Inland Empire: Riverside
The Radical Humility of Jesus - Audio
I'm working on live, this is working, no, how about now? Yes, Frank, you can hear me, amen, as long as Frank can hear me. Still working, it's kinda going in and out, yeah, we got it, it sounds like it's working. Ok, cause I'm not doing anything different, I'm trying to get more sleep, I hope everyone is doing well this morning, I know you lost an hour of sleep last night, and I did too, so I want you to know that we're all in this thing together, I noticed that people showing up now, they thought they were early, they're feeling like champs, they're like, what's going on, what I missed you, but it's great to be together the worship this morning, great to see all your faces, great to be able to preach the word, I hope that God will use this in a great way to really encourage, challenge and build you up and appreciate the things that have been shared this morning, appreciate the things that Don shared and comparing me to Paul is such an honor, I appreciate that, a lot of people don't do that, they just try to tear you down, but Don is trying to build me up, make me feel like Paul, which is one of my spiritual heroes, so I appreciate that, but I even more appreciate the things he shared about how God's grace really is sufficient, and I know that we know that intellectually, we know that when we read, but I think Don helped us this morning to really feel that, I appreciate that, that was great, just to know that, hey, we are who we are, but God loves us, amen, and that's the best of us, as Gordon Ferguson says, Mass, right, and that's the best of us, so if you go ahead and look at the screen here, Mike, put the picture up above the bird, so you see up there, that we are going to be reading a statement in a moment recorded from Jesus, and we'll go ahead and read it now, Michael, if you want to put it up on the verse in Matthew, chapter 20, verse 25 to 28, Jesus called them together and said you know that the rules of the Gentiles, Lord, and over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them, not so with you, and said whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as a son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many, and so is the picture of the chicken back up, so we'll be talking a little bit this morning about the dynamic of competing for status, that is so strong in our day, but you'll see it was even stronger, at least just as strong in the day of our Lord, but you know you think of an image here, and chicken is kind of one of the best things I can come up with, and what does that mean, you know we see a chicken, oh somebody who's scared, right, but we're looking at it from this perspective, you know a lot of people, you know, may or may not know about chickens, but really have one way of organizing their society, you know, to create their community, and what their relationships are based on, how to order those things, and it's called what, it's called a pecking order, yes, chickens have a pecking order, all right, and so if you're high on the pecking order, then you don't need to be afraid, you get a lot of food, you can be safe, you can probably have whatever land you want, but if you're the bottom, then you're lonely, you're probably scared, you may not get that much to eat, you're afraid you can be attacked at any time, probably have a low self-esteem, but all life for chickens is about a pecking order, and when you think about it, it's, when you look at these chickens and you think they have this pecking order, it's a pretty stupid way to live, isn't it? Okay? Oh, silly, okay, some of you are offended by the word, the word stupid, even though it's in the Bible. But chickens actually die from this pecking order thing, you know, it's real trouble for people who raise chicken, you know, and some things you're tempted to say, "Hey, chicken, chicken!" That's a stupid way to live, it's a silly way to live, stop living that way, right? We like to scream out and let them know and certainly people that raise them would, and it's an issue for them, they even have a product called Pec no more, that they spray on, they spray on chickens, it's supposed to taste bad so that, you know, chickens won't pick each other, but eventually that wears off and they start pecking each other again, so it doesn't work that well. Another guy I'm not making this up, like in the 70s, created some little tiny contacts for chickens, and he would put it on and basically it was vision enough where they really couldn't see each other, and so they'd stop pecking, but this part, this part would be the only part that surprises you, the chickens were unable to really care for their contacts, and the way they needed to be cared for, and so the chickens were beginning to go blind, so that didn't work, and I just, I was just kind of thinking about this guy, he must have thought, "Oh man, I'm gonna get rich, baby, yeah!" You know, he looks at a picture like this and goes, "You know, there's 100 chickens right there, there's millions of millions of slappin' contacts on all of 'em, maybe I wanna make it, you know?" No, but after they did their test run, that didn't work out. Either. But there's only one run, one real way that you can threaten a chicken that really should get their attention. Mike, where's that other picture? See? You know, there's a way that seems right to a chicken, you know, but in the end, you know? But this morning, guys, we're gonna talk about how Jesus changed the kind of person that our world, that the Greco-Roman world at that time, valued and admired. You know, it's a virtue that really Jesus, in many ways, initially, you know, introduces into culture. So we're gonna talk this morning about the radical humility of Jesus, amen? And, you know, that's a world that Jesus was born into and raised into, and a professor