I invite you to take your copy of God's Word and join me in John chapter 13.
!
I've made this case in a broadest of sense in an introduction.
We've talked about it in brief each week leading up to now.
For the sake of time, I'm trying not to repeat myself over and over again.
But your elders think that we are already living in the midst of a time of soft totalitarianism,
a culture that expresses us to get on board with its directives, its truths,
and that it's going to find us increasingly uncomfortable living in the days in which we live,
particularly concerning issues of sexuality, gender, gender roles, etc.
I think you know what I'm talking about,
and this won't be the only assault against the church in the coming years.
If you are new to this study, I think you'll be well served going back and listening to the recordings of it.
Those should be available on our website.
We're glad to have you catch up to where we are in our thinking together.
But each week I've begun with three prerequisite statements.
I think that they need to be repeated.
Once again, as I've already stated, sermon series are not our normal practice.
We typically preach verse-by-verse expositional sermons.
This means that we take, for the main point or points of the sermon,
the main point or points of the text.
And it helps us to avoid error, to just walk through a text together.
I think men who are being really honest with themselves know that they're given to error.
It's altogether possible to come up with ideas and be thinking off in a direction that's not biblical.
And so it's good for us just to walk through the text together.
So that's what we do as a general habit, as a health for the church.
But from time to time, it's helpful to think about something topically,
to have some thoughts and to look to the scripture for it.
But it's altogether possible to read what we want to into a text.
And so I just want to caution you.
Anytime you're hearing topical preaching,
anytime you're hearing preaching at all, be discerning,
but especially when you're hearing topical preaching.
Secondly, I'm not trying to be an alarmist,
but we do think that there's some work to be done here.
Back when we originally preached just a single sermon on this,
it actually felt a little alarmist at that time,
and much less so now, just a few months later.
But we love you.
We want your good.
We want the glory of God in our church.
And so we believe this is important for us to be doing this work of thinking about these things together.
And then lastly, the week that we're able to spend on this,
frankly, the amount of time I'm comfortable spending to topical preaching,
is not nearly enough.
And so we need to be talking about this,
pressing at each other's thinking,
working on it together,
ask questions,
go to the Word.
This is not the last time we need to hear this
and be exhorted in these directions.
So how do we build a resilient church culture?
We've covered a number of things.
We've said that it's going to be a work.
We're going to have to be the secondary means
in God's primary work in our lives.
We're going to have to be a strong church.
We're going to have to stand against the tide of soft totalitarianism.
It's going to be destruction.
It's going to have to be ingrained in who we are.
We've already talked about our need to define and hold
to the clear mission of the church.
The church's mission is to make disciples
and then as members of the church to be disciples
in the places that God sends us.
And we've talked about our need to do robust theology,
knowing what God has commanded and what He has promised,
and carefully doing the work of theological triage
in order to maintain unity in the church,
for the sake of standing firm and unified
on matters of first importance.
I think the enemy would do a good work,
and I mean that from his perspective in the church,
to get us highly distracted from matters of first importance,
that we would turn and devour one another.
Last week we considered our need to know accurate histories
so that we will have knowledge of how we arrived at where we are,
and especially how God orchestrated that arrival.
And today we are going to consider the church's need
to practice sacrificial hospitality.
I have not said to this date in our study,
but I want you all to know
that these five things that your elders believe
that we need to be working on are not foreign to you.
We've already been working on these things
because they are entirely biblical things.
And isn't it wonderful when you submit yourself to God's Word
how He will work out the details?
We don't have to come with some brilliant sociological perspective
and be extremely aware of all of the things going on around us
to just pick up the Word
and do the things that the Word has commanded us to do.
And so I'm grateful for that,
that we've already been about these kinds of things.
But we do think we'll have to do them all the more.
The particular activity of sacrificial hospitality,
broadly speaking, you all excel at.
And so don't hear this as a rebuke of any kind,
but as an encouragement to press on.
Keep loving one another sacrificially.
So the word hospitality,
and I do promise we're getting to our text,
but there's a lot of setup here.
The word hospitality in the English Standard Version
translation of the New Testament
appears four times in the noun form, hospitality,
and two times in the adjective form, hospitable.
In Romans 12, 13, we are told to seek to show hospitality.
And in Hebrews 13 and verse 2,
the author of Hebrews exhorts us to not neglect
to show hospitality to strangers,
for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
I'm thankful that ESV left the word unawares in there for us.
Likely, the author of Hebrews is referring to Abraham's hospitality in Genesis 18
and Lot's hospitality in Genesis 19,
both instances where angels were unknowingly hosted,
or they were hosted unawares,
and as we'll see later, of great importance,
their feet were washed as part of that hospitality.
