SPEAKER_00: But happy Mother's Day.
SPEAKER_00: I was reading this week of about Spurgeon's mother.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he was in an era where moms, especially parents, but there was a lot of pressure to pray for the salvation of your kids.
SPEAKER_00: Because it was thought that, you know, you might have a child, but you know, you don't, you you could raise them in the church, but maybe that they're not a called one, especially in his stream of church.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they were reformed, um, or she was somewhat reformed.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so she prayed earnestly, Lord Jesus, um, save my children.
SPEAKER_00: Spurgeon jokes later in life.
SPEAKER_00: My mother often said to me, Ah, Charles, I prayed to the Lord to make you a Christian earnestly, but I never asked that you would become a Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: It was such tragedy for her, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we, you know, we pray for their salvation, and but we don't necessarily know their stream.
SPEAKER_00: He later wrote, Never could it be possible for any man to estimate what he owes to a godly mother.
SPEAKER_00: And it's true, it's been true in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm incredibly thankful for my mom, and I'm definitely where I'm at today due to her prayers.
SPEAKER_00: That is certainly the case.
SPEAKER_00: Saint Santores de Legune wrote, The loveliest masterpiece of the heart of God is the heart of a mother.
SPEAKER_00: It's not often talked about, but God is described in maternal ways in a couple of passages.
SPEAKER_00: And I think she is on to something that it is a revelation of the heart of God, the heart of a mother.
SPEAKER_00: Today we'll be in John chapter three.
SPEAKER_00: Just again, continue the series on the beauty of Jesus, John chapter 13, and the beauty of Jesus, that he is servant and Lord.
SPEAKER_00: With that, I will pray for us and we will get started.
SPEAKER_00: But Lord Jesus, we do just thank you for, Lord, every mother, Lord, we all we all have a mother, or Lord, there are many mothers.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, Lord, they do just demonstrate, Lord, your heart in unique ways.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we just are thankful, Lord, for praying mothers, praying grandmothers, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I just pray that um, Lord, every woman here, Lord, is just encouraged this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Um, thankful this morning that we're all just can celebrate our moms today and just honor them, Lord, in the ways that they've been kind and good and generous and sacrificial to us.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're continuing in the beauty of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Looking at the beauty of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here last week, what did we talk about?
SPEAKER_00: That God is both tender and fierce.
SPEAKER_00: He is tender and fierce, he is fierce for our salvation and formation.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes that fierceness feels a little bit uncomfortable or painful, right?
SPEAKER_00: It can be a disciplining as as Hebrews talks about.
SPEAKER_00: It feels fierce, but he's also tender.
SPEAKER_00: He's also tender, he's gentle to the brokenhearted.
SPEAKER_00: And those of us who know the mercy of God, want to know the mercy of God, we're recognizing our brokenness, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because without brokenness, there is no mercy.
SPEAKER_00: So last week we talked about his tenderness and fierceness.
SPEAKER_00: This week we're looking at that he is both servant and Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He is servant and Lord, and we're starting in John chapter 13, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Now, before the feast of the Passover, before the feast of the Passover, this passage is a little bit difficult to place, and scholars debate whether this is the actual Passover meal, or this is before a different meal that he's describing in the Passover.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: It's because the synoptics, um, the synoptic gospels, which is the first three Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, why do we call them synoptic?
SPEAKER_00: It's because in Greek it is seeing together.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of harmony and a lot of consistency between Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
SPEAKER_00: They used each other's sources.
SPEAKER_00: Most of Mark is also found in Matthew and Luke.
SPEAKER_00: Then Matthew and Luke also seem to have another source of probably parables that they they had as they were following Jesus, writing notes.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so in the synoptics, there's a lot of harmony.
SPEAKER_00: And they they have different themes, they have different emphasis, but for the most part, they're focused on the historical, what actually happened with Jesus, as well as what was the teaching of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What was his teaching and what was the historical facts of his life?
SPEAKER_00: John is an entirely different book.
SPEAKER_00: He's writing primarily from the theological perspective of who is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we get to John chapter 13, and people debate if this is the actual Passover meal where we where we had the institution of the communion, or if this is a separate meal.
SPEAKER_00: And why do they debate that?
SPEAKER_00: Because there's no mention of communion in John chapter 13.
