This message is from the teaching
ministry of James Tippins, pastor of Grace Truth Church. More information
can be found online at gracetruth.org and anchoringfaith.org. A people
for His glory, by His grace. I want to read through verse
20, and then we'll begin there. 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 that he 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 water into a basin and began to wash his 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? And Jesus answered him, what am I doing? What I
am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. And Peter said to him, you shall
never wash my feet. Jesus answered, 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. And Jesus
said to him, the one who has 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 who was to betray him. And
that is why he said, not all of you are clean. 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? 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 another's feet.
one another's feet. For I've given you an example
that you should also do just as I have done to you. Truly,
truly, I say to you, a slave 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'm not speaking
to all of you. or of all of you. I know whom
I have chosen, but the scripture will be fulfilled. 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 sin receives me and whoever receives me receives
the one who sent me. Now, I'm not going to go through
all this today. We're going to return a little bit to last week's
first six, seven verses, eight verses, and then we're going
to end up dealing with some of the latter part of this text.
But there are three or four key things that we're going to have
to visit over the next few weeks. First, I want to remind you that
this is of course, at the end of Jesus' public ministry. This
is the last week of his life, and at this point, if you've
seen the synoptics, there are a lot of different things that
the synoptic writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, give us that
John does not give us. The reason being is because John
is specifically pointing to the divine nature of Jesus as well
as to the human nature of Jesus. He's really parsing these two
realities to a place that's obvious, whereas the other Gospels have
different purposes and different audiences, the gospel of John
authoritatively wants to show you the divine and human nature
of Jesus together. It's interesting and we should
keep in mind too that the scripture by itself authoritatively commands
that it is authoritative. And I know that seems ridiculous
but it does. The Bible shows in itself that it is only true
because it is absolute. Now we live in a world where
absolutes are often mocked, often ridiculed. And in that way, we
have a lot of people sometimes who say, well, the Bible is one
way or the Bible is a way or the Bible is a truth. But in
reality, the Bible cannot be a truth or one truth when the
Bible in itself claims to be the truth. Jesus will say over
in chapter 14 that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life,
and that no one, that includes everybody, no one can come to
the Father except through Him. So by that very language, which
is holistic throughout the entirety of the Old and New Testaments,
The Bible touts itself as the authoritative, infallible Word
of God. So we can't say it is a good writing if we do not agree
within its pages that it is authoritative because it says in itself it's
authoritative. These are the words of the Bible. Now I know historically there
are a lot of people who have been confused about the origins
of Scripture, where did it come from, how did we get it, etc. And that's a Tuesday night, maybe
Wednesday night series that we might go through, but all in
all, God has preserved Scripture. God has preserved His Scripture
to such a degree that there have been many attempts throughout
the centuries to annihilate it, to remove it, to change it, to
thwart it, to everything known to man in his power, to stop
the Scriptures from being secured and preserved, yet God preserves
His Word. As a student of Scripture for
many, many years, I've read a lot of different translations, and
even when the translations are really bad, the theological truths
found in even those poor paraphrases that I do not recommend, do not
hide the authority of the Word of God. because in order to grasp
that authority, you would have to remove the entirety of the
scripture. So I say that because it's very easy for us to hear
the dogma of Jesus, dogma being an absolute that is not up for
discussion, something that is really not debatable. And of
course, people can call foul. That's okay. If you study the
scripture, then absolutely recognize the dogma. of Scripture. Jesus
says a lot of things here. The Word of God says a lot of
things here. The Word of God says in chapter
13, there in the first few verses, Jesus knew at our come. Remember,
we talked about that last week. He is God. He's going out of
the world to depart the Father, having loved his own who were
in the world. We saw the contrast. We've seen
it since the very beginning, the very first, second, third
chapter. The world that we see in the scripture, especially
in the Ohinian epistles and the Ohinian writings, that means
John's writings, is distinctly different from his people. The
world is the totality of human fallen men. And so out of the
world, God grabs his people out of the world in picture, as we've
been seeing on Wednesday night in our Romans study, God elected
to call Abram out of the world. And he was definitely pagan.
