Ch.13
Brings us to the final days in the life of Jesus. He
has gathered with the 12 in an upper room in
A)An
evening of sharing his heart /This passage
takes us into the intimate thoughts of Jesus just before the crucifixion.
B)Some have called this the holy of
holies of Scripture.
1) if you think of Scripture as a temple, then
this is the sanctuary, in which you come into the very presence of God himself.
C) This passage allows us to enter into the thinking and emotions of Jesus
just before his own crucifixion.-
1)
His Last Words / Last prayers / His final deeds
Divide
it this way: Look first at What He Knew /
2nd
at What He did / 3rd at What
He taught.
V.1 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.
2 And supper being ended, the devil having 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, and that He had come from God
and was going to God,
Notice
The Key word is the word Know or Knew. Note 4 things Jesus Knew!
A) #1 Jesus Knew that his hour had come!
B)
More than any of the Gospel writers, John emphasized the fact that Jesus lived
on a "heavenly
timetable" as He did the Father's will.
C)Note the development of
this theme:
2:4
- "Mine hour is not yet come."
7:30
- "His hour was not yet come."
8:20
- "His hour was not yet come."
12:23
- "The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified."
13:1
- "Jesus knew that His hour was come."
17:1
- "Father the hour is come."
D) The Hour being spoken of
was the cross……
– He knew His hour had come
#2
Jesus also knew that the time had come when Judas would betray Him.
A)Judas is mentioned eight
times in John's Gospel, more than in any of the other Gospels.
B)V.2 tells us that the
Devil had already put it into the heart of Judas to betray him.
1)
Later in the
C)
But at this moment Satan has only put it into his heart
1)Judas
has a chance to recoil to resist the devil and he would flee –
D)
So Jesus knew that his hour had come – He knew that Judas was going to betray
him
#3
Jesus knew that the Father had given Him all things.
A)A number of years ago a
Jewish writer wrote a book entitled The Passover Plot,
B)
In this book he suggested that Jesus was the helpless victim of scheming among
Jewish leaders and Roman authorities to put him to death.
C)But these words make very
clear that such was not the case..." Our Lord
knew he was the director, the one in charge of events.
1)He
knew what he had to do, and he himself would see that it was carried out.
#4 Jesus knew who He
was, where He came from, and where He was going. Jesus,
knowing……. that He had come from God and was going to God,
A)Jesus
knew exactly who he was. He knew his origin:
He
had come from God.
B)He
had a deep sense of his own identity. He knew Who He was – He knew where He was
going.
C)Those
who know who they are, are "secure."
1)They
cannot be derailed, or turned aside from what they are determined to do.
D)Knowing
who they are, they have a deep sense of security.
Throughout
this account Jesus never panics.
A)He
is always in control, moving with a quiet majesty through the events of his
arrest and his appearance before Herod, Pilate, and the chief priests.
B)He is in full control
because he knows who He is.
Where He came from / where
He is going
1)
Cross / the Grave / then Glory!
How
important for Christians to understand this.
A)Know Who we are in Christ
!
B) Those are truths which the New Testament constantly
thrusts upon us!
1)When
you are facing pressure at home, in your job, or wherever, pressure to give in
to something you know you should resist, the Scripture urges you,
C)"Remember who you are. Whole
point of the armor of God – putting on who you are in Christ
1)You
need no longer be the victim of the wiles of the enemy;
D)Belt
of truth / Helmet of Salvation / Breast plate of righteousness – all connected
to this reality
1)You
belong to God. You are part of His
2)You
are loved and cherished by your Father.
3)
Your sins are forgiven."
E) In Christ you are righteous – In Christ you
are Victorious
So
important – Know where we came from
A)Sinners – saved by grace
B) Who we are Saints – In
Christ – now
1) Where we are going –
Heaven
C)Suggest to you only the person who truly
knows where he has come from and who he is now in Christ and where he is going – heaven – can do what we see
Jesus doing in this Chapter –
D) But before we look at
that notice what this also tells us about the Lord’s heart for his disciples.
