Go | John 13:3-17

If y’all remember from last week, we started a new series called The Great Commission. In this series, we’re gonna take a deep dive into Matthew 28:18-20.

Matthew 28:18–20 NLT

18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

This commission Jesus gives us is our very purpose on Earth.

Last week we talked about verse 18 and how Jesus has authority over heaven and Earth. We talked about glorifying Him with our lives.

And it is so important for us to start with that because that is what the rest of the Great Commission flows from. It flows from a glorious view of Jesus as the King over all.

Jesus models the Great Commission that way. Notice how the rest of the Great Commission after verse 18 starts with the word “therefore”. So He prefaces by stating His authority over Heaven and Earth, therefore, go and make disciples.

So it is because Jesus has authority over all things that we have been commissioned. Because He’s so glorious, we tell the world about Him. Why? Because we want more glory brought to Him and we want more people to enjoy His grace. And those two things work together. As more people enjoy God’s grace, He is brought more glory. And as God is brought more glory, we are brought more joy in His grace.

So it is crucial for us to have a correct view of God to follow God’s mission for our lives.

Now after Jesus establishes His authority in verse 18, He opens verse 19 with, “Therefore, go.” So last week we talked about one verse (verse 18), today we’re talking about one word: go.

Which brings us to our passage for tonight. Turn to John 13.

Some of you may remember Liam preaching on this passage. It’s the story of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet. Today we’re gonna take a look at what this passage has to do with going.

[Scripture Reading]

John 13:3–17 NLT

3 Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. 4 So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, 5 and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. 6 When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.” 8 “No,” Peter protested, “you will never ever wash my feet!” Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.” 9 Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!” 10 Jesus replied, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For Jesus knew who would betray him. That is what he meant when he said, “Not all of you are clean.” 12 After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? 13 You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. 14 And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. 15 I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. 16 I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. 17 Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.

As we dive into this passage, we’re gonna take a look at two examples that Jesus gives us of how to live, then we’re gonna see how Jesus relates these things to going.

1. Jesus humbles Himself.

This is so cool how this passage is written. Starting in verse 3, it says:

John 13:3 NLT

3 Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God.

It says here that Jesus knew who He was; Jesus knew that the Father had given Him authority over everything and that He had come from God and would return to God. Jesus knew that He is KING.

And how does Jesus respond? He got up from the table and washed the disciples’ feet. He knew that He was above all things, yet He chose to become the lowest of the low. He did what household servants do.

Let me put this into perspective for you. Jesus, being the most glorious person in existence chose to do what a household servant would do. And not just that, but He would go and die on a cross where He was beaten and humiliated for our salvation.

We as humans are so trained to reach the top of the ladder. We think that if we just get a little higher then we’ll have more status and power and popularity.

Just think for a moment. What have you done this week to be seen as more popular to others? Did you do something rebellious at school? Maybe you saw an opportunity to make fun of someone and push them down so you could be put on a higher pedestal. Maybe you tried to show out in front of others so they’d think you’re impressive.

The past couple weeks I’ve been playing drums on Sunday mornings. And I’m not a great drummer, but musically it’s probably the instrument I play best. And I’m so tempted sometimes to do a really cool drum part that would sound so good and that would make people think I’m a great drummer.

But what’s the purpose of that time of worship on Sunday mornings? Is it for David to show how good of a drummer he is? Or is it to glorify God?

And that example is a little more on the nose cause it’s during a literal time of praise to God, but we’re called to worship God with our entire lives! So if we do something to bring glory to ourself, we’re doing the opposite of what Jesus lived out.

Jesus turned the Kingdom upside down. He didn’t try to reach the top. He didn’t come to this Earth to rule an army and establish the nation of Israel as the most dominant nation ever. Jesus washed feet.

So if the King of the universe washed feet, ha what should we do? We’re nothing compared to Jesus, yet He died on a cross. In Matthew 20 verse 16 Jesus said that those who are first will be last and those who are last will be first. This is that verse lived out. Jesus sought to be the last and now He is number one.

The second example that Jesus gives us is…

2. Jesus serves others.

Now I know you might be thinking to yourself, “ Isn’t Jesus humbling Himself and Jesus serving others basically the same thing?” Good question. No. But let me explain why.

Humility is less an action you do and more just how you think of yourself. If someone is a humble person they don’t think of themself as highly as maybe some others do. If I’m bragging about how great I am and Nick is always encouraging and uplifting others instead of himself, that means he is likely more humble than I am.

