Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro: Theme/Topic (What’s the problem, the question, etc.)

When people have power, there tends to be a degree of fear of them.

They are feared because they have the power to affect our lives for good or ill with their influence or wealth or political position.

Whether it’s the popular crowd at school, your boss, or the geo-political dictator.

And when you have power you now have the burden of keeping it.

You need to be feared a little.

So, maybe you flex your muscles a bit from time to time just to remind everyone who the boss is.

This is how we tend to think of people with great power and influence.

And if we’re honest, as sort of a default, we can tend to project this perception of power onto Jesus.

I mean, there’s no one more powerful than the creator of the cosmos!

But Jesus came to show us a better way — He came to invert the way we think about power by showing us that the most powerful person in the universe flexes His muscles by making Himself low and serving.

In our text today we’re going to witness the extravagance of Jesus’ love in action and see the power it has to transform all of our lives.

Scripture

Let’s turn to God’s Word now.

We’re in John 13:1-17.

If you need to use a pew Bible, you’ll find today’s text on page 1069.

Once you’re there, please stand with me if you are able and follow along with me as I read...

This is God’s Word.

Father, Your Word is living and active.

May Your Word pierce our souls this morning and change our hearts to know the love of Jesus for us and to display the love of Jesus for others.

In Jesus’ name we pray — AMEN.

Prayer

Intro: Formal (give context to passage, setting the scene, big idea)

Chapter 13 begins the second half of John’s gospel often referred to as the book of glory.

And when we think of glory in John’s gospel, we should think of Christ’s suffering on the cross where He will be most glorified!

So, it’s fitting that this chapter begins with these words: “Now before the Feast of the Passover...”

The Passover is a major them in John, were He connects Jesus’ death on the cross with being the supreme Passover Lamb.

As John the Baptist says of Jesus in chapter 1, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

So, everything in John’s Gospel as been moving toward this ultimate Passover but now the pace quickens as we hit chapter 13.

Now one thing we all know about humanity is that we can all put on a pretty good act most of the time and convince others that we are certain kind of person.

BUT when adversity and trials come the true nature of a person often is revealed.

Someone may put off a lot of bravado but when real danger comes they tuck tail and run.

Or some may seem like the nicest person but when they are really rattled their teeth come out!

In our text today we see that when Jesus is rattled and His true nature is seen, we see love — we will see a demonstration of love so radical that if you have eyes to see it — it will transform your life.

I want to show you 3 things as we work through this text about Christ’s love:

The heart of His Love

The Demonstration of His Love

How His Love creates a People of Love

The Heart of Love

In v. 1, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come and it was time for Him to leave this world, we’re told that He loved His own and that He loved them to the end.

Now this phrase “to the end” is an interesting one because it can be taken in two ways.

It can be understood temporally as loving His own to the end of His live which was the cross.

But it can also be understood adverbially to mean something like, to the utmost!

And certainly the utmost display of Christ’s love was seen at the cross.

So either way you see this you’re looking at the cross.

And perhaps John wanted us to read this with both meanings in mind.

So, Jesus has this suffering in mind and then we’re told in v. 2 of Judas’ satanic conspiracy to betray Him.

Thinking about these things would rattle anyone to reveal their true nature.

Now in v. 3 we get a peak into the heart and mind of Jesus.

Knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands — Think authority here.

Jesus was given all authority by the Father.

Knowing that He had come from God — Think divine origin here.

Jesus knew who we was and where He came from.

Knowing that He was about to Go back to God — Think future glory here.

Jesus knew the glorious future that awaits Him.

So, with Jesus’ impending death and the knowledge of Judas’ satanic conspiracy — and Jesus knowing that He has absolute authority, divine origins, and a glorious future.

In our worldly thinking, we might expect Jesus with all this power to get up from the table and slap Satan to next Tuesday and blast Judas out of the water being like, do you even know who I am!!!!!

This is how power works in a world broken by sin.

But Jesus was different.

He was not broken by sin and being God who is love, when you rattle Him, and His true nature comes out, we see love!

And it’s not forgetting who He was that enabled Him to do this it’s in full consciousness of it.

It’s because He is God that He acted this way.

Now in this life broken by sin, all our examples of love are tainted.

We witness the love of others and even in the love that we show and we know it’s tainted.

Many show love because it’s a way they know how to get something they want.

It’s a self-serving love.

Like the loser boyfriend who only wants to exploit his girlfriend to get something we wants in return.

Or maybe our acts of love are motivated by proving to ourselves that we are decent people — a little pat on the back to help us sleep at night.

This is again self-serving.

Or maybe we feel we need to show love to get into or stay in God’s favor.

I could go on but you get the idea.

Apart from the grace of God our best attempts at showing love are always self-serving.

So, the way of the world is to use power to exalt ourselves at the expense of others.

But in Jesus we see something different — the use of power that willing inconveniences self for the benefit of others.

So, being rattled by His impending crucifixion and a satanic traitor, this is the kind of love that spills out.

Let’s look more closely at this display of love in the next point.

The Display of Love

In v. 4 we see Jesus getting up from the supper and not blasting Judas out of the water but taking off His outer garments and tying a towel around His waist, pouring water in to a basin and washing the disciples’ feet (even Judas the betrayer).

Do you see what is happening?

Jesus, knowing that all power and authority are His, uses His power to make Himself a servant — inconveniencing Himself for the benefit of others.

This act was also something of a lived-out parable that shows the character of Jesus’ entire ministry!

Look with me at Philippians 2:6-8

Now notice how clearly these verses align with Jesus’ foot washing.

First Jesus rose from the supper — In a far greater way, Jesus rose from His throne in heaven before coming into our world.

Next, Jesus laid aside His outer garments.

— In a far greater way, Paul says Jesus emptied Himself by laying aside His glory, and became a man.

Then, John says Jesus tied a towel around His waist becoming a servant — a role that Paul says Jesus took upon Himself.

And finally, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciple’s feet.

— And in a short time Jesus would pour out His blood for the washing away of human sin on the cross!

This entire act was a picture of Jesus’ sin cleansing cross-work shortly to come.

In it we see how Jesus was utterly inconvenienced to the point of death on a cross for our benefit the forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation to God.

Now notice Peter’s response in v. 6.

This tell us that this was a shocking act.

Something completely unexpected!

Something that shattered every notion of what was proper and socially acceptable!

You see, in Jesus’ day, people wore sandals and walked most places on dirt roads littered with the droppings of animals.

So, when arriving at your destination you would need your feet washed to remove the caked on dirt and goat droppings from your toes!

This was a menial job for the lowest of servants.

In fact, Jewish custom, would never require this act to be done by Jewish servants — it was reserved only for non-Jewish servants — the absolute lowest of society.

But as shocking as this was, it was not nearly as shocking as the event it foreshadowed — the hideous and shameful death of the Messiah on the cross, dying the death of the damned!