V.2 having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them
to the end.
A)He calls them his own
– He owned them at a time when it might
have been easier to not do so!
B)
Not only did he own them but he also LOVED them 1) He loved them to the end,
or, literally ‘unto the uttermost’. Lit
- He loved them with no limits
This
is amazing: Even though He was aware of their past faltering . . .
A)The many times they lacked faith / the men times
they were disobedient / lacked sensitivity
B)He was also aware of their
future failings . . . All forsake /
Peter Deny
C)He was also aware of their
present flaws . . .
1)
As they sat together in that Upper Room, Luke tells us these very disciples
were once again engaged in their favorite argument –
B)they were arguing among
themselves about who was the greatest in the Kingdom. (Luke 22:24).
C)Past
faltering, present failure, future flaws, Jesus saw His disciples not only in
their present vulnerabilities,
1)but
also in their eventual
victories— and He loved them to the uttermost. Without
any limits !
D) What do we see in each
other – only past failings
Only Present
vulnerabilities.
1)
How do we love – What kind of limits or no limits
Watch
what happens next: Consider What Jesus Did V.4-5 “He
rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.
5 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.
Been
said that a Picture is worth a 1,000 words – Jesus is giving them a picture
here
A)Here
in
B)This
is the style of Jesus – Before he TEACHES / He touches
C)
So what does Jesus do – He takes the place of the lowest servant – lowest
servants Job
1)
And He begins to wash their feet.
As
a special mark of affection, a host or hostess might wash a guest's feet, but
it was not standard operating procedure in most homes.
A)Never
forget what Kelly West did – when he married Sarah – after vows – before
communion – surprised Sarah and everyone else – Washing her feet.
B) Great display of
affection for his bride - but Kelly
didn’t wash everyone’s feet that day – he was at the door when all the guest
arrived –
1)
He didn’t even offer to wash my feet -
Sarah’s feet were not dirty or smelly
C) Whole different ball game
here for Jesus – dirty smelly - Dust
roads
Q:
What did the angels around the Throne in heaven think now? “Ok, that’s’ too far
Lord!”
A)If angels could blow fuses, surely now their halo’s were
shorted out on this one…“What’s He doing now?”
B)We
have the King of Kings; Lord of Lords; the one exalted above all else; given a
name above all names; equal w/God;… making sure feet are clean?
C) Why did Jesus do this?
2 reasons: [1]
To prick their Proud hearts: While they were arguing
about who was the greatest Jesus gave them an unforgettable lesson in humility,
and by His actions rebuked their selfishness and pride.
The more you
think about this scene, the more profound it becomes.
A)Jesus was the Sovereign,
yet He took the place of a servant.
B)He had all things in His
hands, yet He picked up a towel.
1)He
was Lord and Master, yet He served His followers.
It
has well been said that humility is not thinking lowly of yourself, it is
simply not thinking of yourself at all.
A)We
today, just like the disciples we desperately need this lesson on humility.
B)The
church is filled with a worldly spirit of competition and criticism as believers
vie with one another to see who is the greatest.
C) We are growing in
knowledge, but not in grace Andrew Murray wrote "Humility is the
only soil in which grace takes root.”
[2] To Teach them a great truth – watch what happens
next. What Jesus taught! { Unfolds
6
Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him,”Lord,
are You washing my feet?”
A)Jesus comes to Peter and
Peter Protest – You are not washing my feet –
B)No doubt this whole time –
Peter is probably thinking – what a bunch of idiots.
1)
I can’t believe they are letting Jesus do this –
C)When Peter protest I am
sure that he is thinking – Jesus is going to commend him –
1)
Say something like well it is about time – One of you spoke up – Good Job Peter
–
Instead Jesus
does the opposite: 7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I am doing
you do not understand now, but you will know after this."
A)Jesus
is like Peter just let me do this you will understand later –
B)And He
did: Peter must have recalled the event when he wrote his first epistle
and urged his readers to "be clothed with humility" (1 Peter 5:5).
