The Heart of a Servant

John 13:1-5

Praise and Prayer

If you brought your bibles turn with me over to the gospel of John chapter thirteen. The gospel of John chapter thirteen and in a moment we are going to read verses 1-5 of the gospel of John chapter thirteen.

I want to talk to you tonight about being a servant and the biblical view of servitude.

No one wants to be a servant. No one grows up in our culture with a desire to serve other people. Being a servant is looked down on. It is degrading, it is oppressive. We want other people to serve us because that is the sign of true success in American life!!

However, according to the bible nothing could be further from the truth. You don’t reach the top of God’s ladder by scratching and clawing your way up. In fact, God’s way to success is by holding the bottom of the ladder so that others can climb.

And Jesus teaches us that principle here. The very life of Christ could be summed up as this; He is the suffering servant, who came into the world to die on a cross, so that all who call on His name can be forgiven and saved, and spend eternity with God in heaven!!

The Point; Jesus teaches us how to have the heart of a servant because it is the heart of a servant that is pleasing to God!!

John 13:1–5 NASB95

Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would 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, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

In our passage tonight, we have what is know as the upper room discourse. This is the beginning of the end of Jesus earthly ministry.

Jesus and His disciples are getting ready to observe the Passover meal because Jesus knows in the morning He will be going to Calvary to die on a cross for the sin of the world. He knows He will be arrested this night, stand trial in the morning, and be crucified in the afternoon.

However, before we get to the meal, and before we get to the cross Jesus wants to teach the disciples a valuable lesson that still applies to us today. How to be a servant!!

It all began on the way to the Passover meal. Luke 22 and Mark 10 tell us the disciples were arguing over who was going to be the greatest in the Kingdom of God.

Specifically, John and James approached Jesus asking for places of honor in His Kingdom. Mark 10:41 “Hearing this, the ten (talking about the rest of the disciples) began to feel indignant with James and John.” In other words, they were angry!!

The disciples got caught up in the moment. They were ambitious for position and power, (people do this today in the church) The disciples still believed Jesus was going to establish an earthly kingdom.

Think about how discouraging that must have been for Jesus. He knew He was running out of time and the disciples still have not grasped the basic truths of the gospel. “The way to glory is through service and sacrifice and not through position and power!!”

How could He ever get that message through to them in a way they would never forget that truth? That is what led to the foot washing of the disciples!!

The Point; Jesus teaches us how to have the heart of a servant because it is the heart of a servant that is pleasing to God.

I. The Occasion for Jesus washing the feet of the Disciples. Vs. 1

What we see here is Jesus had all of the facts in front of Him and was well aware of everything that was taking place.

Look at Vs. 1 “Now before the Feast of the Passover.”

This is a special celebration in Israel. The Passover is a celebration of God delivering Israel from slavery in Egypt.

On the night they left Egypt they slaid a lamb and spread its blood over their door posts so the angel of death would passover them. It is an annual celebration in Israel to this day.

(Most people don’t make the connection between the Passover and Christ)

This will be the final Passover for Jesus. And there has been a lot of debate over the years about whether Jesus ate the Passover meal at the right time, or if He and the disciples ate it early.

But, John makes it clear they ate it before the actual Passover. Why? because Jesus was going to be the Passover Lamb.

He was not going to be able to have this meal with His disciples after the fact, and there was so much more He had to teach them.

He uses this feast of the Passover, to institute the Lord’s Supper. He prays the High Priestly prayer. He is going to teach them the importance of being a servant.

In 24 hours Jesus will be hanging on a cross when all the Passover lambs were being slain.

All the gospels agree, Jesus was crucified and laid in the tomb when that was taking place.

So, the events we are reading about here are happening from Wednesday night through Thursday night. The day before the lambs were slain for the Passover.

Notice the middle of Vs. 1, “Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father.”

When Jesus speaks of His hour, that is a theme we have seen from the beginning of His ministry.

For example, At the wedding ceremony in Cana, when Jesus changed the water into wine. He said, “Mine hour is not yet come.”

When the Jews tried to arrest Him on several different occasions they couldn’t because, His hour had not yet come.

And when some Greeks came asking to see Jesus, it prompted Him to pray, John 12:27 ““Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.”

Why? because Now Jesus realizes that the time is up and His hour has come.

But what I want you to notice in this passage is; instead of Jesus thinking of Himself and everything He is going through He is more concerned about the disciples and their needs. He is putting their needs ahead of His own.

That is the heart of a servant. Jesus teaches us that a servant sets aside their own needs to meet the needs of others.

For Jesus, the next two days are going to be full of trauma and He will be departing this world and His greatest concern is how His disciples are going to react. He has to prepare them for what is getting ready to take place and what they need to do when He is gone!!

II. Notice the Motivation for Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. Look at the end of Vs. 1, “having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.”

This is speaking of how much Jesus loved His disciples. (something we don’t think very much about)

Many people will take this phrase “having loved His own” and run with it on the doctrine of predestination. But I don’t think that is the intention here.

