Sermon Tone Analysis

“The Humble Servant” John 13:1-17, 31-35.

Introduction - Today is the 5th Sunday and as is our custom, it’s the Sunday we set aside to observe the Lord’s Supper, one of two ordinances Jesus Christ gave to His Church.

The other ordinance is Believer’s Baptism which is the public declaration of faith for a new Christian.

I like to say baptism like putting on the uniform of a Christian and the New Testament teaches the proper method of baptism is by water immersion b/c it pictures the death, burial, resurrection & ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is a sign, an outward picture of what has taken place internally in the heart and soul of a new believer.

It was how the early church knew the profession of faith was genuine because it was an unequivocal & unambiguous statement, a pledge of allegiance and loyalty to Jesus Christ.

It put a target on your back because it was illegal to worship anyone but Caesar, the Roman Emperor.

I have a class I teach about the meaning and significance of baptism and if you’ve never been Scripturally baptized by immersion, or you were baptized as a child and then got saved later, or you’d like to learn more about this beautiful ordinance; please put your name and info on a connection card and a note you’re interested in baptism.

I’ll schedule a class and we’ll have a baptism service when it warms up this spring.

But today, we’re focused on the Lord’s Supper.

This ordinance was established at the time of the Passover Feast, the feast that celebrated & commemorated the COI’s miraculous deliverance from Egypt after over 400 years of slavery.

In our Bible Storying series about Abraham, I believe I mentioned that God told Abraham his descendants would be captive for 400 years and then they would be given the Promised Land.

SOAP reading has taken us recently through John chapter 13, we have the institution of the Lord’s Supper & in a few minutes as we observe the elements, we’ll see Paul’s explanation of the LS in 1st Cor.

11:23-33.

Some of you may follow football, some of you don’t care one iota about it; in either case, there are two games today in the NFL - the NFC Championship: Eagles vs. 49’ers & the AFC Championship: KC Chiefs vs. Cincinnati Bengals.

There will be a lot of swagger and trash talk about who’s the greatest, who’s going to win, who’s the best player.

Arrogance and pride on full display and society says that’s cool and seeks to model that kind of behavior.

Politicians demonstrate arrogance constantly by refusing to listen to the people who elected them to office.

Musicians, movie & TV stars from Hollywood or Nashville demonstrate arrogance & pretend confidence and yet they are some of the most insecure, sad and disillusioned people you’ll ever see.

Even in church life, sometimes celebrity pastors vie for bigger stages, larger audiences and more influence.

But for believer’s, disciples of Jesus Christ, that is certainly not how we’re to carry ourselves as we’ll see from our text this morning in John 13.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the agent of Creation, the Word of God who spoke the universe into existence by the power of His voice with no raw materials, demonstrates what it means to be one of His disciples.

I want to read the whole chapter 13, this morning so we can get the whole picture of this intimate, and beautiful ordinance Jesus gave us.

Because it reads more like a story, I’m reading from the NLT translation.

“The Humble Servant”

This passage is astounding as it highlights the incredible, indescribable, condescension of the 2nd person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the depths He dove to.

Last month we celebrated the Savior’s birth at Christmas and the beauty of the Incarnation - the Son of God laying in a feed trough as human baby.

Here we have an incredible picture of His continued humility as a vivid illustration to His disciples.

At Creation, Jesus literally was with the Father and when God said let there be light, it was Jesus who said that.

We know this from John 1:1-3 “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”

The Word of God, who spoke the universe into existence is the Son of God who is now teaching His disciples a powerful lesson as a humble servant.

Notice 4 things Jesus knew:

1) He knew His hour had come - It was time to make the final sacrifice for sins and He would return to His Father.

vs. 1a

2) He knew He loved these disciples and He loved the world vs. 1b

3) He knew Satan had entered Judas to betray Him - vs. 2

4) He the Father had given all things (authority) into His hands and He was returning to the Father.

Time was of the essence.

His final instructions were critical for His disciples to understand.

He knew it would all make sense for them after the resurrection.

Notice His deliberate actions -

He took off His robe & donned servants gear - a towel

He got a basin & water

He got on the ground to wash their feet - Explain the customs - dirty, dusty roads/paths, wearing sandals, how dinner was eaten not at a tall table with chairs, but reclining on pillows so your dirty feet would be near the head of the person next to you.