SPEAKER_00: Whereas in the synoptics is very clear.
SPEAKER_00: But why they think it might be the actual Passover meal is because there's also a lot of parallel language.
SPEAKER_00: I tend to think that this is the actual Passover meal.
SPEAKER_00: This is the moment that before he would be betrayed, the last night that he was on earth, now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And reflecting on it, he knew he had been waiting for this moment.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that this would be the hour that he would die, be crucified.
SPEAKER_00: He would be betrayed by his friend.
SPEAKER_00: He would hit another would deny even knowing him.
SPEAKER_00: The rest would be scattered.
SPEAKER_00: This was a moment he knew, anticipated, this was the moment they come to his trauma, to his pain, where he would later cry out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?
SPEAKER_00: My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer.
SPEAKER_00: By night I find no rest.
SPEAKER_00: Generally, we we think of the Passover meal as that he's calmly reflecting with his friends in this last moment.
SPEAKER_00: But we're not, at least for me, it was hard for me to realize.
SPEAKER_00: He's also in a moment of trial.
SPEAKER_00: This is a moment of pressure.
SPEAKER_00: He knew his death was coming.
SPEAKER_00: He knew pain was coming.
SPEAKER_00: And what is he doing?
SPEAKER_00: He's sharing it in a meal with other friends.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel Goldman in 1995 wrote a book called Emotional Intelligence.
SPEAKER_00: It's a secular book, but it was very popular, became, you know, very well known, used in business circles.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he had this idea that emotional intelligence was very different from intellectual intelligence.
SPEAKER_00: They're very separate.
SPEAKER_00: Emotional intelligence, intellectual intelligence.
SPEAKER_00: And you can be very intellectually intelligent, but not emotionally intelligent.
SPEAKER_00: His whole premise is that emotionally intelligent people tend to manage impulses well, they communicate well, they build trust.
SPEAKER_00: They're doing all things emotionally well so that they maintain healthy relationships.
SPEAKER_00: So his whole premise on emotional intelligence was leading to healthy relationships, strongly shaping how people manage stress, conflict, relationships, motivation, decision making.
SPEAKER_00: And in that book, he he he wrote this the popularized this idea of what he called the amygdala hijack.
SPEAKER_00: The amygdala hijack.
SPEAKER_00: And it's that under threat or stress, the emotional brain can overpower rational thinking, leading to irrational reactions, anger, panic, or aggression.
SPEAKER_00: And his his whole premise was that emotionally mature people learn how to slow our reactions, regulate emotions, allow for reflective thinking.
SPEAKER_00: And the the way that we see how emotionally intelligent we are is in our moments of crisis or stress or fear or pain, right?
SPEAKER_00: How do we react emotionally to maintain healthy relationships?
SPEAKER_00: It was a very well-known book, and it popularized again this idea of the mygdala hijack that in moments of crisis we can emotionally disturb our relationships, or our relationships are easily broken.
SPEAKER_00: In more recent years, 2006, guy by the name of Pete Schizero wrote this book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.
SPEAKER_00: And he wrote it from a Christian perspective that his whole premise is that spiritual maturity is emotional maturity.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot be spiritually healthy in his view while remaining emotionally unhealthy.
SPEAKER_00: Um and he thought that many believers use spirituality to actually avoid being emotionally healthy.
SPEAKER_00: He calls it using God to run from God.
SPEAKER_00: And how do we do that?
SPEAKER_00: How do we use God to run from God?
SPEAKER_00: He gave several examples.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we suppress anger, sadness, or fear, or confuse activity with intimacy with God, appearing spiritually strong while internally exhausted.
SPEAKER_00: And his thought, a person cannot genuinely grow in Christ while remaining remote emotionally reactive.
SPEAKER_00: When we're in moments of crisis or pain, emotionally unhealthy, chronically defensive, unable to process grief, disconnected from inner life, it became a whole industry, emotionally healthy, spirituality.
SPEAKER_00: There's a whole bunch of other books and conferences along this theme now.
SPEAKER_00: This is a Christian version of and essentially similar things that Daniel Goldman had said 20 years earlier or 10 years earlier.
SPEAKER_00: And the point is that we Jesus, in his moment of crisis, and a moment of pain, a moment that he's knowing that these friends groups are going to scatter.