He was worshiping the moon on top of the ziggurat. Abram was
not a righteous man. He was a fallen man. He was a
guilty man. He was deserving of the wrath of God just like
all men. Yet God called him out and God
gave him faith and he believed God and it was accredited to
him as righteousness. But Abraham did not obey God
very well whatsoever. Not at all. As a matter of fact,
If progressive sanctification is an issue of progressive righteousness,
then Abraham and Moses and Noah and all these people, they failed
miserably. That is why it is all about mercy. It is mercy through which we
are saved. It is grace by which we are saved. Not us. It is not
our doing with God's offer that makes us saved. It is God's finished
work of redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ. And that's
what Jesus is teaching here. That's what he's teaching his
disciples very explicitly. And this is a private conversation
with the 12, one of them that we've already seen last week,
who was ordained by God to be the one who, what, causes Jesus
to be arrested and crucified. He's the one who gives him up.
He betrays him. But who is the ultimate cause
of Jesus' betrayal? God, the Father. Who's the ultimate
cause of Jesus' death? God the Father. Who's the ultimate
cause of Jesus' resurrection? God the Father. But then God,
Jesus, is also God. He is God the Son. So Jesus in
Himself then is the cause of all these things. Just like we
know that God created the world, and the scripture explicitly
says that God created the world through the Son. And that all
things that are created were created by Him and through Him,
and I love this, had a long conversation until wee hours in the morning
with Brother Eddie on Thursday night, for Him. For Him. It is the prerogative of Jesus
Christ, the God-man, that all creation exists by His power
and the Word of His power. And that because of His purposes
and His divine glory and His divine decrees, He created everything
that there is to know in creation, both the physical, both the metaphysical
and the metaphysical. That which is seen, that which
is not seen. As He says to the Church of Colossae, for those
of you who have been reading it every day, I know you all have. The
church of Colossae, he says the powers, the principalities, the
kingdoms, the governors, as Paul will say in chapter 13 of Romans
that we started this night, this Wednesday night, Christ created
them all. Christ created them all. He owns
them all. They are His for His purpose, for His glory. And the
very essence of history in this very moment that we're reading
about in John 13, God the Son created for His own glorification
in the redemption of His people. And this small little intimate
picture of Him teaching them about the cleansing that He provides
has nothing to do with 30 feet. Nothing whatsoever. Nothing to
do with dirty feet. Now I will say that there are
some denominations and some sects of evangelicals who think that
feet washing is a sacrament. However, you'll see here that
Jesus shows that this practice is a spiritual picture. Just like this practice is a
spiritual picture. But this practice was commanded of the churches
through the apostles. This practice was not commanded
to the churches through the apostles. And there is no record of this
practice in the first, second, third century church, commanded
by the apostles. So we don't have to wash each
other's feet there because feet washing was a normal thing, a
normal thing. And it was, as I've already illustrated,
only done by the lowest of slaves. It was considered the most menial
task. It would be almost, no, it would
be akin to bedpan washing. even lower, really. And so here
is Jesus, the God-man. Here is Jesus, the Son of God.
Here is Jesus, the Teacher. Here is Jesus, the Lord, naked,
washing His disciples' dirty feet during the meal. And all of them but Peter, just
sort of accept it because they don't have the option to go,
oh, this is feeling uncomfortable. Friends, this was embarrassing
to them. This was embarrassing to them for their teacher to
wash their feet. I don't know about you, but it
would be a little embarrassing. I know talking and counseling
with people before who have been injured or not able to move and
had to be bathed in a bed. It's embarrassing to them. That's
one of the top three things outside of the fact that they can't move
or they're having problems physically. The emotional stigma that comes
with that. The third thing is typically embarrassment. I'm
an invalid. I have to have somebody wipe
my backside. That hurts people's personality. It hurts people's esteem. And
here's Jesus doing something lower than that. Washing nasty feet. That culturally,
get this, a Jewish slave was not allowed to wash feet. So it wasn't just so low that
only slaves did it. It was so low that nobody who
carried Abraham's blood could ever wash feet, no matter how
filthy of a slave they were. They weren't going to wash feet.
And here's Jesus, the king of washing feet. You see the picture?
If you weren't here last week, I really encourage you to go
back and listen to last week's teaching on this. Because without
it, you're going to sort of be lost the next two years. No, I don't care. The scripture's
enough. It'll carry you through. But there's the emphasis on the
humility of Christ now carries over into this illustration,
into this teaching, now into this commandment of Christ. So, Simon Peter verse 6 is where
I want to pick up today and reiterate and then move forward. He came
to Simon Peter who said to him, now imagine Peter, he couldn't
keep his mouth shut, Lord, you going to wash my feet? As in
to say, this is really happening here? What's happening? And Jesus answered him, what
I'm doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. Now let me make that clear for
you. He's not saying after I wash your feet, you'll get it. What
I'm doing for you, you will not, you do not understand now my
washing of your feet. You do not understand now, but
after my death, you will get it. That's what he's talking
about. That's what's in view here. That's
why the introduction to this in chapter 13 is the most important
aspect of this. We segue into this teaching. It's not an ending of his public
ministry, it is the introduction to his private last and final
week. Now see, for me, I think looking
back, I go, why didn't Peter just accept that? Why didn't
these disciples just say, oh, okay, we don't understand, we
will understand. We don't get it, we will get
it. It's okay, we'll get it. And Peter says to him very passionately,
you will never, Wash my feet. You will never wash my feet.
