Maundy Thursday 2019
Notes
Transcript
Maundy Thursday Service
Maundy Thursday Service
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
Call to Serve:
Foot ‘warshing’
Seminary Professor reminded us: Foot Washing is a close a cousin to a sacrament you can get. “For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” vs. 15
Became a controversial issue in the first few centuries of the church. What do we do with this command?
Church Eventually Understood this Command to be an Example Humility
Ultimate Example of Humility
Why THIS example?
Foot washing is the focal point of Maundy Thursday Services.
Feet are gross, stinky, calloused, ingrown toe nails
Doesn’t really belong to our every day life:
Feet are gross, stinky, calloused, ingrown toe nails
100 Century Judea: Dusty roads
BUT, the example is like a sacrament in that it points to something spiritual
100 Century Judea: Dusty roads
Serve like Jesus
Lesson in Hospitality:
Example: Don’t put yourself first. Put yourself in a position of a servant. Put the interests of others before yours. Think of the number of church squabbles would have been put to rest if we truly lived out this ethic…
Especially those in the church, we have forgotten about this example! Fights over color in the sanctuary. Fights over organ vs. guitar. My perspective of the end times...
Especially those in the church, we have forgotten about this example! Fights over color in the sanctuary. Fights over organ vs. guitar. My perspective of the end times...
Jesus
Being a servant as you host. The servant leader
Example: Don’t put yourself first. Put yourself in a position of a servant. Especially those in the church, we have forgotten about this example! Fights over color in the sanctuary. Fights over organ vs. guitar. My perspective of the end times...
We should be putting other first.
We are servants, and it begins with this community. We are the signpost of the kingdom.
This whole service we will be coming back to who to follow Christ’s example. He did this for us, we ought to model that example for others… Call to service!
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
A Call to Love
Promotion of Sorts:
What kind of friend is this?
Servants who don’t know anything...
To friends who bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.
To friends who bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.
Promotion: Servants who don’t know anything to friends who bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.
But this is not your ordinary friendship!
vs. 4: Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches
vs. 10: If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love
vs.16: A friend that chose and appointed us to bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.
Example of a Friend: You want to be my friend?
If you don’t spend time with me, I’ll cut you off
If you do as I say, then you can’t receive my affection.
And just to be clear, I’m choosing you and appointing you to be pretty active in this relationship.
Not just “Jesus is my homeboy”
He’s a friend, but he’s also more than that. He’s the King who invites us into a unique relationship: One where we are solely focused on love:
Love one another so much that you’d be willing to lay down your life for the other! Now that’s a friend.
As our King, Jesus did that for us!
Chose and appointed us to bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.
Clear authority, but yet clear relationship...
Commandments are all hinged on love. Don’t think of list of things to do. Think of lives of love, of sacrifice, of copying the King’s example of foot washing.
Move beyond just faith. It’s about bearing fruit and abiding fruit
Commandments are all hinged on love. Don’t think of list of things to do. Think of lives of love, of sacrifice, of copying the King’s example of foot washing.
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A Call to Life
A Call to Life
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
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Last Will and Testament: Last speech before his death
Last Will and Testament: Last speech before his death
Last speech before his death:
This is eternal life:
Vs. 3: “And this is eternal life: That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
A call to life is a call to Jesus
Fulfills our deepest spiritual longing...
: First of the Seven ‘I AM’ Statements
I AM: First of the Seven ‘I AM’ Statements
Bread of Life
Satisfies hunger forever:
Scar from Lion King: Stick with me and you will never go hungry again!
Competing Kings with competing promises
Need to make a choice!
Obvious thing to do is to choose life! To want life for yourself and for other people. To celebrate life we have in Jesus.
But so often we are like those hyinas.
The choice is actually made for us:
Staple
Sustenance
English Standard Version Chapter 17
“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
English Standard Version Chapter 6
39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit
A call to life is a call to believe that you can’t do this life thing by yourself.
We need a Savior who gives up himself for us.
We need a King who will regularly provide for our every need.
You need a King who will provide for all your needs.
Lord’s Supper is a time to celebrate our neediness. That is order to serve like Jesus, we need to be fed by Jesus.
To prepare our hearts for communion, let’s pray a prayer of confession...
