Jesus is the Example of Service

Jesus is the Example of Service

Please turn in your bibles this morning to John chapter 13. Today we will continue on looking through the book of John as we are studying the last hours of Jesus’s life. And specifically, we will draw our attention to the story that many of you may know well—the story of Jesus washing the disciples feet. This is an excellent piece of scripture that reveals so many things about our Lord. And I believe it will be blessing to our ears this morning.

John 13:1–17 (NASB95)

1Now 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.

2During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him,

3Jesus, 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,

4got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself.

5Then 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.

6So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?”

7Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.”

8Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

9Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”

10Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”

11For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.”

12So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know 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, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

15“For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.

16“Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.

17“If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

PRAY

You know God is sovereign in all things. As I thought through todays scripture I began to think about the similarities to the story we will look at today and what we have done here this morning—this graduate Sunday. Certainly, our pastor works hard to plan sermons throughout the year. But so often I come to church and hear a sermon that fits so well with whats going on, that it must be from God. Today is such a day.

As we think about the path our graduates have travelled we realize We have spent time with these children as they have come into adulthood. Parents, neighbors, family members, church members have poured into the life of these young adults. Specifically, parents have provided, love, sacrifice, effort, to raising children into young adults and maturing them. And now we come to the time where the dynamic is changing a little bit as they receive more independence. They are going out colleges, military, work force, into other cities and churches and we hope its for the purpose of proclaiming the good news of Christ. Vocationally maybe not, but they are representatives of the Lord, to go out and serve Him.

And the graduates really have some fine traits about them, don’t they. As I have gotten to know a few of them I have seen intelligence and wisdom, some are very focused, well-spoken. Now, each parent will want to take credit for the good traits right? We have arguments over where they got their brains or their brawn. Their leadership capabilities, or their kind-heartedness. All of a sudden they do something fool hearted… “you know they get the from you.”

Where they get it from really comes down to the example we’ve been given. And friends, when it comes to our Lord and savior, when it comes to rearing Chrisitan men and women into maturity, we have the best example. And maturity is what we’re after here at church, as Jonathan put it a few Sundays ago from Ephesians 4:13 we are striving “until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” And in verse 12 we do that, the equipped saints do that, “for the work of service.” Its about service!

I believe the scripture we see today is so fitting for the day we acknowledge our graduates. That we are indeed sending them out, to continue to pursue maturity and to serve. And here in John 13, not only as a lesson for our young, we see that Jesus is the example of service for all of us.

I want to show you with three ways in which Jesus is the example of service. He is the example of service in his love, his humility, and His sacrifice.

Right Service Comes From Love

EXPLANATION: Look first in verse one, “1Now 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.” The New International Version says that he showed them the full extent of His love. That His love was to the max, to the end, in a measure of finality. John is telling the reader here that the actions that Jesus is about to commit are a product of His love. Jesus is compelled to act by His love The kind of love that would only come from God.

And its fitting that this love is exhibited here at the Passover feast. We recall that the Passover was when God, in His love, called His people out of bondage. He gave them a way to be free of the curse of the plague through the blood of the lamb. And He set them free from their Egyptian oppressor and He comes to them to make their way known to the promised land of Canaan.

Here again we see love for His own, this time, demonstrated by the Son. And no doubt that the Jesus loved His disciples. John is very intentional about telling us this. On the night of the Passover feast Jesus has completed His public ministry. He will teach publicly no more. Yet, John spends the next five chapters writing about the time that Jesus spends with His disciples on the last night. Christ’s public ministry has ended, and now personally ministers to His twelve. He serves them! And the motivation in all of this is His great love for them. In fact the word the love appears 6 times in chapters one through twelve, but appears 31 times in chapters thirteen through seventeen.

And look at the magnitude of this love, verse two says that During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, --I’m going to stop mid-sentence there. The devil had already taken ahold of Judas Iscariot, and he is already set to betray Jesus. To turn Him over to one of the most torturous devices in ancient times. We know from later verses, than through Jesus’s Deity nature—through His direct revelation as the second person of the trinity—already knows this. He already knows that Judas will betray Him. And so as we’ll read on we’ll see that Jesus washes everyone’s feet except Judas….NO! That is not what happens. Jesus washes all of the disciples’ feet. Jesus washes the mans feet who will betray Him—Out of His great love. You see its easy to serve those we like, those we love. Its hard to serve those that we aren’t anything alike. To go places and do things that causes discomfort. To be in life altering situations not because of your desires but because of a great love.

