rays. He says, you know, there's nothing structurally wrong here. I'm a little confused what's going on, and so I'm just going to take the brace off, let the knee speak to you, and you just do what your knee tells you. But otherwise, you don't need to wear the brace, and we'll run some other tests and figure this out. So I turned to Terry, and I said, my knee is telling me I can drive home.

And I did. But the point is, I don't know why it is, but most of us have a hard time just receiving. Just let somebody help you. Let somebody give to you. Let somebody serve you. Because when we refuse it, it's just good old-fashioned pride. Peter was just like, no, Jesus, you know, you're not going to do this. And Jesus is like, you've got to let me serve you. You've got to let me love you this way. You've got to humble yourself. And that's what we have to do also. Last point. There is always a blessing in serving. Look at the way this story ends. The last verse I read, verse 17, Jesus says, if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. Blessed are you. Verse 17. If you do them. Look, serving others takes time, sacrifice, humility. Sometimes we serve people out of joy. Sometimes we serve people out of obedience to Jesus. But every time we serve people, God blesses us. Because this is a promise, verse 17. Everyone who serves others will be blessed.

Galatians 5, 13, and 14. Serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command. Love your neighbor as yourself. Peter would write in 1 Peter 4.10. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others. Faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. Jesus said in Matthew 20 verse 25 He called his disciples to himself and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and those who are great Exercise authority over them yet. It shall not be so among you Like don't don't be like that. He says but whoever desires to become great among you. Let him be your servant Says you want to be great in the eyes of God in God's economy? Greatness is in leastness You serve You honor Jesus by the way, you serve people verse 27 He goes on to say and whoever desires to be first among you. Let him be your slave Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served But to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many The ultimate serving that Jesus did the ultimate expression of love and humility and serving Was when he went to the cross and died for our sins that we might be forgiven and then he says now I want you to treat other people like I've treated you serve them love them with humility and once in a while learn how to be served as We reflect Jesus in The way that he served one another with such humility Amen Father we thank you for your word today For Jesus's example here the Son of God God in flesh stooped down to wash the dirty feet of sinners

Lord who is someone or several others That you would like us to serve Forgive us when our own pride prevents us from receiving people who would want to serve and May we serve like Jesus with humility with love May we be free From any resentment or bitterness towards those who betrayed us like Judas did you Lord? By the way that we just serve them Maybe just in some simple way Lord examine our hearts right now Show us How can we be better at serving one another in humility following your example and Who is it Lord? Put their name on our hearts right now That we would be like you in this respect Serving one another in humility Being like Jesus Loving people Honoring and serving them We thank you Jesus that you showed the ultimate serving of us when you laid down your life on a cross Died for our sins But if we put our faith and trust in you we shall be saved. Thank you Lord for serving us with your life We praise you and we honor you In Jesus name and all God's people said amen. Amen. God bless y'all You