The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
00:01 Glory of Love. The Glory of Love is the title of a song
00:06 that was written way back in the 1930s. Could you turn on the back screen,
00:11 please, so I could also see the back screen?
00:18 Song was written back in the 1930s and it made its way to the top of the pop
00:23 charts. It's truly a golden oldie. Maybe something that would be appropriate for
00:29 a future concert of unforgettable, which Yi-i Hing will be presenting on September 1 and two. Little bit of free
00:35 advertising there, Yihing. And the song has been recorded by
00:40 several people, including Bean Crosby and Benny Goodman. But then it was revived in the 80s by B. Midler, and it
00:49 was included in the soundtrack for the movie The Beaches.
00:54 Now, there's a recurring refrain in this song that says, "That's the story of
01:01 that's the glory of love." And this past week, I have not been able
01:08 to get that tune out of my head. I've been going around humming or singing,
01:13 "That's the story of that's the glory of
01:18 love." Do y'all know that? That's the story of
01:24 that's the glory of love. Just an idea for the future.
01:32 I don't know what the message of the movie is because I've never seen the movie and I don't know what story of
01:38 glorious love they're talking about in the movie. But when I looked at John
01:44 chapter 13 and was preparing for the text and I see Jesus washing his
01:50 disciples feet and I realized that in addition to him showing his love through
01:57 this lowly act of service, Jesus was also pointing forward to the
02:03 fact that he would offer his life as a sacrifice to cleanse him from sin. When
02:09 I think of that story, then I think that's really the story of that's the
02:15 glory of love. Jesus disciples experienced the glory of
02:21 God's deep love for them in a very real tangible way as Jesus washed their feet
02:28 and as he pointed forward to the future to what he would be doing when he would wash them from their sins as he gave his
02:36 life for them on the cross. We too today can experience the glory of
02:41 God's love. We can experience God's glory in our lives when we recognize who
02:47 Jesus truly is. When we understand Jesus servant heart of love.
02:55 When we respond in faith to Jesus sacrificial cleansing.
02:60 And when we go to the feet of others as servants and messengers of Jesus. Would
03:08 you like the reality of the glory of God's love to be a vital part of your
03:14 everyday experience? Well, first of all, recognize or be
03:21 reminded of who Jesus truly is. The first part of the chapter, the first
03:27 three verses provide the background for the story of Jesus washing his disciples feet. And these verses explain who Jesus
03:35 really is. And it explains who is now going to assume the role of being a lowly
03:43 servant. The setting is right before the Passover feast. This was a special celebration
03:49 when the Jewish people remembered that God had freed their ancestors from slavery in Egypt. And when they
03:56 remembered how God had kept them alive during a terrible plague in Egypt through the blood of lambs that had been
04:03 sacrificed and then this blood had been sprinkled on the doorposts.
04:08 So this is all pointing to the fact that Jesus the perfect lamb of God is going
04:14 to sacrifice his life on the cross thereby delivering the people from
04:20 slavery to sin. The text says Jesus knew that his hour had come. Now throughout the Gospel of
04:27 John, we frequently see something about Jesus hour. Earlier we see Jesus saying,
04:33 "My hour or my time has not yet come." And we'll also see that the Pharisees,
04:39 the religious leaders were trying to harm Jesus or arrest him, but they were
04:45 not able to. And the scripture comments because Jesus hour had not yet come.
04:52 But now Jesus hour had come. Now what does that mean? Jesus hour had come.
05:00 Well, it means the time has arrived for Jesus to come to the climax or the
05:06 culmination of his earthly ministry. Jesus came to the earth for the purpose of reconciling a lost world to God.
05:15 Mankind's willful rebellion against God had separated all of us from the close
05:20 intimate personal relationship that God had intended to have with all of us. The
05:25 crowning point of his creation. So Jesus came to pay the penalty for our sin to
05:31 remove the guilt and the shame which keeps us estranged from God.
05:37 Jesus knew that his time was in God's hand, and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt what the future held, that he
05:44 would suffer and die. Yet, he was committed to doing God's will.
