Episode 272: Pride Transformed

Hey, good morning, Harbor Church West. Great to see you. I want

to invite you to go ahead and grab your seats. Welcome in. My

name is Mike. I'm one of the pastors here at the church. All

right. Well, we are in our Transform series. And in this

series, we've been going through the Gospel of John and doing

different stops in the Gospel of John as we see Jesus encountering

various people. And what we've been noticing is that as Jesus

encounters these people, they leave this encounter with Jesus

transformed. They leave changed. And so today we're going to find

ourselves in John chapter 13. If you're using the Bible under the

John 13 · chapter mention

chair in front of you, that's going to be on page 956 of John

13. And here in this text, we're going to see how Jesus

transforms our idea of power and authority. He takes everything

that we know, everything that we understand about power and

authority, and he turns it upside down. Jesus takes power

from something to be used for personal gain, often at the

disadvantage or even oppression of others. And he takes any

transform, transforms power to be used for humble service

toward others. What we're going to see is that power in the

kingdom is measured not by the height of one's platform, but by

the depth of one's love. I think we all experienced someone who

used their power in hurtful ways. That could be a boss or

someone of higher rank or someone like a parent or a

teacher where they're in a position of authority. And that

position of authority was used to cause hurt, maybe to you

yourself, others maybe around you. Maybe you're here and

you're saying, "Well, okay, Mike, I hear that we're going to

be talking about how Jesus transforms power, but hey, look,

I'm not somebody who has power. I don't have any power. I don't

have any rank. I don't have any kind of status. I'm just

somebody who kind of shows up and they tell me what to do."

But what we're going to see is that power and authority isn't

just about rank and position. If you're a believer here today,

when we're talking about, as we talk about power and authority,

we're not just talking about a rank and position. Some of you

here are saying, "I don't have any power and authority." Some

of you here, you've been abused and affected by someone who had

power and authority. But when we're talking about power and

authority, this isn't something that you gain or you earn or you

climb the ladder to. Power and authority for those who are in

Christ is something that is given to us. It's given to us.

If you look up on screen, the Apostle Peter says in 2 Peter

2 Peter 1:3

chapter 1 verse 3, he says, "His divine power has been," what?

"Given to us and given us everything required for life and

godliness." 2 Timothy 1:7, "For God has not given us a spirit of

2 Timothy 1:7

fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment." And then

Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8 verse 11, in light of Easter,

Romans 8:11

resurrection Sunday that's coming next week, he says, "The

spirit of him who raised Jesus, the power of the spirit that

raised Jesus from the dead is living in you." Friends, if

you're a believer, power has been given to you. So the

question before us then is not, do we have power or do I have

any power? The question is then, what will you do with this

power? Will you deny it? Will you tuck it away? Or will you

surrender to Jesus? Will you surrender to Jesus and his

transforming work that he's doing inside of your life to use

you as a conduit of his power? So today from our text, we're

gonna be looking at transformed power and we're gonna notice

three things about transformed power. We're gonna see that

transformed power stoops. And then we're gonna see that

transformed power endures. And then we're gonna see thirdly

that transformed power glories in weakness. And then we're

gonna ask ourselves, so how do we get this power? How do we

get this power? So with that said, we go to our text. We're

gonna be in John chapter 13 looking at the first nine

John 13 · chapter mention

verses to start. And so we're gonna see how transformed power

stoops. John chapter 13 beginning at verse 1. "Before

John 13 · chapter mention

the Passover festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to

depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who

were in the world, he loved them to the end. And now when it was

time for supper, the devil had already put it into the heart of

Judas, Simon Iscariot's son, to betray him. Jesus knew that the

Father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from

God, and that he was going back to God. So he got up from

supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel and tied

it around himself. Next he poured water into a basin and

began to wash his disciples' feet and dry them with the towel

tied around him. He came to Simon Peter who asked him, 'Lord,

are you going to wash my feet?' And Jesus answered him, 'What I'm

doing you don't realize now, but afterward you will understand.'