Why? Don't you see the emphasis? I'm beneath you, Jesus, and I
wouldn't wash their feet. Why are you going to wash my
feet? This is this is beneath you. This is beneath you. It is embarrassing. This is not
OK. What if word got around that
you were washing feet, Jesus? And you're already pocked with
the stigma of eating with sinners and eating with Gentiles and
eating with the Hellenists. You're already marred. Your reputation's already scathed. Oh, please don't add this to
your resume of being a foot washer. This is not good. I'm embarrassed. You will never wash my feet.
I am not worthy of you to wash my feet. You are better than
this. You are greater than this. You see Peter's emphasis. I want
you to grasp it. Because that's exactly how we
would be. And Jesus answered, If I do not
wash you, you have no share with me. This is one of those phrases
that requires Great meditation. Not because you need to grasp
it through meditation and go, oh, now I see it after 10 hours.
No, you see it now. You need to think on it. Church, you need to think on
this for a second. You need to think on this today and tomorrow
and Wednesday. You need to think on this throughout
the next few months. You need to think on this if
I, Jesus, saying, if I do not wash you, you have no share with
me. If I do not cleanse you, you
are not of me. And what's in view there in the
grammar, I could talk about the Greek, I could talk about the
grammar, it doesn't matter. What's important is you need to test
what I'm teaching by the context of Scripture. You need to be
shown through your own study that what I'm saying is true.
Don't take my word for it. But what the Scripture is saying
there, what Jesus is saying when He talks about that share, it
connotates inheritance. It kind of takes the idea that
if I don't wash your feet, if I don't wash you rather, then
you have nothing of mine. You do not share in the inheritance
that I've been promising you. What has Jesus been promising
them? To be with the Father. To show them the Father. To take
them to the Father. To present them to the Father.
How can we be presented to the Father? How can we be presented
to the Holy One of Heaven? and not be condemned on the spot?
Here's the answer. We must be righteous. We must
be holy. We must be perfect. We must be
presented having never sinned, with no stain of any mockery,
or ill will, or ill word, or ill thought, or ill attitude,
or fatigue, or frustration, or wicked desire, or selfish desire,
or frustrated desire, or anything, no sorry word, no sorryness,
no sorry whatever. I'm too tired to tie my shoe.
I don't care. Wipe my nose on my sleeve. It don't matter. I
mean, just that slovenliness. I mean, can you imagine presenting
yourself to your grandmother at a reunion like that? Our parents, when we were children,
would have pinched our ears off. And if we weren't going to present
ourselves to our family in that manner, how are we going to present
ourselves to God with sin? We cannot do it. You cannot stand
before God if you are guilty of sin. You cannot. And that's a true
statement. And that's what Jesus is saying
there. If I don't wash you, you have no share with me. You cannot
stand in my presence. You cannot stand before the Father.
You cannot ever enter into the kingdom where I am going. You
cannot have any share of anything that I am. You will not stand
with me ever if I do not wash you. But what does the world say?
Boy, I better wash up because Jesus is coming. Oh, I better
clean myself up. I better get myself together.
I better live right, because the Lord's coming. I want to
stand before the Lord right, so I better get my act going.
That's a false gospel. That's not possible. You can't
wash yourself. You and I cannot undo the sin
we've done. We cannot make it right. We cannot
pay for it, except it's eternal. Judgment, wrath, death, the weight
of sin is death. The only way we can have the
inheritance of Christ is that He washes us. And when Christ
washes us, we are clean. And Peter got it. He might not
have understood the fullness of it, but he got the gist that
if Jesus didn't wash him, he could have nothing that Jesus
offered. And so he says, oh, not just
my feet, but my head and my hands. Now let me lay claim to a couple
of things that might help you in your hermeneutic, your interpretation
of Scripture. Don't read into the word head
and hands as if it's important. What's important is, is that
Peter comes back, not just my feet, but my whole body. Wash
it all, Lord. There's no spiritual significance
about his head or his hands. Don't listen to that kind of
commentary. That kind of commentary is called eisegesis. It's reading
into the Bible and trying to interpret it based on one's own
philosophy. rather than coming out of the
Bible, exegesis, what the scripture is actually teaching. Peter's
just going, then wash me. I want the share that you've
promised. I want to be in this inheritance. I want life eternal.
