Again, the next few weeks are a little bit bitty, we can put it that way. We've got a couple of Lord's Days, then I'm due to be in Australia for two Sundays with other men preaching here, and then we're into a holiday period. I have not forgotten the book of the Acts. But what I don't want to do is just fling in bits here and there in a series that is more obviously sequential. So we'll try and make sure that over the course of the next few weeks and months, where there is consistency, we can. But I don't want to just drop in bits here and there and have it all seem a little bit disordered. So we're turning then this evening to John's Gospel, Chapter 13. to consider our Saviour Christ. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come that he should depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And supper being ended, the devil having 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 to God, rose from supper and laid aside his garments, 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 with which he was girded. Then he came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet? Jesus answered and said to him, what I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will know after this. Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, he who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not all of you. For he knew who would betray him. Therefore, he said, you are not all clean. So when he had washed their feet, taken his garments, and sat down again, he said to them, do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you say, well, 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 should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. Let's pray once again. Lord Jesus, by your gracious spirit, teach us. what you yourself are like toward us, and what you would have us be. Holy Father, show your Son to us by that same Spirit, that we might know his love and your love in him, and our hearts might be stirred in love for you, and Christlike love for one another, in Jesus' name. Amen. It was the meal which we typically call the Lord's Supper or the Last Supper. The disciples had gathered in an upper room but there was no servant there to perform the necessary but extremely menial low-level task of washing the feet of the guests at the meal. This would typically have been the task that was given to the lowest and the least in the household. In the absence of a servant so appointed, It is our Lord Jesus Christ himself who steps down from the head of the table where he has been presiding at the meal, takes off his outer garment, wraps a towel around his waist, takes a bowl of water and washes one by one the feet of those disciples, patting them dry in the towel with which he has girded himself. It is a solemn transaction of love. It's notable that it follows on from John's declaration that this is Jesus loving his own who were in the world and loving them to the end. It is one of the ways that the Lord shows the spirit which is in him. It is an embodiment of his great work. It's a glimpse into the same heart that carries him to Calvary's cross. Having done these things, he again takes his proper seat at the head of the table, presiding over the meal, stooping down to wash and to dry the disciples' feet, and then returning to the head of the table. In between, there's been this conversation with Peter. Are you washing my feet? This isn't right. How can you wash my feet? Christ says that it's necessary, it's needful, for if I do not wash you, you have no part with me, pointing again to what he's going to accomplish. And as he takes his place once again, there's a moment of gentle interrogation and instruction. The end of verse 12. Do you know what I have done to you? Very simple question, isn't it? And perhaps if you're anything like me, you might be thinking, yes, you just washed my feet. Do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you say, well, for 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 should do as I have done to you. Christ self-consciously sets himself before his disciples as their example. I don't know how widespread the childish game is of follow my leader. I don't even know if children today still play follow my leader. Anybody else ever played follow my leader? One or two, okay. All right, that's interesting. Some of the very older ones and some of the very younger ones. So the ones in the middle tend to have missed out. Follow my leader. Where someone sets the tone, someone does the actions, and a string of people behind copy whatever the person at the front of the line does. This is follow my leader on the highest possible scale. This is holy ground. This is imitation to the highest degree. When you hear men like the apostle Paul saying, imitate me just as I also imitate Christ, it is this that the apostle has in mind preeminently, what it means to be Christ-like. Our Lord begins by recognising and endorsing the relationship which he has to his disciples. You call me teacher and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. What did the disciples call Jesus? They call him teacher and they call him Lord. The language of teacher is the language of a master, an instructor in all truth. and while they may not always have a