Verse 8, 'You will never wash my feet,' Peter said. But then

Jesus replied, 'If I don't wash you, you have no part with me.'

So Simon Peter said to him, 'Lord, not only my feet, but

also my hands and my head.'" So here we see Jesus washing the

feet of his disciples. And for the Jews and for the Gentiles,

there was no lower activity. There is no more of a menial

task than to wash someone's feet. The task of washing feet

was reserved for those who are the lowest of the low because it

was dirty business. You're washing dust. You're interacting

with mud. And a lot of times you're interacting with poop on

people's feet. But here we see Jesus washing his disciples'

feet. And then Peter's reaction in verse 8 seems appropriate.

Seems appropriate that he would--he wouldn't allow Jesus

to degrade himself with such a lowly task. And I think some of

us might respond to Jesus as Peter did. If Jesus walked in

here and he started washing some of your feet and he got to you,

would you tell him, "Jesus, no, no, no. I wash your feet. You

don't wash my feet." Peter was almost embarrassed to have Jesus

washing his feet. In fact, he was embarrassed. He was

probably embarrassed for Jesus himself. But here we see how

Jesus transforms power and position by stooping down.

Often we see power as rising up. That power is something to be

elevated. But here Jesus, the King of kings, he stoops. You

know, in the ancient world, if you had to go see the king, you

had to go up. You had to go up the mountain. You had to go up

to the throne room. You had to rise up to go see the person of

power. Even today, you have to go up to see those in power. The

CEOs of great companies, their offices aren't in the basement.

It's on the top floor. You have to go up. Even in religion, to

get to the higher power or to get to the God, you have to

ascend. You have to climb up through your performance and

good work. You have to earn your way up and you have to earn your

way in. That's what religion says. But not Christianity. The

God of Christianity stoops down and he comes down to you. The

God of Christianity, Jesus comes down to this earth. He comes

down to the basement of our lives and he meets you right

there. He meets you...meets us right there in our messiness, in

our brokenness. And the reason Jesus is able to stoop is

because he knows to whom he belongs. We read it in verse

three, kind of scan back there in your Bibles. In verse three,

it says, "Jesus knew he had come from God and that he was going

back to God." And Jesus could suffer the indignity and

humiliation of washing feet because he was so secure in his

relationship with God. Jesus knew to whom he belonged. He

belonged to God. He came from God and he was going back to

him. He was so secure that he didn't need to grab onto power

and position. Jesus is so secure in who he is and to whom he

belongs that he transforms power by trading a throne for a towel.

