Washing the Disciples Feet

So as you heard Al pray, Mark has been sick.

And thank you, Mary.

I came up here on Saturday and Mary was up here practicing.

So thank you very much for filling in.

As we've said before, it's always a good thing when your pastor takes vacation because that means your church is healthy.

And it's also a good thing because we get to hear from other pastors in our area.

And we get that privilege this morning with Mike Wensler, who is bringing the word to us.

And Mike is an RUF pastor, and I'm going to let him kind of fill you in a little bit more on that.

So please go forward, Mike.

Thanks.

Good morning, everyone.

Sweet to be with you.

Thank you for having me.

I thought it was funny earlier when Jim made the comment that, you know, thank God that your pastor will be back next week.

You know, and I feel that too.

Amen and amen.

It really is a privilege, though, to get to travel and to worship with other congregations in the state here.

My wife and kids who are not here, unfortunately, my wife's out of town and my kids all have strep.

But, yeah, I wish next time we'll bring them along and you can meet them.

But we've been in Fort Collins now for 18 months doing RUF at Colorado State University at CSU.

So RUF probably, I know some of you have some familiarity with it, but it's the college ministry of the PCA.

Started the same year, roughly, the PCA started and spread out of the southeast and now has reached beautiful lands of Colorado.

And so we have one at CSU and one at Air Force Academy.

Maybe you've heard from Jeff Kreisel.

Has he been here to preach before?

I think I'm seeing some nods.

Yeah.

So please don't compare me to him because that will not bode well for me.

But he's a great guy.

He's a friend of mine.

I love Jeff.

And, yeah, so this is a sweet thing.

So I'm not on staff in a church and I don't have to, I don't have responsibilities at our local church in Fort Collins.

So I can travel and I'm not dearly missed necessarily.

And so this morning we're jumping into a passage that is not in any series that you've been going through.

But we're going to be looking at John chapter 13.

John 13 · chapter mention

Probably a well-known passage to many of you, the washing of the disciples' feet.

And I will open up my Bible, read the passage for us, pray, and then we'll get started.

I think it's also in your bulletins.

This is John 13.

Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father,

having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

During supper, when the devil had 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 back to God, rose from supper.

He laid aside his outer garments and, taking a towel, tied it around his waist.

Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet

and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,

Lord, do you wash my feet?

Jesus answered him,

What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.

Peter said to him,

You shall never wash my feet.

Jesus answered him,

If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.

Simon Peter said to him,

Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.

Jesus said to him,

The one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet,

but is completely clean.

And you are clean, but not every one of you.

For he knew who was to betray him.

And that was why he said,

Not all of you are clean.

When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place,

he said to them,

Do you understand what I have done to you?

You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.

If then I, 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 also should do,

just as I have done to you.

Truly, truly, I say to you,

a servant is not greater than his master,

nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

If you knew these things,

blessed are you if you do them.

Let me pray for us,

and we'll get started.

Father, I thank you for this Lord's Day,

to gather freely to worship you.

We thank you for the sun,

for the fresh air,

for the mountains,

and for the freedom to sing to you,

to hear from you,

to pray to you.

Lord, I pray that your word and your spirit

would be at work in all of us here this morning.

I pray that we would leave here changed,

made to be more like Jesus,

encouraged in our faith,

comforted as we are afflicted.

Please be at work in us.

Please give us your Holy Spirit and understanding.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

This past July,

I was down in Dallas

for some RUF staff training.

We have two mandatory staff trainings a year.

One's in December,

one's in July.

And the July one is in Dallas.

We got off a few hours early,

one afternoon,

and a few of my other campus minister friends and I

decided to go to Elm Fork Shooting Sports

and shoot a skeet course.

Any of you shot a skeet course before?

Two of us in the room.

That's great.

I had never done it.

I had never done it before this,

but it was a pretty sweet experience.

So everyone gets a shotgun.

We bought 100 shells,

and we got a golf cart,

which holds the shotguns,

which is just kind of cool.

And we drove from station to station

to shoot clay pigeons.

You know,

there's one man is shooting,

and the other person is operating the little buttons,

and there's two different buttons,

and you can decide to shoot them at the same time,

or, you know,

one after another,

or totally two different times.

And then you try to shoot them,

and they're hidden,

and they come flying into course of view,

and you're supposed to shoot them.

Now,

in years past,

when I was younger,

I grew up in Wisconsin.

It's where we were living

before my family and I moved to Colorado.