But serving others is humility in action. If you have a proper view of God and how great He is then your natural response is to humbly serve others. You don’t think of yourself higher than you ought to think, so you seek to serve those around you.

Alright I’m about to show y’all my incredible drawing abilities. I’m gonna illustrate humility and service to y’all real quick.

First I want us to look at how kingdoms on Earth are structured. Let’s go back to our kingdom analogy:

Graphics

King (at the top)

Everyone else is below the King

So the way it world work out is this

Everyone serves the King

This is how kingdoms on Earth are set up. It’s how we’re trained to think.

But this is how Jesus models the Kingdom of Heaven

King is Jesus (at the bottom)

The 12 (at the top)

Jesus serves the 12

The first will be last and the last will be first. Jesus sought to be the lowest of the low.

And if we go to the next slide we see the way Jesus says the 12 ought to live. He says the 12 should seek to be below everyone else in the world; to humble themselves and (next slide) serve the world.

So here we see humility in action. As we seek to humble ourself as Jesus did; as we seek to bring ourselves lower than everyone else, we serve others. We don’t seek to be served by others, we serve them.

So Jesus has shown us through those two examples that we ought to be humble and we ought to serve others. But what does this look like? How do we humbly serve others? He explains it in verses 14 through 16.

John 13:14–16 NLT

14 And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. 15 I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. 16 I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message.

3. Jesus sends the message.

This is how Jesus relates the two examples He has shown us to going. Jesus describes Himself here as the “One who sends the message.” And this message that He sends is not just any message, it is His story. It’s the story of how He stepped off His throne in heaven to become a man in humble service to us, to live a sinless life on Earth in humble service to us, to die on a cross in humble service to us, and He rose from the grave in eternal glory. The story of how the Last became the First.

And now He commissions us to tell His story. To tell others about what He has done for us. We are now the messengers.

Have y’all ever gotten excited about something and couldn’t help but tell others about it?

Last year I went to a concert with Nick in Chattanooga and before the concert we went to a Korean BBQ restaurant. Now if you’ve never been to a Korean BBQ restaurant and have no idea what they’re like, then you know exactly as much as Nick and I knew as we walked into this restaurant.

We walked in and it had like a Japanese vibe, there was a TV in the back playing K-pop music videos, looked very different. And the server sat us down and there was this big circle in the middle of our table. Which was weird, but we just went with it. We grab our menus and order what sounds good, then the server walks away.

Now with what I’m about to tell you, you’d expect the server to have given us some instruction on how Korean BBQ restaurants work and what to do. They didn’t.

So the server comes back, removes the circle from the middle of our table, turns on a gas burner under the table, and puts the circle back and brings us a plate of raw meat.

Luckily we figured out this meat was raw before we consumed it and realized the circle was a grill and we were supposed to cook our own food at our table. So we put the raw meat on the grill and cooked our food. And the server would keep bringing us raw food for us to cook.

Now that was a WILD experience. We never expected the Korean BBQ restaurant to be like that, and I’m kinda glad we knew nothing about it going into it cause we were just amazed at the thought of cooking our own food at our table… And I just want to add that we were pretty good cooks cause the food turned out great.

But my response to that wild experience was, I told EVERYONE about it. I thought it was so cool and I wanted everyone to know. For a week I was the messenger to others of how awesome Korean BBQ restaurants are.

In the same way, our response to seeing how glorious God is, the depth of the riches of His wisdom, the infinite love to die on a cross for our sins; it brings us to humility. And that humility isn’t us being worried that God is gonna smite us or something. It’s a joyous humility because we know that the world is not on our shoulders. It’s on the shoulders of a God who can handle it.

And this joy that we have in God motivates us to serve everyone by telling them about it.

So to go back to what this sermon is all about: go. Tell others about Jesus. You might face situations that will be humiliating. You might get made fun of. But listen: they need to know. Humble yourself and serve them. Become a servant to others so they can have joy in the grace of Jesus and glory can be brought to Him. This salvation that God has given to you. Pay it forward. Don’t be selfish.

I want to close by reading from Philippians 2.

Philippians 2:3–11 NLT

3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. 5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. 9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Let’s follow Jesus’ example. Let’s humble ourselves and serve others by taking the message of the gospel to them.

[Let’s pray]