full sense of that language, it points toward our Lord Christ as the great prophet of God, the one who reveals the divine will to those who would follow God. You call me teacher. master instructor in the things of God and you call me Lord and again that's very high language now some people make the point that it could just be a sort of a nice way of saying sir a reasonably respectful title but in in the context here It seems to have very much the opposite end of the scale overtones. These are hints of divinity. This is the language that you would use of a ruler, even an owner. There is authority and there is propriety here. You are the Lord and we are the servants. You are the owner. We are your property. You are our teacher. You speak truth and we hear. You are our Lord. You direct and we go. Christ is saying, your language recognizes me as the one who, in an absolute sense, guides and leads you distinctly and pre-eminently. In fact, you could read this in some of the manuscripts, you call me the teacher and the Lord, that there is no other teacher like me, and there is no other Lord to rival me, that you have recognized my supremacy in these fields. and you're absolutely right to do so. You say, well, for so I am. This is not merely honorary language. These are not respectful titles that aren't really meant. These are not empty labels. This is not a polite compliment that is paid to Jesus Christ without any real sense or meaning. Standing in their midst, sitting among them, is one who is the teacher and the Lord. These are substantial titles. Truth comes from him for he is true. He rules, he directs, he speaks, we hear and obey. These are titles of a very proper respect for and honour to one who is the incarnate son of God, who has brought the truth of heaven to earth and has made known salvation, ready to redeem his people by his blood. How do you speak of the Lord Jesus? I think we may need to be a little careful here. I have referred to him as Jesus. So he is often in the Gospels. It's here also. Jesus answered him. Jesus said to him. But I think we need to be constantly conscious of the one of whom we speak when we say Jesus. We must never diminish him. We do use other titles for him. I hope you do. I hope you think of him as the Lord Christ. I hope you think of him as the son of God. I hope you understand something of what it means for him to be the son of man, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. My teacher, my Lord, my master, my God. it is frighteningly easy to use that language and to forget what we're saying. These are not just words that roll from our lips, brothers and sisters. These are not just polite compliments. These are not handy labels. These are substantial and weighty titles. Do you sit here this evening recognizing Jesus of Nazareth as the teacher from God? as the Lord of your life and salvation. Be careful how you use such words. Consider whether or not you really mean it. You can tell whether or not you really mean it by how you respond then to him. You call him teacher, you call him Lord. Do you believe what he says? Do you obey what he commands? The proof of the pudding, we say, is in the eating. How do you know that Jesus is the teacher to you? Do you believe what he has said in the scriptures? How do you know that the Lord Christ is your Lord? Because you obey what he dictates. To use this language is to, in some sense, to afford Christ his proper titles and honour. The question is, are these empty words to you, or are these substantial words to you? Because our Lord says, when you call me the teacher, when you call me the Lord, you are absolutely correct. That is what I am. And you have spoken accurately. When we thoughtfully, deliberately, meaningfully speak of this Jesus as teacher and Lord, we say, well, that's who he is. And that's what he should be to his people. So the relationship has been recognised and endorsed. It's why he sits at the head of the table. It's why at this Lord's Supper, the holy family is now being re-established. No longer the earthly father with his earthly family around him. but Jesus as the head of the household of God and the new household gathered under his authority and care. Yes, I am your teacher. And yes, I am your Lord. But notice secondly then the example that has been displayed and is now established. You call me teacher and Lord and you say, well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. So the Lord Christ deliberately draws attention here to his identity and his activity. Yes, I am Lord and Teacher, and it is as the Lord and Teacher that I have taken the towel and the bowl and I have stooped down to wash the feet of each and every one of you. And simultaneously the Lord Christ makes the contrast and establishes the connection. Peter had some sense of that when he saw Christ taking the towel and the basin. He said, Lord, you shouldn't be washing my feet, It's out of that that the Lord says to him, yes, you call me teacher and you call me Lord. Peter was saying, no, you, you who are our master, you should not be washing our feet. And Christ says, I want you to recognise that as your Lord and teacher, I have washed your feet. Yes, it's right that you should think, but he who presides should not in some senses