So as you heard Al pray, Mark has been sick.
And thank you, Mary.
I came up here on Saturday and Mary was up here practicing.
So thank you very much for filling in.
As we've said before, it's always a good thing when your pastor takes vacation because that means your church is healthy.
And it's also a good thing because we get to hear from other pastors in our area.
And we get that privilege this morning with Mike Wensler, who is bringing the word to us.
And Mike is an RUF pastor, and I'm going to let him kind of fill you in a little bit more on that.
So please go forward, Mike.
Thanks.
Good morning, everyone.
Sweet to be with you.
Thank you for having me.
I thought it was funny earlier when Jim made the comment that, you know, thank God that your pastor will be back next week.
You know, and I feel that too.
Amen and amen.
It really is a privilege, though, to get to travel and to worship with other congregations in the state here.
My wife and kids who are not here, unfortunately, my wife's out of town and my kids all have strep.
But, yeah, I wish next time we'll bring them along and you can meet them.
But we've been in Fort Collins now for 18 months doing RUF at Colorado State University at CSU.
So RUF probably, I know some of you have some familiarity with it, but it's the college ministry of the PCA.
Started the same year, roughly, the PCA started and spread out of the southeast and now has reached beautiful lands of Colorado.
And so we have one at CSU and one at Air Force Academy.
Maybe you've heard from Jeff Kreisel.
Has he been here to preach before?
I think I'm seeing some nods.
Yeah.
So please don't compare me to him because that will not bode well for me.
But he's a great guy.
He's a friend of mine.
I love Jeff.
And, yeah, so this is a sweet thing.
So I'm not on staff in a church and I don't have to, I don't have responsibilities at our local church in Fort Collins.
So I can travel and I'm not dearly missed necessarily.
And so this morning we're jumping into a passage that is not in any series that you've been going through.
But we're going to be looking at John chapter 13.
Probably a well-known passage to many of you, the washing of the disciples' feet.
And I will open up my Bible, read the passage for us, pray, and then we'll get started.
I think it's also in your bulletins.
This is John 13.
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.
During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,
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, rose from supper.
He laid aside his outer garments and, taking a towel, tied it around his waist.
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.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,
Lord, do you wash my feet?
Jesus answered him,
What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.
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.
Simon Peter said to him,
Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
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.
For he knew who was to betray him.
And that was why he said,
Not all of you are clean.
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?
You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.
If then I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet,
you also ought to wash one another's feet.
For I have given you an example that you also should do,
just as I have done to you.
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.
If you knew these things,
blessed are you if you do them.
Let me pray for us,
and we'll get started.
Father, I thank you for this Lord's Day,
to gather freely to worship you.
We thank you for the sun,
for the fresh air,
for the mountains,
and for the freedom to sing to you,
to hear from you,
to pray to you.
Lord, I pray that your word and your spirit
would be at work in all of us here this morning.
I pray that we would leave here changed,
made to be more like Jesus,
encouraged in our faith,
comforted as we are afflicted.
Please be at work in us.
Please give us your Holy Spirit and understanding.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
This past July,
I was down in Dallas
for some RUF staff training.
We have two mandatory staff trainings a year.
One's in December,
one's in July.
And the July one is in Dallas.
We got off a few hours early,
one afternoon,
and a few of my other campus minister friends and I
decided to go to Elm Fork Shooting Sports
and shoot a skeet course.
Any of you shot a skeet course before?
Two of us in the room.
That's great.
I had never done it.
I had never done it before this,
but it was a pretty sweet experience.
So everyone gets a shotgun.
We bought 100 shells,
and we got a golf cart,
which holds the shotguns,
which is just kind of cool.
And we drove from station to station
to shoot clay pigeons.
You know,
there's one man is shooting,
and the other person is operating the little buttons,
and there's two different buttons,
and you can decide to shoot them at the same time,
or, you know,
one after another,
or totally two different times.
And then you try to shoot them,
and they're hidden,
and they come flying into course of view,
and you're supposed to shoot them.
Now,
in years past,
when I was younger,
I grew up in Wisconsin.
It's where we were living
before my family and I moved to Colorado.
And on vacation,
we often went up to Door County, Wisconsin,
Washington Island.
If you think of Wisconsin,
like your hand,
there's an island at the tip of the peninsula.
It's Washington Island.