So wash me. But still, we know what's happened.
The disciples are not any different than the rest of the people that
we see in the narrative of John. None of the other discourses
are different. We see Jesus speaking spiritual
truths, and we see the people in and around him listening,
thinking physically. We see Nicodemus thinking about
being reborn as an old man. We see the woman of Sychar thinking
about getting real water when Jesus has no pail to fetch it.
We see the disciples there in that same chapter talking about
what? How in the world does he have
something to eat? Who gave him food when he says, I have food that
you know not of. My food is to do the will of the one who sent
me. And so forth, so the same thing's happening here. Peter's
like, okay, just clean me all off then. Wash me. I wanna have
a share with you. And then Jesus says something,
verse 10. The one who has bathed does not
need to wash. Now let me stop there. Take the
parenthetical out and read, but is completely clean. All right,
so that's a true statement. The one who has bathed does not
need to wash, but is completely clean. Now the parenthetical
is in the Bible, which says for what? Except for his feet. Now I hope that your Bible has
except for his feet. It is there. It is the word of
God. Now, I don't want to get into
all the arguments of the different variants. It's not important.
It doesn't help you in your growth and your worship. But just take
my word for it that I've studied it and I conclude and concede
that it is in the text. And it's in the text because
it makes sense based on the what? Context. What determines interpretation? Context. The meaning of a word
is not even primary on understanding how to interpret scripture. The
meaning of the word is sometimes tertiary or further. That means
it's third or fourth in line. The first and primary way in
which we understand what's being said in anything, even the way
a word is being used, if Jesus said, except for his oranges,
We're like, man, Jesus has gone off his rocker. I didn't think
they had oranges in first century Palestine. They didn't. Not that I know of. That's why Jesus came to America,
right? To go to Florida to get oranges. I know what an orange
is, but Jesus, maybe He was calling feet oranges. How would we know?
We look at the context. He's talking about washing feet.
He's talking about being whole, being bathed. And that's an absurd
example. That's ridiculous. I'm just saying
what teaches us what is being said is the context. The context
here is that feet are being washed. And in this illustration now,
Jesus said, those who have been washed, Those who have been bathed
don't need to wash. I mean, if you get out of the
shower and say, after bathing, and go, OK, now it's time for
my bath. I had to take a shower. Now, I know there are some circumstances
when you're really gross and you don't want to sit in that
bathwater. But let's just say, if you've bathed, then why do
you need bathing? You see the point Jesus is making?
And then he says, except for your feet. Now, I want to play
this in two ways. I want to share this this way.
Let's use the obvious illustration that Jesus is having. You can
get up, and this happens all the time in my house. I told
you last week about feet, right? Especially at bedtime. You've
got to get that piggly wiggly feet off. Don't get in the bed with
the piggly wiggly feet. You've got to have it clean. But let's say
you get out of the bath, and you can't find your slippers,
and you walk out to the front porch to fetch the paper. Your
feet are nasty. I don't care. I don't care if
you sweep your porch, sanitize your porch, pressure wash your
porch. Look at the bottom of your feet. You got little dirts
on them. You might have little bug particles on them. Your feet
are nasty. So even when you step out of
the tub, unless you've just sanitized your bathroom floor, your feet
are dirty. So there is this reality that
even when you're bathed, if you're still moving and going and living,
your feet are dirty. That's a simple illustration,
isn't it? So if you're bathed, your feet could still be dirty.
But Jesus is saying if you're bathed, you're clean, you're
washed. Don't worry about it. There's a spiritual implication
to that. There's also a spiritual implication to the fact that
your feet continually need washing. We'll look at it. Because even though your feet
might need washing, you are still what? Completely clean. And you are clean. So I want
to go ahead and get the critics out of my hair. I'm not saying
anything about the finished work of Christ not being sufficient.
But what is John right to the elect saints of his day? These
things are in that you may not sin, but if you sin, you have
an advocate with the father. What is the advocate with the
father? A bar of soap and a bath wash? No. Jesus Christ, the righteous. who is our propitiation. That
means we are cleansed from all guilt. We are cleansed from all
sin. It is washed away. God the Father
has satisfied all righteousness in the death of Jesus for His
people. So that we are washed in the
blood of Christ. Because of the death of Christ.