One of the prerequisites to enroll a widow in the care of the church
recorded in 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 10
is that she has shown hospitality
and has washed the feet of the saints.
And in 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 9,
we are instructed to show hospitality to one another
without grumbling.
So a heartfelt, unbegrudging display of hospitality.
Then in 1 Timothy 3.2 and Titus 1.8,
Paul states that a character requirement for an elder
is that he is hospitable,
gives leadership in this kind of welcoming.
Hospitality in the Greek literally means friendship to the stranger.
It's a compound word and it means friendship to the stranger.
Hospitality seeks to welcome in those who may not feel welcome otherwise
and give them a sense of belonging.
And I say that our hospitality will need to be sacrificial
because sometimes loving people in this way will be easy.
You may find that you easily connect with someone,
you may have similar likes and dislikes or just easily get along.
But often loving people in this way will be hard.
It requires sacrifice on your part.
It's not always so easy to get along with people
and to show them love.
As a very minor example of this,
and please hear this as a minor example,
Clay Naylor is one of my best friends.
And when we first met, we had very little in common.
It's been growing, I think, as I've become more manly.
But when I first met Clay, I didn't hunt.
I rock climbed and whitewater paddled.
And Clay was a hunter to the core.
Drove a big Chevy truck with pipes.
I was uninterested in things like that.
He wore big belt buckles.
I think he's still got some big belt buckles.
I think he's wearing cowboy boots this morning.
I've never owned a pair of cowboy boots.
But we had the Lord Jesus in common, right?
And that was enough to unite us together.
And of course, we've become really dear friends across much time.
We're going to have to be able to give of ourselves
for the sake of others in a hospitable way.
So let's look at our Lord's example to make this point further.
It's John chapter 13.
I'll begin reading in verse 1, and I'll read through verse 17.
Before I read, let me remind you, beloved,
that this is God's word to us,
written for his glory and our good.
And so we would do well to listen to it
in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.
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.
And I want to read that to you again.
That last little phrase has struck me again and again this week.
Now, before the feast of the Passover,
this is his last meal with his disciples,
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.
Gave of himself all the way to the point of death.
What a precious phrase that is.
He loved them to the end.
During supper,
when the devil had already put 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.
So he takes a metaphor that's both physical
and he makes it spiritual
and goes back to it being physical
and back to spiritual once again.
Verse 11,
For he knew who was to betray him.
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 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.
This is just an astounding text, right?
What an amazing picture
on this last night before
the suffering crucifixion
of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ.
Jesus washed their feet.
It's our first observation from this text.
Jesus washed their feet.
This was a job that was reserved
for the very lowliest of servant.
In this day, people wore sandals,
I think you know,
and it was a dusty and dry place.
And probably in our day,
we're more aware of what sandal wearing
does to feet
than maybe in some decades past.
If you wear sandals,
your feet get sweaty,
and dirt sticks to your feet,
and it gets more sweaty,
and you end up with kind of a
smelly paste on your feet.
And so people would come,
washed,
to somebody's home for dinner,
and the way they were welcomed
into the home as a servant
would wash their feet,
get them totally clean.
They reclined at table,
and feet were more prominent
in the eating of meals
in this day
because of the way
that they reclined
at table.
So Jesus makes himself
the lowliest
of the household
to set an example for them.
Now note,
they are already reclining at table.
Their feet have already been washed.
They didn't have the actual need
to be washed at this point.
So he's doing it figuratively
to show us
what must be done,
the way in which
we ought to serve
one another.
It takes great humility
to serve other people
in this way.
I don't think we're meant today
to literally wash people's feet.
Perhaps they need that,
and maybe that was a way
that you could serve them.
But more regularly,
in other ways,
will we serve others.
to recognize
that we are meant
to be servants
of all.
Jesus said in Matthew 20,
verse 25 and following,
You know that the rulers
of the Gentiles
lord it over them,
and their great ones
exercise authority over them.
It shall not be so
among you.
But whoever will be great
among you
must be your servant,
and whoever will be
first among you
must be your slave,
even as the Son of Man
came not to be served,
but to serve
and to give his life
as a ransom for many.
The greatest,
the highest example
of Jesus' service to us
was that he gave
his very life for us.
But also don't miss
that he served, right?
Here he is,
washing the disciples' feet.
And so in the kingdom of God,
the first will be last,
and the last will be first.
And we live in an age
where dynamic
and big leadership
is very admired.
And the type of leadership
that Jesus seems
to be blessing here
is the type of leadership
that is meek,
and it is humble,
and it is service-oriented.
Notice secondly from the text,
Jesus did not only
wash the feet
of those who loved him.