named Francis M. Brogia talks about two different ways, or a kind of a framework of thinking if you will, for how do you pursue a meaningful life in Western civilization or Western history? And he said, basically, there are two ways. One is the way of the hero, the other is the way of the saint. Now in the ancient world where Jesus was born in the Greco-Roman world, was admired, was a hero. The idea of a hero is somebody who overcame obstacles to achieve his full potential of excellence, and therefore received status, honor, and recognition. So they viewed all life, all of life, as a kind of contest, a striving, or a competition. And that was really their meaning of life, if you will, in that day and age. That's why for the Greeks, you know, the Olympics weren't just a sporting event, but they were kind of a religious ceremony, because people, you know, it was like a, in a sense, a microcosm of society, of the things that made for a good life in their minds and in their culture, striving against the obstacles, you know, for excellence, for status, and for honor. And the word for striving is, the Greek word for striving is Aegon, A-G-O-N, and it's, you know, some of you are old enough to remember a Saturday morning program about sports. It was called the Wide World of Sport. They would talk about where we'll be able to witness the thrilling, the thrilling, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. That's where we get that word, Agnes. And if you're really old, you actually remember the picture was just here, just bomb and just crash it hard for the agony of defeat. So I was made sure I got to see the introduction to the program so I could watch that guy wipe out every week. I was a kid, you know, it was cool. And I found out that he survived, so it was no big thing. But that's the word, you know, that they use, the agony, the thrill of victory, the striving, if you will, for victory. And so I led to the creation in society that was created where status, where we're pecking order, if you will, who's up high, who's down low, this was very fundamental to their society. Cicero wrote, "Rank must be preserved." In a sense, it was all culture. Identity was where you stood in this pecking order, where you stood in society's eyes. And, you know, your goal was to always try to climb higher up on the ladder and never, for sure, let yourself slip down any rums. And that was the reality they lived in. And it was expressed in all kinds of forms and in many different ways. And so I want to talk about a few of those before we really get into talking about Jesus this morning, amen? And then we'll come back and we'll talk about how Jesus related to those things. And so the clothes you wore depended on your status. If you were free, not a slave, you got to wear, basically what was called a Freedman's cap. It was a hat that you could wear, a cap that you could wear, to signify that you were free. If you were a citizen, and not all Freedmen were citizens, citizen was actually a unique category, distinct minority. And you returned about 14 or 16. If you were a boy, you were then able to wear what was called a Toga Verellis. An awesome team, team guys, what you want to wear at Toga Verellis? It means a Toga of manhood. And you'd be able to wear that if you were a citizen. So in other words, you could wear a Freedman's cap, even if you weren't a citizen, citizen that showed that you were a Freedman, not a slave, which was the lowest wrong on society. If you were a citizen, then you could not only wear that, but you could wear the Toga Verellis. And that proved that you were not only a Freedman, but you were actually a citizen of Rome. If you were a equestrian, and that was a higher echelon of Roman society, you were able to wear that Toga, but you're also allowed to put gold rings on your finger. And that marked your status as an equestrian. Your marked your status as that level of society. And it was so strong that some people called it the Order of the Rings. And by the way, remember when James and his book was warning us in the New Testament, he said, "Suppose someone comes into one of your meetings wearing a fine robe and a gold ring." Right? That's what James was warned us about. The people knew exactly what he was talking about. Because if you were wearing a fine robe and a gold ring, you were pretty high up in society. And he said, "If that person comes in and you honor them more," which by the way was the Roman way and the Roman custom of doing things is what you were expected to do. But James said, "If you do that, even though society says you better do it, you're being evil." And so James warns us not to treat them any differently. Certainly don't treat them worse. Sometimes we have people that have such a prejudice against anyone that has money or has made some out of themselves. They hate them. They want to tear them down. You know? Well, that's evil as well. And so he's saying, James is saying you've got to make sure that you love people because they're people. Amen? Because God created them. And so really, you know, the beginning of the church here is really going to mess with Rome. You know? It's going to, you know, do a number on their idea of the pecking order and clothes are a big part of this. You know, if you were in the senatorial class, which was one of the highest, you know, probably just below being a Caesar if you will, then you're able to wear the toe of a realist, a gold ring, and you had a big purple stripe on your toe of a rope, huh? I know you guys are, yeah, you know what I just wanted to tell you? You guys want the one with a stripe on it, don't you? The purple stripe. But isn't it kind of crazy when you think about it? They wore clothes as a status symbol? Crazy, right? Silly Romans worried about the tag on the inside of their clothes and thought that would impress