This is the spiritual truth that Jesus is conveying through this
physical act. If I do not die for you, you
will not be washed, and you will not have the inheritance for
me. But if I die for you, you are clean. You see that? That's what Jesus is saying here.
Except for your feet, but you're still clean. You see how that
doesn't make sense? That's why commentators and translators,
after about the 7th, 8th century, took that out. They took it out. Because they couldn't fix it.
How can you be all clean if your feet are dirty? Well, I think
because there's an ongoing and necessary truth about the death
of Jesus. And the justification that we
have in the death of Jesus is a one-time finished work. But
the reality that we are still sinners remains. and that the blood of Christ
is sufficient to keep washing our nasty feet until the day
of glory. You see how simple that is? Now,
I haven't tested this, but I have got a couple of pages worth of
notes on how to present this to children. I mean, first graders,
kindergartners. And I just, I want to give it
to a group of them and see if they see it. Because I'm willing
to bet you they do. Most of what I've learned about
children is that when you just sort of read the Word of God
and explain it simply, they see it. You know why we don't see
it that way? Because we think too much about
how we're thinking. It's not wrong to think. We must
think. But I think we think too much
on how we're thinking. We try to take every little word, every
little phrase, every little pause, and make much of it. And see,
in our culture, we esteem those men who can make much out of
the pauses. Well, I never would have seen all that. Because it
ain't there. Creativity is something to be enjoyed, but not when it's
saying, thus saith the Lord. God does not need my creativity
and God does not need my intellect. God just needs me to open my
big fat mouth and just speak the Word of God. Seriously. And I could get up here and just
read it to you and God the Holy Spirit can do far more with it
than I could ever do in my commentary. But He has also challenged us
to come together, as you have read the Word of God this week
already, to agree with what you hear from this pulpit, no matter
which man stands behind it, that it be in unity of the faith once
and all given to the saints, for which we contend with tears
and prayers and suffering with joy. The one who has bathed does not
need to wash. There's nothing that we can do,
beloved, to wash ourselves up before the Lord. Christ makes
us perfect through his death. Now there's a word that we call
for that. There's several words that we
use. Let's use it this way, substitutionary atonement. That means Jesus substituted
himself for us and atoned for our sins. So the sin that we
have and that we are is paid before God because of Jesus'
death. This is the only and core issue
of the gospel. This is what makes it good news,
that it is a work of God's grace through which He has satisfied
His righteousness in the death of Jesus. And then the greater
news, part of the good news, is that Christ was vindicated. He was not guilty of sin, thus
He was raised to life. He did not deserve the wage of
death, so He was resurrected unto life. You know what our
culture teaches about the resurrection? Powerful Jesus, yee-haw, he's
coming back again, better get our lives together. That's not
a gospel, that's Judaism, that's Roman Catholicism. That's all
it is. It does not, cannot, will not
say. Jesus says, unless I wash you, you have no share with me. But you're clean. You are completely
clean and you will continue to be clean. Even when your feet
get dirty, you're going to be clean because my blood will cleanse
you. And then he declares them. Look
at part B. I think it's part B of chapter, the latter part
of the last sentence of chapter 10. I mean, verse 10. Well, we're
moving all over the place. We're back in there. You hear
my voice. All right. And you are clean, but not every one
of you. You notice that. So Jesus, in
this small group proclamation of the gospel of free and sovereign
grace, Jesus declares to the entire group, you're clean, but
not all of you. You're clean because I'll wash,
I'm going to wash you. But not all of you. But did He wash everyone
there? Yes. He washed the feet of Judas
Iscariot. And you know what? Judas will
not be saved. Jesus is clear on that. And Judas knows it. So just because Jesus physically
washed Judas has no bearing on his spiritual place. It is only the effectual cleansing
of the blood of Christ on the cross for those people that he
died that they are clean. Jesus, according to this, did
not die for Judas Iscariot. Because had he died for Judas
Iscariot, then he would have to say, you are clean. Because
Peter didn't have faith to understand what Jesus was talking about.
