If you would please open to John's Gospel, chapter 13. The setting here is the Last Supper. Jesus is with his disciples in that upper room, and he's leading them in this Jewish Passover Seder, knowing full well that he's about to become the sacrificial lamb. that is portrayed in that Passover festival. His blood will be shed. His blood will cause the sentence of death to pass over those to whom it is applied. And so that's the setting. And let's read now, follow along as I read, verses 1 through 17, John chapter 13, beginning in verse 1. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And supper being ended, the devil having now 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 was come from God and went to God, he riseth from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith to him, he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. And ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him, therefore said he, ye are not all clean. Soon after he had washed their feet and had taken his garments and was set down again, he said unto them, know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me master and lord, and ye say, well, for so I am. If I then, your lord and master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you again for your word for this record of what took place in that upper room where Jesus and his disciples had gathered to observe the Passover. And Lord, we thank you for you inspiring John to write and record the events that took place, this washing of the disciples' feet, And thank you, Lord, for the lesson that it gives for us today. We pray that you would speak to us in this hour, in Jesus' name, amen. Chapter 13 begins a new major section in the Gospel of John. And in my introductory message to this series, I presented a kind of simple outline of the whole book, and I'd like to review that with you since we're now entering a new section. Chapter 1 of John is a prologue, a very unusual way that he began his gospel. And we studied that together, and it was quite a blessing. Chapters 2 through 12 cover Jesus' public ministry. But as we come to chapter 13 and all the way through chapter 17, this section covers Jesus' private ministry. Chapters 18 and 19 cover Jesus' passion ministry, and then chapters 20 through 21 cover Jesus' resurrection ministry. And so beginning with today's passage, the focus here is on Jesus' private ministry, his ministry in private with his disciples, with the 12 of his inner circle. And as we compare this to the other three gospels that we have in our New Testament, we see that John expands significantly on what is reported, much more so than the other three gospel writers. So here again, we note that a major portion of John's gospel is unique to his gospel. And that's why it's so important to study John's gospel. We're covering a lot of material that we would not have covered otherwise. And that includes today's passage. For you see, John is the only one of the four gospel writers that records the washing of the disciples' feet. And so this is a very precious passage that we're considering this morning. In this passage, Jesus, our Lord, and our teacher, not only teaches a very important lesson, but he demonstrates that lesson himself. Actions speak louder than words, so the saying goes. And in this case, Jesus gives us both words of instruction and the actions that go with it. And so here's the lesson, here's the theme today. The Lord wants us to serve with the humility that he himself exemplified. He wants us to serve with that same humility that he had. Now, the first 11 verses of this chapter present the Lord's example. As we've already mentioned, the setting is the Last Supper. To be specific, Jesus was observing this Passover festival with the 12 apostles for the last time, for the final time. Now, the Passover figures prominently in John's Gospel. I mentioned this before. John really builds and structures his entire narrative around a series of three Passovers. One is mentioned in chapter 2, verse 23, at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. A second one is mentioned in John chapter 6, in verse 4. And then we come to this one, the final one of the three, the Passover of the Passion Week. Now this was a somber and sacred occasion. I mean, Passovers were really meant to be somber and sacred. But it's even made more so because of the circumstances that this one took place around. Verse one informs us that Jesus knew that His hour had come. That is to say, in a short while, He would complete His redemptive work that the Father had sent Him to do, And so the remaining time was short for him to minister to these 12 men, these men that he had poured his life into for some two plus years, men that he had spent so much time with, men that were a little slow to catch on at times, but Jesus continued to disciple them. These are men that Jesus had come to deeply love. That's how John presents it here. And of course, John was one of those 12. And so he knew the love of the Lord Jesus in a very personal way. So the time was short. Indeed, that very night, that very night, Jesus is going to be betrayed, arrested, taken into custody, put on trial. a sham trial in a kangaroo court, if you will, and he will then be led to the cross and crucified. So that very night, Jesus is going to be betrayed and his sheep, the men in that room, are all going to be scattered. Verse 2 raises the urgency by mentioning that the betrayer is at hand. The devil had already planted the desire in Judas' heart to betray Jesus that very night. This would be his opportunity. Matthew and Mark record that while they were eating this Passover meal, Jesus made this announcement, one of you who eats with me will betray me. And then we come to verse three and it raises the urgency yet more. It tells us that Jesus was in full control of what was about to happen, having received authority from the Father to lay down His life and to raise it up again. And following that, after a number of days, He will return to the Father. the Father who had sent him, and his work, the work of his first advent, will be complete. So everything Jesus said and did on this occasion in that upper room is very significant. These are, in essence, the final words of instruction for his disciples. And