What a what a celebration today. What an opportunity to worship
and praise God. He's good, isn't he?
Are you glad to be here? All right, I got about four
weeks of sermons that we're going to get in about 25 minutes
today. And so let's let's get after my
question to you is this, What would you do for the people you
love? I want you to think about that.
Maybe, maybe it's your kids or your friends.
What, what links would you go to?
I remember when I was a kid, and I know I've told this story
before, but I've been preaching here for 10 years, a decade now.
So you're going to hear some of the stories over and over again.
So stick with me here. But I remember when I was a kid,
I was born here in Westchester and lived here till I was 7.
And when I was 7, my dad was a pastor and my mom and dad felt
that God was calling us to move to Texas, the Dallas area of
Texas. Now I had some really good
friends here. I had three really close friends
and I'd I just really struggled with that move.
We got to Texas. I had a really hard time, just
really missed my friends that I was close to.
And I'll never forget my dad knew I was struggling.
I was in second grade. I mean, I wasn't, I was just a
little kid in second grade. But my dad knew I was
struggling. And he said one day he, he came
home from work and he knew how hard I was taking that move.
And he said, I knew you were struggling.
And I had I had made-up my mind that whatever you needed,
whatever you wanted, I was going to do.
He said, I really thought I was going to come home and I was
going to ask you what you wanted.
And you were going to say, I want to go back to Ohio and I
want to hang out with my friends.
And my dad said, I was ready to get in the car and drive you to
Ohio so you can see your friends.
What would you do for the people you love?
Today we're going to be looking at the servant King and, and,
and we're in this series the King we need the the king.
We often think we know what's best for us.
We often think we know what we need in a leader.
But what we're looking at in this series is that Jesus is not
the king that we necessarily want or the king we think we
need. Jesus is the king that we
actually need. And today we're talking about
Jesus, the servant King. And so we're going to be in John
chapter 13. Last week we took communion
together. Today this we're looking at the
same time frame, Jesus with his disciples and his Last Supper
together in the upper room. And so we're in John chapter 13.
Would you stand with me and honor God's word?
And we stand because we believe God wants to speak to us through
his word. Even though it was written a
long time ago, we believe that God inspired it, inspired people
to write it, and that it's meant not just for the people of that
day, but for us today. And we believe that God wants to
speak to us. So we stand and honor that.
When I read John chapter 13, verse one through 17, it says it
was just before the Passover festival.
The hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the
Father, having loved his own who were in the world.
He loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress
and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon
Iscariot to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had
put all things under his feet and that he had come from God
and was returning to God. So he got up from the meal, he
took off his outer clothing and he wrapped a towel around his
waist. After that he poured water into
a basin and he began to wash his disciples feet, drying them with
the towel he had wrapped around his that was wrapped around him.
He came to Simon Peter who said to him, Lord, are you going to
wash my feet? Jesus replied, that you do not
realize what I'm doing, but later you will understand.
No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet.
And Jesus answered, unless I wash you, you have no part with
me. Then, Lord, Simon Peter replied,
not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well.
Jesus answered, those who have had a bath need only to wash
their feet. Their whole body is clean, and
you are clean, though not everyone of you.
For he knew who was going to betray him, and that that was
why he said not everyone was clean.
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his
clothes and returned to his place.
Do you understand what I've done for you?
He asked them. You call me Teacher and Lord,
and rightly so, for that is what I am.
Now that I, your teacher, your Lord and Teacher have washed
your feet, you should also You also should wash one another's
feet. I have set you an example that
you should do as I have done for you.
Very truly. I tell him, now that you know
these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
You can have a seat. So this this text kicks off the
upper room discourse. This happens.
It's Jesus last meal with his disciples.
It's the Passover meal together with his disciples.
And, and this is happening around or a little bit less than
24 hours away from when Jesus will be dying on a cross.
And so Jesus gathers with his disciples.
There's four things we see in this text.
And, and these are real simple things, but but they're
important things. Number one is the reason he does
what he does #2 is the action that he does #3 is the result of
what he does. And #4 is the directive.
And so we're going to work through this.
I mean, he's gathered with his disciples #1 the reason verses
one through 3 show us the reason that Jesus does what he does.
It says it was just before the Passover festival.
Jesus knew. Guys, let this sink in.
Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world
and go to the Father. Having loved His own who were in
the world, He loved them to the end.
The reason that Jesus did what He did in John 13, the reason
that Jesus ultimately went to the cross for our sins, is love.
Having loved His own, He loved them to the end.