people and unbelievable. What about occupations? Those were also in some, in many ways, ordered around rank. The most honorable was what? Being a landowner, okay? Having vast tracts of land and then having servants or slaves who worked that land for you, because leisure really was the ideal for the Roman elite society. Never working with your hands. They wouldn't dream of doing that. They wouldn't work with their hands. That was menial labor to them. They would never do that. They would buy with each other for honor, but never with anyone, they would never buy for honor with anyone who did manual labor. Sister O'Rough, vulgar are the means of livelihood of all hired workmen whom we pay for mere manual labor. And so your occupation said a lot about your status. Your legal condition said a lot about your social status, because in the judicial society of Rome, there was basically one law, some laws passed no matter, you know, for everybody, but there was a series, a series if you will of laws for those who had honor, for those who had status, and another for those who didn't. In other words, it wasn't good to be one of the humble people, if you will. For example, a Roman citizen could never be crucified. Just couldn't happen no matter what's your crime. If you were a Roman citizen, they would never do that to you. They might even execute you, but they would never crucify you, because that was the lowest form of execution, if you will. Crucifixion was reserved for non-citizens, and really especially slaves who were down at the bottom of the pecking order. In fact, you know, crucifixion was known at that time in many areas as a slave's punishment. And by the way, you know, when you think about the apostle Paul that Don spoke about this morning, you know, it was a great disciple of Jesus, right? He wrote to the church in Rome, and he wrote to them, and he said, you know, the way he described himself, and you all know this, and we don't need to turn there, but Paul described himself, not as Paul a citizen of Rome, although he was, not as Paul as one who wears the toe of a realist, although he was society enough to be able to do that, but he wrote what? Paul a slave of Jesus Christ. That was like cultural suicide in that society. And Paul was liking himself rather than being a Roman citizen, and later on, when he needed to stand up for what was right, he said, hey, look, I'm a Roman citizen. And mostably, because Paul wanted to have some more time to preach. But Paul said, I'm a slave of Jesus. Paul writes later to the church at Corinth, we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. You know, Paul's not just picking words out of the air here, he's being very, very precise in what he's saying. The Old Testament right? We know the Old Testament tells us that curse is anyone who's hung on a tree, right? We know that. That's considered a curse, and we know in Roman society being crucified, hung on a tree, if you will, was for the lowest of the low. And Paul says, look, we preach Christ crucified, which is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. And so the Jews thought that someone who was crucified was cursed by God. So Christ being crucified was a stumbling block to the Jews. Preaching Christ has having been crucified was a stumbling block. It made it more difficult, if you will, for the Jews to become Christians. And there are some things, you know, the Bible warns us and teaches us, you look, don't be a stumbling block for people. But there are some things that may be a stumbling block for people that you don't water down, you never water down the truth, because it's the truth and it's the truth, right? And you can't water down the truth. In church, we can't be tempted to water down the truth, amen? We've got to be bold. We've got to be powerful. We've got to be aggressive. We've got to be committed to the truth. And yeah, we don't want to try to ram it down people's throat. And sometimes if a spoonful of medicine makes a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down to give them a little sugar. But if a spoonful of sugar dilutes the medicine so much that it's no good, no sugar, right? But some of us guys are, you know, some of you, why are you preaching in it? Why are you saying this? I got conviction. I know what it takes to be saved. Yeah, but there are people in our own assemblies that are lukewarm on that. Anybody who claims to be a Christian or, you know, claims to read their Bible or talks nicely about Jesus, that doesn't necessarily mean they're a disciple according to the Bible. And so Jesus said, Paul said, we've preached Christ crucified and did he not want the Jews to be saved? Did he not want them to be saved? He did, right? In fact, he said, I'd give up my salvation that my people might be saved if that would save them. But he says, I know it won't. It'll just cause me to be lost along with them. And so Paul wanted to be saved, but he did not preach Christ's crucified, even though he knew it'd be a stumbling block to their face. And so we have to have the same conviction, amen church. And to the Greeks and the Romans, it was all about honor. It was all about status. It was all about the pecking order. You know, a slave who was crucified as we said was as low as you could go to have a group of people say, you know, we admire, we venerate, we honor and serve a crucified slave named Jesus. Boy, we consider ourselves a slave to a slave. It's basically what the first century Christian said to the world around them. Man, you know, Paul knows exactly what he's saying here. He knows exactly how people are going to feel about it in society. You know, where you sat at a public event reinforced status status. It's like at theaters these days, what shows status is, how much can you afford? You know, if you're sitting in certain chairs, wow, they paid big