[0:00] Is it on now? Okay, good. Alright. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
[0:19] ! Father God, Lord, we just come to you on hands and knees, bended, on just hearts that are open,! Coming to you, asking you, asking you, asking you, asking you, asking you, asking you, asking you, asking you to lead this worship service, to be the one that is up here speaking, and not I.
[0:37] I'm going to go sit down and take and sit in the back while you are in the forefront, speaking your words, being the, everything comes from you. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
[0:49] See, it's important for us to understand that at this point in John, or in Jesus' ministry, the next five chapters are called the Upper Room Discourse.
[1:11] I couldn't remember that last word. So, that, because before, like the last time I spoke, it was six months from chapter 10 to chapter 11.
[1:24] Okay? Last week, Matt talked about Mary washing Jesus' feet. That was a week. That was a week ago. And in that week, because this is the week of Passover, we saw Jesus ride triumphantly into Jerusalem on a donkey.
[1:44] We saw Jesus go to the temple and clear all the money changers out of the temple. That was on Monday. And then on Tuesday, he got into an argument with the Pharisees.
[1:56] On Wednesday, Judas went and made a deal to be the person to turn Jesus in to the Pharisees.
[2:09] So, now we're to Thursday. And on Thursday is when the Passover meal is going to take place in this Upper Room. And so, for the next 36 hours, we're going to cover five chapters.
[2:25] And I thought it was important that you understood that. That five chapters for 36 hours, where before we would cover months or weeks, now we're covering 36 hours.
[2:40] And those are really important 36 hours. So, Mark, would you go to the next slide? Okay. Okay. So, we're going to start with John.
[2:55] And I want to read this to you real quick. John 13, 1 through 3. It says, It was just before the Passover festival. It was just before the Passover festival. It says, And the thing we have to understand also, And the thing we have to understand also, as we look at this, and is the disciples then started arguing with each other.
[3:37] The disciples were discussing who was the greatest. And they wanted to argue about that. Think about that.
[3:49] You know, I can see Peter and Matthew kind of saying, no, you know, it's me. I'm the greatest. Kind of like when your kids get together and they argue, especially if you have sons, about who's the best son.
[4:02] I can't tell you the amount of times my kids say, you know, I'm the favorite kid. I can't tell you. I can remember Mark telling his grandmother, you know, I'm your favorite grandson.
[4:20] And I actually think he was. But he did things. He got away with stuff. The other ones didn't. She would sneakily give him $5 and say, here, go down to the store and get me this.
[4:34] And you can keep the change. And he would. He'd go down to Ray's here and walk down there. And pick up stuff and come back. He'd get to keep all the change.
[4:45] And don't let him fool you. And so, you know, I read that. And I saw that when they were talking about the, you know, the disciples arguing.
[4:56] And I wanted to see more proof. I wanted to see written proof about it. So then I went to the next slide, which is in Luke. Chapter 22, verses 24 through 7.
[5:07] It says, a dispute also started among them. Over which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. So Jesus said to them, the king of the Gentiles lorded over them.
[5:19] And those in authority over them are called benefactors. Not so with you. Instead, the one who is greatest among you must become like the youngest.
[5:32] And the leader like the one who serves. For who is greater? The one who is seated at the table or the one who serves? Is not the one who is seated at the table.
[5:43] But I am among you as the one who serves. And we see this is what Jesus told the disciples as they were arguing with each other.
[5:54] And, you know, it's one thing when you tell someone something. And it's totally different when you show them. And if we go to the next slide, Mark, it says, so we got up from the meal.
[6:09] And I want to tell you about the table they were sitting at. So it was called a, and I know I'm going to screw up the way you said, a trinikinthin.
[6:20] I'm sure I screwed it up. But what it is is a table that sits about as low as a coffee table. Y'all know what a coffee table looks like, right? And they were in the shape of a U, okay? So you know how low that is, right?
[6:32] Then they would have pillows. And they would lean on their left arm like this and eat with their right arm. So imagine how close the feet were to the person next to them.
[6:45] Pretty close, right? All right, so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.
[6:57] After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet?
[7:09] Jesus replied, you do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand. No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet.
[7:21] Then Jesus answered, unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Now let's read that again. It says, no, you should never wash my feet.
[7:32] But Jesus answered, unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Next slide, Mark. This is 9 and 10.
[7:43] He says, then Lord Simon, then Lord Simon Peter replied, not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well. You see here, Peter, he really wants to be as close to Jesus as he can.
[7:57] And he wants to give it all up for Jesus. And Jesus answered, those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet. Their whole body is clean, and you are clean, though not every one of you.
[8:11] For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not everyone was clean. And so why do we think Jesus just wanted to wash the feet?
[8:23] Why did he say they were already clean, the rest of them? Was it because they believed that Christ was there for them?
[8:36] They believed in Jesus, right? And because they believed in Jesus, that's why only the part of the body that came in contact with the dirt and the grime had to be cleaned.