SPEAKER_00: One will deny him, another will betray him.
SPEAKER_00: In that moment of pain, we see he's not acting in irrational ways.
SPEAKER_00: But how do you respond in moments of turmoil or pain or loss or difficulty?
SPEAKER_00: Is Pete Schizero correct?
SPEAKER_00: And that when we're feeling pressure or stress or or just the weight of the world, that it the how we respond is demonstrating our maturity in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: How do you respond?
SPEAKER_00: And I just wanted to bring up regeneration one more time.
SPEAKER_00: Regeneration, we're going to do opening night this coming Thursday.
SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, we've we've talked about it in a bunch of different contexts.
SPEAKER_00: One way I think it is incredibly helpful is helping us process our emotions.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we generally think of emotional health now as being able to understand our emotions and being able to communicate our emotions.
SPEAKER_00: Pete Schazero and Daniel Goleman, they think of emotional health in a very different way.
SPEAKER_00: And it's that being able to maintain healthy relationships is a matter of emotional health.
SPEAKER_00: Not just that we know our emotions and then we can speak them, it's that we are maintaining healthy relationships.
SPEAKER_00: I think nothing does that better for me in my experience than regeneration.
SPEAKER_00: So I just wanted to offer that again.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to do opening night this coming Thursday night.
SPEAKER_00: We I printed several of these brochures, and you already all know what it is.
SPEAKER_00: But you might know someone that could benefit in growing into emotional health.
SPEAKER_00: They just invite them.
SPEAKER_00: Tell them, come Thursday night at 7 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: This coming right here in this room.
SPEAKER_00: Feel free to take any brochures if you want to invite somebody.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus, in his day of trauma or turmoil, he did not respond reactively.
SPEAKER_00: He was emotionally healthy.
SPEAKER_00: We read in Hebrews, during the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death.
SPEAKER_00: He had genuine cries, tears, anguish in his heart, offering to prayer to God to save him, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
SPEAKER_00: Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, through affliction, and through it all, he remained relationally connected and whole.
SPEAKER_00: Continuing chapter and verse two, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
SPEAKER_00: He loved them to the end.
SPEAKER_00: Just in reflecting this last week, of why is that in there?
SPEAKER_00: That he loved them to the very end.
SPEAKER_00: Why did John feel the need to say that?
SPEAKER_00: He loved them through his frustration, through his anticipation that one would deny him, another would betray him, through this the challenge of walking alongside them, he loved them until the very end.
SPEAKER_00: And just reflecting on it, I just kind of realized that is not maybe our typical experience.
SPEAKER_00: Um, before I lived here, I lived in Denver, and Denver is a very transient city, and people are moving and going all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And it makes it very easy.
SPEAKER_00: If you just kind of don't like some sort of relationship, well, you can move on to the next person quite quickly.
SPEAKER_00: And people do it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: If anything in any relationship becomes uncomfortable or you know, just or you get offended in any kind of way, people are just continually like moving their relationships.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like there is an expectation that anything will be love to the end.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just friendships.
SPEAKER_00: 2025, there was a survey that said 38% of American adults currently are currently estranged from at least one very close family member, parent, child, you know, a uh yeah, whatever it is, uh, sibling, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: 38% currently not talking, no longer talking to a close family member.
SPEAKER_00: Another survey, I guess a couple years ago, found that up to half at some point in their life admit they were estranged from a family member.
SPEAKER_00: It's very common, up to half.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not just family members.
SPEAKER_00: We see the same thing in marriage.
SPEAKER_00: There was an article in the Atlantic a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: Monogamy is one of the last bipartisan ideals, even if people struggle to live up to it.
SPEAKER_00: Even if people struggle to live up to it.
SPEAKER_00: And the whole premise of the article was that they did a survey of Republicans, Democrats, libertarians, socialists.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone kind of agreed on only one thing.
SPEAKER_00: And it's that this ideal that we should maintain this monogamous lifelong commitment.
SPEAKER_00: They all had this ideal.
SPEAKER_00: But in the article, she's saying it's an ideal that no one's living up to.
SPEAKER_00: She was arguing that up to half of couples today have had an affair.
SPEAKER_00: Up to half of couples a day are having an affair.