C)This
was a Picture etched in his mind of Jesus
But At the moment Peter is
not understanding at all! 8 Peter said to Him, "You shall never
wash my feet!"
Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part
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, "He who is bathed needs only to wash
his feet, but is 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."
Important
spiritual principle: The word translated "wash" in vs 5-6,8,12, and 14 is nipto and
means "to wash a part of the body."
A)But
the word translated "washed" in
B)The distinction is
important: See
if they had bathed in the morning they were clean
C) but there was a part of them
that was in constant contact with the world – Feet –
1)Their feet were always
getting dirty! Wasn’t a whole bath they
needed just a foot washing.
The
Spiritual picture here is significant
A)See
When the sinner trusts the Christ as Savior, he gets a spiritual bath – He is
"bathed all over" and his sins are washed away and forgiven
"And their sins and
iniquities will I remember no more" (Hebrews 10:17).
B)However, as the believer
walks in this world, it is easy to become defiled. Hour of TV – game
1)
Going to work – Work chatter – conduct –
C) Ever feel dirty at the
end of the day? – When that happens – you don’t need to get saved again
1)
Don’t need to get baptized all over again.
2)
But you do need your feet washed.
D)
You need that part of you that has been defiled – that has sinned –
cleansed. How ?
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
E)He simply needs to have
that defilement cleansed away.
1)
So God promises to cleanse us when we confess our sins to Him
D)What
happens if we allow unconfessed sin to linger in our
lives?
1) It affects our communion
with the Lord
V.8 "If I do not
wash you, you have no part with Me."
A)The word translated
"part" is meros, and it carries the meaning
here of "participation, having a share in someone or something."
B) Our participation with Christ – communion
sharing in blessing is hindered by sin
1) God says – Confess it –
Forgive – foot washing
C)This
basic truth of Christian living is beautifully illustrated in the Old Testament
priesthood.
1)
When the priest was consecrated, he was bathed all over (Ex 29:4), and that
experience was never repeated.
D)
However, during his daily ministry, he became defiled; so it was necessary that
he wash his hands and feet at the brass laver in the courtyard (Ex 30:18-21).
E) Only then could he enter
the holy place and trim the lamps, eat the holy bread, or bum the incense.
So
the whole scene is a picture of forgiveness and cleansing that we can
experience daily as we come to Jesus to confess our sin.
A)Receive
new mercies each day!
B)
We come to the Lord and confess our sin He forgives us – cleanses us.
C)The
word translated ‘confess’ in Scripture means to‘ ‘speak the same’.
1)Confession
is not promising never to sin again, but rather saying, ‘Father, Your Word is right. That’s sin, and
I confess it as such.
D) Have mercy upon me. Lord,
deal with me.’
Two
things happen to those who readily confess their sin. 1) Appreciation of the Cross
A)When
I confess my sin 10, 15, 20, 30 times a day, you know what happens?
B)I
appreciate what Jesus did for me all the more. I look at myself as the chiefest of sinners and say, ‘Wow, Lord. I’ve had to
confess a lot of things today
C)
How I appreciate Your love. How I appreciate the work You did for me in paying
the price for each of my sins.’
D)
True confession is amazing - because when we really see our sin, we can’t help
but marvel at the immensity of God’s love.
1)
He keeps on forgiving
Realization
of Grace
A)If you’re not a confessor,
you can start to think, ‘I can see why I’m being blessed.
B) I am a pretty good
guy/gal –{ It is grace
B)
But when you’re in a mode of continual confession, those kinds of thoughts
never enter your mind. Instead, you say, ‘Wow, Lord,
it’s only because of your mercies that I am not consumed,’ (Lamentations 3:22).
C) So the first lesson –
What Jesus did is a picture of confession cleansing
Now
what Jesus says next is absolutely mind blowing – What He taught
12 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? 13 You call Me
Teacher and Lord, and you say well, 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. 15 For I have given you an example, that you
should do as I have done to you. 16 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.