Notice how John
sets the text up
in verse 2.
He says,
to start this whole episode,
during supper,
when the devil
had already put it
into the heart
of Judas Iscariot,
Simon's son,
to betray him.
He wants it to be clear to us,
the intention of
Judas' heart,
which Jesus would have been
aware of,
and we see some further
evidence of that
in the text
as the chapter goes on.
He knew full well
what Judas was going to do,
and yet,
I believe,
he washes Judas' feet.
Verse 12 says,
when he had washed
their feet.
There's no reason to think
that he excluded him
from this act of love
and of service.
We are so apt
to only serve others
when they receive it well,
give us the acclaim
that we want,
right?
When it makes us feel good
to serve,
rather than us doing so
sacrificially
for their good,
not necessarily for ours.
But Jesus did not only
wash the feet
of those
who loved him.
Third observation,
Jesus washed their feet
to set for us
an example.
Let's not miss
verse 15.
He says,
I did this
so that you
would do it
for one another,
so that you would
serve others
in this way.
And I think
it's off of
texts like
Genesis
that's being referred to
in Hebrews 13,
verse 2,
Genesis
chapters 18 and 19,
or 1 Timothy 5,
10,
that this kind of service
was meant to be a thing
that we are to be doing
for one another.
We do this
and we're motivated
to do this
out of the hospitality
we've been shown
by God
in Christ.
All of us
wants cast off,
all of us
wants not welcome
because of our sin,
but in Christ,
God has welcomed us.
then He gives to us
this same work
to be done.
Paul wrote
in 2 Corinthians 5,
beginning in verse 14,
the love of Christ
controls us
because we have
concluded this,
that one has died
for all,
therefore all have died.
And He died for all
that those who live
might no longer
live for themselves,
but for Him
who for their sake
died
and was raised.
From now on,
therefore,
we regard no one
according to the flesh.
Even though we once
regarded Christ
according to the flesh,
we regard Him thus
no longer.
Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creation.
The old has passed away,
behold,
the new
has come.
All this is from God
who through Christ
reconciled us
to Himself
and gave us
the ministry
of reconciliation.
That is,
in Christ,
God was reconciling
the world to Himself,
not counting their
trespasses against them
and entrusting to us
the message
of reconciliation.
Because we've been
welcomed by God
in Christ,
reconciled to Him
because of the death
and life
of Jesus,
we've been given
this same message.
Therefore,
we are ambassadors
for Christ,
God making His appeal
through us.
Ambassadors
sent into the world
to declare a message
from our King.
We implore you
on behalf of Christ,
this is the message,
on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled
to God.
For our sake,
He made Him
to be sin
who knew no sin
so that in Him
we might become
the righteousness
of God.
If the church
is going to stand
against
the rising tide
of soft totalitarianism,
it will be true
as we spoke about
in the clear mission
of the church
that the church
will advance
against the gates
of hell.
But the question is,
will this church
advance
against the gates
of hell?
If we will,
as a secondary means,
we'll have to be
sacrificially
hospitable.
We're going to have
to involve
ourselves
in each other's lives
in a way
that displays
the love of Christ.
Again,
John chapter 13,
Jesus says,
they will know
you are my disciples
by
your theology,
the way you come
and sing,
the times you gather,
the times you don't gather.
How will they know?
By your love
for one another.
To be a compelling
community together
because we love each other
and we show each other
this kind of hospitality
will be something
beautiful
for those
Christ is calling
to Himself.
and we will also
have to display
this kind of
sacrificial hospitality
for those
outside the faith,
welcoming them in
that we might
share this good news,
that we might
herald
the gospel,
this ministry
of reconciliation,
that we might get them
to sit long enough
to see displayed
before them
the love
of Christ,
that they might hear
and believe
the gospel.
And a book
that I would commend
to you entitled
The Gospel Comes
with a House Key
by Rosaria Butterfield.
She wrote this,
radically
ordinary
hospitality,
I'm using the term
sacrificial instead,
radically ordinary
hospitality
characterizes
those who don't
fuss over
different world views
represented
at the dinner table.
The truly hospitable
aren't embarrassed
to keep friendships
with people
who are different.
and she goes on
to make the case
that these friendships
are formed
for the sake
of gospel
reconciliation,
right?
Not just for the friendship,
but to share
the good news
with people
who are dying
without
this gospel
of reconciliation.
So practically,
this is going to take
different forms
to exercise
hospitality,
right?
We're going to have
to be hospitable
in our public
gathering together,
so come to our
public gatherings
to serve
and not to be
served.
So much conversation
about the church
is what does it do
for me?
We've all heard
the phrase,
I just wasn't getting
anything out of it.