And on vacation,

we often went up to Door County, Wisconsin,

Washington Island.

If you think of Wisconsin,

like your hand,

there's an island at the tip of the peninsula.

It's Washington Island.

And we would often go up there.

My grandparents owned some land,

and we would stand out on the shore,

and we had a hand launcher,

and we would, you know,

throw clay pigeons

and shoot them with shotguns.

And I thought I was pretty good at this.

You know,

I hit maybe most of them,

above 50% probably.

And, you know,

so we came into this time

with my friends

doing this skeet course,

and I haven't shot a shotgun in years.

Don't own one.

And I thought I was gonna,

you know,

take the cake

and show my friends

who knows how to shoot some clay pigeons.

Well, it turns out,

a couple of my friends

grew up hunting their whole lives

and know their way around a shotgun quite well.

And they outshot me pretty horribly.

I think I hit,

if I'm remembering correctly,

16 out of 100 was my number.

And the winner was over 50%.

I was second to last.

So it turns out I'm not so good

at shooting skeet.

My pride, though,

had me convinced

that I was better than I actually was.

My pride had blinded me

to the reality

of how poor a shot I actually am.

I thought my little achievements

in the past had made me good.

Now, pride over shooting guns

is one thing, of course,

but pride before God

is a holy other.

And they're very different,

but they have similar characteristics.

When we compare ourselves

to our friends,

our brothers and sisters in Christ,

we might think we're pretty good.

But if we line ourselves up to Jesus,

we would quickly see that we're not

because our pride has us convinced

that we are better than we actually are.

This is what pride does.

It blinds us to the reality

that we actually fail to measure up,

that we're sometimes stuck up

and quite often puffed up.

We even think our little achievements

in the past make us good

and acceptable before God,

maybe if we're being honest.

But Jesus turns pride on its head.

In our passage this morning,

we see this,

and this is really, I think,

the big idea from the text.

Jesus crucifies our pride

through the gospel

and calls us to serve others.

Jesus crucifies our pride

through the gospel

and calls us to serve others.

My outline is pretty generic.

It's just context, content, and consequence.

So that's what we're gonna go through.

Three Cs.

I ripped that off

from a seminary professor from years ago.

You can use it in any passage.

It's great.

Context, content, consequence.

Okay, so look at the context first.

Let's look at verse one again

in your bulletins.

It says this.

Now, before the feast of Passover,

when Jesus knew that his hour

had come to depart

out of this world to the Father,

having loved his own

who were in the world,

he loved them to the end.

Now, this story takes place

approximately one week

before Jesus was crucified.

Now, as we heard earlier

in the service,

Passover was something Israel,

the Israelites,

celebrated every year

to remember what?

To remember how God

rescued them from Egypt.

In the 10th and final plague,

God spoke through Moses

who told the people

to kill the spotless lamb,

take its blood,

literally put the blood

over the doorposts

of every Israelite home in Egypt.

And when God looked upon,

or the angel,

looked upon this blood,

he would pass over that home

knowing that the lamb died

instead of the people

or the firstborn inside of it.

Now, this is the theological connection

that we're making this morning.

All of the Bible,

according to Jesus

in John 5 and Luke 24,

is about himself

and his work

in saving his people.

The New Testament

calls Jesus explicitly

the Lamb of God.

So Jesus,

in this passage,

as they're celebrating

the Passover meal,

is about to become

the ultimate Passover lamb

who would die on the cross

in the place

of God's people.

Jesus died instead of us.

And this is what makes,

this is the essence

of what makes the gospel

actually good news.

Someone else died

instead of me.

So the Passover's here.

Jesus knew that his hour

had come

to do his work on the cross,

that is to suffer and die

and rise from the dead

and eventually go back to you

and ascend to his Father in heaven.

Focusing just for a moment

on the love

that John writes about

in verse 1.

This whole passage,

if you really step back

and kind of zoom out,

you can see this,

is really a contrast

between Jesus' humility

and his love

versus the disciples' pride

and self-conceitedness.

There's a huge contrast

in this passage.

In the face of their,

what you might call,

depending on how you're looking at it,

annoying pride,

in the face of that,

Jesus loved his disciples

and he loved them to the end.

I think this really needs

to encourage us this morning.

If you are a follower of Jesus,

the same is true for you.

Jesus doesn't think

that you are annoying.

Jesus isn't frustrated with you.