be the one who stoops so low. And our Lord emphasises that's precisely what I want you to grasp. that though I am your Lord and your teacher, it is I myself who took upon myself the lowest place. I girded myself with a towel. I filled the bowl. I washed and dried each of your feet. It is as your Lord and teacher that I have performed this most lowly service. and it's hard for us to grasp just how far he was perceived to be stooping. Abigail offered to wash the feet of David and his servants in 1 Samuel chapter 25 as a way of communicating just how low she was willing to stoop in order to secure some kind of peace between David and her most foolish husband, Nabal, whose very name is full. When John The Baptist was trying to communicate something of the gulf between the Messiah who was coming and he himself, who was the greatest man born of woman up to that point. He said, I'm not worthy to stoop down and undo the latchet of his sandal. John didn't even go so far as to say, wash his feet. In Luke chapter 12 and verse 37, similar language is used. You may remember that we talked about the widows this morning in the adult Bible class. In 1 Timothy chapter 5, one of the things that they have done, perhaps quite literally, in their service of the Lord Christ was to wash the feet of the saints. And that's the kind of language, wow, they really have given themselves to care for God's people if they have stooped so low. And with all that weight behind that idea of you yourself being the one who takes the dirty, scarred foot in your hand, washes it clean, pats it dry, the Lord Jesus says, yes, I who truly am, without boasting and without grasping your Lord and your teacher, that is what I have done for you. Brothers and sisters, There are few acts apart from the cross itself that give you such an insight into the character and disposition of Jesus Christ. There's a sense in which the only lowest place to go beyond that is the death that he died. Do you remember how the Apostle Paul speaks of him in Philippians in chapter two? He encourages the saints there to have the mind in them, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond slave and coming in the likeness of men. Where, perhaps pre-eminently, do you see the Lord taking the form of a bond slave? It's when he steps from the table's high seat, takes the towel and the basin, and washes the feet of his disciples. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Paul, I think, is looking at an event like this and saying that belongs in that trajectory. That helps you to see the mind that was in Christ Jesus. That's a demonstration of the same spirit which carried him to the cross of Calvary to lay down his life for you. You can draw a line through these points and it carries you to the very point of the atonement. It illuminates. This is how potent this is. I think it sheds light on the atonement for us, helps us to see what is in the heart of the Lord Christ when he makes himself a servant, when he's willing to stoop down in order to bless others also. And we can't grasp it. Because never one so high stooped so low. Whatever act you may think of, whatever historical example you might choose to illustrate, whatever anecdote you might reach for, all of them by definition fall short of what Christ does here. Because the incarnate Son of God, who has already taken then flesh and blood to his own divinity, who has veiled his glory, who has come in the form of a bond slave, emphasises his humility of spirit by taking this place and doing what none of his servants would do for him. It's a complete reversal of expectation. You can almost imagine the disciples when the time comes to wash their feet before, who's going to do it? Now, these are men profoundly conscious of the pecking order, aren't they? Well, if I do it for him, he's going to think that he's got one up on, well, I'm not doing it and I'm not even. They're hedging and they're edging. And then someone kneels down in front of the first. It's their teacher. It's their Lord. Peter says, oh whoa, Peter's heart's exposed. Whichever one of us shouldn't be doing it or should be doing it, it shouldn't be him. And it's the place that our Lord takes. We should marvel at his condescending love. Perhaps even there's something in what he does here that brings it closer to our experience. One of the reasons why the Lord Jesus uses this as an example of his love. We might look at the cross and we say, well, I can never make atonement for someone else's sins. That's not something that I can accomplish for myself. Here the Lord Christ on the same pattern, in the same trajectory says, I want you to do as I have done. My friends, this is the love of Jesus towards sinners. This is the matchless condescension of the incarnate Son of God. And may I say that if anybody here is fearful whether Jesus will receive them, then I want you this evening as much as the Holy Spirit enables you, and may he give you grace now to do it, to, as it were, look into the eyes of a savior who takes the basin and the towel. Is he going to turn you away? Is he going to say you're too bad for me? Is he going to say you're too dirty for me? Is he going to say you are too low for me? Is this not an encouragement to us? Guilty, vile, and helpless