Trinity Church Spokane Valley
John 13:1-20 - Chris Mullins
- Well, it's a pleasure to be with you all this morning. I bring you greetings from Faith Bible Church in Hood River, Oregon. If you don't know where Hood River is, it is an hour to the east of Portland, and it is one of the most beautiful spots in the world. Now I grew up in Spokane Valley. I grew up in the shadow of Mount Spokane, but I can say this is a native. You all don't have a mountain here. We have Mount Hood on one side. We have Mount Adams on the other side of the Columbia in between. It is a beautiful spot, and I would love to invite you, any of you who'd love to visit us. We have a guest room. We'd love to have you join us. For those of you who don't know me, I am Chris Mullins. Some of you, many of you I do know, and I'm grateful to be here with you today. And my wife Ashley and our daughter Alina are here as well. We'd love the opportunity just to get to say hi while we are here. Let's go ahead and turn our attention to God's word. If you have your Bibles, open them to John 13, John 13. And I am told that you know the drill of standing for the reading of God's word. We stand for the reading of God's word because when the scripture speaks, God speaks. And so we stand out of respect for God and for His word. John 13, reading through verses one through 20. Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and they had come from God and was going back to God rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured at water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter who said to him, "Lord, do you wash my feet?" Jesus answered him, "What I'm doing, you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand." Peter said to him, "You shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." Jesus said to him, "The one who is bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean, and you are clean, but not every one of you." For he knew he was to betray him, that was why he said, "Not all of you are clean." When he'd washed their feet and put his eyes on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, "Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet." For I've given you an example that you should also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger, greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of all of you. I know whom I have chosen, but the scripture will be fulfilled. Who he who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. I'm telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place, you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. This is God's word. You may be seated. Now, Paul told me that you've been taking a summer break from your series in Genesis. We also, at Faith Bible Church and Hood River, have taken a break from our series in Genesis. I just got through the Tower of Babel, so I'm behind Paul, but we took a break to do a series on the one another's in church life. And as we have done that, we have intersected with Romans 12, which you all have been going through through the summer, walking through. What does love look like? What does sincere love look like? What does sincere body life in the life of a church look like? What does it mean to be a member of a local church? See, I know you all and likewise with us have spent a lot of time talking about membership, church membership being important, committing to one another. But if you have structure, if you have that formal structure without a culture, it's like having a body without tissue. It's like having a skeleton. It's ghastly. If you have no culture, that matches that structure. What the Bible talks about is organization, God is a God of order in the life of his church and organism, both in the same, a body. If you had a body, just organic stuff without a skeleton, that also is ghastly. It looks like a blob on the ground. But you have both. Organization, order, and organism in the life of a church. Well, if we were to talk about the organism side of things, the culture of a meaningful membership, we would talk about maybe the one another's in the life of a church. And so we as a church in Hood River have been going through loving one another, which I'm sure will ruin true to much of what you've been going through in Romans 12. We've talked about partnering with one another in the life of the gospel and the proclamation of the gospel to our community and to the world. Now, everything that happens in terms of the one another's subsumes under the overarching the master one another of loving one another. Everything, because we have the two greatest commands, love God and love your neighbor. And so under loving one another is every other one another. And so what we have begun to talk about in our church and what you have probably already talked about here is the idea, one of the primary aspects of loving one another is serving one another, serving one another. And so in that connection, that took me to John 13, one through 20. And, you know, I kind of had an inclination, this is how God's word works. You have an inclination, it's like, yeah, I know about that text. I think I know where it's gonna take me. And then you actually get into the text and walk through it and it takes you in a different direction. Not different in the sense that it's not talking about serving one another, but a different kind of service. And in some ways, a more important type of service than we normally think about in the life of the church. And so that's why we're going to look at John 13, one through 20 this morning. Now, since we're parachuting into John, let me give you a little background on the gospel of John. John the Apostle, one of the 12 disciples of Jesus is writing this, he's