He isn't hurt

by your doubt and fear

and selfishness

and bitterness and pride.

Jesus loves you.

And we need to let this

sink down deep into our hearts.

Look at verses 2 through 3,

continuing in the context.

During supper,

when the devil had 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 back to God,

pausing there for a moment,

here's John giving us

some more context.

So the devil had already

wooed Judas

toward betraying him

and Jesus actually

wasn't surprised by this.

He knew this the whole time.

Also, we see that

the Father had given

all things into Jesus' hands.

That knowledge is significant.

Jesus knew all that

was about to take place.

It shows us, teaches us,

the only reason that

Jesus served his people

the way he did

is simply because he loved them.

That is why he did what he did.

With all the authority and power,

Jesus could have done

whatever he wanted to do.

But what kept him there,

what actually took him

to his knees

to wash his disciples' dirty feet,

what took him to the cross

to wash away people's sins

was love.

Jesus was confident

in who he was

and what he was supposed to do.

And from that place

of confidence and love,

we see the craziest thing happen

in verse four.

And that brings us

to our content.

Look at verses four through five.

So Jesus rose from supper.

He laid aside his outer garments

and taking a towel,

tied it around his waist.

Then he poured water

into a basin

and began to wash

the disciples' feet

and to wipe them

with the towel

that was wrapped around him.

I just said this was

the craziest thing happened, right?

This really truly was

in some sense

unbelievable and crazy.

Washing feet

was pretty standard

in their day

because people wore sandals

and animals used the streets

as their private bathrooms.

And you can imagine

how dirty, smelly,

disgusting people's feet

would become.

Now normally,

the way this works historically

is a host

would line up

a lowly servant,

a lowly servant

to wash the feet

of their guests.

But there was no host

and there was no servant

in the room

with Jesus

and his disciples.

The obvious choice

to wash everyone's feet

would be

one of the disciples.

but no one moved.

The basin was there,

the towel was there,

no one moved

to wash each other's feet.

No disciple

was willing

to stoop down

to do the work

of a servant

and to wash

the feet

of Jesus

and his friends.

The men were too proud.

So what happens?

The text tells us

Jesus,

the master

and the teacher

became a servant.

He took off his robes,

he wrapped himself

in a towel

and he washed

those nasty feet

of his friends.

Herein lies

the beauty

of the gospel.

Our hearts

are like

those disciples' feet.

And the only way

for them to get clean

is for Jesus

to wash our hearts

with his blood.

Only Jesus did this.

Only Jesus,

contra every other

world religion,

makes you perfectly

clean before God.

Only Jesus stooped

so low

in order to bring

you who are truly

low up to God.

Recently,

Lauren and I

hired a babysitter

and we were planning

to go on a little

date night

and something we don't

do nearly enough

and we decided

to pick up

some cheese

and charcuterie

from Trader Joe's,

great place

to buy these things,

and head up

to the Horsetooth

Reservoir

just outside

of Fort Collins.

I don't know if any

of you have been

up there

and maybe been

to that area.

And so we stop

at Trader Joe's

to grab a couple

of items

and as we were

walking toward

the entrance

of Trader Joe's,

we noticed

this trail of liquid.

Couldn't really tell

what it was.

That was heading

toward the door

and a couple

of Trader Joe's

employees standing

outside sweeping

something into

the liquid.

What is going on?

You know,

so we stopped

and asked them

for the story

and they tell us

apparently

someone bought

like a 70 gallon,

I don't know

how big this thing

had to have been,

jug of olive oil

and was taking it

from the store

and loading it

into their trunk,

dropped the thing

of olive oil,

it broke,

and then they decided

to bring it

all the way back

to the Trader Joe's

and it left this,

you know,

bloody trail

of olive oil

all the way

from their car

all the way

into the store.

And so the Trader Joe's

employees were taking,

I think they got flour

and they were sweeping

the flour

in to absorb,

you know,

the oil

and then sort of

clean up the mess.

You know,

you can imagine

how nasty that,

it didn't look like flour

when we saw it,

right?

It looked like black,

dirt,

muddy,

I mean,

because the ground

is filthy.

Here's the thing,

for something dirty

to get clean,

something clean

has to get dirty.

Jesus had to get dirty

to make us clean.

And this foot washing

is symbolic

of his greater work

of redemption

through the cross.

Now,

Peter was the only disciple

bold enough

to question

what Jesus was doing,

which that in itself

is hard to believe.

