The God who will Love You to the End and Wash Your Feet

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Speaker: 
Andrew Fountain
Date: 
Sun, 2020-02-23
  • Peter misunderstood foot-washing and so do many Christians, but Jesus tells us how blessed we will be if we understand and receive it.
  • But most of all this chapter is about how Jesus loves his own “to the end”,
  • and never abandon us to the end of time.
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Sermon Outline - The God who will Love You to the End and Wash Your Feet

View or download the handout of the structure of the passage here.

John 13 – The Last Supper

  1. Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, to the end he loved them.
  2. During supper, when the devil had already put betrayal into the heart of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, 3Jesus, who knew that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was returning to God, 4rose from supper, removed his outer clothes, took a towel and tied it around himself. 5Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him.
  3. He came to Simon Peter who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
  4. Jesus replied, “You do not understand what I am doing now, but you will understand after these things.”
  5. Peter said to him, “You will never ever wash my feet!”
Jesus replied, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
  1. Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!”
  2. Jesus replied, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you.” 11(For he knew the one who would betray him. For this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”)
  3. When he had washed their feet and put his outer clothing back on, he returned to his place at the table and said to them, “Do you understand what I have done for you? 13You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for I am. 14So if I have washed your feet, the Lord and Teacher, you too ought to wash one another’s feet. 15For I have given you an example: just as I did to you, so you should do. 16I tell you the truth, the servant is not greater than their master, nor is the messenger greater than the one who sent them.
  4. If you understand these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

One of You will Betray Me

  1. “I am not speaking about all of you. I know the ones I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘The one who eats my bread has turned against me.’
  2. I am telling you this now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I am he.
  3. I tell you the truth, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”
  4. After saying these things, Jesus was greatly and visibly distressed in spirit, and testified, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.”
  5. The disciples began to look at one another, completely at a loss to know which of them he spoke of.
  6. One of his disciples, the one Jesus loved, was very close to Jesus. 24So Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. 25Then the disciple whom Jesus loved leaned back against Jesus’ chest and asked him, “Lord, who is it?”
  7. Jesus replied, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread after I have dipped it in the dish.” Then he dipped the piece of bread and gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot.
  8. After he took the bread, Satan entered into him.
Jesus said to him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” 28.(No one at the table knew why Jesus said this to him. 29Some thought that, because Judas had the money bag, Jesus was telling him to buy what they needed for the feast, or to give something to the poor.)
  1. Having taken the bread, Judas went out immediately. It was night.

Impending Glory, Love and Peter’s Denial

  1. When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and will glorify him right away.
  2. Little children, I am still with you for a little while. You will look for me, and just as I said to the Jewish religious leaders, ‘Where I am going you cannot come,’ now I tell you the same.
  3. “A new commandment I give you: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also you should love one another. 35By this all people will know that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.”
  4. Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?”
Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later.”
  1. Peter said to him, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you!”
  2. Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, the rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times!

Translation by Andrew Fountain


Goal:

  • To sit with Jesus during these last hours
  • and to allow him to wash your feet

Overview

  1. Intro
  2. Three Short Stories
  3. What it means to allow Jesus to wash your feet

Structure of John

1–12
”Book of Signs”
13–21
”Book of Glory”

John 1–12 “Book of Signs”

1 Prolog

Wedding Nicodemus Woman at well Child healed
5 Sabbath Healing: Take up your bed and walk
Teaching: the Son gives life
6 Feeds 5000, I am the Bread of life
7 I am the Living Water (after walks on water)
8 I am the Light of the World
9 Sabbath Healing: Man born blind
10 Teaching: I am the good Shepherd
11 Lazarus raised from the dead

12 Epilog

John 13–21 “Book of Glory”

1 A meal with the disciples

14–17 New Teaching
      from Jesus
     
to the disciples
18–20 Arrest
      Crucifixion
      Resurrection

21 A meal with the disciples

B. Three Short Stories

John 13. Three Stories at the Last Supper

  1. Summary of “the Book of Glory” [1]
  2. Washing the feet of the disciples [2–17]
  3. “One of you will betray me” [18–30]
  4. Peter boasts he’ll die for Jesus [31–38]

Summary of “the Book of Glory”

  1. Just before the Passover Feast
    Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father.
    Having loved his own who were in the world,
    to the end he loved them.

1. Washing the feet of the disciples [2–17]

  • Some context:

Dirty Feet

Many ancient Eastern streets must have been “unpaved, narrow, badly crowded,” and some “would have been choked with refuse and frequented” by dogs and other sources of excrement.

Keener, p.903

  1. Humility, serving one another
    • Should we do this today? (I nearly did)
    • A ceremony for the church?
    • Better to have an equivalent
  2. Allowing Jesus to wash our feet

Shocking!

The footwashing was shocking to Jesus’ disciples, but not half as shocking as the notion of a Messiah who would die the hideous and shameful death of crucifiction, the death of the damned. But these two events—the footwashing and the crucifixion—are truly of a piece...

Carson, p.467

v.10 – A Difficult Verse

  1. He came to Simon Peter who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
  2. Jesus replied, “You do not understand what I am doing now, but you will understand after these things.”
  3. Peter said to him, “You will never ever wash my feet!”
    Jesus replied, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
  4. Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!”
  5. Jesus replied, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you disciples are clean…
  • How do we allow Jesus to wash our feet and this is going to be one of the key take-aways today
    • I’ll return to this at the end.

2. “One of you will betray me” [18–30]

3. Peter boasts he’ll die for Jesus [31–38]

Allow Jesus to wash your feet

  • We come to him when we are filthy, and don’t hide in shame, but allow him to wash it
  1. If you understand these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
  • Sit with him in his broken-heart from betryal
  • Take in that if you are his, you will never, ever, ever be abandoned:
    Having loved his own... to the end he loved them.
  • If you want to know how to become a Christian, this is the perfect picture!

Updated on 2020-02-23 by Andrew Fountain