ILLUSTRATION: There is a workout routine that has some popularity called The Murph. It is a grueling workout routine in which one person runs 1 mile, does 100 pullups, 200 push ups, 300 squats, then runs another mile…all while wearing a 20lb vest. We have some members in the church that completed it this year. The workout is named after Lieutenant Michael Murphy—a navy seal that lost his life in 2005 in way that awarded him, posthumously, the medal of honor. Murphy was part of a four man Navy Seal team that was in an intense fire fight in Afghanistan. The team was essentially pinned down from gun fire from a 50 person Taliban militia. Murphy tried to call for backup but was unable to due to the mountainous terrain. After being gravely wounded Murphy moved into better position to transmit a call for help. He knowingly moved away from His protection exposing himself to hostile fire to make the call. Murphy died of his wounds that were inflicted as part of his daring attempt. What makes a man make such a decision? It has to be love. Love for his fellow team members or love of country. We know there is no greater love than a man who lays down his life for another. Love is the great motivator to serve and serve well. To make a decision to serve something greater. Love forms how we serve.

ARGUMENTATION: Christ’s example of serving from a place of love is beautiful. Its more so than that Murphy’s death. And this is the uniqueness of Christianity. John 3:16 For God so LOVED the world…we could stop it right there and say that He acted. He did something. He sent His son to serve. In the book of Matthew, when asked by the mother of James and John for Jesus to make her sons great in the kingdom. Jesus “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28)

APPLICATION: As we consider this example of serving are we motivated by love? Do we go to the uncomfortable places because we are marked by a love for others. A Christ-like love for others. If we serve on many church committees, or volunteer to keep nursery, or serve cook meals for Wednesday night, or serve meals down at the kitchen, or take the gospel to the other end of the world, yet we do not have love. We are nothing. (1 Cor 13)

Right Service is Marked By Humility

EXPLANATION: Next, we see that the Jesus’ example of serving is marked by humility. Verse 3, “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.”

The nature of this beautiful act of washing His disciples feet, like all things, is enriched in the context. In these ancient times, people were travelling by foot in sandals, if they had shoes at all. There were no paved roads, no gravel, no sidewalks. They traveled on dirt roads, that when rain fell became muddy, and in cities were even prone to poor sanitation. So when they arrived to where they were going their feet were filthy. You can tell when something has had an encounter with mud. Yesterday one of the youth asked me if I lived down a dirt road, to which I replied yes, and she looked at my truck and said, “I can tell.” She could see that my truck was/is filthy. And so when these men entered into this place for a meal they reclined at the table to eat. And as customary in those days you laid down around the table. But obviously if you want your face to be close to the table then your feet will be too. However, your feet wont be close to your face, they would be close to someone else’s. This is something that could be quite offensive to those who are trying to have a meal and keep their appetite.

So the logical solution is to wash feet when you would come in to sit down for a meal. Now this was the most menial of task for a slave to have. It would have been a task given to a slave. It did not require skill and it was filthy and debasing. It such a lowly task for a slave to do that Jews did not require Jewish slaves to wash feet—it was only a task reserved for gentiles. There was only so far that a Jew would debase another Jew.

However, there is no slave in the house that Jesus and the twelve go into and so in a measure of absolute humility Jesus got up from the supper table, removes His outer garments. That action alone—Him removing His garments alone speaks volumes. Because He removes His garments and wraps a towel around His waist. He, in essence puts on the uniform of a slave. A gentile slave. John is quick to point out the sharp contrast also in who Christ is and what He is doing. John sets up the scene like this “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.” In other words, knowing that God had given Him untellable power, and He had sent Christ Jesus from His right-hand position on the throne and soon Christ, being victorious, would return to His seat of power…got up and did this degrading thing. Scandalous humility.