The essence of our faith, that means the quality of our faith,
has no bearing on its efficacy. Because the efficacy of our redemption,
that means that it is effectual, that it works, is tied completely
to what? To the faithfulness of Christ
to wash us on the cross. For he knew, and you say, James,
you are, boy, you are something else always saying these crazy
things. Well, verse 11, four. How many times have I said this
in the last month? When you see four, it's a further explanation
of what he means. but not every one of you. You
are clean, but not every one of you. For Jesus knew who was
to betray Him, and that is why He said, not all of you are clean." That's it. That's why He said
it. I'm not reading the text, I'm
just continuing. It's not that difficult. Then verse 12, when He had washed
their feet, and put his clothes back on. He resumed his place
at the table. And he said to them, do you understand
what I've done to you? So now Jesus is going to give
a little bit of a, of an, of an illustration or an explanation
of this illustration. Do you know what I've done to
you? So this text here, this act shows
the judicial, the forensic, the spiritual, the effectual cleansing
of God's people by Christ on the cross. And then
it shows a gospel imperative. Something that is true of those
who are filled with the Holy Spirit that they should learn
and cultivate. It's not evidence of salvation.
It is a maturity in salvation. And that is what Jesus is about
to teach us right now. Do you understand what I've done
to you? Now, of course, Peter's probably sitting there going,
yeah, man, I'm clean. I get to share with Jesus cleanliness. I mean, I have no idea what Peter
was thinking, but he was probably feeling pretty good about his
place with Christ right now. Because not only did he ask for
his feet to be washed, he was willing to have his head washed
and his hands washed. He got his fingernails cleaned out. Probably had a pedicure
while he was at it. I mean, he was hot stuff. Curls
in his hair and his beard to match. Ah, who knows? He'd probably
be trying to braid some phylacteries back down in the front of his
face. If you don't know what those are, that's where the Pharisees
would put a scroll, tiny little scroll in a leather pouch, and
they would hang it in front of their face so that they could
obey the scripture that says, keep the word of God in your
face. and near your heart." So they
would tie one near their chest. So they were obeying God. No
lie. Peter's probably thinking, yeah,
I understand, but he didn't say that because in reality he didn't
understand it. And Jesus explained, you call
me teacher. Now this is not something, when we say teacher, we just
use it loosely. Teacher, in this day, was not
something that was just given to everybody. For Jesus to be called Teacher
was one of the highest honors of the day. And the word there,
and I can't remember what the word Lord is for this, probably
Kyrios, because it's not Yahweh. So we look here and we see they
call Him Teacher, which is the highest esteem, and they call
Him Lord, which is also a title of esteem. It wasn't just thrown around.
Yet many people were called Lord. Caesar was called Lord, as we
see Paul teaching the Romans. But after the apostolic era was
done, the title and the word Lord sort of stuck with Jesus
over teacher, didn't it? Lord is a master. Lord is the
idea of someone being over something. The scripture says that the father
had put all things into the hands of the son. He is the Lord of
all. And so now we see Jesus reminding
them, you call me teacher, you call me Lord and you are right
for so I am. Let that echo. If I then I am your teacher and
your Lord have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's
feet. Now see, this is, this is the
pretext that confuses a lot of people. Oh, that's a commandment.
We should wash it. Who's he talking to? The 12th. What's the point
of that? If I am the Lord, if I am the
teacher and I do this subservient, almost illegal taboo, should
you not also as my pupils have the same humility? That's what
he's saying. Should you not have the same humility? Because if
they think foot washing is humiliating, wait till they see Jesus stripped
completely naked and beaten and torn and mocked. and paraded
through all of Jerusalem and crucified in the most undignified
way. They couldn't accept that. They
couldn't accept foot washing. How are they going to accept
the cross? See, this is the offense of the cross, part of it. How
is it that a magnificent God and ruler who is supposedly Lord
of all things could be subject to such a heinous and ridiculous
thing? He could not save Himself from
the cross. How can He save me from judgment?
And that's exactly what the people mocked and said to Him right
there on the ground. Save Himself. He did. He rose Himself from
the dead. And in that death, He washed
His people clean. It's finished. It's a finished
work. It's not an opportunity. It's
not a proposition. It's not something that God is offering. It's something
God has finished. And if Jesus is so lowly to do
this, and then also die on the cross, should we not His disciples
also be lowly? This, if you were watching and
paying attention to our Wednesday nights in Romans 12, I used the
illustration of people who are, you know, you've heard the phrase
bullheaded. Bullheaded by definition in our vernacular means stubborn,
haughty, frustrating, pushy, bullying, whatever. We're lambs,
we're sheep, we shouldn't be bullheaded. But we act that way
sometimes, right? The point I made in that little
example is that we, when we see ourselves being bulls, we need
to back off and be lambs. And then I made a very practical
assertion based on John chapter 10 where it says, my sheep will
hear my voice. The antithesis of that is, that means the opposite
would be that if you don't hear my voice, you're not a sheep.