Transformed power stoops. The second thing that we see is that

transformed power endures. It endures. I don't know if you

guys realize this but the year 2014 was a glorious year in the

land of social media. You know why? It's because that's when

Facebook gave its followers the ability to or its subscribers

to the ability to unfollow people. And man, I took

advantage of that so hard it wasn't even funny. But Jesus, he

was unfollowed by many, many people. And even in our text, we

see that Judas unfollows Jesus. In verse 10, as Jesus is

expounding on bathing, he says, in verse 10, he says, "One who

has bathed doesn't need to wash anything except his feet but he

is completely clean. You are clean but not all of you. For he

knew who would betray him." And this is why he said, "Not all of

you are clean." Jesus foreknew Judas would betray him. And then

look at verse 21. Jesus says, "Truly I tell you, one of you

will betray me." And the rest of the verses around that section,

the disciples start looking around at each other. And like,

"Is it you? Maybe it's you. Maybe it's me." Right? They're

a little confused. And so I love what Peter does. Peter motions

to John, the other disciple, and says, "John, try to ask Jesus

who is going to be. Go. Go. Ask him. Ask him." And so John, you

know, he's the beloved disciple. So he snuggles up against Jesus

as they're reclining at the dinner table. And they ask him,

"Lord, who is it? Who will betray you?" And in verse 26,

it says, "Jesus replied and he's the one that I give the piece of

bread to after I dipped it. And when he dipped the bread, he

gave it to Judas, Simon Iscariot's son. And after Judas

ate the piece of bread, Satan entered him. So Jesus told him,

'What you're doing, do it quickly.'" And then verse 30,

"After receiving the piece of bread, Judas immediately left

and it was night." And many of us know that later on, Judas

betrays Jesus and Jesus gets arrested. But you know what's

crazy about this? What's crazy is that Jesus still washed

Judas' feet. I don't know. If that was me, I would have skipped

Judas. Peter, I washed your feet. Andrew, yep. James, John.

Oh, not Judas. No, I know what you're doing, Matthew. It's

crazy. He still washed his feet. He knew what Judas was gonna do

and yet he still got down in between the toes. Here's what's

even crazier though. It's obvious that Jesus has the power

to foreknow the future but he doesn't use that power to escape

arrest or mount some kind of defense. No, he transforms his

power to endure. To endure the betrayal. To endure the

rejection. Later on in this chapter, Jesus predicts that

Peter's gonna betray him and reject him. And we know later on

that Peter does and yet Jesus, he doesn't use his power to

crush Peter. He uses his power to endure and then later on to

forgive and then restore Peter. So, Jesus shows us that

transform power endures and the only way that Jesus can endure

is because he knows that the betrayal and rejection that he

suffers is part of God's plan. It's actually part of God's

plans and sometimes that's surprising to us. How can that

be part of God's plan if it means that there's pain and

suffering and rejection and betrayal? But Jesus says in

verse eighteen, I'll put it up on screen. Jesus says, but the

Scripture must be fulfilled. In other words, what he's saying

is that is that God's plan must happen. And then he quotes

Psalm chapter forty-one verse nine where he says, the one who

eats my bread, keep Judas in mind, the one who eats my bread

has raised his heel against me. You ever have somebody raise

their heel against you? It's kinda like a MMA front kick. You

jab somebody with the the ball of your heel and you know what

you're doing? You're either trying to push them away or

you're trying to do damage. And Jesus says, he knows that this

is part of God's plan. The betrayal and rejection so he

will endure. But to be clear, Jesus doesn't just endure

unfollowers but Jesus, he endures death on a cross. Jesus

goes to the cross that week, later that week and he endures

death on the cross. For sure, it should have been rejecters and

betrayers on that cross like you and me. But it wasn't. Jesus

goes to the cross in our place. And then when Jesus was

arrested in the garden, you remember when Jesus was

arrested, he could have, he says, I can call on the father

and he would send thousands of angels to rescue me. Jesus is

telling the Roman guards and the chief priests and the Pharisees,

I can call my boys and they're gonna come down and they're

gonna get me out of this. But he doesn't. Jesus had the power of

God at his disposal but instead of using his power to escape,

Jesus trusts God's plan and uses his power to endure.

Transform power endures. And then thirdly, what we see from

this text is that transform power glorifies in weakness. It

glories in weakness. In verse 31, Jesus says, now the son of

man is glorified and God is glorified in him. The son of

man, he's referring to himself. Jesus is referring to himself.

The son of man is glorified but you know what's strange is that

this whole foot washing scene is part of the beginning of the

week as Jesus marches to his death later on that week on the

cross. The chapter before, Jesus entered into Jerusalem. That's

why we call it Palm Sunday. Today is Palm Sunday as they

were waving the palms, signs of victory, shouting out Hosanna,

Hosanna in the highest. God saves. But little did they know

that as Jesus rides into Jerusalem, he's actually on a

death march. He's actually going to the cross. And so, this

foot washing scene foreshadows the cross that's coming later

that week. The stooping of Jesus, the enduring of Jesus is

pointing to the coming crucifixion. Jesus knows it's

coming yet he says that he is glorified. That's so strange.