we, spotless son of God was he. Full atonement, can it be? This should teach you that what Christ says he will do, he does. This should encourage you that what Christ offers he performs, that what Christ promises, he gives. Consider his readiness here to save and to bless. Look at the heart of God as it's revealed in Jesus Christ. Can you not trust him? Can you not rely upon him? Can you not come to him, guilty and helpless and vile and foul as you are, and trust such a saviour as the one who has taken the towel and girded his waist, as the one who has filled a bowl with water, and who, being the incarnate Son and the Teacher and the Master, the Lord and the Governor, has nevertheless stooped down to wash the feet of his disciples. The relationship has been recognised and endorsed. Yes, I am the Lord. And yes, I am the teacher. The example has been displayed and established. I have washed your feet. And now the intention is explained and emphasised. that you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done for you. There is a deliberate example and pattern here. Yes, our Lord is pointing forwards in some way to the cross where he will lay down his life. Yes, this is a point along that same route. But at the same time, our Lord is giving a practical demonstration of what John will say in his first letter particularly, that you are to love one another as God has loved you. How has God loved you? He's loved you like this. This is how you know love, that Christ has come and he has served in this way. and it's an if-then piece of logic. If the teacher and the Lord acts in this way, then what of the disciples? If he who is so high and so holy stoops so low and serves so lowly, then what of those who say, you are my teacher and you are my Lord? You ought to wash one another's feet. You should do as I have done to you. Now, nothing could be more straightforward, could it? Look at me and follow your leader. Do what I have done. It is extremely clear. And though it is clear, let me at least try and make sure that you don't then misunderstand it in certain ways. First of all, it is not a requirement for literal foot washing. It does not mean that we all need to dash out and find a tea towel. Who knows what that would do to whoever's meant to be cleaning the tea towels this week. And you know, we need to fight for a next bowl of water or pass it around. There's no sort of extravagant outward demonstration that is demanded by this as if foot washing needs to become a literal part of our service to one another. But it's at least possible. there were widows who'd wash the feet of the saints. I don't think that's necessarily metaphorical. If your feet needed washing, who should wash them? One of us. Suppose you were sick. Suppose you couldn't move in bed. Suppose your nails were getting long and hard. Your feet perhaps are beginning to swell and get flaky because the the circulation of your blood around your lower limbs is slowing down. And those feet need to be cared for and tended for. What if there's somebody who doesn't have family near at hand and they become so frail and so weak that they need somebody to go in and perhaps help to wash their body, care for their clothes, make them food? Who gets to do that? Notice not who has to do that, who gets to do that? We do. I imagine that for some of you, there's probably not much that turns your stomach quite as much as caring for somebody else's scabby feet. The Lord Jesus isn't commanding some kind of ceremonial foot washing. But at least one of the things he does mean is that you stoop down and you perform the lowest tasks. So there's no legal replication here. Some of you might know that as part of the so-called Easter celebrations, that the Pope has the privilege of washing the feet of the cardinals, I think, in some golden bowl or something of that. No, no, no, that's not what this is about. Imagine the ugliness of a performance. I, your pastor and elder, will now proceed to wash the feet of you lowly members to demonstrate just how humble I am. We've rather missed the point when we reach that stage, have we not? It's not incidental, though, or occasional. Christ does this quite deliberately. And he does it as a demonstration of his whole life, ministry, and spirit. And it's not mindless. We're not waiting to be told. Someone over there needs their feet washed. I'm washing feet over here. Do you mind if you wash some feet over there? And neither, I think, is worth saying, are we pandering to demands. This is not just giving in to someone's insistence that they need to be cared for in a certain way. What our Lord is commending to them as a standing pattern, is deliberate acts of sacrificial service, a ready, willing, and regular pursuit of the lowest labors of humble love, even at the cost of our own reputation and comfort, in order to bring true blessing to others. Deliberate acts of sacrificial service, the lowest labors of humble love, at the cost of our own reputation and comfort in order to bring true blessing to others. The disciples perhaps were worrying about their reputation suffering if they were the first ones to stoop. Christ builds his reputation on being the first and the deepest of the stoopers. It's a complete reversal of the way the world so often thinks. Perhaps they thought, I don't want to take my robe off, I don't want to have to put my towel on, I don't want to get my hands dirty. Christ says it is my privilege to stoop and to serve. And he does so, not only because their feet are dirty, but because he is showing them his disposition and his readiness to bless. There's a greater washing than this coming. and that is the one that you will need ultimately to receive at my hands. Peter, if you can't take this from me, what will you do when I lay down my life for you? This is actually the lesser. That is the greater. And please notice that this is truly mutual. 