And this is the response that Peter has. He’s taken aback. Jesus “came to Simon Peter. He *said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” Even though Jesus has taken pain staking measures to teach these men what the kingdom looks like, they still had missed it. The servant is greatest in the kingdom, and they missed it. None of them were rising to wash the feet of their brothers. They weren’t even rising to wash the feet of their king. They lacked humility in how they served. I mean they were arguing over who would be greatest in the kingdom. That’s what they were focused on. As we spoke earlier, they had even gotten their momma to go speak to Jesus. Go speak to Jesus mom, see if you can get him to make us great in the kingdom. This is the direction they want to go. To them, boy, the greatest one in the kingdom sure don’t wash feet. In their mind, if they get up now to wash feet, and from here on out they’re the guy who washes feet. Y’all know what this is like: you don’t clean out the microwave at work because you know that if you do it one time, you become the person who cleans out the microwave forever. The disciples had missed the humility in how they serve.

ILLUSTRATION: Samuel Brengle was a commissioner for The Salvation Army at the turn of the 20th century. He was a well-known teacher and preacher and spoke extensively on the topic of holiness. One night he received an introduction that spoke of his accolades and noted him as the “Great Doctor Brengle.” He would later write in his journal “If I appear great {in the eyes of man}, the Lord is most graciously helping me to see how absolutely nothing I am without Him, and helping me to keep little in my own eyes. He does use me. But I am so concerned that He uses me and that it is not of me that the work is done. The axe cannot boast of the trees it has cut down. It could do nothing but for the woodsman. He made it, he sharpened it, and he used it. The moment he throws it aside, it becomes only old iron. O, that I may never lose sight of this.”

ARGUMENTATION: This is the humility that Christ beckons us to have. The humility that He exhibits that He exemplifies. That “He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant (of a slave), and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” He humbles Himself to the point of letting man put Him to death. He has the power to speak a word and defeat His enemies but through humility He is put to death and not just any death. A lowly, degrading, debasing, insulting death of the cross. He came in the form of the servant, and His humility knew no end.

APPLICATION: Is there an end to what you would do to serve Christ? We unlike the disciples don’t bicker about our status in the kingdom. We want to know who will be the greatest here, on earth. We are worried about our status in the church, in work, in our social group. We’re being very careful not to take too lowly of a position, for fear it would stick. For fear that someone would have something over us. We don’t view ourselves as the tool in Gods hand to be used in the way that He pleases. In whatever humiliation that may mean for us. As we look to Christ for this example of humility and how it will impact our ability to serve our Lord.

Right Service is marked By Sacrifice

Next, the way Jesus serves is marked by sacrifice. Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter. Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me. Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.” So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again

EXPLANATION: We see in this scripture the nature of the sacrifice that Christ exemplifies in the way He serves. It’s about sacrifice. And Peter goes to rebuke the Lord for His humiliating act of service. And Jesus essentially says to Him, you don’t understand. Jesus knows the coming humiliation of the cross is far worse. And he says you don’t get it. But you will. Jesus pulls the disciples out of the illustration and puts them into the reality of the moment. The reality is that Jesus is going to the cross. In His greatest act of earthly service, He is going to die. The foot washing is an analogy of that. Peter still stuck in the moment says no way will I ever let you wash my feet. Christ speaking of the analogy responds that “If I do not wash you, you have not part with me.” Jesus is telling Peter that if this service that I go to do—in my love, in my humiliation, in my sacrifice—if you do not accept this then you will have no part in me. It is by this sacrifice that we are made right with God. While the disciples are looking at the act of service of physical cleansing, Jesus is speaking of the spiritual cleansing. In such, there is no way to be made right with almighty God aside from the work of Jesus Christ. Christ would emphasize this truth in just a few verses by stating that “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. (John 14:6)

Peter still not understanding what Jesus means, says that if it is feet washing that draws me to you, then by all means wash my hands and head too. Peter is desperate to draw near to the Lord, by whatever means necessary. Christ, draws the disciples back in the analogy of the cross, says to Peter that you are clean, but not all of you. He is speaking to Peter, and whether Peter knew it or not, confirms His salvation. But he does not confirm all of them. He knows one of them is betraying Him. He knows one of them has made up his mind regarding the example that Jesus has set. He has rejected the work of Christ. And I believe that this is warning to the readers today as much as it was to the disciples then, that Christs work on the cross is not instantly applied to everyone. That Jesus’ atoning death are for those who recognize their need to be washed and accept the sacrifice as the sufficient means to be made right with God. They see the dirtiness of their feet—of their soul—and come to the cross to be made right. To be washed.