so it is, we come to verses four and five and we see the Lord's actions. During the Passover meal, Jesus arose, he laid aside his outer garments, he girded himself with a towel, and he washed his disciples' feet. Now we're reminded of the customs of the day. If you recall in the first century, A Jewish home would welcome in a visitor who had been maybe traveling for some time. And of course, you know, in those days they wore sandals. They didn't wear closed-in shoes like we do. And so after a long journey of walking along a dusty road, you can imagine how dirty those feet would get. Very dirty, very dusty. And so it was inevitable that their feet would need washing. And so they would enter into the home and the host would provide for the washing of the guest's feet. He would not do it himself. Usually a household servant would take a basin of water and a towel and wash those feet. Maybe the children in the home would do so. I mean, this was lowly service. And so they would loosen the guest's shoes and wash those feet, dry them off, and they would put their shoes back on again. Now here's Jesus washing the disciples' feet. Jesus, not the lowly household servant, not a child in the household. This is the Lord Jesus Christ washing feet. He inverted the cultural norm. He was Lord, he was master, and they were his disciples. What was he doing washing their feet? If anything, it should have been the other way around. But Jesus washed their feet. And then he said to them, if I then your Lord and master have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. In a most memorable way then, Jesus illustrated his own teaching. He illustrated his teaching of humble service, of the importance of being willing to serve. And then we come to verse six, and we have the Lord's interaction here with Peter. You think about it, Jesus has worked his way through the room one by one, washing the disciples' feet, and now he comes to Peter. Peter's been watching all of this. And Peter really just had a hard time with what the Lord was doing. And so good old Peter opens his mouth and he raises an objection, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? Are you really going to do this? I mean, this was hard for Peter. One commentator, Craig Keener, writes this, Jesus' act violates cultural status boundaries so thoroughly that Peter finds it unthinkable, end quote. I mean, Peter just couldn't get his mind around this. What was going on here? This is the Lord doing this. A literal rendering of verse eight would be something like this. You most assuredly will not wash my feet, will you, Lord? That's kind of how Peter is talking. And so we might ask, why did Peter react this way? Was this some kind of like mock humility on his part? You know, Peter's trying to be the humble one in the room. You know, you can wash the other's feet, but I'm so humble, Lord, I won't let you do this. Well, we don't really know all of Peter's reasons. What we do know is that Jesus insisted. He insisted that Peter let him do this. And what Jesus basically says is, if you do not let me wash your feet, then that means that you have no part with me. If you don't allow me to do this, you're not in proper fellowship with me, Peter. That's what he's saying. Well, typical of Peter's personality at this point, then he overreacts. He goes to the opposite extreme. He basically says, Lord, you know, if you're going to wash my feet, you might as well wash my head and my hands. I mean, just do the whole job. Peter, Peter, Peter, this guy. Another commentator observes a moment ago, he told his master he was doing too much. Now he tells him he's doing too little. I mean, it's almost as if Peter is standing over the Lord saying, you're just doing this all wrong. He wasn't humble at all. And so Jesus takes this opportunity to teach a spiritual lesson. He says, those who are already clean do not need to be washed head to toe. It's not necessary. They just need to wash the dust off of their feet. That's all that's necessary. And many see this as a lesson in spiritual sanctification. For those who have been justified have had their sins washed away, right? And only need to have a daily sanctification, the washing of the feet, if you will. Then the interaction here between Jesus and Peter, it concludes on kind of a somber note. Jesus says, you are clean. And here he's using the you plural, okay, in the South we'd say y'all. Y'all are clean. Except for one. I mean, that's sobering, what he said right there. Except for one. Not all. He knew in that very room at that very moment was the very one who would betray him. The betrayer. was at hand. And the tense of the verb here indicates that the betrayal was already in process. Indeed, Judas had already come to terms concerning the price of his betrayal, 30 pieces of silver. So the wheels were in motion and the betrayal would soon take place. And Judas would betray the Lord with a kiss. Thus far we've observed the Lord's example and we know the Lord wants us to serve with the humility which he himself exemplified. So we looked at his example, now we want to heed the Lord's instruction that we find in verses 12 through 17. Look again at verse 12. It says, so after he had washed their feet and taken his garments and was set down again, he said unto them, know ye what I have done to you? A pause. Because I think in that room there was dead silence. I don't think anyone in that room knew how to answer that question. So there was an awkward silence just like we had a moment ago. I mean, if you were one of the 12 whose feet the Lord had just washed and you were in that room and the Lord finishes and He asks this question, would you have an answer? Would you know? What Jesus had done was so unexpected, so contrary to cultural norms, that it was almost like a shock to those disciples. What could it all mean? What could it mean? Well, thankfully, Jesus answers that question for us, doesn't he? To put it simply, Jesus tells his disciples both then and now, do what I have done. Follow my example. Serve one another humbly as I have served you, even if it means stooping down and washing dirty feet. I'd like you to use your imagination this morning. Let's suppose that as I'm preaching, the back doors of the room open and there's Jesus. And he's standing