Custom for host to have a servant to wash the feet of guests to refresh themselves and clean up before dinner.

None of the disciples gave a thought to this.

Other passages in the Gospels show they were jockeying for position arguing who was the greatest.

I want you to put yourself in the place of these disciples for a moment.

You’ve been arguing with your buddies on who has the greatest SWAG, who’s most important, you don’t give any thought to serving anyone else, you’re hungry and want to eat.

You plop down in your places around the table to dig in.

You scarf down your food and you can see Peter & James and John glaring at each other across the way.

James & John had the audacity to ask their mother to request Jesus let them sit on His right and left hand when He entered His Kingdom.

It was 10 verses 2 with 10 of the disciples angry with James and John at their audacious request.

All of a sudden, without saying a word, Jesus gets up from the table and strips off his outer garments, what in the world?

What’s He doing?

He’s almost wearing nothing.

He wraps a towel around Himself and then proceeds to the large water pot by the door for the purpose of washing ones dusty feet.

You see it now in the dim oil lamp light, but you were too busy on the way in.

You know it’s been there all along, it always is.

Can you feel the tension rising in the room?

All of a sudden, your conscious of your dirty, nasty, smelly feet.

The cracks, crevices, callouses on your feet begin to hurt.

Your mind flashes to the length of your toenails.

self-consciously, you pull your feet up under your robe to hide them.

One by one, the Master gets on the ground with that basin of water and washes the feet of the other disciples & wiping them dry with the towel around His waist - the logistic of this make this very demeaning and undignified for the servant washing and drying while trying to stay covered.

Peter blurts out, “Surely You’re not washing my feet Lord?” “You’ll never wash my feet!”

The Lord replies, If I don’t wash you Peter, you have no part of Me.” vs. 6-8.

Then Peter says “Lord, not just my feet, but my hands and head!”

Not only does Peter tell the Lord what He can and cannot do, then he presumes to tell the Lord how to do it!

Your breathing accelerate as your heart feels like it’s pounding out of your chest and the Lord is now kneeling before you.

You’re speechless as He gently rolls up your robe and slips off your sandals exposing your filthy feet.

He’s speaking as He washes you: “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean but not all of you.” vs. 10.

Your mind races, is He talking about me?

I did bath this morning, or did I? Gently Jesus wipes that water and dirt off your feet and drys them with that towel.

He looks up at you with the most tender, loving care and smiles as if to say: Now you’re clean, relax.

Can you feel the tension, the emotion, the silence is deafening and you can hear a pin drop - it’s almost like everyone is holding their breath!

Then Jesus explains - Read vs. 12-17, 34-35

The point is that if you are a true disciple of Jesus Christ, you’re already clean vs. 10.

But there are 5 spiritual lessons to learn.

1.

We need spiritual cleansing from Jesus from being soiled by the world today.

There is an initial forgiveness of sin when we trust Jesus Christ by faith.

We become a new Creation in Christ, the old sinful life is passed, new life in Christ has come.

That’s what baptism pictures.

The Lord’s Supper is a reminder of the high cost of our sin and that we cannot have dirty feet (sin) and be in fellowship with Jesus Christ.

He has to wash our feet.

If we refuse to allow Him to cleanse us from sin/dirty feet, we show we’re not really His disciples.

2. We are to be servants - vs. 13-14 We are to serve our spiritual family, regardless of how demeaning or humble a task.

The Lord Himself took on the most demeaning role.

Now explain to me why serving in the nursery, changing kids diapers, taking out the trash, working in Children’s Church or K4C on Wednesday night is beneath you?

I’ve been asking for someone to lead that ministry so Sherrie can step aside - crickets.

3. We’re to be humble about our service - vs. 15-16 There is no job in the Kingdom of God that is beneath you when it comes to caring for your brothers and sister in Christ.

4.

You are blessed if you do what you now know!

Vs. 17 Willful disobedience should have no part of our lives.

Trust and obey for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

5. We’re to love one another sacrificially, as Jesus has loved us and marks us as disciples - vs. 34-34

Steadfast, loyal love among the family of God.

The theme of betrayal is prominent in this passage.

There are people who betray but Jesus washed Judas’ feet also.

Jesus was secure in who He was as the Son of God.

His security and identity was tied to His Heavenly Father, not Judas or even Peter!

True love involves accountability - Jesus could have let the dirty feet issue, the service issue slide but He didn’t.