"Upper Room" Pt.1

Hi, this is John Ozanting, lead pastor of Evolved Church, and this is the Evolved Church Podcast.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

We hope that you find today's message encouraging and full of hope for wherever you're at.

Amen.

Love ya.

Listen, uh, grab your seats, grab a Bible, grab your notebook, grab your pen.

If you didn't bring any of those things, that's okay.

There's always next week.

So do me a favor, pull out your smartphone, because I bet your smartphone has a Bible and a spot to take notes.

Uh, and so you can pull that out as we start um part one of a brand new series that we just were calling upper room.

And uh to begin today, I just want to share a story with you.

You know, there's a season uh over the last 25 years of Nicole and I doing life together as husband and wife.

We're celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary this coming summer.

Um thank you for clapping.

She has put up with me for that long.

That's the miracle.

Um, you know, our season in Winnipeg, you know, had us being a young married couple and and saving up and buying our first home and and owning a business at that time.

We owned a second cup coffee franchise, and so we invested some money in uh our first house, and then we started investing in in other properties as well that we used as rental properties, and and we were landlords for a season, and then we were always like buying a home, moving into it, finishing it, fixing it up, and then selling it, and then moving into a new house, and moving into a new house.

I think in 25 years, Mary, I think we've owned nine or ten homes, which isn't a lot, but it's it's one of the things that we've done to steward resources and and position our hearts to be able to like give more away.

And um, and so that's involved doing physical work in a lot of those houses.

And one of the pieces of work that I love doing is landscaping.

I think if I wasn't a pastor, I would want to lay sod for a living full time because it's the most rewarding job on planet earth.

I call it Lego for grownups.

Laying sod is the coolest because you you roll out these pieces of turf and you have to line up the creases and the seams and you you overlap the seams for optimal growth, and you have to leave a little bit of room, and then you know, there's rolling and a little bit of seating in between, and it's it's it's a great job.

But we had a house that had like this really weird backyard.

The backyard was like at a slope from one side to the, it was like a hill because it was a transition.

We had a house on this side that was like a normal house, and a house on this side that had what's called a walkout basement, and we had like a weird transition lot, and we got a deal on that lot when we built that house because the the backyard was like this, right?

So I was like, how is this gonna work with kids?

All they're gonna do is like roll down into the neighbor's fence.

And so, like, I had a buddy, he helped like build some retaining walls, and we did quite a bit of landscaping in that backyard.

But I remember the sod and rolling out the sod, and and the day I chose to have the sod delivered, and I'd done the prep work with the soil, and and it was a big job, and I had a couple of buddies help me, but it was a bigger job, and they bailed halfway through because it was a lot of sod, and I remember kind of rushing because there was a storm rolling and it was about to rain, and and in the words of Elijah, I could see a cloud forming and it was coming towards me.

And um, the wind kicked up, and this was the worst part because I'm on my hands and knees and I'm rolling out sod, and I'm I've got like this butter knife, or not a butter knife, like a bread knife that I used to like cut the sod uh because I found that worked better than any other.

I don't know.

Um, so the wind picked up, and the the soil is just like swirling and and blowing.

And I I finally finished and I got the you know the big roller and I got it all rolled, and it was just moments later the rain started to come, and I was like, oh, I got it all done.

And I went into the garage and um and I was filthy.

I mean, I've never been so dirty in my whole life, and head to toe, covered in dirt, like every every crack, crevice, and orifice had dirt in it.

Um, like I I remember like taking off my shirt and my my torso being covered in in like dirt, even though I had a shirt on.

And uh, you know, so I hosed off my feet in the garage because Nicole told me I wasn't allowed to come in the house with dirty feet.

And and I remember going upstairs and taking a shower.

And have you ever been so like filthy dirty after like physical labor or a good workout?

And you get under the hot water, and in this case, it was like it was visible.

I could see the filth, uh, you know, rinsing away, uh, washing down the drain.

Somebody in first service shouted out, yeah, probably clogged the drain with mud.

But um, you know, that kind of shower where you're like, oh, hot water and soap have never felt so good in my entire life.

Can you think of a moment in your life where you've been so physically dirty that a hot shower was like the best thing in the world?

I see some of you nodding.