there with a basin of water in one hand and a towel in the other hand. And I stop and I look and I'm just in shock and you turn your head around and you see Jesus standing there and you're in shock. It's Jesus. And he comes over and your pew is the first one he comes to. And we understand his intention. He's going to wash every foot that's in this room. Everyone. You're going to take off your shoes and he's going to wash your feet. And so he comes over to your pew, and he washes the feet of the person next to you. And all this time you're thinking, what am I gonna do when he comes to me? And you realize, I'm next. And the Lord himself comes to you, and he washes your feet. And when he's finished, I mean, this is like a one-on-one moment. I mean, as far as you can feel right now, you're the only person in the room other than Jesus, right? And he looks you in the eye, and he says to you, do as I have done. Wash one another's feet. That's what Jesus is saying here in this passage. And he's saying it not just to those 12 men, he's saying it to us today, folks. This is the application for us today, to be willing to wash someone's dirty feet. Why would we do this? Well, in this passage, Jesus gives us three compelling reasons for doing this. Reason number one is in verses 13 through 15. It's really Jesus' own example. I mean, He's modeled this for us. He's modeled for us the heart of a humble servant. And in verse 15, He says, I've given you an example. So here's reason number one. I've given you an example. As I have done, you should do. He's like the master craftsman who is showing his trainee what he ought to do. He's showing him, he's demonstrating for him how the job is to be done. And then he says, okay, now it's your turn. You do as I have done, okay? Jesus gives us an example. And of course, he did this all through his earthly ministry, didn't he? Jesus proved himself humble. I mean, he humbled himself at the beginning just to come from heaven and take on human flesh and be born in a manger in a little obscure village called Bethlehem. I mean, his whole ministry started out with humility and he demonstrated it all through his earthly ministry. In Matthew 11, 29, Jesus says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. You know, as many times as I've looked at that passage and studied that passage and even taught that passage, it never dawned on me that when Jesus says, learn of me, he wants us to learn meekness and lowliness, because that's the way he is. In Luke 22, 27, Jesus says, I am among you as he that serveth. Yeah, he came to serve, to serve. He's among those who are around him as one who serves. And we have Mark 10, 43 through 45. Jesus says, whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister. The word there really means servant. And whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be servant of all. For even the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus taught his disciples this principle of meekness. He instructed them in the Sermon on the Mount, the meek shall inherit the earth. He told them repeatedly that the first shall be last and the last will be first. And so we have Jesus' own example as reason number one why we ought to serve humbly, even to be willing to wash dirty feet. Reason number two, this is found in verse 16, the lesser emulates the greater. Jesus makes two comparisons here. He says the servant is lower in rank than the Lord, than the master. In the second comparison, the one sent is lower in rank than the one who sent him. And then using these comparisons, Jesus argues from the greater to the lesser. That is to say, he's the greater, he's the Lord, he's the master, he's the sender, and he's over his disciples. They're the servants of the Lord. They are the sent ones. The apostoloi, that's the very word, the apostles means sent ones. And so if he, their Lord, their sender, their teacher has washed their feet, they ought to be willing to wash one another's feet. It's an argument from the greater to the lesser. The apprentice copies the master. The trainee mimics the trainer. the lesser emulates the greater. That's the second reason why we ought to be willing to serve humbly like the Lord did. Reason number three, and this is a very good reason. It's found in verse 17. It will bring you blessing. Look again at what 17 says. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. You want to be happy? Start serving. That's what Jesus is saying. And so if we really learn the lesson that Jesus is teaching his disciples, if we really take this lesson to heart and we begin to bless others with our service, we're going to discover, you will discover, that you're on the receiving end of blessing. That you'll get a blessing out of it. You will get the greater blessing. You will experience the greater joy because you're serving. You're doing what the Lord has taught you to do, what he demonstrated for you. You're being Christ-like in your Christian walk. And it's gonna bring you joy. Jesus said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And that principle applies to our service as well as to our giving. The more you serve, the greater your blessing. And the longer you serve, the more you will take delight in it. So three very good reasons why we ought to serve humbly like our Lord. We have Jesus' own example. We have the fact that the lesser emulates the greater. We're under the Lord. We're just copying what he's done. And it will bring you a blessing. The Lord wants us to serve with the humility He Himself exemplified. We have the Lord's example. We have the Lord's instruction. And I'd like to conclude with what I see as three potential applications intended by the Lord, the Lord's intended application for us. The first application is what has been called servant leadership. Jesus was the teacher and the Lord. He was the leader of the disciples, and they were the followers, and yet he served them. And so this principle would apply to anyone who is in a position of leadership, leadership in the church, maybe it's informal leadership in the sense that you're older and more mature than somebody that you're discipling, you're the discipler or the disciplee, that kind of thing. And so we would make this application, we are to be servant leaders. We're to put this into