So, what’s the message here? Christ is showing them what He cannot yet show them. That through the illustration of the feet washing, he shows them the cross. He is showing them His salvific work. That after Christ has died they will understand what proper servanthood looks like. That the one who wishes to serve does so sacrificially. They get to see the whole picture.

You see, Jesus leaves His place at the table just as He left His heavenly throne to come here. Jesus laid aside His garments just as He set aside His glory to be man. Jesus ties the towel around His waist taking the form of slave, just as He takes the form of a servant on earth. Jesus cleanses feet as he cleanses sin. And finally, John points out that Jesus takes back up His garments and takes His seat again symbolizing Jesus resurrection and ascension returning with glory to His throne. Its as if you were watching this unfold so closely, only to zoom all the way out and realize the full picture of sacrifice. The full picture of service is sacrifice. Christ sets the example that our service to others should be sacrificial.

ILLUSTRATION: Many of you know the story of Jim Elliot. If you don’t, the short story is that Jim Elliot was a missionary that died trying to reach a hostile people group in Ecuador that were known for killing outsiders. Despite warnings of the of the tribe’s hostility, Jim was still passionate about trying to reach them with the gospel. During one of the initial meetings with the tribe, warriors killed him and four other missionaries. Jim’s death had far-reaching impacts on evangelizing the tribe. But listen to one of Jim’s quotes, listen to the philosophy in how he serves, he says: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Jim exemplified a sacrificial mindset of serving. He followed the example of his master by being willing to give up what he knew wasn’t his. To lay down his life in the way that Christ laid down His.

ARGUMENTATION: This is the charge for us as Christians. In our very name is the word Christ, we are little Christs. In so, like Paul says, we are conforming ourselves to the image of Jesus. In that conformity there is nothing more Christ-like than sacrifice. While I doubt that any of us will be required to lay down our lives for our faith—although it could happen— there are other ways in which we are called to sacrifice in the service of our Lord. We are called to sacrifice our time, our money, our comfort, our ambition. These things we sacrifice on the altar of service to our God. Romans 12:1 says “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” Paul continues on that this dedicated and sacrificial service should not lag in diligence, but be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. We are to diligently offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to our God in an effort to be ever seeking Christ’s likeness.

APPLICATION: Do we serve up until the point of sacrifice? When things start to hurt a little bit do we back away from our from our willingness to serve? When it requires a little more funds that might cut into our beach money? When that friend who needs Jesus is just a little too needy. When that discipleship group is requiring a little too much time. Do we sacrificially go on? Are we persevering in our willingness to give. It’s amazing to watch the transformation that the disciples underwent from that night to each of their own ends. They didn’t understand that night, but through Christs example each of them sacrificed greatly for the namesake of Christ.

Closing

Let me close today with these verses picking up at the end of verse twelve through seventeen: He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

Jesus’s words here echo the strength of the example He has given to the disciples. Do you know what I do for you? You call me teacher and Lord and that is what I am. By your own admission I am Lord. Therefore, if I am the Lord, shouldn’t you to do as I did to you? Or is the slave better than the master? Or is the one being sent better than the one who sent Him. Is the one who received the command better than the commander. Jesus says serve like this! Serve with love. Serve with humility. Serve sacrificially. If God in all His glory would stope to serve man, shouldn’t those that seek to imitate Him do the same thing?

How does Jesus teach His disciples to serve…by serving! Christ is the example. You are the example. The graduates that we are commissioning today have learned from the examples in their life. Graduates, you now go out and are examples of Christ to those around you. Will you serve in a Christ like manner? Are you greater than He? Or will you choose to serve with love, with humility, sacrificially.

Prayer: Dear Lord, we thank you that you gave us the ultimate example in your son. That He teaches by example. That he leaves nothing to question for us. Lord, let us be grateful and excited to serve you. To glorify you in all things. Help us to lay down who we think we are or who we think we should be. Help us to continually see that our king serves with these qualities and so should we. Lord, you have blessed us to be a blessing to the nations around us. You have called us into marvelous light that we may go forth to all nations being obedient to you and making disciples. Empower us to do these things in Jesus name. Amen.