So I said, lambs will reflect and bulls will reject. Except I wasn't so poetic, I
didn't say it so well. And it's amazing. that coupled with John Romans
12 and John 13, that this message is continually flowing, that
we should not think of ourselves higher than we ought to, but
should lay our lives down and love our brothers and sisters.
And even when our enemies persecute us, we should give them the clothes
off our back and the food from our table and the money from
our pocket. But some people love doctrine
more than people. And that does not coexist. Because the doctrine
of Christ proves who he was as God, and yet he was humble enough
to wash feet. And more than that, this pointed
to the humility of his willingness and his purpose to die a sinner's
death. You ought to wash another's feet,
one another's feet. I've given you an example that
you should do just as I've done to you. Truly, truly, that double
verity, as they say, amen, amen, amen, amen. If we were to translate
it perfectly, amen, amen. It is so, it is so. I say to
you, a slave is not greater than his master. nor is a messenger
apostolos. It's the only time that word
is used in the entire book of John. Apostle right there. Neither is a messenger greater
than the one who sent him. And if the one who sent the apostles
is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and He lays naked
at the feet of His pupils to serve them and He lays naked
on the cross to save them should not the apostles also lay naked
before others and to one another in service. I'm not saying literally
naked. Kids are going, really? No, not really, kids. Keep your
clothes on. Be serving to one another. Be humble, as if you
were willing to be humiliated. And then of course he's given
this command, he's given this illustration, he's given this
reality, but he goes on to reiterate the fact in front, and there's
twelve of them in the room! And this is the second time now
Jesus is going to say something like this. Twelve of us, and
one of you is the devil. And we see at the Last Supper
where they were wondering who it was. Some of them even saying,
is it me? I love that illustration of sovereignty
over liberty. And Jesus is saying, I'm not
speaking of all of you. All of you but one should do
what I'm telling you to do and listen to what I'm saying and
understand what I'm illustrating and be like me in my humility.
All of you but one, but the one who is not mine, I don't care
what you do, you do what you're going to do. I'm not commanding you. That's
why the apostolic letters have no bearing on the unregenerate. I want you to hear that again.
That's why the letters of the New Testament have no bearing
on the unregenerate. We are not to subject the teaching
of or the instruction of the apostles to those who do not
confess to be the body of Christ. You can't hold them to that standard.
Paul says not to judge the world at all, to make discrimination
within. Pastor James, the Bible says that a shepherd should have
these qualities. I don't see this one in you.
What's happening? I see this here, I see this sin,
I see this whatever. We're not gonna look across the
street and go, oh, look at that guy over there sinning it up. Well,
we're sinning it up too right here thinking we're not sinning
it up. Now, sure, there's a big difference
in the act of willful and obvious sin in the culture. It's a witness
thing. It's a testimony issue. But to
think that we sit in here and are not as sinful as somebody
that's not in here this morning is a joke. Because we can't wash
ourselves. Christ has made us clean. And
because he has done all of this in humility, and been humiliated
in our place to satisfy the justice of God for us, then we in turn
can hear His words because we are His sheep. And because we
are His sheep, we desire in that way to understand and to learn
and to grow and mature in our humility. Humility is the anchor to the
law of Christ. It is the fish hook, the fishnet,
the anchor. It is everything that weighs
us down and ties us to the perfect redemption of Christ. Humility,
without humility, the gospel is not. And so because of that, by the
mercies of God, Paul would say, we ought to present ourselves
as living sacrifices for the sake of the name of God. Every bit of that has to do with
how we serve one another. Every bit of it. I'll give you an example. A servant
is not greater than his master. If you know these things, blessed
are you if you do them. You know what it doesn't say
there. Saved are you if you do them.
Justified are you if you do them. He's already declared them clean.
How? Through His own blood, through
the cross. You're clean. If you understand
these, blessed are you. Follow them. See, we follow after
the teaching of Scripture because of our love for Christ and what
He did. We pray to God the Father as Jesus instructs us to do.