05:50 He also knew he would be raised back to life on the third day in victory over sin, death, and the forces of evil, and
05:58 that he would ascend in triumph back to heaven, returning to his seat of authority at the right hand of God the
06:05 Father. We also see that Jesus loved his own who
06:12 are in the world. Now, when I see that phrase, his own, it reminds me of the
06:17 very beginning of the Gospel of John. John chapter 1 verses 11 and 12 where we
06:23 see that Jesus came unto his own but his own received him not but as many as
06:31 received him he gave them power to become the sons of God even those that
06:37 believe on his name. So we see from the very beginning of the gospel that there
06:42 are some people who will reject Jesus, others will receive him, believe in him.
06:48 We see a conscious willful choice, a personal decision. And those who do
06:54 receive Jesus, then they become God's children and they truly become his own.
07:02 We see that Jesus loved his own and he loves him to the end. You can think of
07:08 love to the limit, love to its extreme. Jesus is going to demonstrate how great
07:16 his love was. Another translation says, "Now he showed
07:22 them the full extent of his love."
07:27 Jesus did this by washing the disciples feet, a task of a very low servant. But
07:35 more than that, he is also now going to point them to his ultimate act of love,
07:41 his death on the cross. Verse three shows us even more about
07:47 Jesus. Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he
07:53 had come from God and was going back to God. Jesus knew that God had given him
08:00 all things. All things, all power, all control had been placed in the hands of Jesus. This shows that Jesus is indeed
08:08 the son of God. The kingdom of God belongs to him.
08:14 And this makes his sacrifice even more profound. Jesus knew who he was.
08:22 He was secure in his identity. He was confident of his relationship with God the Father. And he knew what his mission
08:30 was. He knew he had come from God and he was going back to God. And we see more about
08:38 who Jesus is when we jump down to verse 19. He has been talking to his disciples
08:43 about the fact that one of them will betray him in fulfillment of scripture. And then he
08:50 says, "I'm telling you this now before it happens so that when it does happen, you may believe that I am."
08:58 And Jesus here uses the phrase I am, which is the same phrase that God used back in Exodus when Moses asked God,
09:07 what is your name? And God replied, I am that I am. God is the great I am. And
09:15 now Jesus is using that very same phrase, that very same name for himself.
09:21 Jesus is divine, the son of God, the word of God made flesh.
09:28 So we see that Jesus knew his identity. He was God in the flesh.
09:35 Yet he willingly chose to wash dirty,
09:41 stinky feet. He knew he was God, but he was willing to die to pay for the sin of mankind.
09:51 When you realize who Jesus is, that makes his sacrifice even more profound.
09:58 And he did it all because of love. Now, that's the story of that's the
10:06 glory of love. Oh, the glory of God's love that we can
10:13 experience when we recognize who Jesus truly is.
10:20 Secondly, we also see that we can experience the glory of God's love in our life when we understand Jesus
10:26 servant heart of love. Verse three ends with that Jesus knew he
10:33 had come from God and was going back to God. And then we see he rose from
10:41 supper. Now the evening meal was already on the table.
10:47 You wouldn't call it supper. You would call it dinner. This is the main meal of the evening. They had possibly already
10:54 begun to eat. It's not really clear from the text, but it seems like dinner had already been served. And then suddenly,
11:02 unexpectedly, rather than diving into the food in front of him, Jesus stands up.
11:10 Now, before we go ahead with the story, just a brief word about the meal they were eating and how they were probably
11:16 eating it. More than likely, this was the last supper where Jesus instituted
11:22 what we would call the Lord's supper or communion. Now, at the Lord's Supper, we frequently
11:28 have this picture in mind, the famous painting from Leonardo da Vinci, but
11:34 this is not how it would have looked. This is how you would stage a photo op. But this is not what it would have
11:39 looked like the way they would have eaten. We find
11:44 out later in the text they were reclining at the table. So usually the custom was that you would lay on your
11:51 left side, prop your head up with your left hand, and then use your right hand
11:57 to take the food from the table and put it in your mouth. So, here's one artist
12:03 depiction of what that might have looked like. Little bit different than today, but
12:09 laying down at the table, another artist depiction, but you can again see eating with your right hand,
12:18 leaning your head on the left. So laying in a position like this with
12:23 all the disciples with the food on the table, everybody ready to eat, Jesus
12:28 unexpectedly rises up from dinner. Now, if you did not know the rest of the
12:35 story, if you were one of the disciples just laying there, what might you think would
12:42 be happening? If you were one of the 12 and we're ready to eat, then all of a sudden Jesus stands up. You're wondering
12:50 what's going on, what's he doing? What's he going to say?