I see some of you as a matter of fact, you just do me a favor, close your eyes for a moment and just picture that moment, whatever that is for you.

Maybe you like ran a marathon.

I've never run a marathon, you know, but maybe that's your story, and then that that hot shower or soaking in a tub afterwards.

Think about that moment where you were like maybe physically filthy, and then that that can you like can you remember how it felt?

I remember that shower on Prairie Smoke Drive.

It's a funny name for a street.

Better part is we had next door neighbors that had a grow-op in their basement.

True story, on prairie smoke, subtle.

Uh, but um, that hot shower on Prairie Smoke Drive, you know, forever changed my life.

It's like it still sits as when I think of a hot shower, it's that moment.

So, however that made you feel, I actually just want you to hold on to that for a few minutes and I'll come back to it.

In our Lent season, our journey toward Easter, we're starting this new series of talks, simply titled Upper Room.

And if you're familiar or unfamiliar with the Bible, in the second half of the Bible, something called the New Testament, there's four firsthand written accounts about the life and the ministry of Jesus.

Four biographies, if you would.

And they were written by four of Jesus' disciples or followers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And if you're new to faith or just kind of exploring and still asking questions about Jesus, I want to encourage you.

That's a great place to begin reading in the Bible.

Uh the Bible's not read like most books.

You can read it start to finish, but it's actually a collection of 66 different books.

And so if you're searching, if you have questions about Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are a really great place to start because they'll they'll give you a deep insight into the life and the ministry and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And if you're trying to answer the question, do I want to follow Jesus?

it kind of makes sense that you should learn about Jesus.

So that's a great place to start.

And the fourth one, John, is written by a disciple named John, who throughout the Bible is called like the beloved disciple.

He was one of Jesus' favorites.

And he shares about his experience with Jesus.

And halfway through John's writings, the tone shifts a little bit.

Warren Wearsby writes this, he says, chapter 13 and on, you see that we've moved into a new section of John's Gospel.

He says, Jesus, he, he came unto his own, and his own received him not.

And so in chapter 13, Jesus departs from his public ministry to the nation and gathers privately with his own, his disciples.

So chapters 13 through 16 in John's gospel record Jesus' upper room ministry to the disciples as he prepared them for two things.

Take note, Jesus prepared his disciples for his death and also for the work that they would do after his ascension or after he rose from the dead.

So over the next nine to ten weeks, we're going to be studying out of John's biography about Jesus and focusing our time in chapters 13 through 17 what's intentionally and often referred to as the upper room discourse, hence the name of the series, Upper Room.

And it's called that because uh John records in these chapters conversations that took place literally, physically in an upstairs room in the days leading up to Jesus' crucifixion.

And so we kind of thought that'd be a good place to hang out in our moment leading up to Easter as we honor and remember Jesus' death and then celebrate his resurrection together.

Jesus gathers intimately with his disciples.

I love that.

Can you imagine Jesus gathering intimately with us today?

Maybe it's not hard to imagine.

Maybe as we were singing songs about Jesus and singing songs to Jesus, you had a moment where you sensed like, oh, God's not way out there.

He's actually right here.

He's up close and personal.

Jesus loves to gather intimately with his people, coming in close.

And can you imagine if Jesus were right here, up close, or maybe Jesus showed up at your lunch or your dinner later today and took a seat at the head table?

What kind of things would Jesus say to you?

If our Jesus loves to come in close, loves to be up close and personal and intimate with his followers, what kind of things would Jesus say?

John's whole purpose for writing down his account can be heard in John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

He writes this These are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.

And so those two things stand out to me that we would believe and continue to believe in Jesus, and that in believing, we would have life by the power of Jesus' name.

Eugene Peterson's paraphrase says this these are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way Jesus personally revealed it.

Jesus personally reveals the kind of life that we're invited into as people of faith, as Christians or as Christ followers.

And so with that in mind, I want to invite you into our text for today, John chapter 13, verses 1 through 17.

John 13:1–17

It's on the screen behind me if you want to read along, starting in verse 1.

Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father.

He had loved his disciples during his ministry, and now he loved them to the very end.

Isn't that great?

If you've ever doubted or been insecure in the love of Jesus, I want you to hear John's words to the church in Edmonton today.

Jesus loves you throughout and loves you to the very end.

It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.

Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything, and that he had come from God and would return to God.