writing this in his older age. And his purpose is, I like John because he's pretty clear in his purpose. John 20, 30, 31, I'm writing these things to you so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ. What does it mean to be the Christ? The ultimate Davidic king, the one descendant from David, the one who's gonna rule over Israel and over all the world, the king, Jesus of the Christ. And that by believing, you may have life in his name. And the way that John approaches his gospel, he structures his gospel, focusing on signs. So you talk about the sign of Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding, at cana and Galilee. And other signs, and these signs kind of build, but it's not only the signs that Jesus does to prove that he's the Christ, the Messiah. He also has feasts, there's all these feasts that show up in the gospel of John that are showing that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the feasts that we see in the Old Testament, tying in with them, all the symbology that's coming with it is showing that Jesus is the Christ. Central to those feasts is the Passover. The Passover shows up at least three times in the gospel of John. It shows up at the beginning in chapter two where Jesus announces his ultimate sign where he is going to die, he's going to die and then his body's gonna be raised up, the temple of his body is gonna be raised up. He sets the stage for later on in the book and later on in his ministry. And then in John six, he talks about the Passover and it talks about him being the bread of life and giving his flesh for the life of the world. And that's all setting up for the final Passover, which is where we are as we drop into John 13. See, everything up through chapters one through 12 has kind of been proving Jesus is the Christ, setting the stage for the hour that Jesus is coming to, the hour where he will be crucified, where he will die, he'll be lifted up on the cross, but also lifted up in resurrection and then lifted up in ascension. Everything has been paving the way for this moment. And as we enter John 13, John 13 through 17 is Jesus instruction to his disciples to talk about I'm going away, here's what you need to know. I am leaving, this is what you need to know. Now, if we think about final words, there aren't any final words more important than this. Jesus is highlighting exactly what he wants his disciple to know and the thing he starts with would receive extra highlights. And so what we come to in John 13, one through 20 is the very start, and in some ways, the very most important thing that Jesus wants his disciples to know as he leaves. So let us turn our attention then to John 13, one through 20 and the big idea for our text this morning is this, serve one another by washing one another as Jesus did. Not complicated. Serve one another by washing one another as Jesus did. And so as we look at the text, we're going to look at verses one through 11 under this heading. You need Jesus to serve you by washing. You need Jesus to serve you by washing. And then the second part of the text and verses 12 through 20 will fit under this heading. You need to serve as Jesus did by washing. So you need Jesus to serve you by washing verses one through 11. You need to serve as Jesus did by washing. That is where we're going this morning. So let's talk about the need that you have for Jesus to serve you by washing. Look at John 13, verse one. Now before the feast of the Passover, so remember I said that the Passover has been central to the building nature of the gospel of John. Here's the final one. Everything has kind of been building to this moment in Jesus' ministry. Before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father. And like I said, there's this movement and this theme in the gospel of John where the hour, there's many parts where the gospel John says that his hour had not yet come. Well, what's the hour all about? It's the hour of Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension. But Jesus knows his hour. He knows when his hour comes. It's right before his hour. He knows that his hour had come to do what? To depart out of this world to the Father. That leads us back to John 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Here is God, the Son. And what does God, the Son do? He takes on flesh, John 1, 14. And he dwells among his people to make them children of God. Jesus knows all of this. He knows that his hour has come to depart out of this world. He's back to the Father where he was before. And then it's further framed. Having loved his own who were in the world. So Jesus has loved everything he's done in his ministry. He has loved his own, referring to his disciples. Those whom he has chosen. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The end of what? Well, the end of his departure. He's departing out of the world back to the Father. So in his time, in his remaining time, through his death, resurrection, ascension, in the instruction he gives, in the chapters 13 through 17 in John, it's an expression of Jesus' love for his own, to the very end. And so what we see today in our text is an expression of Jesus' love for his people. Remember, that's the master one another. Love one another. Well, here we have Jesus loving his own until the end. This is before the supper starts. And it forms essentially 13 one, essentially forms a heading for the rest of the gospel. A turning point. But now we zoom in and now time progresses a little bit and we are at the supper. Jesus walks into the supper knowing what he knows. He knows what's gonna happen. He knows he's gonna return to the Father. And then we see verse two. During supper. So the supper, remember it was before the