Two things we see in the in the first part of this text #1 Jesus
knew it was his time. He knew that he was within 24
hours of being handed over to to the authorities and being
crucified. He didn't just know that his
time had come to leave this world.
He knew that his time had come to die on a cross, a criminal's
death. He knew what was coming.
Does that not blow your mind that we're 24 hours from Jesus,
knowing that he's going to die an excruciating death and he
gathers with his disciples in the upper room.
He spends his time with the people he loves.
What would you do if you thought if you knew you had 24 hours
left? Would you have a bucket list?
Would you have a meal that you'd want to have?
Would you just want to be with the people that matter?
Jesus spent his last time with the people that he loved.
And so the main motivation for Jesus loving and serving his
people and ultimately going to the cross is love.
He loves them. Guys, I've got good news today.
Jesus loves you. And in his last moments before
going to the cross, he spent time with the people that he
loved. And I know that you're saying,
well, I wasn't there, but I want you to know that Jesus knows you
and loves you. And, and if he were here today,
I believe he would want to serve you and wash your feet because
he loves you. The second thing we see is in
verse 3, it says Jesus knew that the Father had put all things
under his feet. So #1 he knew that he was about
to die an excruciating death on the cross for our sins, but #2
he knew that he was all powerful.
He knew that the Father God had given him all authority and
power. Everything was under his feet.
And so he is not just a king, He's the King of kings.
He is the Messiah. He is the one.
If there was ever a person on this earth that shouldn't have
had to serve others, if there was ever a person on this earth
that that should have thought they were above others, it was
Jesus Christ. God had put all things under His
feet. Yet what did he do?
We're going to see this in #2 He.
He took action. He served them, says He loved
them. He loved them to the end.
This is the end of His time before He goes to the cross.
What does He do? He spends His time loving and
serving His disciples. So #2 the action verse 3.
Jesus knew that the Father had put all things on.
He had come from God and was returning to God.
So what did He do? He got up from the meal.
He took off his outer clothing. He wrapped a towel around his
waist. After that, he poured water into
a basin and began to wash His disciples feet, drying them with
the towel that was wrapped around him.
And he came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, are you going
to wash my feet? See, this is an incredible thing
that happens. We don't do a lot of foot
washing in our culture. How many of you are thankful for
that? OK, some of you, some of you
probably are really grossed out. In fact, I thought about just
putting, you know, a chair in a water basin here just so that
you would be nervous and think he might call me up.
But I didn't want you to be listening in anxiety.
But but the action is Jesus washed his disciples feet.
Now this is a big deal guys. The last verse we read there he
came to Simon Peter who was the outspoken 1.
He always said what he thought and Simon Peter said are you
going to wash my feet? And he goes on to say, no way.
Why? Because this was a lowly thing
that Jesus did. This was one of the lowest tasks
you could do. He humbled himself to the place
of a servant. It says that number one, Jesus
knew he was going to the cross. He knew his hour had come to
leave this earth. He knew what was coming #2 He
knew that everything was under his feet.
He was above all. He was the King of kings, He was
the Messiah, He was the Savior. So what did he do?
Took off his outer garments, wrapped a towel around his waist
and did a lowly job of a certain not just a servant, the lowest
servant. Most houses had multiple
servants, and only the lowest servants would wash the feet of
the people. This is an audacious act.
This is this is crazy. But the king of kings who's
headed to the cross, humbles himself, washes the disciples
feet. Have you ever had to do
something that you really were uncomfortable with?
Have you ever had to had to serve someone or do something
that just. I think it's safe for me to
share this story at this point. Over a decade ago, probably well
over a decade ago, we got a call at the church.
Being a pastor means sometimes we get put in situations that
are uncomfortable. We got a call from somebody.
She was a lady and and she was staying at what I call the cat
Cemetery. You now know it is Texas
Roadhouse. Does that make you hungry?
We're going to go a little over today, so I figured I'd kill
your hunger a little bit. There we go.
Well, the reason I call, I call it that is because she said,
hey, I'm in a tough situation. I've got cats and I'm being
kicked out and I need to get from here to Middletown and I
need my cats to go with me. Can you please come and pick up
my cats and take me and my cats to Middletown?
How many of you have ever been, you know, asked to take a person
in cats to Middletown? Anyone not OK.
All right, not, not, not my, not necessarily in my job
description. It's not in there.
I've looked, but I had a choice. What do I do?
It's all I went over and I went to, if you don't know, before
this was Texas Roadhouse over here.
It was a motel. And I went over and she had a
couple cats in the room and and a smell hit me that I was not
ready for a cat smell. You guys know cats and, and so
I, we got the cats into the cage, picked up the cage and put
it in the back of my truck. And, and I mean, I'm just
telling you, I was so uncomfortable and I, my hand, I
kept smelling and I smelled my hand and I was like, Oh my word.