12:56 And you would know that probably something very important, something big
13:02 is getting to happen. You see, Jesus is not going to interrupt
13:07 the meal and stand up from the meal unless he's getting ready to do or say something very important.
13:15 Now remember this was a very exciting time to be a follower of Jesus. There
13:20 was a sense of excitement, a sense of anticipation, a sense of expectation in
13:26 the air. Tension was building as it appeared Jesus ministry was coming to a
13:31 climax. And if you remember the immediate background of what happened right before
13:36 this story, just a few days earlier, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead.
13:42 a man who'd been dead four days in the tomb and Jesus rose him from the dead.
13:48 People were amazed and many people believed and then just four days earlier had been
13:54 the triumphal entry into Jerusalem as huge crowds gathered and cheered Jesus
13:60 and they praised him and they identified him as being the son of David,
14:05 the Messiah, the promised deliverer, the coming king. Large crowds were gathering
14:12 to hear Jesus teach. So many were coming that the religious leaders who were
14:17 jealous of Jesus said, "Look, the whole world is going after him."
14:23 So with all of these big things that were happening, the disciples were probably anticipating something major is
14:30 going to happen. And when Jesus stands up, they're wondering, "Is he now going to make an announcement about the
14:36 establishment of his kingdom?" If so, the disciples were ready to play
14:41 their role in it. Many times they had talked among themselves about what position they wanted to have in the
14:48 coming kingdom. And they'd argued among themselves who is going to be the greatest in the kingdom when Jesus
14:55 established it. Matter of fact, James and John had even come to Jesus and said, "Hey, we want the position of your
15:02 right hand and your left hand. the positions of the most power and authority, honor, and respect.
15:10 They even had their mother go to Jesus and ask him for the same thing. And the other disciples were angry, not
15:18 because they thought they were out of line, but they were angry because that's a position they wanted for themselves.
15:23 And even during that very evening during the meal according to Luke's gospel we
15:30 see the disciples as they were sitting there at the table were discussing among themselves who's going to be the
15:38 greatest in the upcoming kingdom when the Messiah Jesus establishes his kingdom. So, it's possibly at this point
15:48 when Jesus then stands up, would he now make an announcement about
15:54 the upcoming kingdom? Would he finally answer the question
15:59 about who would get the seat of honor and power and influence at his right and left hands?
16:05 The excitement's building. The tension's growing. What is Jesus getting ready to
16:11 do? But then he doesn't say anything
16:18 and he begins to take off his outer robe and the disciples are probably wondering
16:25 what in the world is he doing. Then he puts a towel around his waist,
16:32 pours water into a basin, and begins to wash the feet of his
16:37 disciples. And this was a job that only the lowest
16:42 of servants or slaves would do. Isn't this amazing?
16:49 The one who had been given all things by God strips himself of what might have
16:55 been one of his only earthly possessions. This one who the disciples called
17:01 teacher, master, and lord. The one who is secure in his identity as being one
17:08 with the great I am is now doing the job
17:13 of a lowly servant. This was unthinkable, unbelievable. This
17:18 can't be happening. You see, it was totally inappropriate
17:24 in the worldview of the disciples for their master, the teacher, to do something that was so lowly. It must
17:32 have been a total shock to them. How could Jesus humble himself so low to the
17:37 point of washing their dirty feet? But isn't this what Jesus had been
17:45 trying to teach them all along? They were very slow learners.
17:50 But Jesus just not too long earlier had told them, "Whoever would be great among
17:57 you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be your slave. Even as I, the Son of Man, came
18:05 not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
18:14 Now, a word about footwashing. This is not a part of our culture. At least I'm not aware of it. I've not
18:20 experienced it yet. I have gone into many of your homes and I've taken my shoes off, but nobody's ever washed my
18:27 feet. and if you come to my house, I'm not going to wash yours either. That's just
18:32 not part of our custom. It's not part of our tradition.
18:37 But also, our lifestyle, our living situation is quite a bit different than it would have been back then. It's not
18:45 really necessary here. Your feet are usually relatively clean. You kick your shoes off. Your feet are okay. You go on
18:53 inside because you've probably already taken a bath, washed your feet before you go visit somebody.