feast of the Passover, now it is the Passover. Verse two, during supper, the Passover supper. When the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon, Son, to betray him. So the stage is set and the stage has been set in the gospel before. Jesus has an intimate betrayer in the midst of the 12. And Jesus knows who's gonna betray him. He's known all along. And that fact frames what Jesus is going to do next. So the devil's already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon, Son, to betray him. That frames what Jesus is about to do. That preface is what Jesus is about to do. Verse three, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands. And they had come from God and was going back to God. See, this is all just prefacing what Jesus is about to do. Jesus knows where he's come from. He knows where he's going. There is no question in, as Jesus enters this moment, there's no question of, is he gonna be successful or not? There's no question of that. He knows this is coming. He knows he owns everything. He's the king. He's the Christ. He reigns over the whole world. He's gonna reign over the whole world from Jerusalem. 'Cause he's the ultimate Davidic king. He is the Christ. That's what it means. And that is good news to the world. And it's all his. And he knows he's come from God. He is God. The only begotten God who was with the Father in the bosom of the Father. And he's going back to God. There's no question of success in his mission. But all of that is going through the scene and through Jesus' mind leading up to this moment. Verse four, here's the main action starting. All that's just preface. But here's the main action starting in verse four. Jesus rose from supper. Now, if you, dining is a little bit different, right? They sit around a low table. You kind of lay down on your arm and you sit your feet out. You're kind of reclining around this table. And he rises up. And then the action slows down. It gives us all the detail. If it was a movie, we're getting all the camera angles. As Jesus rises up from supper, lays aside his outer garments. He has a tunic underneath. You have an outer garments. You take off your outer garments. You have a tunic underneath, a basic tunic. And he takes a towel. Just a linen towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. Now, this is a customary thing in ancient culture that you would do. You can actually see it in the Old Testament and the New Testament. If you remember back to Genesis 18 with Abraham and the three visitors who come, what is Abraham offered to do? He offers to wash the feet. Let a little water be brought to wash the feet of the people that are right in front of him. You can see this in Luke 7. Jesus comes to the house of Simon the Pharisee and Jesus kind of rebukes Simon saying, "Hey, you didn't give any water to wash my feet." You would normally come in. We got dusty, dirty, grimy streets in the ancient world, not good paved streets like we have now. And you're going to an important meal. You take a bath before you go there. Jesus even references that later. But then as you're on your way over, you get dusty, you get dirty, you get grim on your feet. So normally when you would enter the house of your meal, before the meal, you would have a lowly servant. There's some evidence that even in Jewish culture, they wouldn't allow Jews to do this action. Maybe a Gentile slave could do it, but it's the loneliest, most servile action that would happen. And Jesus is doing it. Notice when he's doing it. He's not doing it before the meal, which would be typical. And the equipment's there, right? The towel's there, the basin's there, the water's there. He's doing it during supper. That's kind of interesting. Probably indicates that some slave had already washed the disciples' feet. They're free to probably already clean. We don't know that for 100% sure, but it's interesting that Jesus does it during supper. It makes it all the more dramatic to see that Jesus, the leader of these disciples, the king, rises up, takes off his outer garments, puts on this towel and does the most servile action that you could do in that setting, in that context. And what would be even more dramatic is if they have already had their feet washed to the street grime, he's washing already clean feet. That's strange. Why would he do that? Well, we see that as we go along, he is giving a picture of something else. He's doing something physical, but he's giving a picture of something else. But this is strange. This is different. This is surprising. It's surprising for the disciples as we see as he interacts with Simon Peter. Look at verse six. He came to Simon Peter who said to him, Lord, now don't miss the word Lord. Lord means master, right? Peter is referencing, you are the master of us. You are the Lord. You are the superior. Lord, do you wash my feet? Which isn't really a question. It's more like saying, you shouldn't wash my feet. Sometimes we use questions to make statements and that's what's going on here. This should not be happening. Now, I don't know if you've ever had your feet washed or something like it. Maybe your wife has been very gracious and generous in giving you a foot massage. It's awkward. It's very awkward. Why is it awkward? Because the person who is there in front of you, who is handling your feet, it's a very, even in our day, it's a very humble posture. You are being served in a most intimate and way that you just feel like this is beneath the person who's doing this. They shouldn't be doing this. Well, think about that and amplify it by thinking about Jesus, the King, the Christ, the God man. Washing human feet. He shouldn't even be in flesh. But he's there, in flesh, washing feet. So