SPEAKER_00: But she still says monogamy, it seems, is one of the few moral rules that Americans feel they can grasp onto.
SPEAKER_00: In an age when many no longer look to religion or unified culture for social norms, it serves many people well.
SPEAKER_00: Committing to one partner for life, growing together through all the changes, staying loyal even when it's difficult, can give them profound purpose.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is people are struggling to live up to it.
SPEAKER_00: Many are divorcing.
SPEAKER_00: Up to half of couples, in her calculations, are having an affair.
SPEAKER_00: Find it interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe even 20 years ago, it was thought that most affairs were started by men.
SPEAKER_00: Supposedly, the research now, most first affairs or most affairs, or the first person to have an affair, most of the time now, is a woman.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's it's I guess I give all that, is that it's still we're finding it challenging to maintain this love until the end in all kinds of relationships.
SPEAKER_00: I found that this was a San Diego divorce attorney put together all kinds of data on divorces.
SPEAKER_00: The U.S.
SPEAKER_00: is still one of the highest countries for divorce rates, the third highest.
SPEAKER_00: Researchers estimate that 41% of all first marriages end in divorce.
SPEAKER_00: 41%.
SPEAKER_00: People used to say 50%.
SPEAKER_00: They're now saying maybe it's a little, no, it's a little better than that.
SPEAKER_00: 41%.
SPEAKER_00: But 60% of second marriages end in divorce, 73% of third marriages end in divorce.
SPEAKER_00: Found this interesting that divorce rate by occupation only for the fact that farmers, clergy, agricultural engineers are in the low low end of the list of divorces, but it's just reflecting.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't we love until the end?
SPEAKER_00: Why do we struggle so much to love until the end?
SPEAKER_00: I think at least a part of it is that love is a feeling we're pursuing more than a commitment.
SPEAKER_00: Institute for Family Studies, it's a socially conservative think tank, but it's kind of quasi-Christian, where they're trying to encourage families and marriages and children, nuclear families.
SPEAKER_00: And so they're doing a lot of a lot of studies to try to encourage just nuclear families and having children.
SPEAKER_00: In 2022, they did a study of people who were married from 2010 to 2019, examining the stability of those marriages.
SPEAKER_00: And they found that up to 70% of couples cohabitated before marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Up to 70% couples from 2010 to 2019 were cohabitating before marriage.
SPEAKER_00: I would guess that number is even more now.
SPEAKER_00: But they found that 34% of marriages ended among those who cohabitated before being engaged.
SPEAKER_00: 34%, compared to 23% of marriages for those who lived together only after being either married or engaged.
SPEAKER_00: In relative terms, the marriages of those who moved in together before becoming engaged were 48% more likely to end than the marriages of those who only cohabitated after being engaged or already married.
SPEAKER_00: Difference was a matter of commitment.
SPEAKER_00: Tim Keller says like this feelings of love come and go, but covenant commitment is what sustain a marriage through every season.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus loved them until the end.
SPEAKER_00: We are struggling in a lot of different relationships to love until the end.
SPEAKER_00: Is it true that part of it is a matter of commitment more than our pursuit of feeling?
SPEAKER_00: Continuing in verse number two.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God.
SPEAKER_00: All things were under the power of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He had come from God and was returning to God.
SPEAKER_00: John is building this theology that Jesus is the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: John uses Lord three times in the first 19 chapters, and then nine times in the last two because he's building this idea, this concept of what it means that Jesus is Lord, Lord becoming the preeminent title of those who address who truly believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So what does it mean when we say that Jesus is Lord?
SPEAKER_00: What is John's theology that he's trying to develop that Jesus is Lord?
SPEAKER_00: And there's kind of three points to it.
SPEAKER_00: One, he's arguing that Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_00: If you're familiar with which is kind of the Old Testament, you know, Yahweh was the name given to God.
SPEAKER_00: At least six centuries before Jesus came, the Jews no longer would say the name Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: They would no longer speak it on their mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a fear, there was a reverence for speaking the name of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so instead of saying the name Yahweh, they would say Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They would say Adonai.
SPEAKER_00: If you see them reading the Bible today, they're they're bowing as every time they're saying Adonai, because there's a fear of the name of God.