18:58 But if you're walking on dirt paths or dusty roads,
19:04 your feet can get pretty dirty. Or if it's been raining on these dirt
19:10 roads, you really need to have your feet washed before you enter somebody's house. So
19:17 the custom was to have a slave or a servant at the door that would wash the feet of guests before they would enter.
19:25 But only the lowest ranking servant would do this dirty, insulting task.
19:33 According to Jewish law, not in the Bible, but extra laws that we still have records of, Jewish households could not
19:41 require a servant or a slave that was Jewish to wash feet.
19:47 This job was considered to be too low for any Jewish person.
19:54 But it's not just the dirt. That's bad enough having that staring
20:00 you in the face and if it's your job to wash the feet. But there's something else that makes this task so repulsive.
20:08 There's a cultural factor at play. We have learned since coming to Asia,
20:16 especially as we were traveling on the Indian subcontinent, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
20:23 feet are considered to be the very lowest part of your body.
20:29 And if you point your feet at somebody, that is the worst insult you can give to
20:36 somebody. Now, it's different in my country. We kick back in our lazy boy recliners and
20:43 our feet prop up and if somebody's on the other side of the room, nobody's offended.
20:49 But here, if we go to someone's home who was from that culture and we sit on the floor, we make sure our feet are not
20:56 pointing directly over at somebody's face because that would be a terrible insult.
21:02 You might remember some years back when George W. Bush was president of the US and he was speaking at a meeting and
21:09 there was an Iraqi person there that took off his shoe and threw it at the president.
21:16 Now most people in my country just kind of thought, "What in the world is he doing? You can't hurt somebody. You
21:22 definitely can't take somebody out by just throwing a shoe." But what that Iraqi man was doing was
21:29 giving the worst insult he could possibly give to the president of the US
21:36 because shoes and feet are dirty.
21:41 And that's very insulting if you throw a shoe at somebody or if you point your
21:49 feet, especially your dirty feet, into somebody's face.
21:55 So the loneliness of washing feet has not only to do with the dirt. It's also the
22:02 disgrace you face from handling the lowest the most unclean part of the body
22:09 the bottom of somebody's foot. So when Jesus
22:16 the divine son of God to whom all power and authority had been given
22:24 humbles himself, he is humbling himself at feet
22:31 that can be considered to be quite insulting. Feet that are dirty, feet that are an
22:38 insult. And remember, dinner had already been served.
22:44 Food was on the table and you more than likely did not have chopsticks or a
22:49 knife and fork spoon to eat with. You ate with your hands.
22:54 And now Jesus uses his hands to wash dirty feet of his disciples. He got his
23:04 hands dirty washing their feet. That's the story of
23:11 that's the glory of love.
23:16 To experience God's love, we must understand Jesus servant heart
23:22 of love. One man who I truly think understood Jesus servant heart of love was a man by
23:30 the name of Robertson McQuilin. You may have heard this story, but I had not heard it until just recently.
23:38 He and his wife had served for several years as missionaries in Japan. Then
23:43 when they turned returned to the US, he became president of Colombia International University in South
23:50 Carolina in the US. And he was known as a skillful leader and also as a very
23:56 powerful and entertaining public speaker. He had met his wife at the university
24:02 when they were studying together. And shortly after graduation, they had gotten married. And he described his
24:09 wife in her early years as being delightful, smart, gifted, a great lover
24:15 of people, and more fun than you can imagine. After McQuilin became president of the
24:22 university, his wife also joined the faculty. She spoke at women's
24:27 conferences. She appeared on TV. She was featured on a radio program. She was
24:34 also an artist. But after 30 years of marriage, the
24:40 first signs appeared that something would be changing.
24:45 Her keen wit was not quite so sharp. She began forgetting things. And even though
24:51 she was an artist, she was having trouble being able to paint. Three years later, she was diagnosed
24:58 with early onset Alzheimer's disease. A few more years went by and her mental
25:05 facilities continue to deteriorate further and further. And finally,
25:10 McQuilin decided he was going to resign his position at the university as
25:15 president to devote himself to caring fulltime for his wife who was suffering from
25:22 Alzheimer's. At the time of his resignation though he
25:28 was at the height of his career. The university was growing under his
25:33 leadership. Why would a man in such a position resign?