Peter kind of gets this. This shouldn't be happening. Lord, you're the master. Do you wash my feet? You shouldn't be doing this. So Jesus comes back to him. Jesus answers him. What I am doing, you do not understand now. But afterward, you will understand. Literally, after these things, you will understand. Now, that brings up a question after what things, after the foot washing is done, or something else. Well, remember how we've already been instructed. Jesus has come to his hour, this hour, where he's going to be lifted up on the cross, lifted up in resurrection, lifted up in ascension. And I believe the text would point us to the reality that what is happening to the disciples, none of them really gets it, until after the ascension, until after Jesus has gone to heaven. You see, there's someone else who's there that had their feet washed, that has the proper perspective on it. His name is the Apostle John. And the Apostle John is able to start giving perspective on what is happening in verse 11. John is able to interpret what was happening in this foot washing in a post ascension perspective. So I think that's what he's telling Peter. You don't get this now, but afterward, later, after these things, after what is about to happen in my death burial resurrection ascension, you will understand. That isn't phase Peter, verse eight. Peter said to him, "You shall never wash my feet." Now, this is like the most emphatic way you can say something in Greek. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever. Don't do it, Jesus. Don't wash my feet. Never, you're never gonna do it. I'm never gonna let you. Jesus comes back. Jesus answers him, if I do not wash you, you have no share with me. Now, think of the context, right? So here's the disciples, they're following Jesus. Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the King. They want to follow Jesus 'cause he's gonna set up his kingdom and he will. And so for Jesus to say, well, if I don't wash your feet, you have no share with me. Whoa, that just amplified things. That just amplified things. 'Cause that's why they're following Jesus. They wanna share with the Christ. They wanna share with the inheritance of the Christ as ruler over the whole world and the new creation, the new order that the Christ is bringing. So how does Simon Peter respond? Verse nine, Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Now he doesn't get it yet. He still doesn't get it, but he does believe, Jesus, like if I don't wash you, you have no share with me. Well, Peter wants a share with the Christ. So okay, wash my feet, wash my more important parts too. Like wash my head, wash my hands. Wash it all. And in all of this, as this is developing, we begin to understand, this isn't just a physical action showing service. There's more going on here that Jesus is doing. And it keeps developing into verse 10. Jesus said to him, "The one who is bathed." Now up to this point, every word that has been used is a word that indicates you wash something like a part of your body, like your hands, or maybe your feet in this case, maybe your eyes, a part of your body. But when he talks about bathed, we're talking about bathing, whole body washing, okay? And we already talked about, if you were going to a meal and that timeframe, you take your bath, and then yeah, you need your feet washed. And so that's what Jesus is alluding to. The one who is bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but it's completely clean. So that makes sense. But notice how he is using this. He is applying it to what Peter has said. Peter's like, "Okay, well, don't just wash my feet only. Wash my hands and my head. Wash more of me." And Jesus like sledding down. Even at the physical level of what we're talking about here, you bathe once, and then yeah, you need to touch up with your feet. But then notice where Jesus turns it. Up until this point in the middle of verse 10, he is talking to Peter. In the middle, he broadens it out. So when Jesus says, and you are clean, but not every one of you, you probably have a little footnote in your Bible that says that you there is plural. So he's been talking with Peter, and he says, "Listen, you don't need a full body washing. You've already had it. You're already completely clean. I just need to touch up your feet." But then he broadens it out to his disciples, and it begins to give us more clues about what is Jesus talking about, what is the significance of what he is doing. You all are clean, but not every one of you. And then we get the post ascension perspective of someone who also had their foot washed there, the Apostle John in verse 11, he explains for us what Jesus meant. For he, Jesus knew who was to betray him. That was why he said, "Not all of you, not all of the disciples are clean." And that right there gives us our interpretive key for what the significance is of what Jesus is doing. You see what's happening here, what's going on with the imagery of water and washing and cleansing is talking about true discipleship. And this isn't the first time water imagery has been used in the Gospel of John. You see, when you go to the Gospel of John, he uses very elemental sort of imagery, light, dark, bread and wine. Water. He uses these elemental images to picture something. So the question we should be asking is, well, how else in the Gospel of John is water imagery used? Because we already see here in the text that Jesus is pointing to something more significant. Well, let me take you back to the beginning of John, to John 1. Now, there were multiple passages. It would be instructive for you to look up all the ways in which water imagery is used in the Gospel of John. There's actually not that many passages, but the most significant happens at the very beginning, right after the prologue of verses one through 18, talking about Jesus coming from the Father, taking on flesh, the only begotten God, has made God known. And then starting in verse 19 through 34, we get significant imagery that explains most of what Jesus is doing here. John 1.19. And this is the testimony of John. Now, this is John the Baptist. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? He confessed and did not deny, but he confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then are you Elijah? He said, I'm not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. So they said to him, who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He said, I'm the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord as the prophet Isaiah said. Now, they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, then why are you baptizing? What is baptism? It is a whole body immersion into the Jordan River, at this point. So there's some water imagery going on. Why are you baptizing if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? John answered them, I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know. Even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now, why is he talking about the Lamb of God? That's Passover imagery. You have a lamb in Passover that gets slaughtered and its blood gets splattered over the door frame into your house to symbolize and to remember the rescue that God had had for his people out of Egypt through that action of the slaughter of the Lamb of God. It was also viewed even in the Old Testament as a atonement, an atoning sacrifice that was supposed to atone for them as Israelites who were worshiping idols just as much as the rest of the Egyptians to bring them out and to rescue them. So even here at the beginning, John the Baptist is using Passover imagery to say, okay, this guy who's coming after me, he's the Lamb of God who's gonna take away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said after me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me. I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel and John bore witness. I saw the spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, he on whom you see the spirit descend and remain. This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and I have seen and I have bore witness that this is the Son of God. All of this imagery is coming together. Passover the Lamb of God who's gonna take away the sins of the world. Here's the Christ to be identified through the waters of baptism. He's identified with a dove coming to rest on him like the dove came on the new creation after the flood waters in Noah's day. And this is the one who's going to identify the Christ and the Christ as the new covenant mediator is going to baptize you not with water ultimately, but with the spirit of God. Where the spirit of God comes and indwells you, that is a new covenant promise such that you are able to obey God's law. You are not only cleansed, but you are indwelled to live as God's people. Those are the promises of the new covenant. And so this is why we're not gonna go through all of these texts, but that same water imagery is used in John three, five. Unless you're born of water and the spirit, you cannot see the kingdom of God. You need to be cleansed. You need to be cleansed by the Christ who's gonna take away your sin. You can go forward to John three, 22 through four, three where there's a dispute with John the Baptist and his disciples and other teachers about purification. It's a variant on the same word that Jesus uses for clean in John 13. And that purification, that cleansing is symbolized through the waters of baptism. You become a disciple through the waters of baptism. Put it this way, the whole body washing, bathing, points to what Jesus is the Lamb of God is gonna do and taking away and cleansing from sin. There's other passages we could look at, but that is sufficient to set the stage of what Jesus is symbolizing. 'Cause he's talking about his disciples. Who's clean and who's not? And he's saying those who have bathed an illusion of baptism and more dramatically what baptism points to, the cleansing of the Christ, happens once. But then you're like, well, wait, wait, wait, okay, if you have a whole body washing, if you only need to be bathed once, what's the deal with the foot washing? Well, rewind the tape. What did Jesus do leading up to the foot washing? He put aside his outer garments. He took on the garb of a slave, of a servant. And he gets out on his knees and he starts washing. In verse 12, he will put his outer garments back on. What has led up to this moment? Remember what verse one and verse two talked about? Jesus knows he's coming from God to earth, put on flesh, and then he's going back to God. He's picturing in this moment what his whole ministry has been about. The eternal son dwelling in the glory of his father, with raiment that we can't fathom, put off that glorious raiment and took on another sort of coat, a coat of flesh to dwell among his people to do what? To wash them, to take away their sin, to cleanse them from the grime and the muck and the filth of their sin, which made them unholy in God's eyes. To serve them. And not just one and done. See, here's the reality what Jesus is pointing to. Yes, you get washed symbolically in your baptism, pointing to the washing and the cleansing that Jesus is doing through his ministry. But here's the reality as a disciple, we all know this to be true, that as we walk through life, we sin. I'm gonna sin today, I don't want to, but it's a reality as I'm fighting sin in my life as a follower of Jesus, I'm gonna sin. I'm gonna dirty