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 all of you should do as I have done to all of you. I can fill in those gaps. We are to be a company of foot washers. We are to be an army of the humble. We are to be a community of stoopers. And we ought to be, as Christ was, seeking out and giving ourselves to deliberate acts of sacrificial service, readily taking the lowest labours of humble love, at the cost of our own reputation and comfort in the eyes of the world, in order to bring the truest blessing we can one to another. What might that mean, first of all, for those who are not even yet Christians? What's the lowest that you can stoop? What's the greatest price that you can pay? What's the perhaps primary sacrifice of reputation and comfort for those who are not yet in the kingdom of God? It is going to them and saying, Jesus of Nazareth is my master and my Lord, and I want you to know his good news. My friends, perhaps the greatest service that any Christian can render to an unbeliever is to point them to and show them the Lord Jesus Christ. They need to know him. And one of the ways that they will is by your principled acts of service and your clear words of direction. Now this has to be more than mere niceness. This isn't just another charitable deed. This isn't you pandering to people who are gonna take everything that you've got, like the leech who says, give, give, give. This is you saying, I know what you need and I will give it to you on God's terms. So I will love you and I will care for you. and I will sacrifice for you, but you need to know Jesus. And you will be surprised perhaps at how many people are happy to take everything but the gospel from you. Hard work at that point. You ask people who perhaps, I know churches, they want to set up a soup kitchen for the homeless and the needy in their area. And the homeless and the needy, a soup kitchen doesn't usually just serve soup. And usually people give a pretty good meal of some kind. And those people will come and they will take what you offer, but they will train you to stop telling them the gospel. By their reactions, by their dismissive, angry spirit at that point. And pretty soon, what have they got? They've got a bunch of silent people who will give them all the food that they can eat. That's ideal for them, but that's not faithful love. Because we're caring for the body while neglecting the soul, rather than ministering to the body and seeking the good of the soul also and ultimately. So for those who are outside, there is an application. of doing the truest good. But Christ is speaking pre-eminently to his disciples, to the saints of God. What does it mean for our relationship to one another? It means, brothers and sisters, willing, cheerful, diligent, humble service. Do we pray for one another? Do we know one another's needs? and do we enter in interceding one for the other? Do we give to one another? Do we give our time? Do we give our strength? Do we give our money as and when it is appropriate? Do we care for one another? Are there needs among us? Are there sicknesses, frailnesses, weaknesses, I almost say dirtinesses, where we could, without giving the impression that we are stooping down from a great height. This isn't an opportunity for us to show just how far we've stooped. This is an opportunity for us to come and to serve our brothers and sisters. What care do people need? Are we primed to give it? Are we stirring one another up to love and to good works? Are we setting ourselves an example of what this looks like? Will we exhort one another? Will we admonish one another? Will we rebuke one another when there is sin? Will we forgive one another when we have sinned against each other? There are so many ways in which we can show the mind that was in Christ Jesus. Some of them will be immediately obvious. Some of them no one might ever know but you and the person that you serve. Some of them might be unknown to any but the Lord God himself. But brothers and sisters, we are a people who are called to emulate Jesus Christ in deliberate acts of sacrificial service. the lowest labours of humble love at the cost of our own reputation and comfort in order to bring about true blessing. And the greater your profile, the lower should be your stooping. I was surprised how many sermons on this text were directed primarily at pastors and deacons, saying, you're the men who need to take the lead in stooping down. The apostles were going to be sent out as servants of Jesus Christ. They were going to walk in his steps. They were called to bear the cross like him, to take up the cross and follow him. They were going