SPEAKER_00: In Greek, uh the Septuagint, um, it was curiosity, it was Lord, right?
SPEAKER_00: By the time of Jesus' day, the word Lord was deeply integrated integrated with with the with the name Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Lord and Yahweh, deeply integrated.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so when Thomas was answering, my Lord and my God, Jesus or He's he's getting at this concept that Lord is God.
SPEAKER_00: For the Jewish people in their day, Yahweh was properly to be called the the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So when you see the Pharisees that they're watching and kind of attentively trying to figure out what is this Jesus claiming?
SPEAKER_00: One of their biggest things that they're upset about, Jesus is claiming that he's actually Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: This is not okay with the why were they so furious?
SPEAKER_00: Because this Yahweh of the Bible, who they have studied intense intensely, right?
SPEAKER_00: Now, Jesus in this in this in This language of lordship, they were suspecting, rightly so, that he was claiming to be Yahweh himself.
SPEAKER_00: And John, throughout his gospel, is building this case that Jesus as Lord is Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, Jesus is Lord, is means he is King.
SPEAKER_00: The Father put all things under his power.
SPEAKER_00: He is authority over all things.
SPEAKER_00: His victory is complete.
SPEAKER_00: We may look at the world today and say, well, how are all things under his power?
SPEAKER_00: I don't see that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't experience that.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't look to be the case.
SPEAKER_00: And the reality is all things are under his power, but all things are not yet under his feet or under or submitted to him.
SPEAKER_00: But the victory is certain.
SPEAKER_00: It is guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00: As Lord, he is king.
SPEAKER_00: He has dominion, perfect rulership.
SPEAKER_00: And third, Jesus is Lord means he is master.
SPEAKER_00: He is master.
SPEAKER_00: Those of us who know him as Lord are committed to obey his teachings.
SPEAKER_00: We are a slave to follow his instructions.
SPEAKER_00: We submit to his direction.
SPEAKER_00: In Romans 10, Paul writes, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, if you're confessing that Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: You will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is not merely just asking God to save us from hell.
SPEAKER_00: No, it is a matter of confession that Jesus is Lord, that He is God, King, Master of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot serve two masters.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is a death and rebirth.
SPEAKER_00: It is a repentance, a changing of our allegiance.
SPEAKER_00: And central to that repentance is confessing or publicly proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis says it like this that it may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's hard for and it is seemingly odd that an egg can turn into a bird, but it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg, right?
SPEAKER_00: Eggs can't fly.
SPEAKER_00: He says, we are like eggs at present, challenging.
SPEAKER_00: Um, this is in mere Christianity, challenging those of us who may be in the church, or those who may be in the church, still an egg, want and unwilling or unable to fly, because you cannot go on indefinitely being an ordinary decent egg.
SPEAKER_00: Unless you are changed, we you cannot fly.
SPEAKER_00: We must be hatched or we will go bad.
SPEAKER_00: What he's getting at is if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you're becoming the bird that can fly.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you're just remaining an egg, and that will eventually go bad.
SPEAKER_00: There's a book in 1963 called The Master Plan of Evangelism, written by Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Robert Coleman.
SPEAKER_00: And his whole premise was that evangelism is primarily discipleship, and depth produces lasting multiplication.
SPEAKER_00: And that the goal in evangelism is getting people to understand the lordship of Jesus, not merely just the concept of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The lordship of Jesus, not merely the concept of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And you need a small group of people to really re-identify that Jesus is God, King, and master, and not just a massive, you know, a group of people attending some big crusade.
SPEAKER_00: I find it fascinating that Billy Graham is the one that wrote the the foreword to this book because he kind of lived in a whole different different framework.
SPEAKER_00: But the the whole point of his book was that it's really salvation begins and is fostered as we're understanding the Lordship of Jesus, that he is God, King, and Master.
SPEAKER_00: We're confessing him as Lord, not just attending church or attending some grand big gathering.
SPEAKER_00: So we can so we continue on in verse four.
SPEAKER_00: What does he do as Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the only person in the universe who doesn't use his power to be served, but rather to serve.
SPEAKER_00: So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing.
SPEAKER_00: We read this earlier, wrapped a towel around his waist.
SPEAKER_00: After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
SPEAKER_00: He came to Peter, who said to him, Lord, are you gonna wash my feet?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus replied, You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.