How is Peter

the only one

who spoke up

against this,

right?

Look in verses 6-11.

He came to Simon Peter

who said to him,

Lord,

do you wash my feet?

Jesus answered him,

what I am doing

you do not now understand,

but afterward

you will understand.

Peter said to him,

you shall never

wash my feet.

Jesus answered him,

if I do not wash you,

you have no share

with me.

Simon says to him,

Lord,

not my feet only,

but also my hands

and my head.

Jesus says to him,

the one who's bathed

does not need to wash

except for his feet,

but is completely clean.

And you are clean,

but not every one of you,

for he knew

who was to betray him.

That's why he said,

not all of you are clean.

So something in Peter

knew that what was taking place

was backwards.

Jesus was his master.

How is it that the master

is washing his dirty feet?

However,

Peter really did miss

what was going on here.

In his pride

and his ignorance,

he was blinded

to what Jesus

was actually doing.

Jesus was symbolically,

of course,

showing his disciples

that though he was

their Lord

and master,

truly,

he had in fact

also become their servant.

He said in verse 7,

after I suffer

and die and rise again,

then you will understand.

And Jesus' response

to Peter in verse 8

I think is important.

He says,

hey Peter,

if I do not wash you,

you have no share with me.

This was true for Peter

and you know what?

This is also true

for all of us

here in this room.

If we are not washed

clean by Jesus,

if our sins

are not taken from us

and put on him,

if our faith

and his completed

and perfect work

is not there,

then we have no part of him,

that we are still dirty

and our pride

is still keeping us

from God.

One commentator,

now past Anglican theologian

and pastor,

wrote this.

He said,

perhaps there is no sight

so displeasing

in God's eyes

as a self-conceited,

self-satisfied,

self-contented,

stuck-up

professor of religion.

How about consequence?

Let's consider how this

comes to bear

on our own lives.

Let's continue on.

Look at verses 12 through 17.

When Jesus had washed their feet,

put on his outer garments

and resumed his place,

he said to them,

do you understand

what I have done to you?

You call me teacher and Lord

and you are right

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 have given you

an example that you also

should do just as I have

done to you.

Truly, truly,

I say to you,

a servant is not greater

than his master

nor is a messenger

greater than the one

who sent him.

If you know these things,

blessed are you

if you do them.

Here's what this means

for us.

We are Jesus' servants.

He is our master.

We need to be okay

with being called servants.

We are Jesus' messengers.

He is the one

who sent us.

Now,

here's an argument

from the greater

to the lesser.

If Jesus has served us

through the greatest act

of service,

you could say,

in the history of the world,

how much more

ought we to serve

one another?

If Jesus,

the greatest person ever,

through the greatest act

of service ever,

served us,

how much more

should we,

his lowly servants,

serve one another?

So first,

I think here's how

we respond to this.

Number one,

if you're here

and you're a Christian,

you need to rejoice.

We need to rejoice in this.

That Jesus,

the greatest servant ever,

who literally has control

and power and authority

of all things,

has served you

by giving up his life

and elevated you

who are truly lowly

up to God,

we need to rejoice.

We need to spend

some time today

and this week

rejoicing in the Lord.

Read some,

to help you do this,

read some celebratory psalms

where the psalmists

rejoice in the Lord.

It's a great way

to help us rejoice.

I think of Psalm 84

where the psalmist says,

one day in his courts

is better than

a thousand elsewhere.

Let's read these psalms

and put words to this

and rejoice in the Lord.

Second,

if you're here this morning

and you do not consider yourself

a follower of Jesus,

please know that this

is truly good news

and it is for you.

I would encourage you

to grab hold of this

by faith,

which is in a sense,

simply put,

what faith is

and let Jesus serve you

and cleanse you

and bring you to God.

And a third way

this applies to us

is we need to serve

one another.

We need to serve

one another

and primarily

this serving

is oriented

to brothers and sisters

in church.

Yes,

we are to be servants

to the world,

but primarily

the way the New Testament

authors speak of service

is aimed at brothers

and sisters.

The Apostle Paul wrote

in Romans 12,

do not think of yourself

more highly than you ought.

So you graduated

from an impressive university.

You work harder

than anyone you know.

You make more money

than most of your friends.

Your children

are intellectually gifted

and amazing at sports.

You're more adventurous

and fun

and brave

than others.

You've hiked more 14ers

than the rest of us.

You're more attractive

and in better shape.

You're more committed,

more holy,

more knowledgeable

in your faith.