money, right? And you know, sporting event or whatever. That's why you see all the, you know, the actors and everybody, they're all right down front, right? And, you know, so we can see better, you know? But no, it's we can be seen better for most of them. I think Jack Nicholson is probably a true fan, you know? I think he's probably a true fan. But most of them, they just want to be seen at these events and they want everybody to know. Yeah, these are the seats I can afford. I paid for this right out of my wallet. I didn't even know what's coming to the game today. Just looking at my wallet. I have 2,500 bucks in there, so I just came to the game. Honey, you know what I'm talking about? I mean, women should Riverside dinner theater not too long ago. See the closer you sat to a stage in those days, it was a sign of honor, not a sign of how much you paid. You didn't have to pay at that point. It was just a sign of honor. At a private party, all the guests would be seated in a pecking order, if you will, in order of status where they were on that list and host would sometimes even invite guests of inferior rank to highlight their own rank. So they'd have a lot of people sitting way down on the other end and they would be further away, if you will, on the end of high rank. If guests were of inferior rank, they would literally more often not be served inferior food and inferior wine just to reinforce the fact that they're not the people on this end because of the people on this end. You know, if you were a person of lower status, you weren't able to speak at a party until all the people of higher status who wanted to speak spoke first. If you were a person of lower status, you were never able to interrupt a person of higher status. And if you were a person of higher status, you could interrupt the person of lower status anytime you wanted. Crazy, right? Sometimes we can be the same way, huh? We got to be careful of this. Giving of gifts reinforced status. You know, sometimes people would build public things, baths or buildings and, of course, they'd have their name put on it. Monumentalism, and the same thing happens today in many ways. You know, people want to leave a monument to themselves. But in the ancient world, when you gave gifts, you always expected, you know, something else. So wealthy person might give away possessions as a sign of, you know, I've got a lot of wealth. I can afford to do this, but there was always a string attached. There was really what they call the reciprocal dynamic in that. So in other words, sometimes let's say a very wealthy person didn't like a pseudo wealthy person, so they would invite the pseudo wealthy person to their home, give them such an expensive gift that the pseudo wealthy person would now go broke trying to reciprocate. Crazy, right? But this was their society. It was like, if someone gives you a gift, you need to outdo that in return. You don't have to, it doesn't have to go back and forth, but if I give you a gift, you need to give me something. It doesn't mean that I got to be that, then I got, no, it doesn't have to be that way. But sometimes they would literally ruin people. Super wealthy people would ruin other people. They didn't like by doing that. I've seen, I've seen shows and always wondered, you know, they're sort of having this dynamic in the show of, oh, no, they gave us an incredible gift. And I'm like, yeah, and now what are we going to do? Oh, and I've always thought Hollywood, you know? But then no, I was like, no, that was a real thing. You know, it would be a huge stressor. If someone, you know, it's like a fit where our society and somebody, you know, gave me a Mercedes or something, you know, it's like, well, you either take my daughter's broke down and key optimum or we're even because that's, you know, I'd have to say no, right? Because there's no way I'd be able to take that. And then of course it's slapped in the face if you don't take the gift to talk to H at Roman right or wrong. Most people think that to be deprived of a chance to display their wealth is to be deprived of wealth itself. And so obviously they would buy expensive stuff by clothes, labels, chariots, whatever it was to show how rich they were. You know, I'm a rich guy, I can afford it. Kind of a goofy culture, right? We can't relate to that, can we? Some of us got even a little bit caught up in that a few years ago and we thought houses were really cheap and going up and we were, you know, we were living big and right? We know what we're talking about. We got a little bit of the Roman society got to us there a little bit. Titles were big deals. You know, they generate honorary titles, you know, that eventually when there's an emperor, you know, didn't mean anything anymore. But at the time it did. So they're all just about receiving honor. Life was about winning glory. That's what the Greco-Roman world was about. That's what Christianity was born into, if you will. There's this writing even displayed in the variety of phrases. It's called the deeds of divine Augustus and it's from the emperor Caesar Augustus. And interestingly enough, written by Caesar Augustus. And it reads, "Three times I triumph adoration. 