So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin.

Then he began to wash the disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that he had around him.

And when Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet?

And Jesus replied, You don't understand now what I'm doing, but someday you will.

I want you to pay attention to that verse.

Jesus saying to Peter in response to his question, he doesn't even answer Peter's question.

He just says something completely different.

You don't understand what I'm doing, but someday you will.

And Peter's response is protest.

No, Lord, you're never going to wash my feet.

And Jesus' response is powerful, and it's for us.

Unless I wash you, you won't belong to me.

Simon Peter exclaimed, Then wash all of me, my hands, my head as well, Lord, not just my feet.

And Jesus said, A person who's bathed all over doesn't need, does not need to wash except for the feet to be entirely clean.

And you disciples are clean, but not all of you.

For Jesus knew who would betray him, and that's what he meant when he said, Not all of you are clean.

He was talking about Judas.

And then verse 12, after washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and said, Do you understand what I was doing?

And this is where Jesus shows up for me as being like a bit of a light-hearted comic almost, because like that verse before, Jesus is like, You don't understand what I'm doing.

Then he does it, and then he goes, Do you understand what I was doing?

Like, well, you said we don't understand, and that we might at some point, but then Jesus says, You call me teacher and Lord, and you're right because that's what I am.

And since I, Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other's feet.

It's great.

We're gonna do a whole foot washing ceremony at Evolve Church today.

Everybody take off your shoes and socks.

We're gonna bring basins of water.

I'm kidding.

I'm kidding.

That's not happening here in this room today.

One of my small group leaders is like, we should do a foot washing in our small, like, hey, you be you, but uh hang with me.

I've given you an example.

You ought to wash each other's feet.

I've given you an example to follow.

Do as I have done to you.

And then he says, I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master, nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message.

Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.

And I love verse 17.

It's not just about knowing, it's about doing.

And so a few observations.

You know, when we talk about reading the Bible at Evolve, we often use the acronym that we call SOAP.

S O A P stands for, S stands for what?

Good.

O stands for, A stands for, P stands for Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer.

It's a great way to read the Bible.

You read a couple of verses from the scriptures, and then you say, God, what is it you want me to observe while I'm reading this?

What stands out?

And then you say, How do you want me to apply this to my life?

And then you pray, you consecrate and say, God, this is what I've observed, this is how I want to apply it.

Will you give me the strength to live this out?

And so as I was reading this text, here's a couple of the things that I observed.

Number one, Jesus knew that his time had come.

Jesus, it was no surprise to Jesus that there was an expiry date on his earthly ministry.

He knew that he was going to go to the cross and ransom his life for your sin and for my sin and for the brokenness of humanity, the sin condition of the world.

Jesus knew about this.

It wasn't a surprise to him.

Man, that jumped off the page at me.

Verse, the second thing, Jesus loves his disciples and loves them to the very end.

There's no limits to the love of Jesus.

That's a good reminder for us.

Number three, Jesus knew his authority.

And connected to that is the fourth thing that stood out.

Jesus' authority compelled him to humble service and sacrifice.

Jesus didn't use his authority to lord over his disciples.

He took off his outer robe, got down on his hands and knees, wrapped a towel around his waist, and washed their feet.

Jesus knew his authority and then used his authority to serve.

Number fifth observation Jesus always templates before he asks.

I love this about Jesus.

He models well what matters to him.

Jesus will never ask us to be obedient to something that he hasn't first modeled for us.

And number six, in the big picture of Jesus preparing us for his death and preparing us to participate in his work, the first thing we get to see is his humility.

So those things stood out to me, and I'm going to land on a couple of them today just to see what maybe we could apply what sticks to our lives.

But before that, I need a volunteer.

Dustin, I see that hand.

Dustin, come on up here.

Give it up for Dustin Radowitz, ladies and gentlemen.

Dustin, come on.

Come on over here.

Come stand at my side.

And you know, Dustin, your wife, your wife thinks you're a ruggedly, ridiculously handsome man.

And yeah.

Let's pretend for a second that you're being interviewed by the police.

And, you know, in a police investigation, sometimes if you've seen somebody commit a crime, they do like a sketch artist, where like, could you describe the perpetrator?

Does anybody else watch Law and Order or FBI or any of those shows that my wife consistently watches in our house?