(I am not denying the doctrine of predestination. It is a biblical doctrine, but unlike most people I don’t see it hiding behind every word of scripture!!)

This passage absolutely translates to us today. Jesus loves those who belong to Him. But John is talking about the Love of Christ in this moment for those who were with Him!!

He loved them with a holy love. He loved them with an everlasting love. An unconditional, agape love.

And when the scripture says, “He loved them to the end” this is not talking about a period of time. It doesn’t mean that Jesus loved them until the end of His life. It means that He loved them to the uttermost or the fullest extent they could be loved.

And that absolutely remains true of us today. Jesus could not love you anymore than He loves you! You are loved to fullest extant of God’s love by Christ!!

That should be a great encouragement. In the same way our parents loved us in spite of our mistakes, our faults, and our failures. They loved you because we belonged to them. Christ loves us unconditionally to the utter most.

Paul teaches us this same principle in Romans 8:38–39. He said, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God.”

III. The Enemy that was there when Jesus washed the feet of the disciples. Vs. 2

it seems as though John breaks into the story with random bit of information, but the reality is, this isn’t random at all. John is magnifying the goodness of Jesus and His love by contrasting Him with what Judas has done.

John wants us to know is everything is ready, even the enemy of life is in place for what God is going to do.

You and I are privy to this information. We know who Judas is and what He did. But John is writing after the fact, describing what he didn’t know at the time!!

Look at Vs. 2, “During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him.”

While the disciples were making everything ready for the Passover meal, Judas was out making a pact with the Jewish leaders to betray Jesus.

Matthew 26:14–16 NASB95

Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?” And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him. From then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.

All of this took place before the disciples ever reached the upper room. But John tells us there was darker plot taking place behind the scenes.

This was the work of Satan trying to stop the plan of God. Trying to kill the author of life, and He thought he had won the battle but he really just lost the war. (Genesis 3:15)

Judas, was just a pawn on Satan’s chess board. The lesson for us is we need to be aware of the tricks of the enemy. The Bible tells us Satan is like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour.

He would like nothing better than to devour your life and mine. If the devil was able to use Judas, a man who walked as close to Jesus as anyone, we need to be careful in our own life!!

I can’t help but think this was just another burden Jesus had to bare. He had a traitor at the table pretending to be a loyal disciple. when all along Jesus knew what was in his heart.

IV. The Humility of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. Vs. 3-5

What we see here is; short of the cross this has got to be the most extreme example of servanthood the world has ever known.

Look at Vs. 3, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, We can stop right there, because that tells us, this is the God of the universe. This is the commander of the heavens. This is the ruler and judge of the living and the dead. All authority over heaven and earth have been given to Him.

Vs. 3 continues, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God”

Jesus knew He had come from the throne of God and was returning to the throne of God. He knew all of the splendor and brilliance of heaven that was waiting for Him.

This is the very King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Yet, notice what He does.

Look at Vs. 4-5, “got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself.” “Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.”

Now it is important for us to understand that in the hot dust country of Palestine, most people wore sandals and their feet would get extremely dirty. There would be a wash basin at the doorway of every Jewish home.

When a person came home, the first thing they did was wash their feet. if they were poor, they washed their own feet, and if they were rich they had a servant available to wash their feet for them.

So, what we see Jesus doing here is assuming the position of the servant in the house.

He knew He was the Lord of the universe. He knew He was the sinless Son of God. Yet He made Himself of no reputation and stooped down to do the work of a slave!!

That is amazing to me!! What a lesson for us. There is no service beneath the child of God!!

Growing up, my mother taught me that picking up litter on the side of the road was as sacred as preaching a sermon. She showed me that every act of service, no matter how mundane, is important to God Matthew 25:40 teaches us this: 'As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.' Such humility encourages us to see every task as a step in our discipleship.

Think about the picture here. The disciples have all taken their place around the table. It was the custom of the host to wash the feet of their guests, and sense there was no servant there, we have to assume they just didn’t do it.

Imagine the shame of the disciples as Jesus began to remove their sandals and wash their feet. And think of how condescending it must have been, for the Son of God to take the feet of Judas into His Holy hands and wash his feet. All of the water in the world couldn’t clean those stains.

Think of how ironic this is; here we see the feet of Judas being washed by the Savior, and in just a few chapters we will see the feet of the Savior being nailed to the cross by a sinner.

Conclusion

The Point; Jesus teaches us how to have the heart of a servant because it is the heart of a servant that is pleasing to God!!

And as unpopular as that is today, this remains an important biblical truth.

We live in a culture that says, set your goals high and go after them. Don’t let anything stop you. And Jesus teaches us to consider the needs of others before our own.

The way to reach the highest heights of glory is to become a servant of the Lord!!

And if Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the world could lower Himself to wash the feet of a wicked sinner like Judas. You and I can put aside our differences and be reconciled to people we disagree with. We should be able to get along with anyone in this world knowing we serve a God who was willing to serve us!!