myself. And I need Jesus cleansing again. Not that he needs to be sacrificed again, but I need to go back to what he has already done in his death for his people on the cross, his resurrection that showed he paid all of that debt. And in his reality that he's given me the spirit of God to live the life of a disciple, I need to be cleansed. I need to be served by Jesus Christ. Not just once, but every day and multiple times a day. And really that ongoing cleansing is just an extension. Just like the washing is kind of an extension of the whole body washing, it's just an extension of what it means when we became a disciple, when we went public with our faith in the waters of baptism, it's just an extension of that washing. We cannot refuse this washing. If we say, you know, my sins aren't too bad. You know, I walk today, it's not that bad. It's just a little white lie, just a little lust, just a little this, just a little that. It's not that bad, I don't need Jesus cleansing. We're like Peter saying, you don't need to wash me, Jesus. And it's the height of pride. Or maybe, maybe we look pretty good externally. Maybe we look like we've got it all together. Maybe we've been baptized, at least gotten wet in church. Maybe we have, look pretty good in our lives externally, but maybe we're like Judas. And we don't truly, we're not really clean because the internal heart is not devoted to Jesus Christ. He is not my king. And that's what the whole gospel of John is about. It's not just that Jesus is your savior. Jesus is your king. He has something to say about your life. He is your rightful ruler and lord and he's good. And this king, this king became a slave for his people to wash them, to cleanse them. You and I need daily the cleansing of the king. And think about that, you cannot wash yourself. We know that, we incur sin, we spatter ourselves with sin, and we cannot cleanse it. No matter how much you scour, no matter how many good works you do, no matter how good you look, no matter how many activities you're involved in, you cannot scour off the sin that is in your heart, that God sees. The God who is light and in him is no darkness, he sees it perfectly. You cannot scour it off. There's only one person who can do it. It is the God man, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And you need Jesus to serve you. You cannot ask for that. You cannot ask for the king to serve you. He has to do it. He has to voluntarily do it and he has. He has become the suffering servant to wash you, to wash his people. You can't refuse it, that is prideful. But he gives it and he will wash you if you will surrender to him as king and Lord with true allegiance to Jesus Christ. Really, in some sense, what's going on in John 13 is commented on in 1 John 1, 5 through 10. Turn there briefly. Okay. Same author. Apostle John says this. 1 John 1 1 through 10. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him, whether we walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, here it is, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sin, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Every day we appropriate the cleansing work of the king. We need Jesus to serve us in cleansing us the most menial task of scouring us from the grime of our sin. So think about this. First, you need to recognize your sin. Now I just say I'm a sinner, that's pretty generic, but I have sinned. Here are the sins I have committed. Take a good hard look at the sins you commit daily and thought were deed action. How do they appear in the piercing gaze of the God who is light with no darkness? Then you need to not just stay there and wallow and say I'm a sinner, I'm a sinner, I can't approach God. Well you can, not because you can demand it, not because you deserve it, but because the eternal son humbled himself to cleanse his people from their foul grime. And then you must receive it, humbly. You cannot refuse it. If you refuse it, you show you don't belong to Jesus. You must receive it initially in repentance, faith, going public in the waters of baptism, but you must also do it in an ongoing way, confessing your sins daily and re-appropriating Jesus' sacrifice. Now that sets us up for the second part of what Jesus is doing, because he's not just doing something for his disciples, he's teaching them and he's commanding them, which leads us to the second part of our passage in verses 12 through 20, you need to serve as Jesus did by washing. Now we've got the imagery, how does he apply it to his disciples? Verse 12, when he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, do you understand what I've done to you? Which is kind of another one of those questions that actually says you don't understand what I've done for you, not yet. Just like Peter doesn't understand yet, they'll understand after the ascension. They'll understand later what does Jesus say? You call me teacher and master, Lord, curious. And you're right, for so I am. If I then your master and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. So here's a one another. You also ought to wash one another's feet. For I've given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. Now Jesus is using an argument of greater to lesser. He as the king, as the Lord and the master and the teacher has voluntarily pushed the bar down. Which means if his disciples are those who follow him and submit to him as Lord, he's the head, then they are automatically pushed down into the same aspect of service. But now we realize, given the imagery of what Jesus said, what is Jesus saying? He's saying wash one another's feet. Well, this isn't just humble service. That's often how we look at this text and that's how I started looking at this