We ought to be
asking the question,
how can I be
a blessing
to others?
I would suggest
to you that if you
come to the public
gathering of the church
with that question
in mind,
how might the Lord
use me this morning?
How might I bless
others?
How might I show
sacrificial hospitality
to others
that in the process
you will also be
blessed,
served?
Romans 12.10,
Paul says,
love one another
with brotherly
affection.
Outdo
one another
in showing
honor.
Can you imagine
a church of people
and again you do
this in great measure
but can you imagine
if every one of us
was seeking to
out honor
the other?
We're always going,
no, no, no,
I got it.
No, no,
let me jump in.
No, no,
I'll take the lesser
position.
You take the greater
position.
Let me serve you
again and again
and again
and again.
That would be a
compelling community
of Christians,
would it not?
a group of people
who love each
other in
this way.
Come to our
public gatherings
to serve,
not to be served.
I think you'll
find yourself
being served
in the process.
Open up your
home
and spend
your resources.
Hospitality
will cost
something,
right?
It's expensive
to feed people,
especially as
prices
are rising.
But all
that you have
is the Lord's
and you are
meant to be
a steward
of it,
not selfish
with it.
I pray
for myself
and for all
of us
that we would
have the mind
of Paul
as he wrote
in 2 Corinthians
chapter 12
and verse 15
where he said,
I will most
gladly
spend
and be spent
for your souls.
I don't think
a single one
of us
on our deathbeds
or for the
eternity beyond
will wish
we just had
a little more
for ourselves.
Who wish
we just spent
more on us.
I think
that we will
regret
the things
we did
for ourselves
and we will
wish we had
been more
sacrificial
for the sake
of others.
Store up
treasure
in heaven,
right?
Give of
yourself
for the life
to come.
Charles Spurgeon
in a really
wonderful address.
This is the
quotation on your
bulletin
this week.
I love that this
quotation comes
in a fairly
strong and long
address where
he's talking
about the
insufficiency
of his preaching.
preaching.
And if you
know much
about Spurgeon
you'll know
that even
in his day
he was called
the prince
of preachers.
He knew
this about
himself.
People had
called him
the prince
of preachers.
So in this
address he
suggests to
people that
you could
correct the
errors of my
preaching if
you'll spend
time with
people and
you'll ask
them what
they thought
and answer
their questions
etc.
So it's on
the heels
of this that
he said
this.
Preaching
is important.
Public
evangelism and
exhortation is
important but
it's often our
kindness and
personal relationships
that helps people
cross the line
into faith.
Now Spurgeon
was a good
Calvinist.
He wrote a
little book
called The
Defense of
Calvinism where
he said
Calvinism is
the first
sentence in
the book.
Calvinism is
the gospel.
He believed
in first
order causes
but also in
the second
order causes
as well.
The Lord
uses preaching
and public
evangelism and
exhortation but
often what
Spurgeon is
saying he
uses our
kindness and
our personal
relationships to
help people
cross the
line into
faith.
So we see
in this text
Jesus giving
us this
example of
sacrificial
hospitality.
Helping
people,
welcoming them
in that they
might be
restored to
God.
And
fourthly,
Jesus gives
to us a
promise.
Verse 16
he says,
Truly,
truly,
I say to
you.
Anytime
there's that
repetition in
Jesus,
Jesus says
this again
and again
throughout the
gospels,
truly,
he's saying
not only
truly but
really,
truly,
he's
emphasizing
it.
The only
time we
see a
triplicate
in the
entirety of
text is
holy,
right?
But here
Jesus will
go twice,
truly,
right?
This is an
axiom.
This is a
thing to
hang your
hat on.
I say
to you,
a servant
is not
greater than
his master
nor is
a messenger
greater than
the one
who sent
him,
right?
So if
you are
my
disciples,
right?
If you
know these
things,
blessed
are you
if you
do them,
right?
Set aside,
happy are
you if
you do
them.
And I
think that
Jesus means
both in
this life
and in
the life
to come,
that we
would give
of ourselves
for the
sake of
others to
the glory
of our
God.
We say
in our
house often,
the life
best lived
is lived
in service
to others,
right?
So to the
degree that
when my
boys are
acting
selfishly
toward one
another or
to their
parents or
to others,
I say,
boys,
the life
best lived
is,
and I
make them
fill in
the blank,
and they
know it
lived in
service to
others.
And they
often say
it begrudgingly,
but they
know at
least that
the life
best lived
is lived
in service
to others.
others.
I will
most gladly
spend and
be spent
for your
souls.
Let that
be true of
each and
every one
of us
toward each
and every
one of us.
Let's pray
together.