Sermon Tone Analysis

John 13:6–11 KJV 1900

6 Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?

7 Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.

8 Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet.

Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.

9 Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.

10 Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.

11 For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.

Introduction:

Eric Liddell, Scottish Missionary to China once said, “Circumstances may appear to wreck our lives and God’s plans, but God is not helpless among the ruins.

Our broken lives are not lost or useless.

God’s love is still working.

He comes in and takes the calamity and uses it victoriously, working out his wonderful plan of love.”

Both Peter and Judas are on a collision course with losing everything for their eternity.

One will make it, the other will not.

One will submit to let Jesus be his pilot, the other will be driven off the proverbial cliff by Satan.

The raw material of a devil is an angel bereft of holiness.

You cannot make a Judas except out of an apostle.

The eminently good in outward form, when without inward life, decays into the foulest thing under heaven.

You cannot wonder that these are called “perilous times,” in which such characters abound.

One Judas is an awful weight for this poor globe to bear, but a tribe of them must be a peril indeed.

Yet, if not of the very worst order, those are enough to be dreaded who have the shadow of religion without its substance.

Of such I have to speak at this time: from such may God give you grace to turn away!

May none of us ever be spots in our feasts of love, or clouds without water carried about of winds; but this we shall be if we have the form of godliness without the power thereof.

I hope to lead you today to dedicate/rededicate yourself and all the resources under your control (time, talent, and personality, etc.) to Jesus.

Jesus wants to cleanse you for service now, so He can reward you afterward.

1.

We may not fully understand what Jesus does in our life sometimes to get us where He wants us to be.

2. Learn to trust Him; failure to do so means missing out on your “part” with Him.

3. Jesus wants you whole; Satan wants you partial.

More specifically, I want you to do three things: first, learn to trust Jesus for every unknown; second, submit your WHOLE self to Him for cleansing so you can serve Him ONLY; thirdly, I want you to leave today whole, don’t be a Judas!

Dirty Jobs

A popular cable television show with a different twist is Dirty Jobs (and its later version, Somebody’s Gotta Do It).

In each episode of this show, the host finds himself embedded in a job circumstance that includes disgusting or dangerous elements.

Situations have included sewer inspector, pig farmer, hot-tar roofer, bat guano collector, roadkill cleaner, and sausage maker.

There are many dirty jobs in our world.

The circumstances of these jobs make a difference in our willingness to tackle them.

But when we consider a job to be below us, are we really honoring Jesus?

Washing and Death

It is commonly agreed that Jesus’ act of washing his disciples’ feet represents a prefiguration of the cross.[332]

This is probably indicated by the double entendre involved in loving his disciples “to the end” and its temporal context in John 13:1,[333] and by the “laying aside” and “taking” in v. 4 (cf.

John 10:18).[334]

But it is more explicit in Jesus’ explanation of the act, which merges into an announcement of the betrayal (John 13:11–30)[335] and of his going away to glorification (John 13:31–38).

To call his disciples to follow his example of service (John 13:14–16) and love (John 13:34–35) was to summon them to lay down their lives for one another; the commandment was “new” (v.

34) not because love was a new commandment (cf.

Lev 19:18), but because the model to be followed (“as I have loved you,” i.e., in the cross) was new.[336]

Such unity would be necessary to stand in the face of the “world’s” hostility which the community was facing (John 15:18–16:4), which made the apostasy of secessionists (cf.

John 15:6) all the more grievous.[337]

Those who were truly part of the community were already clean (John 13:10; 15:3; cf.

Rev 7:14; 1:5 [v.1.]),

but needed to continue to be cleansed (pruned, John 15:2, is καθαίρει; cf.

John 13:10; 1 John 1:7, 9).

To continue to be cleansed meant to continue to abide in Jesus the vine, and thus in the community with the true Christology (John 15:4),[338] the community united by the fruit of love for one another (John 15:5–14; cf.

John 15:8 with John 13:35).

As we observe these three dialogues between Peter and Jesus as John’s presents to us the necessity of Jesus’ cleansing of His disciples, first consider,

I. Peter Perplexed & Jesus’ Promise (John 13:6-7)

A. Lord, What Are You Doing?

(John 13:6)

John 13:6 KJV 1900

6 Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?

It is not difficult to imagine Simon’s temperament in those early days.

As a disciple, he was liable to burst out with strong expressions of feeling (e.g.

John 13:6–9; Matthew 26:33), and naturally became the leader of the whole group.

He is named first in every list of the apostles, and acted as their spokesman (e.g.

Matthew 16:15f.).

We can picture him as a young, hot-headed northerner with a turbulent disposition.

It is all the more significant, therefore, that Jesus nicknamed him “The Rock.”

This impulsive youth would become the solid and stable foundation on which the church would be built (Matthew 16:18). . . .

This proved a remarkably difficult lesson for Simon to learn.

His first reaction to Jesus’ prediction of suffering and death was horror and denial.

The Messiah could not be killed.

He had surely come to reign, not to die.

So he blurted out,

Matthew 16:22 KJV 1900

22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

[or,] “Never, Lord!

This shall never happen to you!” (Matthew 16:22).

But Jesus’ response was even more abrupt, in fact almost violent:

Matthew 16:23 KJV 1900

23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

It was a temptation to Jesus to think that he might be a Messiah of the sort that Peter wanted—victorious, reigning, exalted.

The disciple who had just been the recipient of the Father’s revelation had become the object of the devil’s deception.

For Jesus had not come to drive the legions of Rome out of the Promised Land; he had come to die for the sins of the world.

The way to his throne was up the steep hill of Calvary.

He must suffer before he could enter into his glory; the price of his crown was a cross.

But Peter could not understand and would not revise his prejudices.

Only a week later he saw Jesus transfigured, clothed in his real glory, and his prejudices must have been confirmed—even though he heard Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah about,

Luke 9:31 (KJV 1900)

. . .

his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.

and even though Jesus repeatedly spoke of his coming suffering and death (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33f., Mk. 10:45).

Mark 8:31 KJV 1900

31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

Mark 9:31 KJV 1900

31 For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.

Mark 10:33f KJV 1900

33 Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles: 34 And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.

Mark 10:45 KJV 1900

45 For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

So, when the time came, Peter tried to resist.

In the upper room, he at first would not let his Lord do the work of a slave and wash his feet (John 13:6–8).

In the garden of Gethsemane he resisted the arresting party: he drew his sword, lunged out in the darkness, and slashed off the ear of Malchus, the high priest’s servant (John 18:10).