It's so strange that he is glorified on as on the last week

of his life. It's strange to our ears maybe because there was no

glory and power in the cross. The cross represented shame and

defeat. At the cross, all power is stripped away. Not just your

clothes stripped away but all power is stripped away. The

Jews, I think we know expected the Messiah to ascend to the

throne not descend to the grave. To their eyes and maybe to some

of our eyes, the cross isn't winning. It's losing. But Paul,

he helps us, right? Paul helps explain Jesus and in First

Corinthians chapter one verse eighteen, Paul says, the

message of the cross is foolishness to those who are

perishing. It's absolute foolishness. It doesn't make

sense. It's moronic. But to those who are being saved, it

is what? The power of God. In Colossians chapter two, again,

the apostle Paul says, Jesus has taken our sins away, nailing

it to the cross, and having disarmed the powers and

authorities, he made a public spectacle of them triumphing

over them by the cross. He's triumphant. How? By the cross.

Friends, the cross seems foolish and weak but it's the power and

glory of God. It's the power over your sin and mine. This is

why this Friday, we celebrate Good Friday. We remember the

cross. Remember Jesus' sacrifice and the power of the cross

to forgive sins. And then next Sunday, the twenty, the

twenty, the twentieth, next Sunday is is Easter.

Resurrection Sunday. Now, to be honest, every Sunday here is

Resurrection Sunday but that that's the moment in the church

calendar in which we all the Christians around the world

celebrate the beautiful, wonderful, most beautiful thing

to happen in history, Jesus coming out of that grave. And

it's there that we celebrate the power of Christ over the

grave. Paul says, second, in 2 Corinthians chapter thirteen, he

says, Jesus was crucified in the weakness yet he lives by God's

power. And friends, now by faith in Jesus, we also have

this new life and power. We also have it. The spirit who raised

Christ from the dead now lives where? In you. So, the question

is then, how do we get this power? How do we get this power

that stoops, that endures, that glories in weakness? How do we

get this? How do we get this power that you won't find in

Washington DC or on Wall Street or in any position or in any

rank? Well, it says right here in our text. It says you have to

be cleaned. You have to be cleaned. In verse eight, Jesus

says, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me. And this

washing and this cleansing wasn't a ritualistic cleansing

of different body parts. Rather, he's talking about the cleansing

of the heart through faith in Jesus. It's an internal

cleansing. It's a cleansing of the heart. And Jesus says,

without this cleansing, you can have no part with me. Friends,

it took the gory, grotesque, blood-soaked sacrifice of Jesus

for you to be washed of your sin. You don't wash yourself by

your performance or by your good work. You don't earn your way in

or up. Rather, it's through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.

See, without this cleansing, you could wash a thousand pairs of

feet and still have no part in Christ. The cross is the path to

power. And when you put your trust in what Jesus did on the

cross, he gives you new life and power. This is how we get this

power. We trust Jesus. We give our lives to Christ. And then

what this means is that now we can live a life of transformed

power. And this is why Jesus tells his disciples in verse 15

up on screen, it says, "For I've given you an example that you

also should do just as I have done for you." And what this

means is that we now have the power to stoop down and to go

low. We have the power to endure even in rejection and betrayal

and the pain that comes with that. We now have the power to

glory in weakness because when we are weak, Jesus is strong.

You know, business people, they're always calculating the

ROI. The ROI is return on investment. That is if I put in

this much investment, I expect to get this much return. But

transformed power doesn't calculate the ROI. It doesn't

calculate the return on investment. Transformed power

endures even when you get nothing back. We can love and

serve others without calculating the ROI. But here's the warning.