And we would often go up there.
My grandparents owned some land,
and we would stand out on the shore,
and we had a hand launcher,
and we would, you know,
throw clay pigeons
and shoot them with shotguns.
And I thought I was pretty good at this.
You know,
I hit maybe most of them,
above 50% probably.
And, you know,
so we came into this time
with my friends
doing this skeet course,
and I haven't shot a shotgun in years.
Don't own one.
And I thought I was gonna,
you know,
take the cake
and show my friends
who knows how to shoot some clay pigeons.
Well, it turns out,
a couple of my friends
grew up hunting their whole lives
and know their way around a shotgun quite well.
And they outshot me pretty horribly.
I think I hit,
if I'm remembering correctly,
16 out of 100 was my number.
And the winner was over 50%.
I was second to last.
So it turns out I'm not so good
at shooting skeet.
My pride, though,
had me convinced
that I was better than I actually was.
My pride had blinded me
to the reality
of how poor a shot I actually am.
I thought my little achievements
in the past had made me good.
Now, pride over shooting guns
is one thing, of course,
but pride before God
is a holy other.
And they're very different,
but they have similar characteristics.
When we compare ourselves
to our friends,
our brothers and sisters in Christ,
we might think we're pretty good.
But if we line ourselves up to Jesus,
we would quickly see that we're not
because our pride has us convinced
that we are better than we actually are.
This is what pride does.
It blinds us to the reality
that we actually fail to measure up,
that we're sometimes stuck up
and quite often puffed up.
We even think our little achievements
in the past make us good
and acceptable before God,
maybe if we're being honest.
But Jesus turns pride on its head.
In our passage this morning,
we see this,
and this is really, I think,
the big idea from the text.
Jesus crucifies our pride
through the gospel
and calls us to serve others.
Jesus crucifies our pride
through the gospel
and calls us to serve others.
My outline is pretty generic.
It's just context, content, and consequence.
So that's what we're gonna go through.
Three Cs.
I ripped that off
from a seminary professor from years ago.
You can use it in any passage.
It's great.
Context, content, consequence.
Okay, so look at the context first.
Let's look at verse one again
in your bulletins.
It says this.
Now, before the feast of 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.
Now, this story takes place
approximately one week
before Jesus was crucified.
Now, as we heard earlier
in the service,
Passover was something Israel,
the Israelites,
celebrated every year
to remember what?
To remember how God
rescued them from Egypt.
In the 10th and final plague,
God spoke through Moses
who told the people
to kill the spotless lamb,
take its blood,
literally put the blood
over the doorposts
of every Israelite home in Egypt.
And when God looked upon,
or the angel,
looked upon this blood,
he would pass over that home
knowing that the lamb died
instead of the people
or the firstborn inside of it.
Now, this is the theological connection
that we're making this morning.
All of the Bible,
according to Jesus
in John 5 and Luke 24,
is about himself
and his work
in saving his people.
The New Testament
calls Jesus explicitly
the Lamb of God.
So Jesus,
in this passage,
as they're celebrating
the Passover meal,
is about to become
the ultimate Passover lamb
who would die on the cross
in the place
of God's people.
Jesus died instead of us.
And this is what makes,
this is the essence
of what makes the gospel
actually good news.
Someone else died
instead of me.
So the Passover's here.
Jesus knew that his hour
had come
to do his work on the cross,
that is to suffer and die
and rise from the dead
and eventually go back to you
and ascend to his Father in heaven.
Focusing just for a moment
on the love
that John writes about
in verse 1.
This whole passage,
if you really step back
and kind of zoom out,
you can see this,
is really a contrast
between Jesus' humility
and his love
versus the disciples' pride
and self-conceitedness.
There's a huge contrast
in this passage.
In the face of their,
what you might call,
depending on how you're looking at it,
annoying pride,
in the face of that,
Jesus loved his disciples
and he loved them to the end.
I think this really needs
to encourage us this morning.
If you are a follower of Jesus,
the same is true for you.
Jesus doesn't think
that you are annoying.
Jesus isn't frustrated with you.
He isn't hurt
by your doubt and fear
and selfishness
and bitterness and pride.
Jesus loves you.
And we need to let this
sink down deep into our hearts.
Look at verses 2 through 3,
continuing in the context.