By the way, FBI International is the worst television program on planet Earth.

Hire some actors for Pete's sake.

That's my rant.

But like if you were, if you were like to describe your face, not not the anatomy, like everybody's got eyes, you know what I mean?

Like, so don't say I have eyes.

But if you were, if if I were to say, Dustin, describe your face to the room, okay?

How would you describe yourself?

Let's let's I'm gonna just here I'm gonna give you the mic, and you're gonna describe yourself to the room.

Okay, so I have two eyes.

That are blue with a yellow round uh ring around the pupil.

Uh I have a nose that is a little bit larger.

Um I have a little dot here and I don't know what it is, but I have to go to the doctor today for that.

Um I have a mouth with all of my teeth.

Uh I have a weird looking hair here today.

Um I have hair that's kind of like a combover.

Um and then my face is going to be out of the combover.

Well, there's one ears that are a little bit larger.

Uh good for hearing.

Uh so and then what else would you like to know?

I think that was pretty good.

So I j I I have one question.

Um, did the mirror make it harder or easier?

Harder.

Really?

How come?

Applying my flaws.

Applying your flaws.

Interesting.

So you look in the mirror and see your flaws.

Huh.

All right.

I can work with that.

Um give it up for Dustin as he grabs his seat.

Thank you, sir.

Um the good news for you and I, Dustin, is that did you know that your ears and your nose grow throughout the duration of your life?

Sometimes I look in the mirror and go, where did my ears come from?

They haven't always been that big.

Uh, but they're continuing to grow.

Uh why the mirror?

Because James 1 says, Don't just listen to God's word, do what it says.

Otherwise, you're only fooling yourselves.

For if you listen to the word and don't obey it, it's like glancing at your face in a mirror.

You see yourself walk away and forget what you look like.

But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

Did you know that Jesus sits as the fulfillment of the perfect law, like our mirror?

And I don't know about you, but I, like Dustin, sometimes have a hard time looking at the reflection of Christ because I always see my flaws.

I see the things in me that don't line up to who Jesus invites me to become.

But I'm still invited to look.

You see, the world is using many different templates to try and build a sense of self or identity.

Like they try and build a sense of security around what they do for a living, or a job, or what they're good at, or their skills, or their abilities, or their identity, or their family of origin, or a pain point in their past that's brought trauma right through to their today, or their sexual identity.

The world's looking at a lot of different things to try and unpack and describe how we show up in the world, but scripture says, pick up the mirror.

His name is Jesus, the fulfillment of the law, and in looking at the reflection of Christ, we get to see ourselves being bit by bit transformed into his image and not just hear the good things that Jesus teaches, but do the things that we're invited to do.

When James says, look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, do what it says, don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

It actually sounds a lot like John in our text today.

I've given you an example to follow.

Do as I've done to you, says Jesus.

And now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.

Which also sounds a lot like Luke in chapter six.

Why do you keep calling me Lord, Lord when you don't do what I say?

Or Luke 11, even more blessed are All who hear the word of God and put it into practice.

Or 1 John 2, those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

Do what Jesus did, hear and put into practice.

Live as Jesus lived, follow his example, and God will bless you.

You know, when we read through the whole account of Jesus' life in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, there's a part of this moment in the upper room in Jesus' life that John leaves out.

But Luke records, and so in Luke 22, I want to set some context.

Luke records that at this table sitting among us, Jesus says, as a friend, is the man who will betray me.

It's been determined that the Son of Man must die, but what sorrow awaits the one who betrays him?

And then the disciples began to ask each other which of them would ever do such a thing.

So this is what Luke records that John doesn't.

They began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest.

And I just think like the audacity of the disciples.

Jesus is like, one of you is gonna betray me.

And then they're all like, not me, I'm the greatest.

Right?

I just think like the arrogant pride of the disciples in that moment to begin to argue about who gets to be the greatest.

And then Jesus tells them in this world, the kings and the great men lord over their people, yet they're called to be friends of the people, but among you it will be different.

Those who are the greatest should take the lowest rank.

Well, that's upside down.

Yeah, welcome to Jesus' kingdom.

The leader should be like the servant.

Who's more important?

The one who sits at the table or the one who serves?

The one who sits at the table, of course, but not here.