25:40 Well, he wrote about that in the letter that he wrote to the university constituency to explain his decision. He
25:47 said, "Recently, it has become apparent that Muriel, his wife, is contented most
25:53 of the time when she is with me, but she's not contented any of the time when
25:59 I am away from her." It's not just that she's discontent, he wrote,
26:04 "She is also filled with fear, even terror, that she has lost me and always
26:11 goes in search of me when I leave home." And he said that frequently
26:17 she would walk the half mile from their home to his office. She could remember where his office was and then she'd go
26:24 back home and she didn't remember. She had just been there and she would go back and she might make that trip to his
26:30 office several times during the day. And he said one time as he took her back home he discovered that her feet were
26:38 bloody from walking so much. He was amazed at her love for him.
26:46 And he said it became clear to him that she needed him full-time. So, he resigned his job as president of
26:54 a university to care for his wife with Alzheimer's.
26:59 Turned out to be for a 13-year period of time. Now, that's a story of the glory of
27:07 love. There's no doubt in my mind that Robertson Mcquilen understood the
27:13 servant heart of Jesus great love.
27:19 What about you? Do you understand Jesus heart of love?
27:27 Is it evident in your life? You can experience the glory of God's
27:33 love when you recognize who Jesus truly is. And when you understand Jesus servant
27:40 heart of love to personally experience God's love,
27:45 it's also essential to respond in faith to Jesus sacrificial cleansing.
27:52 Now, there's more to our story than the first part of John chapter 13, then initially meets the eye.
27:59 You remember the exchange that Jesus had with Peter back in verse six. Peter is
28:05 so shocked that Jesus would do such a lowly task. And if you look at the text
28:12 in the original language, it's almost like Peter is stuttering or stammering. Literally, he says, "Lord,
28:19 you my wash the feet."
28:25 Peter just can't fathom what Christ is doing.
28:32 But to that then Jesus replies what I am doing you do not understand now but
28:38 afterward you will understood you will understand.
28:44 So in this text Jesus is saying something is happening getting ready to happen that you don't
28:50 now understand but when it happens you will understand. And he goes on after
28:56 Peter once again says no you'll not wash my feet. Then Jesus answers him the second time, if I do not wash you, you
29:04 have no share with me. And then in the next verse, Jesus talks more about being
29:10 clean. Being clean all over. So these verses are stressing something
29:18 about Jesus washing that makes us clean all over. When he washes us, he's not
29:24 only concerned about our feet. He's concerned about our total cleansing.
29:31 Jesus actions as a servant in this passage are pointing to the fact that he
29:36 is truly a servant, the suffering servant that was prophesied by the
29:43 prophet Isaiah. Remember back in Isaiah chapter 53, the
29:48 suffering servant who is Jesus is described as the one who will bear our griefs, who will carry our
29:55 sorrows. He will be pierced. He will be crushed. He is the righteous one who
30:03 will make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their sins.
30:10 Yes, the suffering servant Jesus will cleanse his people from their sins
30:15 through his sacrificial death. Jesus by taking the role of a servant cleaning
30:20 the dirty feet of his disciples is pointing to his identity as the
30:26 suffering servant who will clean the dirt and the stain of sin totally from
30:32 our lives. What can wash away my sin?
30:37 Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing this I see nothing but
30:45 the blood of Jesus. Jesus washing Jesus cleansing goes much
30:51 further than just our feet. Jesus humbling of himself to the lowest
30:56 position a slave could have in order to bring us cleansing also reminds us of
31:03 the passage in Philippians where Jesus is seen as humbling himself as a servant
31:09 even further than washing feet. Philippians chapter 2, Paul is saying to
31:16 have the same attitude in us that was in Jesus Christ, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with
31:23 God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant,
31:30 being born in the likeness of man, being found in human form, he humbled himself
31:37 by becoming obedient to the point of death. even the death on the cross.
31:45 Jesus emptied himself. He became a servant. He humbled himself much lower
31:51 than just the lowly job of washing dirty feet. He humbled himself to the point of
31:57 death, the worst possible death, dying on a cross
32:03 so that we could be cleansed from the stain and the dirt of our sin.
32:10 Now that's really the story of that's the glory of love.