During supper,
when the devil had already
put it into the heart
of Judas Iscariot,
Simon's son,
to betray him,
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,
pausing there for a moment,
here's John giving us
some more context.
So the devil had already
wooed Judas
toward betraying him
and Jesus actually
wasn't surprised by this.
He knew this the whole time.
Also, we see that
the Father had given
all things into Jesus' hands.
That knowledge is significant.
Jesus knew all that
was about to take place.
It shows us, teaches us,
the only reason that
Jesus served his people
the way he did
is simply because he loved them.
That is why he did what he did.
With all the authority and power,
Jesus could have done
whatever he wanted to do.
But what kept him there,
what actually took him
to his knees
to wash his disciples' dirty feet,
what took him to the cross
to wash away people's sins
was love.
Jesus was confident
in who he was
and what he was supposed to do.
And from that place
of confidence and love,
we see the craziest thing happen
in verse four.
And that brings us
to our content.
Look at verses four through five.
So Jesus rose from supper.
He laid aside his outer garments
and taking a towel,
tied it around his waist.
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.
I just said this was
the craziest thing happened, right?
This really truly was
in some sense
unbelievable and crazy.
Washing feet
was pretty standard
in their day
because people wore sandals
and animals used the streets
as their private bathrooms.
And you can imagine
how dirty, smelly,
disgusting people's feet
would become.
Now normally,
the way this works historically
is a host
would line up
a lowly servant,
a lowly servant
to wash the feet
of their guests.
But there was no host
and there was no servant
in the room
with Jesus
and his disciples.
The obvious choice
to wash everyone's feet
would be
one of the disciples.
but no one moved.
The basin was there,
the towel was there,
no one moved
to wash each other's feet.
No disciple
was willing
to stoop down
to do the work
of a servant
and to wash
the feet
of Jesus
and his friends.
The men were too proud.
So what happens?
The text tells us
Jesus,
the master
and the teacher
became a servant.
He took off his robes,
he wrapped himself
in a towel
and he washed
those nasty feet
of his friends.
Herein lies
the beauty
of the gospel.
Our hearts
are like
those disciples' feet.
And the only way
for them to get clean
is for Jesus
to wash our hearts
with his blood.
Only Jesus did this.
Only Jesus,
contra every other
world religion,
makes you perfectly
clean before God.
Only Jesus stooped
so low
in order to bring
you who are truly
low up to God.
Recently,
Lauren and I
hired a babysitter
and we were planning
to go on a little
date night
and something we don't
do nearly enough
and we decided
to pick up
some cheese
and charcuterie
from Trader Joe's,
great place
to buy these things,
and head up
to the Horsetooth
Reservoir
just outside
of Fort Collins.
I don't know if any
of you have been
up there
and maybe been
to that area.
And so we stop
at Trader Joe's
to grab a couple
of items
and as we were
walking toward
the entrance
of Trader Joe's,
we noticed
this trail of liquid.
Couldn't really tell
what it was.
That was heading
toward the door
and a couple
of Trader Joe's
employees standing
outside sweeping
something into
the liquid.
What is going on?
You know,
so we stopped
and asked them
for the story
and they tell us
apparently
someone bought
like a 70 gallon,
I don't know
how big this thing
had to have been,
jug of olive oil
and was taking it
from the store
and loading it
into their trunk,
dropped the thing
of olive oil,
it broke,
and then they decided
to bring it
all the way back
to the Trader Joe's
and it left this,
you know,
bloody trail
of olive oil
all the way
from their car
all the way
into the store.
And so the Trader Joe's
employees were taking,
I think they got flour
and they were sweeping
the flour
in to absorb,
you know,
the oil
and then sort of
clean up the mess.
You know,
you can imagine
how nasty that,
it didn't look like flour
when we saw it,
right?
It looked like black,
dirt,
muddy,
I mean,
because the ground
is filthy.
Here's the thing,
for something dirty
to get clean,
something clean
has to get dirty.
Jesus had to get dirty
to make us clean.
And this foot washing
is symbolic
of his greater work
of redemption
through the cross.
Now,
Peter was the only disciple
bold enough
to question
what Jesus was doing,
which that in itself
is hard to believe.
How is Peter
the only one
who spoke up
against this,
right?
Look in verses 6-11.
He came to Simon Peter
who said to him,
Lord,
do you wash my feet?