If you calculate the ROI, you will always be expecting some

kind of recognition, some kind of reciprocation, even if it's

just a small thank you. If you're calculating the ROI, you

will always need to feel important. Your acts of love and

service is a way for you to feel needed and maybe even get

noticed. If you're calculating the ROI and your love and

service, then there's no way. There's no way that you can

truly stoop. There's no way that you can truly endure or glory

in weakness because what you're doing is that you're leveraging

your acts of service and power to actually to really elevate

yourself. Your acts of service and love are there to actually

serve you ultimately. If you're calculating the ROI. But friends,

this is why we always have to preach the gospel to ourselves

and remember that by faith you are cleansed by Jesus. That is

you belong to him. You are secure. And because you are

secure in Christ, you don't have to calculate the ROI anymore.

You don't have to do any more math. You don't have to do the

calculations. And if I do this, will I get anything back? You're

free. And you're free because we belong to Christ. You belong to

Christ. You are secure. And what's secure for you is the

inheritance and riches of God's grace that already belong to

you. So you're free. You're free to love and serve others even if

you get nothing because you already have everything. You

already have it all. So we can love and serve others even if

that means we lose it all. That's a transformed power. At

the end of the passage, Jesus says in John 13, 34 and 35, he

says, "I give you a new command. Love one another. Just as I have

loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone

will know that you are my disciples if you love one

another." It's a new command, Jesus says. Sounds kind of

strange because haven't we heard that, you know, we're to love

God, love others, and other parts of the Bible. But Jesus

says it's a new command. And what makes it new is that now

Jesus upholds himself as the model of love in which we are to

follow. Jesus shows us that the way to power is through

sacrificial love. The way to victory, the way to world

transformation is through sacrificial love. And this is a

power and a love that the world has never seen before or since.

It's a power and a sacrificial love that doesn't make sense

because sacrificial love is a love from a position of

weakness. It's a position of weakness. Yet the power and

glory of God is shown through this love. Jesus says that by

this, meaning this love that you have for one another as you

receive my love and love one another, by this everyone will

know that you are my disciples. Everyone will know. In fact,

this kind of sacrificial love that we show one another puts on

display the power, the glory, and grace of God. It shows it to

a world. A world that is looking and grabbing on to power and

authority and love and in the way it knows how. But the ones

that show the true sacrificial love that can stoop, that can

endure, that can glory in weakness are the ones who have

been loved that way. The ones who have been loved by Jesus

that way. And now through the church, God makes himself known.

It's not through big conferences with smokes light,

smoke light and mirrors. Although those are fun and

great. Doesn't come through just big, huge tent meetings.

Those are fine. The way God makes himself known and this

sacrificial love known is through the local church. It's

through the local church. All these little local churches

meeting all across this state on this day. It's through that

that people see the sacrificial love of Jesus by the way we

love one another. You know, over the last, you know, over the

past history of all believers, the majority of believers or

I'll say it this way. There's millions of believers that have

come and gone in this world. They enter this world, they

live, and then they die. Millions. And of the millions

that have come into this world, only a tiny, tiny fraction of

those people are we aware of. Very tiny fraction, right? We're

aware of like the great apostles, Paul, Peter, John.

We're aware of those guys. Maybe we're aware of some great

missionaries, some amazing work of God in foreign lands. Or

maybe we're aware of, you know, great leaders like a Billy

Graham. But those are very, very, a very, very small

minuscule percentage of all the other, of all the believers

that have come and gone. The majority of believers, the

majority, which I think probably includes all of us in here, we

will enter this earth, we will live, and then we will die in

anonymity. People most likely will not remember our names. No

speaking gigs, no book deals, no podcasts. Just a life marked

with a long, steady, consistent obedience to love others as

Jesus has loved them. That's it. A life that has a long, steady

obedience to love others as Jesus has loved them, as Jesus

has stooped, endured, and glorified in weakness. Now we

can turn around and do the same for others, whomever that is,

and however that looks like. That's power transformed. So,

Harbor West, in Christ, we have the power to do the same, to

love others sacrificially because transformed power isn't

a throne. It's a towel. It's a towel. Amen? Let's pray.