32:17 So we see Jesus actions of being a servant to wash the dirt from the feet of his disciples is also pointing to
32:24 Jesus ultimate action as a servant washing away the sin of all who believe
32:30 in him through his sacrificial death. Jesus sacrifice does provide cleansing
32:38 from sin but only if we respond in faith to him to experience the glory of God's
32:45 love we must respond in faith and it's not an automatic thing we must
32:52 decide we must respond will I receive Jesus
32:57 through faith confessing my sin asking forgiveness acknowledging him as the
33:03 rightful Lord of my life or will I reject his offer of forgiveness, reject his rightful claim
33:10 on my life? We've already seen these two possibilities back in John 1 11 and 12
33:17 where some did reject, but others received, they believed, they
33:23 became Jesus own. They experienced the glory of God's love.
33:29 And we see both of these reactions in our story in John chapter 13.
33:34 First of all, let's look at the reaction of Judas who rejected Jesus. He's the
33:41 one that's referred to
33:46 My Clicker is not working for some reason. Could you forward to the next slide,
33:51 please? It's one too far. There we go. That's good. Thanks.
33:57 Judas is the one that is referred to in chapter 13 verse 10 where Jesus is
34:04 saying to Peter, you are clean but not every one of you for he knew who was to
34:11 betray him. That is why he said not all of you are clean.
34:18 Even more information is given about Judas in the passage of the scripture that we did not read this morning,
34:23 verses 21-30, where we see that even though Jesus had
34:29 already washed Jesus's feet, Judas still turns his back on Jesus
34:37 because we see later in the text that at the meal Jesus offers Judas food, a token of
34:45 friendship, a symbol of the desire to have fellowship with somebody. But right
34:52 after Jesus offered Judas the food, Judas got up and he left. It says he
34:59 went out into the night. Having closed his heart to the light,
35:04 Judas found himself to be the servant of darkness. Now, we don't know what went through
35:10 Judas's mind. Don't know what went through his heart as he was resisting Jesus.
35:17 not only this night but earlier. Possibly Judas surrendered to the spirit
35:23 of greed. After all, he was going to make some money out of this deal.
35:28 Possibly he was disenchanted by Jesus disavowel of political power.
35:35 Possibly Judas had had some ambitions that were now thwarted.
35:41 Possibly Judas did not want to follow a Messiah
35:46 who acted like a servant washing feet and then told him to go do the same
35:52 thing. He wasn't about to do that. All of this resistance to Jesus gave the
35:60 devil an opportunity to work in Judah's heart and prompt him to betray Jesus.
36:07 We see when looking at Judas's response that even someone who has been in the presence of Jesus for a long time, who
36:14 has been witnessed to his power, who has heard his teachings, still needs to make
36:20 a personal conscious decision to place their faith in Jesus. We learn here that
36:26 not all who are in the group are really his own. We see that it's possible to
36:33 come to activities in church, be involved in a Christian family, associate with believers and not truly
36:40 have experienced and acknowledge Jesus as your Lord and confessed your sin, repented of sin and asked him to save
36:48 you from your sin. Judas did not respond in faith. He
36:54 rejected. But in our text, we also see the response of Peter or maybe I should say
37:01 I should say the responses plural of Peter because we see two responses.
37:08 First of all, Peter said, "Lord, you will never wash my feet."
37:14 Now, why did he say that? Well, we don't know for sure,
37:19 but I think Peter was probably thinking, Jesus, you should not be doing this.
37:26 You're the Messiah. You're the anointed king. You're the head of this new kingdom you're going to establish, and
37:32 kings do not wash feet. You should not be doing that.
37:39 It's obvious that Peter did not really understand yet fully who Jesus was. He
37:45 didn't understand the role of Jesus as the suffering servant. He had not yet
37:51 grasped that Jesus was going to humble himself even to the point of death on the cross.
37:57 Now Jesus had tried many times to tell them that. You might remember the account back in Matthew 16 after Jesus
38:05 asked who do men say that I am? After several answers then Jesus says who do
38:10 you say I am? And Peter had said, "You're the Messiah, the son of the living God."
38:17 Jesus told him, "Yes, you're right." But then he went on to say, "But I, the son
38:22 of man, will be I will be I will suffer and I will be killed." And you remember
38:28 Peter's response. Never, Lord. No, no, no. Don't talk like that. Don't. You will never suffer and
38:35 die. Same response here. Never, Lord. You won't wash my feet. Never, Lord. You
38:42 shall not suffer and die. To which Jesus replied,
38:48 you do not understand the things of God. You're not thinking God's thoughts,
38:54 but human thoughts. So, at first we see that Peter had the
38:59 wrong idea of who the Messiah was. He wanted Jesus to conform to his ideas of
39:05 who the Messiah should be. Sound familiar?