Jesus answered him,
what I am doing
you do not now understand,
but afterward
you will understand.
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.
Simon says to him,
Lord,
not my feet only,
but also my hands
and my head.
Jesus says to him,
the one who's bathed
does not need to wash
except for his feet,
but is completely clean.
And you are clean,
but not every one of you,
for he knew
who was to betray him.
That's why he said,
not all of you are clean.
So something in Peter
knew that what was taking place
was backwards.
Jesus was his master.
How is it that the master
is washing his dirty feet?
However,
Peter really did miss
what was going on here.
In his pride
and his ignorance,
he was blinded
to what Jesus
was actually doing.
Jesus was symbolically,
of course,
showing his disciples
that though he was
their Lord
and master,
truly,
he had in fact
also become their servant.
He said in verse 7,
after I suffer
and die and rise again,
then you will understand.
And Jesus' response
to Peter in verse 8
I think is important.
He says,
hey Peter,
if I do not wash you,
you have no share with me.
This was true for Peter
and you know what?
This is also true
for all of us
here in this room.
If we are not washed
clean by Jesus,
if our sins
are not taken from us
and put on him,
if our faith
and his completed
and perfect work
is not there,
then we have no part of him,
that we are still dirty
and our pride
is still keeping us
from God.
One commentator,
now past Anglican theologian
and pastor,
wrote this.
He said,
perhaps there is no sight
so displeasing
in God's eyes
as a self-conceited,
self-satisfied,
self-contented,
stuck-up
professor of religion.
How about consequence?
Let's consider how this
comes to bear
on our own lives.
Let's continue on.
Look at verses 12 through 17.
When Jesus had washed their feet,
put on his outer garments
and resumed his place,
he said to them,
do you understand
what I have done to you?
You call me teacher and Lord
and you are right
for so I am.
If I then,
your Lord and teacher,
have washed your feet,
you also ought to wash
one another's feet.
For I have given you
an example that you also
should do just as I have
done to you.
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.
If you know these things,
blessed are you
if you do them.
Here's what this means
for us.
We are Jesus' servants.
He is our master.
We need to be okay
with being called servants.
We are Jesus' messengers.
He is the one
who sent us.
Now,
here's an argument
from the greater
to the lesser.
If Jesus has served us
through the greatest act
of service,
you could say,
in the history of the world,
how much more
ought we to serve
one another?
If Jesus,
the greatest person ever,
through the greatest act
of service ever,
served us,
how much more
should we,
his lowly servants,
serve one another?
So first,
I think here's how
we respond to this.
Number one,
if you're here
and you're a Christian,
you need to rejoice.
We need to rejoice in this.
That Jesus,
the greatest servant ever,
who literally has control
and power and authority
of all things,
has served you
by giving up his life
and elevated you
who are truly lowly
up to God,
we need to rejoice.
We need to spend
some time today
and this week
rejoicing in the Lord.
Read some,
to help you do this,
read some celebratory psalms
where the psalmists
rejoice in the Lord.
It's a great way
to help us rejoice.
I think of Psalm 84
where the psalmist says,
one day in his courts
is better than
a thousand elsewhere.
Let's read these psalms
and put words to this
and rejoice in the Lord.
Second,
if you're here this morning
and you do not consider yourself
a follower of Jesus,
please know that this
is truly good news
and it is for you.
I would encourage you
to grab hold of this
by faith,
which is in a sense,
simply put,
what faith is
and let Jesus serve you
and cleanse you
and bring you to God.
And a third way
this applies to us
is we need to serve
one another.
We need to serve
one another
and primarily
this serving
is oriented
to brothers and sisters
in church.
Yes,
we are to be servants
to the world,
but primarily
the way the New Testament
authors speak of service
is aimed at brothers
and sisters.
The Apostle Paul wrote
in Romans 12,
do not think of yourself
more highly than you ought.
So you graduated
from an impressive university.
You work harder
than anyone you know.
You make more money
than most of your friends.
Your children
are intellectually gifted
and amazing at sports.
You're more adventurous
and fun
and brave
than others.
You've hiked more 14ers
than the rest of us.
You're more attractive
and in better shape.
You're more committed,
more holy,
more knowledgeable
in your faith.
Though these things
be true,
do not let them
puff you up
and keep you
from serving others.