[8:52] Which was the feet. Our feet come where we don't walk down dusty roads in sandals or barefoot. We do walk in the world.
[9:04] And where the rest of us may be cleaned, our feet walk in the world. Jack, would you and your son come up here? Mark, come on.
[9:15] I think Jack and I need to show you guys how much we love and appreciate our sons.
[9:29] Mark, would you have a seat, please, sir? So I'm going to show you, okay, how much we love and appreciate our sons. Now, you've got to watch real close, okay? Jack, you see how they're not doing anything?
[9:43] Did y'all see it? No? Oh, let's do it again. Okay, ready, Jack? Okay. Did you see it that time? That's because it was in my mind.
[9:57] But you can't see inside my mind, right? I have to show you and show him how much I love. All right. So.
[10:16] All right. I guess you put your foot in there, sir. Let's get all this grime of the world off of you.
[10:28] The grime of the stuff that you see every day when you're on the road driving. And, Mark, I know you see a lot of stuff on the road driving. And I'm sure you see a lot of stuff in school, don't you?
[10:41] It makes you think, man, I can't believe that. Okay? So. So we've watched all the grime off now. Now, you see, I'm on my knees.
[10:56] And you know what I'm on my knees? It's because I'm making myself as low as I can. The same way Jesus made himself as low as he could. So that he could show his disciples.
[11:10] And that's us.
[11:23] We're his chosen people. We're the ones he made. A God took himself and lowered himself to the ground for us. He took himself and went up on a cross for us.
[11:36] He shed his blood and poured it over us for us. That's what God did for us. That's how much he loves us.
[11:48] He loves us that much. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. You see, he was the perfect sacrifice.
[12:01] He wanted to show us and show his disciples what it meant to serve others. So he got on his knees and he washed his disciples' feet.
[12:14] Took the grime and the dirt away. The same way he takes the sin we walk through every day away. See, we're cleansed because we've accepted Christ.
[12:27] That blood is covering us completely. But we walk through sin every day. You know, I want to tell you how bad I can be.
[12:42] So when I'm driving down the road and people cut me off, I say to them, how dare you cut me off? It's wrong of you to cut me off.
[12:55] See, I'm not being humble then. I think I'm something I'm not. But Jesus doesn't want us to be that way. That's why he lowered himself down to be like the lowest servant.
[13:10] Because, you know, they didn't have Jews be the lowest servant. They would have a Gentile that was the lowest servant. Because, you know, the Jews didn't like Gentiles. They didn't have anything to do with it.
[13:22] That was the servant they chose to wash feet. And Jesus, when he washed the feet, he showed his disciples what they had to do to each other.
[13:38] We go to the next slide. Mark, you can go back there, sir, if you want. So as we look at verses 12 through 17, it says, He's telling the disciples, And he's telling us that we have to do for others what Jesus did for us.
[14:28] We have to show love to one another. We have to show love to those that don't want us to love them. We have to go out of our way to show that love.
[14:44] Especially when they're mean to us or they're evil to us. We have to not be evil back to them, but show love to them. Very truly, I tell you.
[14:59] Oh, no. There's that word. Very truly. Every time you see truly, it's a really important thing that Jesus is saying. You'll see it over and over during Jesus' life.
[15:10] What Jesus said, very truly or truly, truly, I say to you. That's a really important statement coming. And it says, Very truly, I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
[15:26] Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. So he's telling us we need to do what Matt and the rest of the team did this past week.
[15:38] They went and they worked for others. They gave their time and their, I'm sure they had some money they had to spend a little bit.
[15:52] And they poured out their hearts to these people that needed help. And the same comes to us when others try to help us.
[16:06] We have to allow them. We can't just say no. We have to allow them because they are lowering themselves to help us.
[16:18] The same way we're going to lower ourselves or should lower ourselves to help them. Because Jesus did it for us. Think about it.
[16:33] Last slide, Mark. In Romans chapter 12, verse 3, it says, For by the grace given me, I say to every one of you, Do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourselves with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
[16:58] Think about the grace you've gotten. That's what Paul's writing right there in Romans. We've been given grace because we said, Yes, Jesus, come live in my heart.
[17:12] That's why it's so important we have to give it back to our fellow brothers and sisters.
[17:25] Give it back to those that don't know Christ. Give it back to the world and show the world that we're not like them. Show the world that we honor them with love and care for them, even if they don't do it to us.
[17:45] It's important that we do that. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, I just thank you for this message because I know it came from you and not from me because I'm not that loving person that you want me to be, but I know you're going to make me into that.
[18:02] And I know you're going to make all of us into that. Lord, please, just continue to be with us and teach us how to be servants, how to lower ourselves to the lowing so that we can love those that are in need of our love and our guidance as you guide us.
[18:22] I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[19:04] Amen. Amen.
[20:04] Amen.