Sermon Tone Analysis

Start of Upper Room Discourse

As we start to look at the following chapters of John it is known as the upper room discourse.

What has transpired and works with our passage today and next week.

For there is much to pull out and apply from this passage so will do over three weeks.

Before Jesus rode into Jerusalem as a king, He was prepared for burial by His feet being washed.

- (Jn12:3)

Jn12:3

The upper room discourse starts with being touched by Jesus before being taught by Jesus.

Where the first washing was with an expensive nard (perfume) the second was with a humble heart of love.

5 days has passed from:

to get us to our passage today, much has happened but the cross is clearly in sight for Jesus.

-

Christ loved them to the end - (Jn13:1)

Christ loved His own

His own sheep -JN10

His own bride - EPh5

His own body - 1Cor12

Where we may tend to elevate the Apostles they were not without fault, just like us.

Still Jesus loved them to the end.

Regardless of past faltering - his love was without limit (Lk9:54)

Regardless of future

Regardless of future

Regardless of future failings (Lk22:31-32)

Regardless of present flaws (Lk22:24)

Christ loves us with the same love today, regardless to those who are His own!

Here are His people, His own, His disciples who were bickering about being the greatest and all were reclining Jesus knew what needed to be done, not said, done, He got up and did it.

What had already happened during the supper (v.2)?

What did Jesus know (v.3)?

What did Jesus do (v.4)?

Jesus knew where they came from and where they were going, and it is the same for us today.

It is only when we have faith in the past and our hope for the future that we can love in the present.

Jesus knew where He came from and where He was going, we know where we came from and where we are going.

Something to ponder, Jesus, was with the Father, in the glory of the Father and left the glory to take on the flesh for us.

Jesus chose to take on this assignment to take on the form of a man.

In our passage today He laid aside His earthly garments whereas as before He laid aside His heavenly ones, heavenly glory.

He put aside the heavenly glory, His divinity, to put on the humanity of man and wrapped a the towel of humanity.

This towel was believed to have been linen which is a picture of righteousness.

So here we have Jesus wrapped in the humanity of man in human flesh, was like us but still without sin.

So the laid aside garments and the towel, in translation it is thought to have been linen which is a picture of righteousness

I.

The action of love

What did Jesus do (v.5)?

Water is often a symbol of the Word.

He shortly will tell the disciples they were cleansed by the Word (Jn15:3)

Paul speaks of the washing of the water of the word too (Eph5:26)

God’s Word poured out tells us who God is, what God did, what we are to do with God and how to do it!

This was God, becoming Word and dwelling among us (Jn1:14)

Another point to ponder: Jesus said by the washing of the water of the word they were already clean, so as He does this washing it is not for salvation but for sanctification, not for conversion but for confession.

In this world there is lots of dirt, we get dirty feet (sin) that comes upon us and we need to be cleansed, again, not for salvation but sanctification.

(1Jn1:9)

See see Christ’s love for humanity, but we also see Christ’s humility in action for humanity.

We may not fully understand everything, in our passage we see Peter did not understand, but would later.

(expand on humility because slave would normally do it, but here no one was doing it)

Jn13

God does not always explain everything to us up front does He?

What did Jesus say to Peter (v.7)?

What did Jesus tell Peter in (v.8)?

The washing of feet was normally done by a slave, Jesus saw what was needed to be done and did it as mentioned before.

It was an act of humility and even Peter would realize it later as the Lord said.

We need to be people of humility, we need to be willing to get a little dirty for others and not expect perfection and cleanliness from them first.

Peter did not get it, but Jesus is going to use this teaching moment

What did Peter think (v.9)?

What did Jesus teach (v.10)?

What did Jesus state (vv.10-11)?

Be ready to expand on each of the above, emphasis it is cleansing not for salvation but for sanctification!

The betrayal by Judas (noted Jn13:2)

If we don’t commune daily, if we do not wash the sins, the dirt of the world off daily it is easy to be polluted and tainted by the world.

Again this is not about salvation but sanctification.

Exo30 gives a picture of this when a Priest is called he is completely washed, our way is washed in baptism.

From that point the Priest before entering the tabernacle would wash hand and feet, there is no needed for total cleansing again.

We need that cleansing daily too don’t we? Cleansing that happens with a heart of confession.

I like what commentator Jon Courson says

“Confession is not promising never to sin again, but rather saying, ‘Father, Your Word is right.

That’s sin, and I confess it as such.

Have mercy upon me, Lord deal with me.’”

When we realize what we have when we look at the cross and what Christ said “It is finished” and we know we are still sinners who fall short of the glory of God.

Confession is a good thing it helps us to have appreciation for the cross.

When we realize the sin we still deal with we can’t help but marvel, be astonished by God’s love for us, knowing our faltering past, our present failures and out future flaws, still He went to the cross knowing we would get dirty feet again.

When we have the appreciation of the cross, we then can have a grasp of the grace that is offered because of the cross, because of the love that was poured out.

When we think about what we have coming and God sent Jesus to take it on for us, think of this scripture

Lam3:

Our prayers are of thanksgiving for what He has done and what He continues to do for us when He renews His mercy and His grace daily for us.

We need the daily reminder, the daily confession so we do not get daily caught up in the struggles and strongholds of this world.

—Mother Teresa continues to do for us daily.

We are recipients of His mercy and His grace daily.

Our weapon is the daily cleaning for without it we have no part of Him.

May we go to the Lord and allow Him daily to cleanse us, take those things that can stumble or hinder our walk with Him, that hurt our commune with Him and our fellowship.

May we remember and embrace the promise of

(summarize this all and encourage everyone to read this passage Jn13:1-20 again before next week)

Next week we will look at the instructions to the disciple