Thy will be done. Lead me not into temptation,
God. I say that a lot. How many times
do we really pray that? You know, more times than not,
I fight against that prayer. Literally in my mind. And it's
usually because I'm feeling frustrated. I'm telling you, that's my biggest
sin. I feel frustrated. I feel like things ought to be
different, better, more focused, more, you know, you ever been
there? Of course you are. And instead of saying, Father,
don't lead me into this temptation of pride, arrogance, haughtiness,
selfishness, lead me away from it. I hear that word. I go, I'm
not dealing with the Ebenezer that we lift up as a helper from
God. I become Ebenezer Scrooge as me and brother Michael were
talking about earlier. These things should not be that
Christ has lowered himself for me. How then do I have any room
to be haughty? Any room to be arrogant? Any
room to be frustrated whatsoever? None of us do, so let us learn
this example, beloved, and as we're together, let us celebrate
the grace of God because there is no way of being washed aside
from Christ washing. And he did not wash these men,
these 11, because they now had proven themselves worthy. They
are proving themselves unworthy every second of the day. And
this is going to be the worst week of their three and a half
year ministry. They're all going to abandon him. Thomas is going
to say, I never did believe. Peter's going to deny him publicly. And John's going to be the only
one at the cross. I'm not speaking of all of you. I know whom I have chosen. Now, that's not the first time
you've heard that, is it? John 1, John 2, John 3, John 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, now 13. And you will hear it again in 14, 15, 16, 17. Jesus will
pray it specifically to the Father in 17. But this goes on. It's everywhere.
Jesus is saying, I know who I love. I know who I am going to cleanse.
And one of you I will not. I will not. Who is he? But the scripture will be fulfilled.
This is Jesus still speaking. He who ate my bread has lifted
His heel against me." And that's a Davidic song. A Messianic song. He who ate my bread has lifted
His heel against me. I am telling you this now, Jesus said, before
it takes place, that when it does take place, you may believe
that I am He. You may believe that I am. And
I don't know if you recognize that yet. I probably didn't.
I don't remember what I've said from week to week, from month
to month, from year to year in this gospel. But I'll tell you this,
remember that I am is the strongest expression of divinity that's
found in the entire Bible. If Jesus were to say, I am God,
it wouldn't mean a thing. Because many people used the
term God and many people were called gods. But to say I am the son of God
means that I am the very essence of God. To say that I am is the self-identified expression
of God to his people. And how do we know? Context. Because every time He said it
in front of the religious leaders, what happened? They picked up
stones to kill Him. Because He made Himself out to
be God. Jesus says to the Pharisees,
unless you believe that I am, you will perish in your sin.
And it enraged Him. So I'm telling you this now,
so when it does take place, you may believe that I am. Now what
is He talking about? the death, the crucifixion, but
moreover, the betrayal and the arrest. One of you will betray
me. I don't know about you, but if
I'm conspiring some disastrous betrayal, and I'm sitting at
the FBI office, and one of the FBI guys, one of you guys is
going to betray us today, I'd be like, oh, not me. I'm going
to put that on hold. He's on to us. If I've got a big illegal shipment
coming in on the ports and the DEA goes, hey, we know somebody's
got a shipment coming in tonight at this port. I'll be like, not
anymore. Postpone that. I'm not going
to be there to sign for it. Judas goes right along with it.
Why? Because God is sovereign. Judas
is guilty. Christ is God. And again, he says, truly, truly,
I say to you, whoever receives the one I send, receives me. Whoever receives me, receives
the one who sent me. And there's, we'll talk about
that next week. But when we preach this gospel and people receive
it, they receive Christ. When I say receive, that means
agree with what we say. That's what it means there. That's
never cycled before. And then when someone agrees
with Christ's self-revelation, then they are agreeing with God,
the Father, whom He has sent. And in this way, then, Christ
is telling His disciples the core of the gospel truth, which
is, I wash you, but not all of you. For I know whom I love and
whom I have chosen, and I wash you, and you are clean. See that
beauty? There's nothing, there's absolutely
nothing that hinges on my shoulders to make sure I get right in my
sincerity or get right in my tenacity or in my humility in
order to approach this gospel, this cleansing. It's in the midst
of my, you're not washing me. You don't understand what I'm
doing. I'm doing it anyway. And you are clean. That's what the Gospel says to
you. And those who can believe have been granted that faith
by the Spirit Himself. Because only by the work of God
the Spirit can you see and trust in the cleansing of Christ. because
only by His body and His blood crushed for you will you ever
live. Believe in Christ and rest in
Him. Let's pray. Father, what a beautiful,
beautiful picture. A private conversation with our
Lord and His 12. And we have been blessed to be
able to read it and to see it. and to heed it, and to recognize
that the fullness of your grace toward us is non-negotiable. It is either all of grace or
it is nothing. It is all of mercy or it is death. It is Christ alone or it is destruction. May you give us continued assurance
and keep us in this truth. And as we take of these elements
today at the table, let us remember this beautiful gospel, the body
and the blood of Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen. Thank
you for listening. We hope that this message has
encouraged you in the faith. Subscribe to these messages and
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