Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning and welcome to Buffalo on this last Sunday in January 2023.

The title of the sermon this morning is “What True Love and Service Look Like.”

And since we’re looking at love today, Christian love, biblical love, I did some research on love in our society.

I asked Google some questions and this what I got.

Did you know — it is estimated 100 million songs have been written about love, from the beginning of time until now.

100 million.

How many songs have been written that love in the title?

1,187.

Why are so many songs written about love?

Well, I learned, because it’s so relatable, and therefore easy to market and sell.

Do you know what the number one love song is of all time?

Whitney Houston, I Will Always Love You in 1992.

Have you ever wondered how many couples have a song?

60%.

My parents’ song is When A Man Loves A Woman by Percy Sledge.

And yes, Shannon and I have a song, more like an album.

John Mayer’s album Room for Squares, 2003.

I’d be interested to know what songs you couples have out there that are special to you.

Did you know that some scientists say that romantic love activates the same type of brain response as narcotics?

Did you know that 50% of marriages end in divorce.

Speaking of that, it takes, on average, about 3.5 months to recover from a breakup of a relationship, and 1.5 years to recover from the breakup of a marriage — and probably more than 1.5 years.

I was reminded of two things from this information — 1) love is an all-consuming thing that can leave you either ecstatic or suicidal, and 2) love is not something we are very good at.

[SLIDE: LOGO]

But we need to get good at it, because Jesus commands it.

And our four words have the word love in them.

Speaking of our four words, they’re on the screen.

Worship - Grow - Love - Serve.

I need you to do me a favor.

Use your loudest outdoor voices and belt it out as loud as you can.

I wish we could do justice to everything in this text, but time won’t permit us.

What does God say through His Word about love — not so much about romantic love but Christian love, biblical love, Jesus’ kind of love?

John 13 will show us.

#1: The background of the footwashing

What is God showing us in verses 1-3?

Two things: Jesus knew, and Jesus loved.

What did Jesus know?

He knew that His hour had come.

It is time.

His death on the cross in our place, bearing our sins — it is near.

Jesus is troubled about His death.

But He is resolute and steadfast in His purpose.

“Now is my soul troubled.

And what shall I say?

‘Father, save me from this hour’?

But for this purpose I have come to this hour.

Father, glorify your name.”

Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again”” (John 12:27-28 ESV).

He knew who He was.

As Son of God, He had come from heaven where His Father is.

As Son of God and Son of Man, He would soon go back to God, back to heaven where His Father is.

These are things that prove that Jesus was fully man and fully God.

Jesus knew.

But Jesus also loved.

Look with me at verse 1: knowing who He was — the King of Kings, the fully divine Son of God — knowing that He had come from heaven and is now headed back, his work on earth having almost been completed, with all of that in mind, we’re told in verse 1, “he loved them to the end.”

Right up to the end of Jesus’ life, He loved His disciples.

He had loved them, and His impending death did not change that, neither did the fact that He did not owe them love.

He loved them to the end, till the very end.

He was faithful.

He is faithful.

He will never let you down.

He will love you to the end.

That’s the background.

With all that in place, John paints a very vivid picture for us.

#2: The preparation for the footwashing

John paints a very vivid picture for us.

The disciples are reclining in front of the table.

They’re almost laying on their stomach, one hand propping them up, the other hand being used to eat.

Their feet are stretched out behind them.

But they stiffen up when Jesus begins to do what He’s doing.

He stands up.

He sheds His outer layer of clothing.

He ties a towel around His waist.

He gets a basin and pours water into it.

All eyes are on Him.

No one is saying a word.

What Jesus is doing is to their mind unthinkable.

Why?

Jesus is dressing like a servant, or a slave, and really like less than a slave because not even Hebrew slaves were forced to do this job — It’s a job that literally no one else will do.

Think cleaning toilets, seriously.

It’s bad enough to have to clean your own toilet.

You’re not cleaning someone else’s unless you’re getting paid, amen?

That was footwashing.

Even the way He was dressed would cause people to turn their noses up at Him.

So the Son of God, King of Heaven, Lord of lords, fully and completely and totally divine, fully and completely and totally human — the One who spoke worlds into existence and upholds the universe by His word alone — none of that went to His head!

He lowers Himself below the lowest social class — servants — and serves His disciples by doing something for them that was desperately needed but something nobody else would do.

Not because no one else would do it.

But because He loves and He shows His love.

Because He wasn’t above it.

Not only is Jesus doing a job that no one else would do.

He’s also doing it for an enemy.

Judas is at the table.

He washes Judas’ feet, just minutes before Judas would leave to gather an army and betray Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

But the real meat of this scene that the apostle John is painting for us is still to come.

It turns out that to have Jesus serve you in this way is offensive.

#3: The offense of the footwashing

Look at this with me and let’s try to understand what’s going on here because I think we’ll all be able to relate to it.

Jesus begins washing the disciples feet.

He’s on his knees.

One container of water was under the feet he’s washing, and he’s pouring water over the feet from another container into the container below, after he wipes the feet with his towel.

Their feet are filthy — dust is caked on from the miles and miles they’ve walked with nothing but sandals on.

Not to mention the corns and bunyons — I don’t even know what those things are, they just sound really bad.

Not to mention the stench.