Not on my watch.

For I am among you as one who serves.

And then he gets up from the table, takes off his robe, wraps a towel around his waist, pours water in the basin, and washes their feet.

Jesus doesn't just teach us an upside-down kingdom principle, he models it.

An important principle of the knowing and doing is demonstrated here in chapter 13.

Notice verse 1 and 3 relate to what Jesus knew.

Jesus knew that his time has come, he loved them.

And verse 4 and 5 tell us what he did.

Our actions are the blossom of our deepest thoughts.

Jesus did what he did because he knew what he knew.

Which is why Proverbs writes, as a person thinks in their heart, so are they.

And some religious traditions in the world today still have a foot washing, purification ritual.

I found it, you know, I went up to the inner faith prayer uh room at the student union building at the University of Alberta just to take some time and pray.

And while I was there, uh nature called, and so I used the bathroom right there, and they had these footwashing uh stations, sinks uh attached to the inner faith prayer room because some cultures still wash their feet before they move into faith-filled prayer.

And in the uh Jewish tradition, ceremonial foot washing was actually to prepare their hearts for certain aspects of worship, for cleansing and purification.

The other role that footwashing played was uh for hospitality.

You see, they wore sandals in a very dusty climate.

And so when you come into somebody's house, one of the primary forms of foot washing was actually like a sign of welcome or hospitality.

Hey, come on in, can I wash your feet?

Um, and it was practiced very, very consistently.

But it was almost exclusively the duty of slaves or servants.

Not only do the servants and slaves draw the water and wash the feet and dispose of that dirty water, but it appeared that a slave could never refuse to render the service.

In other words, if you walked into somebody's house, you lorded over them because they were a servant and a slave.

You could just say, hey, wash my feet.

And they couldn't say, No, you're filthy.

Like they had to say yes.

And so foot washing in the hospitality sense was actually really connected to this hierarchical system of I'm greater than you, you're lesser than me, wash my feet.

Pentecostal theologian John Christopher Thomas says, foot washing could be used as a synonym for slavery.

To wash another's feet symbolized subjugation of one person to another.

You're beneath me, wash my feet.

Those who received footwashing from another were social superiors of those who performed the work and had to.

That makes sense.

That's why Peter was like, no way, Lord.

Right?

Does that make sense?

Because in Peter's view of Jesus, Jesus was over him.

Jesus was rabbi, teacher, Lord, I'm under you.

You cannot wash my feet.

That's the duty of a slave or a servant.

Jesus, this is absurd.

What are you doing?

And so it seems to me, Charles Spurgeon says, that the true text of this enacted sermon of the foot washing is to be found in the first verse of chapter 13.

Having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them to the very end.

Our Lord Jesus washed the feet of his disciples to show that to the last moment of his time, of his intercourse with them, he was full of the deepest and the truest love to them and was willing to perform the most menial action for their good.

And now we're invited to look at Jesus in the mirror and say, How do we do what he did?

How do we template our lives on the coming under self-sacrificial love of Jesus?

And you could say, based on what Luke reports, that Jesus washing his disciples' feet was a bit of a rebuke for their lack of humility.

And it was probably that gesture would have been more powerful than any words he could have spoken.

They're arguing about who gets to be the greatest.

And Jesus quietly gets up and takes off his outer robe and puts on a towel and gets down on his hands and feet and begins to wash.

And I can, I can actually, in my imagination, I picture this happening like mid-argument.

They're still bickering about who gets to be the greatest when all of a sudden one of them feels Jesus at his feet and he's like, wait a sec.

And Jesus says, you know, in my kingdom, if you desire to be great, come under.

If you desire to be great, be the servant of all.

This servant-hearted footwashing wasn't just a response to the disciples' arrogant bickering, however, Alan Richardson says it foreshadows the cross itself.

The voluntary humility of the Lord cleanses his loved ones and gives to them an example of selfless service which they must follow.

And Jesus on his hands and knees washing his disciples' dirty feet, this selfless sacrificial act of love and humility is a picture of what he's about to do for all of humanity.

Being nailed to a Roman cross and taking the full weight, the full penalty of humanity's brokenness and sin nature on himself in one act of death and being raised to life, Jesus cleanses all of humanity from sin.

Jesus washes all of humanity with his self-sacrificial act of humility and love.