17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
Now
I don’t know if you have every considered the full ramifications of what is
being said here.
A)I
think at first glance – we look at this purely on the surface and say – we to
humble ourselves and to serve one another –
B) That surely is part of
the message that is being communicated here.
1)But
it is only a part – it goes much deeper than that – when you consider this in
context –
C)When
you consider the teaching – Jesus has just explained why we need to have our
feet washed – we still get dirty –
1)
so we need to confess our sin – allow the Lord to cleanse us
D) But then He says – You
need to do to each other what I have done to you -
1)
you need to wash one another’s feet - - this is the example I give to you. – do
to each other.
What
is He saying: You need to cleanse each other when you get dirty – when you get
defiled.
A)Wait
it is only God who can cleanse – it is only God who can forgive – that is true
– but we have a part to play in the restoration of the believer who has sinned.
B) It is God – who forgives
sin – But the Lord tells us – forgive one another as I have forgiven you.
1)
So we wash feet by forgiving those who have sinned against us –
C) We wash feet – by
forgiving when we hear that someone has blown it!
1)
Too often we are quick to pick up our arrows and shoot the sinner – Only army
that shoots it’s wounded
D) We are most like Christ
when we forgive! - When we restore.
Remember
what Paul wrote in
Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are
spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest
you also be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of
Christ.
A)When we restore the
brother or sister overtaken in a sin – we are washing feet.
B)Too
often here is what happens – a brother or sister is overtaken in some sin and
we turn our backs on them- we talk about
them behind their back.
C)
That is not Jesus: Peter sinned – Denied
Christ – Jesus sought after him – go tell disciples and Peter
D)We wash feet when we
forgive -
Lets
take this one step further: If Jesus is giving an illustration about confession
– cleansing that comes from it
A)It is interesting to me in
light of this that James tells us -
“Therefore confess your
sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The
prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
B)I venture to say to you
that most of us never do that – We don’t confess our sins to one another –
1)
here is the reason why- we don’t trust each other. –
We
don’t know how to wash feet - - We do it with boiling hot water and we dry them
with stand paper A)We scold each other – Most of us – have tried to do this from time
to time only to have it back fire on us –
B)Someone – rebuked us after
our confession
1)
Someone took our confession and blabbed it all over town –
C) You can tell if you are a
foot washer – if you are one who people feel SAFE to confess their sin
1)
Feel safe to share their struggles with.
D) Not that we tolerate sin
or make light of it – but we are ready to wash that person – cleanse them
1)
Restore them – help them in that
Lets
take this one step further - What do you
use to wash feet – Water –
A)Water
is symbolic of the word – see how this works
B)
Person comes and confesses – you see a person overtaken in a sin – You go to
them with the word
1)
You pour it on them – rub the dirt off with the word
C)
Hey I know this is what your head is saying – I know this is what the devil is
whispering in your ear this but this is what the word says –
D)
This
is the kind of thing that the blows the mind of the world about the Church.
A)See the world doesn’t do
that – at best they forgive and make excuses for the sin
B) But they don’t know the
power of the word that transforms a life –
C) We take the love of Jesus
and the Word of the Lord apply it to dirty feet
- Miraculous
Who
do we do this too?
Notice
the end of v.7 again - you are clean, but not all of
you." 11 For He knew who would
betray Him; therefore He said, "You are not all clean."
Guys
do you catch this – who is still at this gathering – who is getting his feet
washed – it is Judas
What did Jesus feel as He was washing Judas’ feet?
Did
He Pinch him? Or do a ½ a job? - No probably He felt
sorrow that his feet would never ever come clean!
Q:
What did Judas feel? Here it is just moments
before Satan would possess Him & the last thing for Judas to remember is
the one he was about to betray washed his feet???
How can you model
Humility to those around you? What’s the one job no one likes to do in
your office? Or job site? Or in your home?-
Be one who restores others -
17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.