to serve in various ways, they were going to be, to use Paul's language, a man who understood this, even if he wasn't present on this occasion, they were to become all things to all men, that by all means they might win some. Ready to give up their own freedoms, ready to suspend their own privileges and liberties in order that they might be of true service to others. I think that our Lord Jesus, in so sending these men, would never have wanted them to forget that there was an occasion when they looked down and saw the Son of Man washing their feet. Wherever he sends them, whatever he requires of them, whatever it costs them to do that great good of making Jesus known, They would always remember the day when Jesus washed their feet, having taken the towel and the basin. And like them, we too must not forget that for us it is not so much looking down and seeing the Lord Jesus washing our feet, as looking up and seeing the Lord Jesus shedding his blood. That's on the trajectory. That's the spirit. That's the heart of Jesus Christ. That's the mind of Jesus Christ. My friends, we have this example written, and we have the death of Christ in each of the Gospels. The first thing that any of us need to do is to receive what Jesus Christ himself offers. Peter had to learn that lesson. You should not be doing this for me. I plead with you tonight, don't be too proud to receive what Christ alone is willing to do and able to do. You cannot save yourself. This might sound foolish. In some senses, I'm twisting the language, but can I put it this way? Will you let Jesus save you tonight? You say, well, does he need permission? Isn't salvation a sovereign act of God? Yes, of course it is. But are you still too proud to have Jesus be your saviour? Are you still so full of yourself that you think that you can somehow contribute to your standing with God? Do you think that only when you've managed to maybe polish up your life a little bit, clean your own feet to some extent, that then you'll let Jesus move in and finish off? My friends, Christ is the cleanser. The Lord Jesus is the washer, not just of your feet, but of all of you. Have you learned how much you need him? Have you understood how entirely you rely upon him? Will you receive him even now as your Lord and your teacher? Will you be guided by him? and follow him in all things. How do you see yourself then as following this leader? Who sees Christ-like humble love in us? Please understand, I'm not saying it doesn't exist. I'm not saying we've not begun to begin to learn this, but I am asking you if that's what this love looks like. who of us has attained to these things? Is there not more for us to do? Is there not further for us to go? Are we cultivating this humility of spirit and this willing service? How do we look at one another? How do we think of the opportunities that come with gathering together on the Lord's Day? What do we think about the pattern of our life during the week? It is to our shame, brothers and sisters, that perhaps we do not go about our business thinking, how may I serve these men and women whom I love? Not necessarily giving them what they might want, but having learned from Jesus Christ what they truly need. Meeting those needs practically, immediately, spiritually, and lovingly. What good will that do you? He who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walked. What is the evidence that you are a true disciple of the foot washer? Do you wash feet? If he's the teacher and the Lord, what then of the disciple? You might not all be able. I think some of us might say, I can't get down that far anymore. My friends, it's the spirit. It's the motive. It's the thoughts and intents of the heart. Do you perceive yourself as a servant of all for the sake of Jesus Christ? That you're not too proud to serve. and also friends that we're not too proud to be served. He is the master who serves, we all hang upon him. We are going to depend upon one another because we're a body and in the body each part has its own place and its own role to play. So there will be opportunity for each of us to do something for others. And we need to be as ready to receive what someone else can give us that we need, as we need to be ready to give to others what they need from us. What is this? This, my friends, is Christ-like living. The washed who are ready to wash others. The served who are ready to serve others. The loved who are ready to love others. The disciples of our teacher and our Lord, who left us an example, not only of the very spirit that carried him even to that death upon the cross for the sake of his people, but the spirit which animated him in all his thinking and feeling and acting. Do you know what I have done to you? That question echoes down still. Do you, Christian man, Christian woman, do you know what Jesus has done for you? Does it not amaze you? Does it not astound you? Does it not humble you that one so high should stoop so low in order that you might be blessed? You call me teacher and Lord. Yes, we do. You say, well, 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 should do as I have done to you. And this, this is the spirit of true Christianity. This is the heart of a disciple. And this is the love of the Church of Jesus Christ.