And I washed my hand so many times that day and it, it
wouldn't come out. And I'm, I'm just telling you it
was, it was an uncomfortable place.
And I'm not saying this to put anyone down or anything.
I'm just saying sometimes you're put in a position where you may
have to do something uncomfortable, something that's
not in your job description. You've been there, haven't you?
Right. Here's what I want you to
understand that Jesus 24 hours from being crucified on a cross
for our sins. Jesus knowing that the Father
had put all things under his feet, chose to do the lowest
servant job and wash the disciples feet.
He wasn't forced to. Nobody asked him to, He chose
to. Why #1 love.
He loved his disciples and He was showing them His love and He
was setting His example. And in Matthew chapter 20 it
says, Jesus says, instead, whoever wants to become great
among you must be your servant. Whoever wants to be first must
be your slave. Just as the Son of Man did not
come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom
for many, Jesus is showing us what it looks like to love and
to serve others. He's not, It's not.
This isn't a show. This isn't, hey, get the cameras
out. Let's get the press ready so
everyone can see me do that. This wasn't about show.
This was about Jesus loving his disciples and in that showing
them what it looks like to love others.
What did Jesus do? He humbled himself to the lowest
place. He washed the feed that brought
on this interesting conversation.
And that leads to the result #3 Peter said, hey, are you going
to wash my feet? And Gia says you don't
understand what I'm doing. And Peter says absolutely not,
You're not washing my feet. Never, never.
Are you going to wash my feet? Now that sounds mean, but but
Peter's coming from a good place here.
See, See Peter's thinking you're Jesus, you're the Messiah.
In fact, Peter's already said this.
Jesus asked him at one point, hey, who am I?
And Peter said, you're the Messiah, you're the Son of God.
And so Peter knows exactly who Jesus is and what what he's
saying here is there's no way that you, the King of kings, the
Messiah, the Son of God, there's no way I can let you wash my
feet, my dirty feet. Are you uncomfortable with
people helping you out? Serving you?
I think it might be more uncomfortable to have your feet
washed than to wash someone else's feet.
And Peter's saying absolutely not.
It doesn't work that way, Jesus. No, no, we're supposed to serve
you. We're supposed to do the good
things for you because you're the Messiah, you're the king,
and we serve the King. And so no way you're going to
wash my feet. And Jesus responds and he says,
Unless I wash you, you have no part with me giving us a picture
of something here. He's washing their feet.
He's humbling himself, serving them as a picture that he loves
them. But ultimately it's a picture of
a bigger reality that Jesus is going to a cross.
He's going to die on the cross, a criminal's death to pay the
price for our sins. And what he's saying here is, if
you can't accept me washing your feet, how can you ever accept
the free grace, the the scandalous grace of the cross
that you've sinned and you've fallen short and I'm going to go
die on a cross to pay for it. And so he says, unless I wash
you, you have no place with me. Guys, we, we get this wrong all
the time. I think if we were all being
honest, we would say we, we struggle with this, that
sometimes we think, hey, I've got to get myself lovable.
I've got to make myself worthy. I hear this from people all the
time. Oh, I can't go to church.
You don't understand what I've done, where I've been.
I can't go to church. No, no, I'll be, I'll be struck
by lightning. And we think and even in the
church, even people that have been in the church for 40-50
years sometimes struggle with this.
We think we've got to do things to earn our salvation and our
love from God. What Jesus is saying here is no,
no, no, no, I'm humbling myself and I'm washing your feet and
unless I wash your feet, you can't be clean.
Guys, this is really important and and I hope we all understand
this, the only way to be cleansed, the only way to be
clean, the only way to salvation is to be washed by Jesus.
Unless I wash you, you have no place for me or with me.
And so the result is Jesus is washing their feet.
He's showing them a picture of the bigger reality that the way
they are saved, the way they are washed, the way they are
cleansed is through his gift, his love, his grace.
Then we have this back and forth where Peter says, well, OK, all
right, Jesus, you got me. Well, in that case, don't just
wash my feet though. Wash all of me.
Wash my hands, wash my head, wash it all.
Jesus. No, no, no, hold on.
If you've bathed, if you're clean, you only need to have
your feet washed. What Jesus is talking about here
is another picture he's trying to show us a picture of daily
repentance that when you have a bath, you don't have to
constantly be washed, but you're, you're clean.