39:10 Don't we do the same today? So often we want Jesus to conform to our
39:17 image. We want him to do our will. We expect
39:23 God to do and behave like we want him to.
39:29 But that's not the way it is. We think human thoughts, not thoughts of God. We
39:36 don't write God's job description. We don't plan God's calendar.
39:43 When God does not do according to your desires, what do you do?
39:49 Do you respond like Judas, close your heart, reject, turn your back
39:55 on, leave? Or do you respond like we're going to
40:00 see Peter responding in the next verse when Peter says, "Well then, Lord,
40:08 wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head."
40:15 Now, that's a response of faith. Peter was all in. No reservations, no
40:22 hesitations. Jesus, take all of me. Cleanse me from
40:27 head to toe. Lord, I'm yours. Take me.
40:33 We will experience the glory of God's love when we respond in faith to Jesus
40:39 sacrificial cleansing, crying out, "Wash all of me from head to toe. Take me.
40:45 Take all of me." Lastly, we see that when we go to the
40:52 feet of others as servants and messengers of Jesus, we will experience
40:58 the glory of God. Jesus set an example for us to follow.
41:05 We see that in verses 14 and 15. After he had washed the feet of the disciples, Jesus said, "If I then, your Lord and
41:12 Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I
41:18 have given you an example that you should do just as I have done."
41:24 Now, some people when they look at this verse, they interpret it to mean that footwashing should be included as one of
41:29 the ordinances of the church and that we should practice that as a regular part of our worship.
41:36 Now, I'm not opposed to that, and I know that can be meaningful.
41:41 But realistically, if you were to go to church knowing your feet were going to be washed in a service like this before
41:49 you came, you would make sure your feet were already clean. You don't want to take your shoes off
41:55 and your feet stink. You're going to put on clean socks. You're going to wear
42:00 your best shoes. And so it kind of misses the gist of
42:06 what Jesus is getting at if footwashing is just limited
42:12 to an act like this. Now while that can be meaningful,
42:18 I think what Jesus is getting at is we are to be servants.
42:24 We follow his example. We humble ourselves and are willing to do even the
42:30 most most degrading of tasks doing lowly
42:36 deeds because of love. Remember Jesus at the beginning of the
42:43 chapter says he was now going to show his love to the full extent.
42:48 And so Jesus is now telling us show your love to the full extent.
42:54 Be a servant. have a servant's heart of love. And we see that when we go on to
43:00 the next verse because Jesus says, "I have given you an example
43:05 that you should do as I have done." We should be humble servants doing what
43:15 Christ has done. And we see in verse 16 that now Jesus
43:20 sends us as his servants and as his messengers. First of all, think about
43:27 being sent as his servant. Being sent as a servant is first of all about your attitude.
43:34 It's not about the deeds to begin with that will come. But first of all, it's about your heart, your mind. Because to
43:42 be a servant that involves a radical change in our thinking and a change in
43:49 our heart. It requires repentance from pride.
43:54 Humility is necessary for most people. It doesn't just come naturally to give
44:00 ourselves in service to others, especially to others
44:06 that do not receive us well. When we allow Christ to change our heart
44:12 and to change our mind, he will give us a servant's heart and then after the
44:18 heart has been changed, the actions will follow. Now, how might that look in your life?
44:25 You might end up washing somebody's feet. I don't know. You might be called upon someday like Robertson McQuilin,
44:32 the man I mentioned earlier, to care for someone with dementia. I don't know how it will look in your
44:38 life, but I think that if you have a servant's heart, it will first of all be
44:44 expressed in relationships with family, how you treat your wife, how you treat
44:50 your husband, how you treat your children. If you have a servant's heart, I think
44:56 it will be evident in how you treat your maid, how you treat the security guards,
45:03 how you treat your co-workers, how you treat your employees if you're
45:09 the boss. Having a servant's heart will be evident in how you treat migrant workers at
45:16 restaurants or at petrol pumps. Ask yourself,
45:22 what would it look like in my life to be a servant of Jesus? To go with the
45:29 same servant heart of love that Jesus had to the feet of other people.