21 times I was named emperor. The senate voted yet more triumph for me which I declined because of victories won by me. The senate voted thanks to the immortal gods 55 times in my triumphs. Nine kings or children the kings were led before my chariot. I have been counseled 13 times. I was highest ranking senator for 40 years. I held office of pontificate, Maximus. All citizens with one accord unceasingly prayed in every holy place for my well-being." Wow. Good for you, dude, right? But that wasn't even considered embarrassing in their day. Can you feed back? Okay, we're switching mics. Don't worry, we'll be getting some discounts on the church rental here for this. I'm sure it's been happening a lot lately. Okay. A lot of guys can't do that. But Plutarch actually even wrote a book, guys, that was entitled "How to Praise Yourself Inoffensively." I bet that book would be a bestseller today. People would buy it so they'd know how to build myself up at work without being offensive or without people realizing that's what I'm doing. In the way of a hero, in many ways, exalted a lot of great qualities, courage, confidence, and persistence, and perseverance, and overcoming obstacles, and self-discipline. So there are a lot of great things there, but they weren't so big on humility. Humility wasn't an admired quality at all in their society, certainly not desirable. Winston Churchill, who I consider to be, you know, a great man in his own right in many ways, suffered a little bit from pride his way. One said of one of his rivals, Clement Attlee, he said Clement Attlee is a modest little man with much to be modest about. And that's kind of how he thought about humility in the world that Christianity was born into. You know, there was an actor years ago, he died last year, actually. His name was Peter Faulk. And the old-timers were remembering from one of my favorite shows on TV. It was called Colombo. The teenage pride member from the Princess Bride, who was a grandpa, who was reading the story to the kid. But in Colombo, you know, he was always being underestimated because he wore this old rumple-up trench coat, and he always looked the shovel. He had a cheap cigar in his hand, and, you know, he'd walk away, and his famous thing, if I remember Craig was kind of, he'd always, ah, one more thing. And he'd come back and ask one more question that would kind of just nail him, you know. But people would always underestimate him because he just seemed so unworthy of an adversary or whatever, and he'd get him every time, you know. And evidently, he was a pretty humble guy in life. He had cancer when he's like two or three years old, lost an eye, and had a glass of his whole life. And Laura has it that he was a pretty good athlete in high school. He was playing basketball, and once the referee made a bad call, he literally went up to him and took it out and said, "You need this more than I do." But, you know, I love the guy because he was such an underdog, and, you know, I'm kind of a fan of the underdog. You know, I have a big equity issue at times that I'm constantly working through. It's one of my schemas, and you can look that word up later to figure out what it is. Don shared one of his schemas earlier today, I shared mine. But, you know, the thing is that, you know, maybe it's because I was the orphan. I don't know, but I love the underdog, and so Peter Fock was a hero in that sense. I love that show, even though, you know, I would have to beg to stay up, you know, till 10 o'clock so that I could watch the end of it, you know. But that's what the ancient word was about. Robin Fox, an historian, even quoted Churchill, but he wrote this quote. "Among pagan authors, humility had almost never been a term of commendation. It belonged with ignoble and abject characters, modest little men with much to be modest about. Men, great men, should cherish no humble thoughts about their nature." But then this humble apprentice carpenter came into Israel, right? Really, to change the world, to change the way we viewed the world. And he said, "What we read in the beginning, you know that rulers," and Mike, you can put it up there, Matthew 20, 25 there. "You know that rulers of the Gentiles loaded over them." He's called together and said, "You know that rulers of the Gentiles loaded over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them." And see, in the course they did, that's what their society was all about, is about climbing the pecking order. No Roman would have been offended by that. He was said, "Yeah, that's how we do it. That's how we roll it. That's the way life is. We're always trying to get over, always trying to climb up." But then Jesus says, "What? Not so with you." Jesus says, "Not so with you." You know, I think about it for members of the Indian Empire, Church of Christ, and members of the Indian Empire who live in the Indian Empire. You know, I think about that. Instead, whoever he goes on, he says, "Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first must be your slave." Funny way of being first, right? Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus says, "Look, I know this is the way we've always done it. This is the way people around you've always done it. But I'm making a new community with a new way that will reveal the kingdom of God." You know, the Bible teaches us that Christians don't try to grab worth through the endless race of self-achievement, but through grace, like Don shared with us. You know, they don't choose, you know, the ultimate view of self-fulfillment being the God, but rather of selfless love, of a giving love, of a giving of oneself. They don't seek glory, but we seek God's glory and glory for God. Amen. We don't try to impose our will on all those around us, but we surrender our will to God. It's totally different from the world that these guys were born into. See, Abraham would have never been a hero in Greece or Rome, but in Israel, he became their greatest hero, a model, what of a new way of a new life, a new covenant of love, of obedience to a good God. Amen. And in Jesus, he showed this way of humility, this way of servanthood, this way of submission that we aren't used to. And I think sometimes we don't think very much about this. We've been talking a lot about it on our staff. We've been, you know, a lot of things just how we all, we've got to be humble and not, we've got to be the most humble in church. That way means most humble, be the top humble guy. No, we just need to be humble. Because