Though these things

be true,

do not let them

puff you up

and keep you

from serving others.

Do not let them

hinder your love

for others

and do not think

of yourself

more highly

than you ought.

We need to be willing

to wash our neighbor's feet.

be quick

to admit

our own sins

and repent.

Be ready

to take a break

from your old plans.

This is your own

personal plans,

particularly hard for me.

I'm a three

on the Enneagram.

I don't know if that means

anything to you.

I'm an achiever.

I love to like check boxes

and be very disciplined

by nature.

It's hard for me

to change my schedule

from what I want

to have happen,

but I really do think

that serving one another

involves changing,

being willing

to change your schedule

to give up

some of your own time.

Keep your ears open

for your brothers

and sisters,

particularly in your midst

here in this congregation

who are going

through a hard time

and could use a friend

to encourage them

and help them.

Recently read

C.S. Lewis,

his book,

Four Loves.

I think I'm still

kind of working through it.

He talks about friendship

in there.

It's some great

quotable things.

He said,

a friend is close enough

where you can put your arm

on your friend,

but not too close

where you suffocate them.

So I think this is just

sort of what being

a true godly friend is,

being in community,

serving one another.

You just kind of get

close to each other.

You don't have to say

the right thing,

but just be there

for one another

and serve one another

when you're going

through a time in need.

I got to spend

a couple hours

on a Monday morning

when I was writing

this sermon

with my youngest

two-year-old daughter,

Eloise.

And at one point,

you know,

I think I was trying

to multitask

and watch her

as I'm trying

to write a sermon.

She basically

just is watching her.

And Lauren was gone

when the kids were,

the boys were in school.

And I could tell

she wanted,

she needed to like

get out of that,

take a little break

from the inside.

So I said,

do you want to go outside?

I'll push you on the swings.

And she said,

yes, you know.

And so immediately

she goes

and she gathers up

her stuffed animals

and her lovies

and her,

what we call her nookie,

which is just a brand

of a pacifier.

And she kind of gets

all of this stuff

in her arms

and she like walks over

to me as if she's ready

to go, you know.

And I said,

okay, honey,

we're going to go outside

but you need to put

all that stuff on the stairs

because we don't want

to take it outside

to get dirty.

And she like pauses

and looks at me

and shakes her head no.

She did not want

to leave her friends,

her dear bedtime friends,

you know.

I said,

come on Eloise,

you can do it.

Your lovies will get dirty.

You have to put them

over here.

So slowly she puts

her little baby

stuffed animals down

and then she paused

and she looked at them,

looked at her,

she got two little

lovey things in her hand.

She put her least

favorite one down first

and then she looked

at her favorite

little lovey,

it's like a little

cloth animal thing

she sleeps with.

I swear she like

kissed it or something

but she eventually

put that one down too

and then turned

and came to me

and said,

okay,

you're almost there,

you just got to put

your pacifier now

on the step

and then she said,

no,

she didn't want to do it.

So I had to help her,

I had to take it

out of her mouth

and put it on the step

and then we could

get her coat on

and shoes on

and go outside.

Now immediately

when I finished

this little dance

with her,

I thought,

it just kind of

dawned on me

because I was literally

in the middle

of writing this.

This is sort of

how we are

with Jesus.

In the gospel,

Jesus calls us

to leave

our pride behind

and follow him

and serve one another.

But we don't want to,

this is often

very hard.

We love the glory

that comes from

our accomplishments.

We cling to,

we trust in,

we boast in

our talents

and our skills.

And we actually

really enjoy,

I think if we're

being honest,

feeling above

the people around us.

But Jesus crucifies

our pride

through the gospel

and calls us

to serve one another.

Let's do this

together in faith.

Let me pray for us.

Father,

we give you thanks,

we give you thanks

for Jesus.

We rejoice in him

who truly cleans us.

We know we are

not perfectly clean.

We know we are

prideful.

We struggle

with doubt,

with insecurity,

with selfishness,

with pride,

with cold hearts

that are very focused

on loving ourselves

and often not focused

on loving others.

we thank you

for Jesus

who truly washed us

clean by his own blood.

And now we pray,

he did give us an example,

we pray that you would

help us by the power

of your spirit

to follow Jesus

and serve others.

Help us to,

may this church

be known as a church

that really serves

one another,

that loves their neighbor

as themself.

Help us to do this.

Give us the power

by your spirit,

we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.