And Christ's love and selfless sacrifice serve us still to this day.

This act of taking a basin of water and wrapping a towel around his waist is a precursor to Jesus' obedient surrender to the undeserved punishment that he bore on the cross for you and for me.

And through his brutal death and historically proven and accurate resurrection, he's cleansing us still.

He's loving us still.

1 John 1, if we're living in the light as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin.

Back to our text.

Peter arguing, Lord, you can't do this to me.

And Jesus saying, you don't understand what I'm doing, but someday you will.

Unless I wash you, you won't belong to me.

And whether you've made a decision to follow Jesus or maybe you're still asking questions and searching, I want you to hear the voice of Jesus in the room today.

Unless I wash you, you can't belong to me.

Unless I cleanse you, unless my humility and self-sacrificial love, you don't understand that I love you and I'm cleansing you.

Unless you let me love you and cleanse you still, you won't belong to me.

Can you hear the heart of Jesus?

His invitation to be cleansed, to be washed, to be made new.

To the parents in the room, I remember when our boys were like toddlers, you know, four, six years old.

Bathtime was a struggle.

I don't know too many little boys that love to hop in the bathtub.

There's some outliers, mind you, but I don't know too many boys that love to hop into the bathtub.

And the heart of a father to my stinky six-year-old boy who's been playing out back all day is I love you so much, I want you to be cleansed.

Before I tuck you into bed and snuggle you, I want you to smell good, right?

The heart of a dad.

And I'll never forget, my older brother Joel was visiting us one time when my boys were little, and he he traveled the world kind of doing global mission work in that season.

And he said, Would you like me to give Riley a bath?

And I'm like, hey, that'd be helpful, that'd be great.

And so I hear them upstairs and I hear them running around and kind of chasing and arguing, and you know, you gotta get in the bath, you gotta get in the bath.

And finally things settled down, and I walked upstairs and walked into the bathroom.

There's my brother on his knees, and Riley in the bathtub in one inch of water.

And I'm like, Joe, what the heck are you doing?

And he's like, Oh, I was just wanting to teach Riley about like water conservation.

And in a global mindset, you know, there's lots of people on planet earth that don't have access to clean water.

And so I wanted to just conserve water and use this as a moment to teach your son about conserving water and taking care of natural resources.

I'm like, hey, that's great.

He's shivering.

Could you please add some water to the tub?

It's hard enough to get a six-year-old boy into the bathtub.

I don't want him to be traumatized by cold water.

Um, and so I'll never forget that moment.

Um, but we're asked to see that in light of our own story like mine on Prairie Smoke Drive of being so filthy, dirty, and being washed clean by hot water.

Though we are overwhelmed by our sins, you forgive them all.

But you were cleansed, you were made holy, you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.

In other words, don't fight the master, don't fight dad.

Say yes, say yes to his love, say yes to being cleansed by the power of Jesus.

Let me ask you this question.

What is it in your life that needs cleansing today?

What is it in your own heart, in your own soul, in your own home, in your own family, in your own story?

That if you're like, man, if this got exposed, it would be dirty.

What is it in your own surrender to Jesus?

What sin festers in the shadows that the redemptive, loving, and cleansing power of Jesus wants to make new, wants to make holy, set apart.

Though we are overwhelmed by our sin, he forgives them all.

And after washing their feet, he put on his robe.

And verse 15, I've given you an example to follow.

Do as I've done.

Slaves aren't greater than their masters, nor is messenger more important than the one who sends.

And now that you know these things, God blesses you for knowing them.

No, God blesses you for doing them.

The humility and the self-sacrificial love of Jesus that we're asked to template shows up in the knowing and the doing.

Back to my observations, Jesus always templates before he asks, he models well what matters to him.

And in the big picture of Jesus preparing us for his death and preparing us to participate in his kingdom work, the first thing we get to see is Christ's humility.

And since I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other's feet.

I've given you an example to follow.

Now, as I land the plane and close this first message, um, the service hosts are gonna bring wash basins and towels for everybody to practice washing.

No, I'm kidding.

I'm kidding.

If if participating in an actual like foot washing ceremony is your thing, God bless you.

But I think there's something deeper for here for us to consider.

It's gonna take humility and selfless sacrifice for us to follow the example of Jesus.