in many ways, pride, you know, weaves its way into our fellowship and it just, it destroys, man. Because when pride gets in there, we can't be discipled. And when we can't be discipled, we can't grow. And when we can't grow, we shrink. And we shrink, we shrink, we can't do anything great for God. And we end up maybe holding on by our fingernails and sometimes letting go. Pride kills us. That's why God hates pride. That's why Jesus comes in and says, look, it's a whole new way. Look at what Jesus said in John chapter 13. I want to put that up there, John, Mike, John chapter 13. It was just for the past that we're feasts and Jesus knew the time had come from to leave this world and to go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, now he showed them the full extent of his love. The evening meal was being served and the devil had already prompted due to the scariest son of Simon to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and that it had come from God and was returning to God, so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing and wrapped the towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around them. Jesus is saying, I'm going to show you what greatness in the kingdom of God looks like. I'll show you what really means excellence through his clothes. You know, you go through all those categories again and you look at Jesus, you know, remember in the old King James way, "Thou shall, this shall be assigned unto you, you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes." And swaddling clothes weren't clothes you bought at Neiman Marcus. Swaddling clothes were poor people's clothes that they wrapped their babies in in the present world. This will be a sign to you, Jesus said. Jesus comes into the world in peasant clothing and he goes out wearing the uniform of a slave, taking off his outer garment, wrapping a towel around him. It's what a slave did, so who's this Jesus? You know, what kind of hero is this? You know, Jesus worked most of his life with his hands, a carpenter working with his father and no hero in Greek or Roman literature ever did that. Jesus' last act really was to wash the feet of his disciples and that was an important part of their society, of their culture. It was an ancient act of hospitality, but people didn't do it, only slaves did it. And you know, it was considered such a humiliating thing that you couldn't even force a slave to do it. Isn't that incredible? It was such a humbling thing that you couldn't even force a slave to wash someone's feet. And there's a story from the first century about a married couple named Joseph in Aniseth. And she was a bride and she was so in love with her husband. He came home one day and she began to wash his feet and he said, "No, no, no, don't do that. The servant will do that." But she said to him, "No, you are my Lord from now on. Your feet are my feet. Your hands are my hands. Another woman will never wash your feet." Isn't that a beautiful story? And the men all say, "Yeah, that's, yeah, that's it." But you know, there are also stories of Jewish rabbis who were well loved by their disciples and stories of the disciples trying to wash their feet, but they were never any examples, never any stories of a rabbi washing his disciples' feet until this rabbi, until Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. You know, and God said of him, "This is my son whom I love and whomwith I'm well pleased." Listen to him. Thomas would later on say after Jesus rose, "My Lord and my God." What kind of God is this who humbles himself in this way? You know, Jesus is going to be arrested, going to become a convict, executed as a criminal. That's going to be his status. You know, Judas was present at the Last Supper, and Jesus literally washed his feet knowing what Judas was about to do. What kind of heart do you have to have to be able to do that? Have you ever been betrayed? You know, a lot of people say, "Yeah, you know, but some of us, we just, we felt betrayed. I'm not sure we've been betrayed, but some people have truly been betrayed." And you just, you know that feeling, even if you just felt betrayed, you know that feeling. And imagine turning around and saying, "Man, I know you're going to blow. I know you're betraying me or you're going to, but I just really want to love up you before you do. I just really want to set you a great example of what you should have done." You know, at the banquets, we said, you know, guests are set at the special places, and sometimes it's good to honor people. The Bible makes that clear. But, you know, they had a head table, right? They got to sit at the special table. And you never go to a banquet, you know, where the person being honored is one of the bus boys or one of the people serving, you know. Jesus, you know, you remember He said that, "Who's the greatest, isn't it? Is it the one sitting at the table, the one serving?" He says, "Obviously, it's the one sitting at the table, right? You sit down and get served. You sit down because you're great." And Jesus says, "But I am among you as one who serves, not one who is served." Jesus says, "Look, but I've come as the bus boy." Given the gift, we talked about that earlier. And Jesus washed Peter's feet, and Peter's like, you know, "No, Lord, you'll never have to humiliate yourself by washing my feet." And Jesus says, "Peter, look, unless I wash your feet, you know, you don't have any part of me." And then, of course, Peter says, "All right, then give me a shower." You know? But Jesus says, "No, you don't have to wash my feet. I just want you to go and do what you've seen me do. I want you to go and do likewise." And if you do this, you'll be great in the kingdom of God. He says, "And what about us? You know, we all have the problem of sin. It'll kill us." You know, and Jesus says, "You must receive this