practice in our leadership. And so we have Jesus giving this example, it's a supreme example for every leader to follow. Servant leadership. It almost sounds like a paradox, doesn't it? Like an oxymoron, you know? Servant leadership? And yet that's exactly what we see demonstrated in the Lord and in His instruction for us today. Jesus says, I have given you an example that you should do as I have done. He's the leader. He's the Lord. So to every leader out there, follow the Lord's example of servant leadership. James Montgomery Boyce refers to Jesus' act here as, quote, love on its knees. I love that. Love on its knees. If you're going to love those whom the Lord has called you to lead, then you need to get down on your knees and serve them. And that's exactly what servant leadership is. It's love on its knees. And what a contrast this is with those who are in secular leadership, those who are bosses. They're taught in corporate culture to boss everyone around, but not so in God's kingdom, not so in the Lord's church. Every leader is to be a servant and to be willing to serve those whom he leads. So we have servant leadership. Second application, humble service. So this applies not just to leaders, but really to everyone. It doesn't matter who you are. If you know Christ as your Savior, the call here is to that of humble service. And the emphasis here is on the word humble, humble service. We all need to be willing to humble ourselves in order to serve the way that Jesus served. Think about what Jesus did there in that upper room. That was truly humble service. Washing someone's dirty feet, dirty, stinky feet, is about as humble as it gets. And I think I see here a lesson in the posture that Jesus took as he performed this humble service. He stooped. He stooped down to wash their feet. Really, there's no other way to wash feet in a basin than to stoop down because the feet are down there low on the ground, right? You have to stoop. And so Jesus demonstrated that no act of service was below him. however menial it may be, however lowly it may be, Jesus was willing to serve. And it raises the question, what do we see as beneath us? What dirty job are we just not willing to do? We're not willing to get our hands dirty with that. Would we be willing to actually physically wash someone's dirty feet? Would we? To wash the yucky grime and dirt off of those feet, all the while thinking about where those feet have been? To dip our bare hands in that dirty water? I mean, there might be germs in there. I want to read a poem written by Ruth Harms Culkin entitled, I Wonder. She writes this, you know, Lord, how I serve you with great emotional fervor in the limelight. You know how eagerly I speak for you at a women's club. You know how I effervesce when I promote a fellowship group. You know my genuine enthusiasm at a Bible study. But how would I react I wonder if you pointed to a basin of water and asked me to wash the callous feet of a bent and wrinkled old woman day after day, month after month, in a room where nobody saw and nobody knew. That's a good poem. I mean, it just pricks you in the heart, doesn't it? And of course we know, yeah, there might be times when we're serving when nobody really knows about it, but the Lord knows. He sees. And you will have your reward with Him. So this is humble service that we're talking about. But there's a third application that I think may be in view here. Many have seen this in this passage, and that would be the application of corporate sanctification. Many have observed that this passage beautifully illustrates how we are to help one another in terms of our mutual sanctification. You know, washing one another's feet, this is kind of a good picture, an illustration of helping one another grow in the Lord to overcome those sins and the temptations that we struggle with, to grow corporately in our sanctification. In fact, we have an obligation to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ in this way. Paul writes about it in Galatians 6.1. He says, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, that's a trespass, a sin, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. Meekness. And he goes on to say, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. So we have this obligation to help one another in our growth, in our personal sanctification. Spiritually speaking, we must wash one another's feet and we must do so with the right spirit of meekness. Michael P. Green extends this analogy by suggesting that we need to come to our brother or sister with the right water temperature. He says, not hot with anger, not cold with self-righteousness, but with the soothing warmth of love wrapped in a spirit of servanthood. So three potential applications for this passage today. This idea of being a servant leader, when we're in a position of leadership, when we're maybe over someone else or we are responsible for someone else, we're a ministry leader, maybe we're discipling someone, servant leadership. And then for all of us, humble service, being willing to stoop to serve because it's what the Lord would have us to do. And then to make application here in a way that would appeal to the whole body, the corporate sanctification, realizing that the Lord wants us to grow together and to look out for one another. And that's pictured in this idea of washing one another's feet. The Lord wants us to serve with the humility which he himself exemplifies. He said, do as I have done. Humble yourself. Go and wash someone's dirty feet. It will change you. You won't be the same person when you serve in this way. It will conform you to the likeness of Jesus Christ, the one who came to serve. and to give his life a ransom for many. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this passage. It is such a touching and moving passage. As we picture what took place in that room, the Lord Jesus and his 12 disciples in his humble service, his example of serving, washing those feet, Lord, I pray that we would not come away from this without being affected by it. May it change the way we think about what the Lord would have us to do. May we get off our high horse. May we crush our own pride and be willing to stoop and to wash dirty feet. if that's what you would have us to do. In Jesus' name, amen.