And I think more of you would be say, like, hey, if I could just physically wash somebody's feet, but never use my voice to tell somebody about Jesus, that would be better.

Because using my voice to tell someone about Christ is gonna cost me something.

That's risky.

Might even be social suicide.

Or loving and serving people on my street or in my neighborhood, or people that are marginalized or victimized, that's gonna cost me something.

It's gonna cost me time and resource and energy.

That's costly, that's sacrificial.

Could I just like scrub my wife's feet?

Like, think about it.

In our current cultural moment, it's not so much the physical act of scrubbing someone's feet that Jesus invites us to participate in, unless you're into that.

This is about your heart.

This is about your humility, this is about your daily decision to re-up your surrender to Christ through serving other people.

Because we're invited to do what Jesus did and hear and put into practice the things that he taught, to live as Jesus lived and follow his example, to participate in with humility and self-sacrificial service, bringing others into the cleansing love of Jesus.

You see, the price that he paid, the footwashing was just a picture of the cross.

And the cross matters more than the basin of water.

Because in the cross, we're cleansed from all of our sin, we're made whole, we're made righteous, we're made new.

And so I think when Jesus says, Do what I do, it's an invitation to invite other people to the foot of the cross to experience the cleansing power and the self-sacrificial love of their Savior.

And it is costly and inconvenient to enter into the lives of people who are far from Christ.

But that's the mission, that's the work.

It requires self-sacrifice to embrace all the interruptions of our neat and tidy lives and deeply pause and sense, why, Lord, why are you, why did you bring me to this room at this time with these people?

Why did you help me notice that person in that aisle of this grocery store?

Why did you inconveniently arrest me to see that woman at that table in that coffee shop?

It requires self-sacrifice to embrace the interruptions and ask, why, Holy Spirit, am I here right now?

It is so that we can bring others into the cleansing love of Jesus.

Because now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.

Or as Peterson says, if you understand what I'm telling you, act like it and live a blessed life.

Act like it.

Don't just hear, hear and do.

And in the doing is this daily reminder to pick up our mirror scripture, pick up the beautiful law and heartbeat of a father who loves us and see Christ.

And in seeing Christ, not run from that reflection because it exposes our sin and exposes our flaws, but lean in to the cleansing love and mercy of Jesus so that we can bring that cleansing power to others.

Hey, I once was filthy, dirty and took a hot shower and it made all the difference.

His name is Jesus.

I once struggled to see who I was, but I was invited to look at a reflection very different than mine, and in looking at that reflection, I see the daughter and the son who God's always invited me to become.

So as we close today, would you stand to your feet with me?

And on the screen behind me is a few questions that I would love for you to either take a photo of, scan to text in your phone, or even just pause right in this moment of response and adoration and worship.

Say, Lord, I want to be the kind of Jesus follower that doesn't just hear what you teach but puts it into practice.

So for some of you, you might say, Have I actually said yes to the love and cleansing grace of Jesus?

Where do you need to say yes again to the love and cleansing power of Christ?

What would it cost you to participate in bringing someone you know to the foot of the cross?

How would you have to humble yourself?

What would you have to selflessly sacrifice?

Will you commit to hearing and doing what Jesus asks of you?

This is our response.

This is our faith in action.

This is our invitation and our whisper from Jesus bringing us to the cross and asking us to participate in his mission.

This is the work.

This is our calling.

This is why you have breath in your lungs.

Will you be cleansed?

You take a deep breath, close your eyes.

Come, Holy Spirit.

Come with authority.

Come with majesty, come with dominion.

Come with grace and mercy, come with healing, come with cleansing power.

Invite the light and the life of Jesus Christ to flood our souls from the inside out and bring anything that's in the shadow out into the light.

We've been cleansed from all of our sin.

Thank you, Father.

How are you inviting us to deeper surrender?

How are you inviting us to pay the price of selfless sacrifice and humility to lead other people to the cleansing love of Christ?

Would you ask these simple questions?

Would you take a moment with your Savior, with your King, full of faith, full of expectation, receive from the Lord?

We honor you, Father.

Thank you so much for listening to today's message.

If you're ever in the Edmonton area, pop by for a visit.

And if you need any more information, visit Evolvechurch.com.

We hope to see you soon.