But if you walk around, especially in this day, your
feet are going to get dirty. And So what Jesus is showing us
is that what as we walk through life, we need to constantly,
daily be repenting. But ultimately, His salvation is
a gift that we receive and we are saved and we just need the
daily surrender and repentance to have our feet washed, to be
clean. The only way to be cleaned, to
be cleansed is through Jesus. That leads to the 4th part.
So let's just recap really quick.
Number one, why did Jesus do this?
Because He loved his disciples. And he loves you.
What did he do? He humbled himself to the lowest
place he could. And it was a step towards the
lower place. The death of a criminal on a
cross. Jesus hung on a cross and died
so that we could be cleansed, we could be forgiven, we could have
salvation. The result is our salvation.
And then 4th is the directive. Verse 12.
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his
clothes. He returned to his place.
Do you understand what I have done for you?
He asked them. You call me Teacher and Lord,
and rightly so, for that's what I am.
Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet,
you also should wash one another's feet.
I've set an example that you should do as I have done for
you. Very truly.
I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is
a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do
them so. So Jesus loves us.
Jesus serves us, washes us. We have salvation in life
through him. But now is the directive.
Hey, now that you've accepted my washing, my grace, now it's time
for you to go and wash the feet and serve and love others.
If you're going to follow Jesus, you have to serve.
You have to love others. See, see, discipleship is
becoming like the disciple. It's following it.
The rabbi that's teaching the idea is that you're learning
from the rabbi and you're becoming like the rabbi.
The the discipleship of the Christian is that we are
becoming more like Jesus. He's transforming a scripture
says that his Holy Spirit's at work and he's transforming us
into his image. And so, so if you're going to
follow Jesus, you can't say, hey, I'll follow you, but I'm
not really big into foot washing.
Now, guys, I'm not talking about literal foot washing.
Some churches, very few believe that this is a directive, A
ritual that we're supposed to do.
Most churches, what we believe is that this is something that
Jesus is showing us a picture that if you're going to follow
me, you have to humble yourself. You have to serve and you have
to love others. If you're going to follow Jesus,
it's not a choice. You have to be a servant.
You have to be a person of love #2 if you're going to be about
His mission, then you have to be in line with His mission.
If if you're going to be all about His grace and His
salvation, then you need to be in line with His mission to give
grace and salvation to others. And #3 it says if you know these
things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Jesus is showing us that the best way to live is to pour
ourselves out for others. So here's the thing, we live in
a culture that is quite the opposite.
In fact, there is a trend in the church.
And I know I talk about this a lot and maybe I'm just a, you
know, getting old, but there's a trend in the church that that we
elevate people. There's a trend that there's
mega church pastors that build their brand.
There's a trend. And even in, in the church,
sometimes the temptation is to think that, hey, the, the, the
higher up I get, the more close to Jesus I get, the more my job
description changes and I get to be, you know, up here, Jesus
says, no, no, no, no. If you're going to follow me,
you've got to do as I've done. And so the closer you grow to
Jesus, the lower you should go for others.
My job description doesn't say I've got to go carry cats, I've
got to wash feet. But Jesus says if you want to
follow me, you'll do as I've done.
He gives us this directive, guys, hold me accountable.
Hold the preachers you listen to accountable.
Hold the leaders in in your life, the Christian leaders
accountable. If they're not loving and
serving others, they're not following the gospel.
They're not following Jesus. We are called.
The closer we get to Him, the more we should lower ourselves,
humble ourselves and serve others.
This isn't about me becoming something, this is about me
glorifying God by loving the people around me.
Matthew 25 says that Jesus says, then the king will say to those
on the right, come, you are blessed by my Father, take your
inheritance, the Kingdom prepared for you since the
creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me
something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me
something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited
me in. I needed clothes and you clothed
me. I was sick and you looked after
me. I was in prison.
You came to visit me. And then the righteous will
answer him. Lord, when did we see you hungry
and feed you? When, when did we see you
thirsty and give you something to drink?
When did we see you a stranger and invite you in?
When did we see you needing clothes and clothe you?
When did we see you sick or in prison and go visit you?
And the King will reply. Truly, I tell you, whatever you
have done for one of the least of these brothers or and sisters
of mine, you've done for me. If you want to worship, if you
want to serve God, you do that by loving and serving others.
Later in John 13, Jesus says a new command.
I give you love one another. As I have loved you, so you must
love one another. By this everyone will know
you're my disciples. If you love one another.
Here's the deal. If you're on mission, you're in
the business of loving and serving others.
That's it. You want to glorify God?
Sure. Worship, sing.
Absolutely. We should love God with all our
heart, soul, mind and strength. We should be at church, we
should sing, we should praise Him.