SPEAKER_00: No, Peter said, You shall never wash my feet.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered, Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.
SPEAKER_00: Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.
SPEAKER_00: Then Lord Simon replied, Not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered, Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet.
SPEAKER_00: Their whole body is clean, and you are clean.
SPEAKER_00: Here Jesus is giving a good example of this concept of between justification and sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: The person who had a bath or the bathed one, in the Greek suggesting an action in the past, the effect of which is continuing into the present, there is no need to bathe again.
SPEAKER_00: Peter didn't need it to be bathed again.
SPEAKER_00: They have been cleansed by the redemption of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That is our justification.
SPEAKER_00: That is those of us who know him as Lord, confess him as Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But once a person has received this cleansing benefit of Jesus, we are it's he says we need only to wash our feet.
SPEAKER_00: And if we don't have our wash our feet, we have no part with him.
SPEAKER_00: That is our sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: Believers through continued contact with the uncleanness of a world of the world need to be continually cleansed from our daily contact with sin.
SPEAKER_00: And as we discussed last week, he is fierce in our formation in washing our feet.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews kind of describes this paradox of justification and sanctification, in that for by one sacrifice he is made perfect forever.
SPEAKER_00: Perfect forever.
SPEAKER_00: We are perfect forever, holy forever.
SPEAKER_00: Those who are being made holy.
SPEAKER_00: We are washed, no longer needing to be washed.
SPEAKER_00: Those who are being made holy, though our feet are needing to be washed.
SPEAKER_00: And it I think it's important in this passage, it's not us washing our own feet.
SPEAKER_00: It is Christ washing us with the water of the Word.
SPEAKER_00: I think at least since Kant, there's this been this idea, and Kant was this Lutheran pietist who basically tried to redefine Christianity and his theology, and it's very corrupt.
SPEAKER_00: But he had this idea that we morally improve by our natural human powers.
SPEAKER_00: We morally improve by our natural natural human powers.
SPEAKER_00: And at least since then, this has been crept into the church that we're continually morally improving by our natural human powers.
SPEAKER_00: So when we think of sanctification, we oftentimes think of that.
SPEAKER_00: I need to morally improve myself, better myself, work on myself by my natural human powers, because that is our sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: But here it is clear with Jesus: He is washing our feet.
SPEAKER_00: We need him to wash our feet.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is a servant.
SPEAKER_00: We are washed by his blood.
SPEAKER_00: And what does it mean that we is he is a servant?
SPEAKER_00: One, he bore the penalty of our sins, and that we can be washed.
SPEAKER_00: We have been made perfect forever by his sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And second, he washes our feet.
SPEAKER_00: So what does that mean for us?
SPEAKER_00: We keep reading in verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: 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?
SPEAKER_00: You call me teacher and lord, and you are right, for so I am, teacher and Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
SPEAKER_00: For I've given you an example that you also should do, just as I have done to you.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: If you know these things, blessed are you if we do them.
SPEAKER_00: So what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: How do we serve like Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: How do we wash people's feet like Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Daniel Meyer wrote a book, Witness Essentials, Evangelism that makes disciples, and he listed out 10 different ways that Jesus served.
SPEAKER_00: First, he Jesus met medical needs through physically healing the afflicted.
SPEAKER_00: What does that look like for us?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's driving someone to a doctor's appointment or bringing meals to someone recovering from surgery or visiting someone in the hospital or paying medical bills or for counseling for people.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, he met dietary needs, feeding thousands.
SPEAKER_00: What does that potentially mean for us?
SPEAKER_00: We buy groceries for a struggling family or we cook meals for a new parent or bring snacks to college kids or we serve at a food pantry or community dinner.
SPEAKER_00: Third, he met hygienic needs, stooping to wash filthy feet in John 13.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean for us?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's cleaning someone's house when they are overwhelmed, or doing laundry for an elderly neighbor, or helping a homeless person get clean clothes or a shower, or changing diapers, or helping care for the disabled.
SPEAKER_00: Fourth, he met legal needs by standing between people and their accusers, John chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean for us?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's helping someone understand paperwork or court forms or advocating for a foster child or abuse victims or standing beside someone being falsely accused or publicly shamed or helping immigrants navigate legal processes.