gift. There's no other way." And I'm wondering, those of us that are studying the Bible, or perhaps trying to be restored to relationship with Christ, have you humbled yourself? Have you just gotten down on your knees before God said, "God, this is killing my pride. But I know you're the only way. I can't do it myself. I've been trying and trying and trying, and I'm tired." If you're a member in the church and you've got sinned that it just haunts you and you can't, you know, have you just fallen on your knees? Have you just laid out before the Lord and then gone to somebody and said, "I'm tired of being so proud. I can't do this on my own. Please help me. Just tell me what to do. And I'll do it." And some of us, even as I say that, your pride kicks up in you. Because it's hard to say it wants to keep you in your pride because he knows it'll deceive you. He knows it'll make you feel like people don't love you if they challenge you. And yet they preach Jesus crucified even though they knew it would challenge. They knew it would be a stumbling block. I set you an example that you should do as I've done for you. Now that you know these things, you'll be blessed if you do them. Jesus goes on and he says, "You call me teacher and Lord." And, you know, signs of titles of respect in that day. And rightly so, for that's what I am. But now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you should also wash one another's feet. See, titles Jesus is saying here that they're just opportunities to help more. Jesus says we're going to start this community that doesn't really have a pecking word. Yeah, there'll be leaders and there'll be different roles and all that kind of stuff. But we're going to love each other and honor each other the same. You know, slaves would come into that, would come into Christianity and say, "Wow, my life matters." I mean, can you imagine? It's hard for us to even imagine. But they were the lowest rungings society, the lowest of the low. No one, and they could be a Christian and they could be loved. And they could feel like they mattered and that they counted and that their lives could be significant and even make a difference for eternity. But we have such a hard time sometimes sharing our faith because it's kind of scary and, you know, it's kind of embarrassing and people don't really want to hear it. Imagine what these guys felt. Preaching a crucified Christ, we're saying, "Hey, we worship the slave, we're his slaves. Come on, you can be too." Imagine telling someone who's wearing the tug of a rilless. "Come be a slave with us." No, thank you. Are someone in the question or senatorials? No, thank you. I've seen how they're treated. So you can imagine the humiliation it would be to share your faith in those days because sometimes you don't think it is. You think, "Well, they saw Jesus. It's easier back then because people were more religious and, you know, they weren't so this and that." It's probably even more humiliating in some ways. And I know there's been times, and I'm ashamed to say, there's been times where I've been in certain circles, and I've felt almost embarrassed of being a Christian. Not really, but, you know, I just felt like too embarrassed to say it, to speak up and say, you know, because there's all these intellectuals around. There's all these people who think, you know, and man, that's just never okay. And we've got to be bold, and so in those times we'd be like, "Okay, Lord, I am so sorry. I'm embarrassed even though God, you're the only one that knows how I'm feeling right now. I need to talk about you." But how often are we doing that, right? I mean, sometimes we think what wasn't as hard. It was just as if not harder for them because what they were seemingly offering to people, you understand, was a life of slavery to a slave, right? Crazy. What a radical way no wonder we talk about Jesus turning the world upside down. Turned everything on its head, and what about us? Where's our heart at? How dedicated are we to the life of Christ and to the commitment of reaching others for Jesus? You think about the words that Paul wrote to Rome in light of what we're talking about here. "Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited." Can you grasp a little bit of how that would sound to a Roman ear, right? Not only what I'm not associated with them, you know, but they, I don't even want them sitting anywhere near my spot on the table. And Paul is saying, "No, we had to be totally different from that." He'd reached the highest level of Jewish society. And yet he became a slave for Jesus, and he's saying, "Don't be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position." It kind of, you know, it just makes you feel like, "Wow, what am I proud about? Why am I so proud?" You know, who in here has, you know, has been the president of a country. Who in here has, you know, created a fortune five? Those things don't matter, but, you know, why are we prideful? Right? Why am, why do I struggle with pride when you really stop and think about it? I'm a cotton-picking orphan. Right? I mean, seemingly, in some ways, my real parents didn't even want me. Their drugs were more important than I was. What do I have to be prideful about? I'm not smart. Like Noah or Tom? I can't talk like Darren. And by the way, the thing Don didn't say is that Darren has a lot of good stuff to say in those words, so he's not just babbling. He talks like rocky paints, a rock and roll. But you know what, right? Have you ever thought about it about yourself? Have you ever looked at yourself and say, "Well, okay, well, you know, I go to RCC or I go to UCR or I've got a degree from even UCLA or I've got, you know, what?" Yeah, there's sort of thousands of other people. Yeah, but I'm really handsome. Well, you got to give me that one. But, you know, when you really think about it