45:34 How might it look in your service at church? Some of you are already doing some of these things such as helping
45:40 with the tuition for the Tamil ministry or being involved with Pastor Rama in the street feeding, visiting older
45:47 members with Pastor Moby that can't get out anymore, maybe welcoming international students
45:54 into your home, sacrificing your Saturdays to work with boys brigade,
45:59 giving your time to work with children and youth. It will look different in each of our
46:04 lives, but the attitude, the heart is going to be the same. So this morning,
46:10 ask God to show you what it's like for you to be a servant and ask him to whom
46:16 can I go and wash their feet? Figuratively speaking, who can I show
46:24 God's sacrificial love to?
46:30 In the story that I told earlier about Robertson McQuilin, he wrote a book about his experience and
46:36 he told about one particular incident after his wife had become demented but
46:43 he was she was still mobile able to get around. They were traveling someplace by plane and he said traveling with her was
46:49 like traveling with a small child. She'd keep asking all kinds of questions. Are we there yet? How much longer? and she
46:56 would also just get up and start moving around and he'd have to go after her and bring her back. And they were at the
47:02 airport and he said she would get up and wander down the hall and he'd have to go
47:07 back, get her and bring her back. And this happened seven times. And each
47:12 time as they were walking down the hall and coming back, they passed by a lady
47:18 who, by the way, she was dressed, looked like she was a business executive. She
47:23 was busy working on her laptop computer. Robertson and Mcquilen figured they were probably disturbing her, walking back
47:29 and forth so many times in front of her as he was trying to help his wife back. The seventh time
47:36 when he walked past this lady who was working on her computer,
47:41 he heard her mumble something under her breath. So he thought that she was
47:46 probably just protesting about the fact she couldn't get any work done with all this commotion going on. not being shy.
47:55 He said, "Excuse me, did did you say something?" And she said, "Yes, I did."
48:06 She said, "I wonder if I will ever find a man who will love me that much.
48:14 Will I ever find a man who will love me that much?"
48:20 Isn't that what we all want down in the core of our soul?
48:27 We want somebody to care for us. Even when we're irritating, even when we're
48:33 irksome, even when we're troublesome, we want somebody to care for us.
48:39 Jesus does. And when we've experienced his love, the
48:44 question should not just be, will somebody love me like that?
48:50 But as a follower of Jesus, knowing his servant heart, let's ask ourselves the question, will I be somebody who loves
48:59 other people the way he does? Jesus sends us as his servants.
49:08 Jesus became a servant of God and a servant to other people to fulfill his
49:14 role. And now he calls us, his disciples, to sacrifice ourselves for
49:19 the purposes of God. And Jesus is not only sending us as his servants, he's
49:25 also sending us as his messengers. We are Christ's messengers, his
49:31 ambassadors. We're to proclaim with our life through deeds of service who Jesus
49:37 is. But they won't know who Jesus is just through our lives.
49:42 The UN does many humanitarian projects. The Red Cross, the Red Crescent does
49:48 many humanitarian projects. There are philanthropists in the world who do many
49:53 good things but aren't necessarily doing it because
49:59 of their relationship with Jesus. We're to be Jesus messenger so that
50:05 through our love people will know that we are Jesus disciples.
50:12 They're not going to know that unless we open our mouth. We're to be servants of Christ and also
50:21 messengers of the gospel. So that when people do hear and understand the good
50:27 news about Jesus, when they see his work in our lives, when they clearly hear the gospel
50:33 message, then they can come to the point that they will say that's the story of
50:40 that's the glory of love.
50:45 You can experience the glory of God's love
50:51 when you recognize who Jesus truly is. When you understand his servant heart,
50:59 when you respond in faith to his sacrificial cleansing,
51:04 and then when you go to the feet of others in service and as a messenger of
51:10 Jesus. Let's pray together.
51:16 Father God, we thank you for your wonderful, glorious love for us. We
51:22 thank you how that is so clear in the life and even more so in the death of Jesus. I pray that you would show each
51:30 one of us how we can be a servant of yours. If someone is here this morning
51:36 that has not yet responded in faith to your offer of sacrificial cleansing, I pray that they would place their faith
51:41 in you today, repenting of sin and pride, self-sufficiency,
51:47 turning to you, allowing you to control their lives. And for each one of us who have experienced your wonderful love in
51:54 our life, I pray that as we go from here, your love will be evident through our words and through our deeds.
52:01 In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