text. Well, this is a great illustration of humble service. Yes, it is. So we don't miss that. We ought to humbly serve one another. But it's beyond that. Jesus is calling his disciples to cleanse one another. Now, if you go back to the water imagery in John, and again, we're not gonna go through all these passages, but you would find things like in John 737 through 39, that Jesus says, "The one who believes in me "out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." And John is very clear. He said, "This is, he said, about the spirit, "which those who were to believe in him "were yet to receive." He then received it yet 'cause Jesus hadn't been glorified. And then what you find out by the end of John, if you go to John 20, and I will take you there, after the resurrection, before the ascension, but as Jesus is headed up, and he's going to head up in the ascension, he's gonna send down the spirit to begin and inaugurate the new covenant era, we find language that is actually reminiscent of what we see in our text. Remember, water imagery goes with the spirit. It goes with cleansing from sin. It goes through the Lamb of God taking away sin. It's all kind of smushed together. Jesus says this when he's talking to the disciples, the promise isn't there at this point, but he's appeared to them post-resurrection 2021. Jesus said to them, "Again, peace be with you "as the Father has sent me, so am I am sending you." We see sending imagery in our passage, and we'll talk about that in a second. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." It's kind of this picture of an action that's about to happen when Jesus ascends, he's gonna send down the spirit in the day of Pentecost, but notice this, it's connected in verse 23. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. Now, as Jesus saying that the disciples have this power, this inherent power through the spirit to say, "You're forgiven, you're forgiven, "you're not forgiven, you're not forgiven." No, what is he illustrating? He's saying through your message, and as you, in an initial way, through evangelism and through the proclamation of the gospel, what do you do? You are performing a priestly function by pointing people to the cleansing that the Christ gives. None of us has any intrinsic power or ability to declare another forgiven, but what we can do in an initial way through evangelism and in an ongoing way in the life of the church, we can point each other to the cross of Christ, to where you are cleansed. So you think back to 1 John 1, 5 through 10, if you confess your sins, is that just me and God? Well, yes it is, but it's also to one another. James 5, 16 talks about confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you might be healed. What is happening in that moment is I confess my grime and muck to my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in an appropriate way, and then they come back to me and they say, "Brother, you need to go to the cross. "You need to go to Christ's atonement. "You need to go to Christ's cleansing, "and there you will find forgiveness." In that sense you pronounce forgiveness only through Christ and through trust in His work and His cleansing on your behalf, and Jesus is saying, just what I did for you, you do for one another. Now he goes on to point out verse 18, back in John 13, not all of you are clean. I'm speaking, I'm not speaking of all of you, I know whom I've chosen, but the scripture will be fulfilled. He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. So he washed Judas's feet. The one he knows is gonna betray him. He served him, he washed him. Judas is gonna betray him. The very heel that he washed with water is the one who's lifted up against Jesus. He's saying, I'm telling you these things now before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. So he says, yeah, not all of you are clean. This isn't applicable to all of you. You're gonna see it, and you're gonna find out when I'm betrayed that it's gonna be a further proof that I'm he, I'm God. But then he comes back to the main line in verse 20. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me, why does he say that? He feels kinda disconnected at first from the rest of the speech. But what he is doing is he's saying, there's a chain link between the ministry of the Father through the ministry of the Son, and now through the ministry of the disciples. He's authorizing them. He's saying that you as disciples are following Jesus, you are inheriting my ministry, and you're inheriting my ministry of cleansing. Through the proclamation of the gospel, pointing people to the one Christ who cleanses and to one another. Because you all are going to sin, you're gonna sin against one another. You're gonna encounter on a daily basis sin, and what do you do? Well, you need to wash the feet of one another. What does that mean? What does that look like? Well, I've already said that we point people to the cross and the gospel and evangelism, but we never get beyond the gospel. We live our lives as Christians in light of the gospel. With the gospel at the center of our lives, and we serve one another. We humbly serve one another through spiritual cleansing. What does that mean? It means we guard one another from the deceitfulness of sin in the first place, Hebrews 3, 12 through 14. We exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. So we guard one another from sin. We know one another well enough to know, well, you're going astray, brother or sister, you need to come back. That is humble service. I've already cited James 516. You must confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. You must welcome other people's confession to you. You must not say, I don't wanna