Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Think of a job that you truly despise.

Maybe it is changing a flat.

Maybe it is mucking stalls.

Maybe it is scrubbing toilets.

Or maybe it is changing diapers.

There are endless options of jobs or chores we do not like.

We may do them but it may be because we love those we are doing it for.

Maybe we are paid to do them.

Like in plumbing when you have to dig around in human waste to fix a line.

You are paid to do many of these jobs and chores.

Now, think if you will of doing some of this for free for another.

This is not too hard to do because maybe it is people you love or care for.

Yeah, the job may be terrible but it is for a loved one.

Yeah, it may be miserable, but it is for people we like.

So you can do it well and get through it.

Now, think if you will that you are doing it for someone who hates you.

For someone who wants you dead.

Someone who has done a despicable deed to you or a family member.

You are doing it for someone who has caused you great harm.

This you may not do.

You may think that is too much.

That is asking too much of me.

Asking me to serve someone who is like that.

Yet, that is what we see Jesus doing here.

He washes the feet of all the disciples.

First off, these were the people He created and who are sinful.

He is their Lord, yet He washes their feet.

Second, one of them is going to betray Him and He knows this.

He still washes his feet too.

Jesus got up and washed the feet of all the disciples because that is what a true servant does.

Jesus came to serve and not be served.

He came and has demonstrated how we are to be towards others.

We are to serve one another even if we do not like to do that.

We serve because that is what Jesus taught us in this section of Scripture.

In John 13:1-17 we read,

We see several things in this section three stand out most, we see the service of true humility, that pride is foolish, and that we must do what Jesus has done.

The Service of True Humility (1-5, 11)

Jesus was at supper with the disciples.

He got up and laid aside His outer garments.

He willingly got up and demonstrated what it means to serve one another.

Why did He do this?

you may ask.

Well if we look at Luke 22:24 we see that at the supper a dispute arose among them over who would be the greatest.

This was not uncommon among them.

They had this dispute before in other areas.

Jesus demonstrates to them that to be great means you serve others.

Jesus the greatest arose and willingly laid aside His garments and took on the garments of a slave and served the disciples.

This fits into last week when we studied that Jesus emptied Himself and took on the form of a servant.

Jesus did this and did it not only for the good disciples but to the one who would betray Him.

In verse 2 we see that one will betray Him and in verse 11 we see that He knew which one it was to be.

Yet, He still washed Judas’s feet with the others.

Jesus knew who He was—the eternal Son of God.

He knew He had come from the Father’s right hand and was going back to His glorious place in heaven.

With His identity secure, Jesus got up from the supper table, girded Himself as a slave, and washed His disciples’ dirty feet—including the feet of Judas Iscariot, the one who would betray Him.

So we see that:

Jesus knew that one of his disciples had already decided to betray him.

[We also know that] Another would deny him by the next morning.

Even this night, they would all desert him.

In the next hours they would repeatedly display ignorance, laziness, and lack of trust.

It was indeed a sorry lot that gathered in the upper room.

Even with good reasons to reject the entire group, Jesus deliberately showed to them the full extent of his love.

The actions, words, and feelings that he shared with his disciples conveyed the highest form of love because his disciples did not deserve nor immediately appreciate this love.

Jesus knows us as fully as he knew those disciples.

He knows intimately of every time and every way that we have denied or deserted him.

Yet knowing us, he willingly died for us.

Jesus continually displays his love toward us and reaches out to us.

He continues to serve us in the Lord’s Supper, and he guides and encourages us by his Spirit.

He serves us as we serve one another.

Are we prepared to love one another with the same kind of love Jesus demonstrated for us?

(Barton, John, Life Application Bible Commentary, 271).

Are you?

That is the question.

Can you go and love others who do not love you?

Can you do that?

I say that you can because if you are saved by Jesus you have His Holy Spirit in you and that gives you the mind of Christ.

With that mind, you can have the ability to go and serve others at all times.

Knowing who we are in Christ frees us to serve others, especially those who we don’t like and who despise us.

Believing our identity as a child of God allows us to entrust our needs to our Father so we can focus on meeting the needs of those who desperately need to know His love.

Jesus has given you the ability to do this.

He has given you all you need to be able to care for those who are not for you.

You are equipped to be able to serve anyone if you will live in the grace you have been given.

The apostle Paul wrote of his persecution of the church and that he was not worthy to be called an apostle but he said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am…I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Cor.

15:10).

That same grace is in you and working in you.

By that grace you can make a move towards those who are against you.

You can serve the most vile with the same love and care that Jesus did for the disciples all of which abandoned, denied, or betrayed Him.

You can do this.

But we must not let foolish pride wreck us.

The Foolishness of Pride (6-10)

Peter was watching this and felt that Jesus was going too far.

He was not going to let Jesus wash his feet like those others.

He was too pious for that.

He could not stand the thought of Jesus washing him.

He was acting out of foolish pride and ignorance.

Too often when we are about to have someone serve us in some way, we reject it.

Or we hide that we need service and help.

We allow pride to rear its ugly head and interfere with the help we need.

This is how the world is.

They will reject us and Christ because they do not need help.

They are good unlike everyone else.