Sermon Tone Analysis

That you may Believe and Have Life #36

John 13:6-11

 

Last week we found ourselves in the borrowed upper room of a friend’s house where Jesus and his disciples are celebrating the Passover together

 

Jesus Christ, while they serving the meal, Jesus got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, wrapped a towel around his waist, poured water into a basin and, without a word, began to wash the feet of his disciples.

Now Jesus washed all of their feet, but only one of the disciples is recorded as saying anything in the midst of the process … but in this exchange between Peter and Jesus, we learn something that we must stop and take notice today

 

READ 13:6-11

 

Well … this exchange between Peter and Jesus teaches us some things about dealing with being unclean or in other words dealing with sin in our lives

 

àWhat do we do when we have sinned?

àWhat happens as a believer?

àdo I lose my salvation?

àdo I just go along doing the best I can? 

 

 

Well … how do we deal with it?

First

 

1.

Make An Accurate Assessment

If you look closely at the words here you will find that there were two kinds of people represented in the room that day with Jesus …

So when dealing with sin in our lives, we need to make an accurate assessment

Is the problem a systemic problem or a environmental problem

Is it a wide spread problem or is it localized

Can I be clean or is the problem beyond my ability?

Do I need a nature change or cleaning and training?

 

  A.

Two Kinds of Sin

    1.

SIN is a problem.

The interesting thing today is that the thinking about sin has changed dramatically.

Satan has worked to change the way we think about sin.

It used to be that sin was something that was shameful.

But now we have come to a place in many ways where we might believe there is sin, and even perhaps that I am a sinner, but we no longer believe that there is a problem, that there is guilt.

2.

Psalm 32:5

/Psalm 32:5 (NIV) \\ 5 //Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”— and you forgave the guilt of my sin.

Selah/

YES guilt is a problem … and it is a two fold problem … there is iniquity and there are transgressions

    3.

Iniquity – wickedness … it is a state of being – SIN

    4.

Transgressions – infringement or violation of law – SINS

    5.

One is something you do and the other is something you have or are …

    6.

iniquity –

Psalm 51:5 /surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me/

 

    7.

transgressions –

Hos 6:7 – /Like Adam, they have broken the covenant, they were unfaithful to me there./

Paul teaches us that because of Adam we have all BECOME sinners and are born IN SiN … but LIKE Adam we also sometimes CHOOSE to go OUT OF BOUNDS … God has set the boundaries for what is acceptable and we leave.

God is in charge and we try to set our own rules and encroach on his authority

Micah 6:8 says that what God WANTS – is that we would /act justly … love mercy … walk humbly with … Godi/

The problem is that we don’t always do that … and when we fail to love mercy, when we fail to act justly, when we fail with walk humbly with God … we are out of bounds … i.e. our feet are dirty … and we are still his children, we are still the sheep of his pasture, but we need a cleaning

 

  B.

What is Your Problem?

That sounds terrible … but isn’t that what we are asking

Do you have dirty feet, or are you dirty from the inside out?

Have you been bathed by the son of God and are simply in need of a cleaning

Or are you still IN your sin and in need of cleansing

Do you stand IN the Forgiveness of God found in Christ Jesus, covered in the forgiveness of his shed blood … Or do you stand in your own goodness condemned already because you have failed to receive Christ?

 

So,

 

2.

Take Appropriate Action

 

There are two kinds of sin … or two conditions.

And there are two prescriptions

 

  A.

Wash the Whole Body

    1.

Verse 11 explains the last phrase of verse 10.

    2.

the last phrase in verse 10 can be a little confusing in some translations – in the nasb or the kjv it uses the phrase “not all of you” or “not all” … which leaves you to assume perhaps it’s talking about Peter’s Body, as the rest of the verse.

However the NIV translates, “though not every one of you” … which when you read verse 11 you understand the meaning shifts from Peter to all of the disciples as verse 11 points out that one of them was going to betray him, evidencing that one of them had a deeper problem than the rest.

That though the rest were clean but their feet were dirty, one of them was completely dirty

    3.

The person that is dirty through hand through, the one who has an iniquity problem cannot do anything themselves, they need to be bathed

    4.

the difference between the one and the rest was that he had not been bathed on the inside

Look back at verse 10 – he said of Peter … YOU HAVE BEEN BATHED … need to be WASHED … and then says not every one of you …

      a.

NIV says “there person who has had a bath” … or “has been bathed” … This word “has had a bath” or “been bathed” … is the Greek word, /louo ~/loo-o~/ /always used of a person and of the whole body being washed.

It also is used of when someone who has died or is dead, is Washed head to toe prepared for burial.

Acts 9:37 It has one other meaning, and that is found in Acts 16:33 and that is when one washed out the wounds of another removing the blood and debris so healing can begin …

      b.

If the sin that we are born in, if the GUILT that it bears is the diagnosed problem … then you need to be Bathed … Judas was in that room and the writer John made sure we understood that Judas had a different problem than the rest.

He needed to be bathed … he needed to have the wounds washed that sin had left behind.

He needed to have his dead body cleansed … He needed to be cleansed by Christ, head to toe

Hebrews 10:22 uses this same word when it says /let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water/

    5.

Judas had a different problem than the rest.

They may have seemed the same looking around the room at the dirty feet, but it was an important difference

    6.

you may be here today and you don’t really seem all that much different from anyone else in the room, maybe your feet are a little dirty or your fingernails a little dirty … perhaps you are even pretty well scrubbed … J

Your problem may be, that you have not been bathed.

7.

Agree with God that you have a Problem

Psalm 38:17 /I confess my INIQUITY; I am TROUBLED by my sin/

    8.

Call out to him

/Psalm 51:1,2 //have mercy on me, O God according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin/

    9.

Submit to the cleaning of the Lord.

Surrender to his Lordship –

1 John 1:9

Rom 10:9,10,13

 

Now- if you have been bathed, you have come to Christ at a moment in time and received his cleansing for Salvation and eternal life … but you look down and realize, your feet are dirty … your hands are not clean … your ear is clogged with wax … whatever …

  B.

Wash the Part that’s Dirty

The good news when we understand this passage is that once you have been Bathed by the Lord Jesus Christ, you do NOT need to be bathed again, you just need to be cleaned

 

 

The Greek wording here is very important.

It says “a person who has had a bath needs only to wash” … the words “needs only” are two Greek words … /chreia ou / which, in order, means /necessity, duty/ – AND – /no, not/

So the understanding is that IF you’ve been bathed … another bath is not a duty or necessity but instead …

 

à Because when you gave your heart to Christ you were thoroughly Bathed

1 Cor 6:11

/You were washed … sanctified … justified in the name of the Lord jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God/

/Washed /(wash away)

/Sanctified /(separated and rendered dedicated to God)

/Justified /(rendered righteous)

 

So when Christ washed you of your sin, he washed your sin guilt away, he rendered you dedicated to God and Righteous.

The word render means to transmit or deliver to another, to agree on and report a verdict.