or, and I don't want to pick on teens, but when teens struggle so hard with their pride, you're almost like, "Wow, dude." Can I just maybe see your resume or something? Because I'm missing something. But the reality is, you know, Jesus said, "Hey, we have to be a different sort of people." And kind of what, you know, I feel like it's just been hitting me like a ton of bricks lately, so it's just, we got to be different. You know, we got to be, we can't just be the same. We can't, you know, "Hey, we blended our neighborhood and, you know, one neighbor wouldn't know us from any other neighbor other than our names," or, "I think that guy's a preacher. I think those guys, they go to church a lot or so I think. I'm not sure, you know, because we just look like everybody else. We just, we blend in at work. We, well, they don't let us talk about God at work. Yeah, we'll figure out a way to share your faith. Go to lunch, take somebody. We got to be different. We can't run after the rat race the way everybody else does. Hey, hey, excuse me, I don't tell you about a great church. Oh, I work on Sundays. Oh, that's okay. I work on Sundays too, but I still go when I don't work. You should come. Something's some toes there, huh? I understand that in a blue moon, that's got to happen. I get that. You know, sometimes, you know, jobs are tough, that sort of thing, but we got to trust and God. In other words, we have to be different, because that's what everybody thinks. Everybody thinks, "Well, you're going to make my paycheck? You know, we all think that. We've got to be different." Well, I don't believe in people, you know, pushing their religion. I'm not pushing. I'm just asking. I'm just inviting you. And you, you're right. You have every right to say no. I just want to make sure you understand what you're saying no to. I mean, we got to be willing to be a little radical. We got to be willing, "Hey, we might have to, you know, be in school an extra semester. You know, we don't want to do that. I've got a kid in school. I don't want him to do that because that's more money, you know, but whatever it takes to be radical for God." We're just not radical anymore, and we feel no compunction to be radical. In fact, we're almost offended when someone suggests we be radical. We won't get offended when someone says we radical, but when we get offended when they start saying, "That might mean leaving something for something else. That might be giving up something. That might be, you know, having something that's a hard time. That might be less money. That might be." Then we get offended. We're not offended about someone telling us we radical. We just, when they tell us what it means, I'll be radical some other way. We can't do that, right? Amen, be radical some other way, but we got to be radical for Christ. And it's incredible that to be radical, you have to have a radical humility. Because otherwise, when you hear stuff like this, you just, you're, it's like fingernails on a chalkboard, and you go, "See, I don't like this." And I, you know, so it takes radical humility. But, Church, I see that in the first century disciples. I see that they understood they weren't trying to work their way to heaven, but they were so grateful to be saved that they were going to work themselves to the bone for Jesus, because they loved him so much. They'd been free to so much their life. It changed so drastically. And now, not only in this life, but they had a hope for the next life. And so they're willing to do anything, right? When Jesus, or when Peter said, "You know, now you've killed, you've crucified this Jesus. Now you've crucified him." It says, "If people were cut to the heart, and he said to Peter on the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Do you have a sense that they were going, "Well, you know, what shall we do? I mean, you know, what are you, what are you talking here? What do you, you know, how do we make this thing right? I mean, what, what, you know, is there, because I'll do some things, you know, but, right? That wasn't their spirit, was it? You think, no matter what Peter said, what if Peter would have said, you need to be crucified, they probably would have said, "Amen. We crucified the Son of God, it's at least we can do." That's not even a true payment, because we're not the Son of God. Let's see, I'm afraid that many of us, after becoming Christians and being willing at that time, no ifs, ands, or buts about it, willing to give up anything and everything. Now is we mature. Now is we, you know, we've gotten into what it really costs and what it really looks like, 20 or 10 or five or even five months like, we're not really willing to give up anything. And we are, if we can do it in our way, in our time. The church, when you look at Jesus, the community that he organized, if you will, in the first century, Jesus, these people were radical. There was nothing they wouldn't, and nothing they didn't give up for Jesus. And you know, you know how many of them were killed because of their faith? What else can you give up? They went that far. Wasn't it? They weren't afraid to give up their money or their jobs or their homes or their, anything for Jesus, because this life is so short compared to the next one. And so my prayer is that all of us can grow from this. And I'm not standing for your saying, you know, you got to be radically humble like me. I'm trying to grow in that. You know, Don teased me about boats. And I'm like, man, if I'm bossing, I want to stop. I don't want to be prideful. We got to help each other. We got to love each other through it. But we need to be radically humble like Jesus so that we can be radically, radically effective in saving the lost. Amen. Amen, Church. You
Doug preaches about the humility that Jesus showed. Even being God in the flesh He still severed the people.