We should read our Bible, We should pray.
But the second command is like the first.
Love your neighbor as yourself. Loving Jesus will always lead us
to love and serve others. Our worship team, come on up.
I want us to respond to God's word number one.
I want you to know today that that Jesus loves you.
That if Jesus were here, he would want you to know that he
loves you more than you will ever understand.
He loves you. I think Jesus would want to wash
your feet today. More than that, Jesus went to a
cross. That's what we're going to,
we're going to see this week in Holy Week.
Jesus gave his life on a cross for the sins you've committed.
Every single one of us has sinned and fallen short of the
glory of God, and there's nothing we could do to save
ourselves. But the good news is this.
Jesus loves you so much that he gave his life on a cross to pay
for your sins. You can have salvation today,
maybe some of you today, maybe some of you today just need to
accept his grace and his love and his salvation.
But but then he calls us to love and serve others.
If you've accepted his salvation and his grace, you are called,
you are directed to love and serve others.
Now this sometimes we say things say you got to love and serve
others. And that's really vague.
And you may think, how do I even do that?
I want to give you a really beautiful picture that I saw
recently. We did Mack Mcdaniel's service
this week. He passed away.
Wonderful man of the church, a man that that I had a good
friendship with and about. I think it was about four weeks
ago, I would go visit him. And I thought, you know what, I
hope my dad can go with me. So I called dad.
I said, Dad, I'm going to go see Mack, can you come with me?
And he said, absolutely, I'd love to go see Mack.
And I thought, oh man, now Mack is just going to jump up and
down when Dad walks in. See, Dad was his pastor for 15
years before he became the district Superintendent.
And Mack loved him. And I just thought I had this
picture in my head, we're going to walk in and he's going to see
us and he's going to get this big smile.
He's going to be excited. And, and we went to the the
memory care unit where he was and, and dad and I walked in and
Mack was laying in bed. He was having a really bad day.
He didn't even lift up his head. He was struggling.
He was laying in bed. His covers were up to about
here. And all you could see was his
head. And I said, Mack, Dad's here,
he's here to visit you. And he said, oh, that's good.
And I thought, I want a bummer. I thought this would cheer him
up. And we sat and talked to Mack as
he laid in the bed in his room. And then I saw the most
beautiful picture. I don't say this to Bragg, but
my dad's awesome. He's the district Superintendent
of the Southwest Ohio District. He's in charge of a lot of
churches, and he's been a pastor his whole life.
And then he came to visit Mac, and Mac's just laying in bed.
So Dad crawled into bed next to him.
It wasn't enough to stand there and pray over him.
He loved Mack. He wanted to show his love for
Mack. And so he crawled into bed and
prayed with him. Guys, we are called to love and
serve others. We are called to humble
ourselves. Maybe maybe that this week that
looks like just getting close to someone.
Maybe this week it means taking some time when you don't have
the time and listening to someone and hearing their story.
Maybe it means you need to forgive someone.
Jesus loves you so much that He gave everything so that you
could have salvation in life today.
If you haven't accepted that stand with me, go ahead stand
with me. I'm sorry everybody stand with
me. I was confusing, my bad today.
If you haven't accepted that salvation, His love and His
grace is here for you today and you can accept it today.
All it takes is saying I want you to be my Savior and my Lord,
and you can be cleansed and washed clean of all the stuff
you've done. But today maybe you're already
following Jesus. He's calling you to love and
serve others. I don't care if you've been in
the church 80 years, if you've served in every position, if
you're a general Superintendent or a district Superintendent or
a pastor or a Sunday school teacher, whatever you are, the
calling is to humble yourself, love and serve others.
I want to respond to God's word. We're going to sing a song.
Who else is worthy? And and we don't just, hey, who
else is worthy? It's not just who else is worthy
of my singing, but who else is worthy of my life.
Today I want you to respond to God's word.
Maybe today that's accepting his salvation and saying I want you
to be my Savior. If you want to do that, you
could come. There's altars up here and over
on the sides. You can pray, but maybe God's
speaking to you and tugging at your heart.
There's someone that he wants you to love and to serve.
Let's respond. Let's say yes.
Let's surrender everything. Let's trust him.
Father, speak to us. Thank you so much for your love
and your grace that we didn't deserve.
Thank you for the audaciousness that you not only wash would
wash our feet, but that you would go die on a cross for our
sins. You are the Savior of the world.
You're the King of kings, and you gave everything so that we
could have salvation in life. Help us to.
Help us to be servants of the King by serving others, loving
others. We give you everything.
We respond to your word now in Jesus name, Amen.