hear, I don't wanna hear about your problems. I got my own problem, thank you. I don't wanna hear about your problems. I know you need to welcome that because in so doing you are participating in the action of cleansing, pointing them to Christ. And that's the very next step. You must point them to Christ's atonement and cleansing so they might appropriate it in faith for forgiveness. What else does it look like to wash one another's feet to do this action of spiritual cleansing? You must bear one another's burdens and do the work of restoring any who is caught in transgression to sound walking as a disciple Galatians 6, 1 and 2. Bear one another's burdens, thus fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone's caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual restore such a one. That's hard work. But it's not only you who must do the foot washing, like Peter, you must receive foot washing. So on the flip side, what does it look like? When a brother or sister comes up to you and says, brother or sister, I see this issue of sin in your life and I'm concerned about it. Can we talk about that? You must listen to their encouragements and their exhortations and their warnings about the deceitfulness of sin, Hebrews 3, 12 through 14 again. You've gotta receive it. You must open up. Now here's where it's really hard. You must open up and appropriately confess your sin asking for your brothers and sisters' intercession. Now you gotta do that inappropriate way, right? You gotta do it one on one. But this is also why we have things like Bible studies and small groups that meet together. Part of that is confessing our sin to one another. You confess it to your elders, but not just to your elders. This is ministry that we do to one another and you gotta open up. You gotta vomit on people and say, "This is what's going on in my heart." Not just the externals, but this is what's going on in my heart. Brother and sister, will you counsel me? Will you minister to me so that I don't dishonor Jesus? Will you point me to the cross? Will you counsel me through the cross to deal with this sin? You have to receive foot washing. You must receive your fellow disciples' direction to Christ and his atonement for cleansing and forgiveness. You, when we wash each other's feet, it's not just, "All right, here's the put-off, here's the put-on, go do it." That needs to be there. That's good biblical counseling. But you've gotta do it through the atonement of Christ. You've gotta do it through the gospel. Otherwise, it's just work harder, pray harder, do more. You need Christ's cleansing. You need the power of the spirit and we need to work with each other as the spirit is empowering us to cleanse one another from sin. And then when someone does fall into sin and it will, it probably already has happened in this church 'cause we are a collection of sinners, ransom sinners, but sinners nonetheless. When one of us falls into sin, we go after one another through things like church discipline, the process. Why? Because that's an act of love. It's bearing one another's burdens. It's seeking to restore that person and cleanse that person because of Christ cleansing and to restore them as walking as a disciple. When we think of serving one another, we often go to tangible acts of service. And this is good. Money, meals, helping out with yard work. Do those things. 'Cause we just read in 1 John 3 earlier this morning, you have the world's goods and you see your brother in need and do nothing. That's worthless. But I think that's where we often go when we think about Christian service and we don't go here first. And this is harder. This is way harder to hear one another's muck and grime and to wash it away because through the atonement of Jesus. But this is the very first thing that Jesus taught his disciples in his farewell speech. Remember what he said? He's doing this because he loves them to the end. This is what love looks like. Getting on your knees, serving one another, seeing our sin full on, not being embarrassed to, I mean, yes, there's a proper shame of confessing our sin, but we see Christ and we have hope and we know it's not hopeless. And we love one another by listening, caring for one another, pointing each other to the cross, restoring us to faithful walk as that is a disciple. So brothers and sisters, let us love one another and serve one another in this way, washing each other's feet. We are not above our master. Let's pray. Jesus, we are so thankful. Jesus, you are the King. You are the rightful ruler over every single person in this room. You have something to say as King to every single person in this room. But you're also the King who served, who took the attitude of a slave to cleanse his people so that we might enter your kingdom and we might enjoy the triune God for all eternity. And we thank you. We thank you even now as we get to commemorate your death, the death that has cleansed us from our sin in the supper you gave us to remember what you have done to gather a people to yourself. Lord Jesus, help us to fulfill this command to wash one another. Lord, help us to be open with one another in appropriate ways, but help us to point each other to you and to write walking as a disciple. We thank you that you've purchased the power to do this through the power of your Holy Spirit who regenerates us, then indwells us, powers us for faithful walking and empowers us to serve one another. I pray for Trinity Church that they would live this out. I pray for Faith Bible Church in Hood River that we would live this out. And I pray for all true local churches that we would do this so that you might be honored. And we give you all the praise, glory and Christ name, Amen.