Do not let them
hinder your love
for others
and do not think
of yourself
more highly
than you ought.
We need to be willing
to wash our neighbor's feet.
be quick
to admit
our own sins
and repent.
Be ready
to take a break
from your old plans.
This is your own
personal plans,
particularly hard for me.
I'm a three
on the Enneagram.
I don't know if that means
anything to you.
I'm an achiever.
I love to like check boxes
and be very disciplined
by nature.
It's hard for me
to change my schedule
from what I want
to have happen,
but I really do think
that serving one another
involves changing,
being willing
to change your schedule
to give up
some of your own time.
Keep your ears open
for your brothers
and sisters,
particularly in your midst
here in this congregation
who are going
through a hard time
and could use a friend
to encourage them
and help them.
Recently read
C.S. Lewis,
his book,
Four Loves.
I think I'm still
kind of working through it.
He talks about friendship
in there.
It's some great
quotable things.
He said,
a friend is close enough
where you can put your arm
on your friend,
but not too close
where you suffocate them.
So I think this is just
sort of what being
a true godly friend is,
being in community,
serving one another.
You just kind of get
close to each other.
You don't have to say
the right thing,
but just be there
for one another
and serve one another
when you're going
through a time in need.
I got to spend
a couple hours
on a Monday morning
when I was writing
this sermon
with my youngest
two-year-old daughter,
Eloise.
And at one point,
you know,
I think I was trying
to multitask
and watch her
as I'm trying
to write a sermon.
She basically
just is watching her.
And Lauren was gone
when the kids were,
the boys were in school.
And I could tell
she wanted,
she needed to like
get out of that,
take a little break
from the inside.
So I said,
do you want to go outside?
I'll push you on the swings.
And she said,
yes, you know.
And so immediately
she goes
and she gathers up
her stuffed animals
and her lovies
and her,
what we call her nookie,
which is just a brand
of a pacifier.
And she kind of gets
all of this stuff
in her arms
and she like walks over
to me as if she's ready
to go, you know.
And I said,
okay, honey,
we're going to go outside
but you need to put
all that stuff on the stairs
because we don't want
to take it outside
to get dirty.
And she like pauses
and looks at me
and shakes her head no.
She did not want
to leave her friends,
her dear bedtime friends,
you know.
I said,
come on Eloise,
you can do it.
Your lovies will get dirty.
You have to put them
over here.
So slowly she puts
her little baby
stuffed animals down
and then she paused
and she looked at them,
looked at her,
she got two little
lovey things in her hand.
She put her least
favorite one down first
and then she looked
at her favorite
little lovey,
it's like a little
cloth animal thing
she sleeps with.
I swear she like
kissed it or something
but she eventually
put that one down too
and then turned
and came to me
and said,
okay,
you're almost there,
you just got to put
your pacifier now
on the step
and then she said,
no,
she didn't want to do it.
So I had to help her,
I had to take it
out of her mouth
and put it on the step
and then we could
get her coat on
and shoes on
and go outside.
Now immediately
when I finished
this little dance
with her,
I thought,
it just kind of
dawned on me
because I was literally
in the middle
of writing this.
This is sort of
how we are
with Jesus.
In the gospel,
Jesus calls us
to leave
our pride behind
and follow him
and serve one another.
But we don't want to,
this is often
very hard.
We love the glory
that comes from
our accomplishments.
We cling to,
we trust in,
we boast in
our talents
and our skills.
And we actually
really enjoy,
I think if we're
being honest,
feeling above
the people around us.
But Jesus crucifies
our pride
through the gospel
and calls us
to serve one another.
Let's do this
together in faith.
Let me pray for us.
Father,
we give you thanks,
we give you thanks
for Jesus.
We rejoice in him
who truly cleans us.
We know we are
not perfectly clean.
We know we are
prideful.
We struggle
with doubt,
with insecurity,
with selfishness,
with pride,
with cold hearts
that are very focused
on loving ourselves
and often not focused
on loving others.
we thank you
for Jesus
who truly washed us
clean by his own blood.
And now we pray,
he did give us an example,
we pray that you would
help us by the power
of your spirit
to follow Jesus
and serve others.
Help us to,
may this church
be known as a church
that really serves
one another,
that loves their neighbor
as themself.
Help us to do this.
Give us the power
by your spirit,
we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.