SPEAKER_00: Fifth, he served in meeting educational needs by forming a traveling school and which even fishermen and tax collectors and prostitutes could enroll.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean for us?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's tutoring kids after school or teaching someone how to budget or apply for jobs or mentoring young believers or helping someone learn English or basic computer skills.
SPEAKER_00: He met their emotional needs by lifting burdens and taking them to places where they could rest.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean for us?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's babysitting for exhausted parents or listening to her hurting friend without rushing them or taking someone out for coffee who feels lonely or giving overwhelmed volunteers a break.
SPEAKER_00: He met social needs by demonstrating the worth of outcasts and people lost in the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean for us?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's sitting with the person nobody talks to, or inviting lonely neighbors over for dinner, or welcoming addicts and the awkward folks or newcomers into community, or learning the names of those who are overlooked.
SPEAKER_00: How did Jesus met family needs of Mary and John?
SPEAKER_00: But later in John, giving one adopted son and the other a new mother.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for us?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's helping a single mom with child care, or checking on widows or aging parents, or reconciling broken relationships, or supporting foster or adoptive parents.
SPEAKER_00: He served the eternal needs of the repentant thief on the cross by assuring him a place in paradise.
SPEAKER_00: Even when he was hanging on a cross in agony, Jesus kept on serving.
SPEAKER_00: And so what does that mean for us?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's sharing the gospel with the friander, praying for someone's salvation, or encouraging people with the hope of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, Jesus served their spiritual needs by paying our debt on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean for us?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's discipling new believers or leading Bible studies or praying continuously for others or helping people grow in their faith with God.
SPEAKER_00: If I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
SPEAKER_00: For I have given you an example.
SPEAKER_00: I say it every week.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just our Lord and our leader, he is our example that you should do just as I have done to you.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: If you know these things, which now you do, blessed are you if you do them.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are you if you do them.
SPEAKER_00: I know sometimes when we can hear sermons like this, it could feel like a lot of pressure.
SPEAKER_00: Well, okay, Jesus is calling us, now instructing me.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know that I need to serve.
SPEAKER_00: How in what way should I serve in the busyness of my own life?
SPEAKER_00: William and Catherine Booth, I was just reading kind of more of their stories this last week.
SPEAKER_00: William Booth was born in 1829 into a struggling family.
SPEAKER_00: His father died when he was very young.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have any money.
SPEAKER_00: So he started working when he was like 13, I think, in a pawn shop, which it seems very similar to what we think of a pawn shop.
SPEAKER_00: The way he was describing it, in that context of a pawn shop, he just grew to see just how much debt and oppression and just the crushing realities of exploitation, hopelessness, addiction.
SPEAKER_00: He just saw it all as a very young person working in this pawn shop, but he needed the money.
SPEAKER_00: He became a believer at a fairly young age through that process of just both feeling the pain of the people he was he was selling to and someone exploiting.
SPEAKER_00: He became to believe that the gospel was for the poorest, not just the respectable churchgoers that, you know, in especially England at the time, 1830s, very pretty churches with you know people going in their pretty, pretty dresses and whatnot.
SPEAKER_00: He was like, No, the church must go to the broken.
SPEAKER_00: Catherine Mumford later married him.
SPEAKER_00: She was deeply intelligent, passionate.
SPEAKER_00: She also believed Christianity must act actively confront suffering and injustice.
SPEAKER_00: Holiness, which she was passionate about at the time, being fiercely formed into Christ, she was convinced should produce compassion and action.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't just make us righteous in the halls of the church, it creates compassion.
SPEAKER_00: She and William married, became partners in ministry, and began in the London's East End, that at that time was very, very poor, overwhelmed with alcoholism, homelessness, prostitution, child labor, extreme poverty, spiritual neglect.
SPEAKER_00: William began preaching just outdoors in the east end of London.
SPEAKER_00: Crowds of workers, addicts, laborers, homeless people gathered to listen.
SPEAKER_00: What started as a simple street preaching became shelters where people could live, became food distribution, practical aid, human medical aid, discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: Their mission was originally called the East London Christian Mission.
SPEAKER_00: Later became the Salvation Army, because they believe they were warriors, soldiers on earth, and this cosmic battle of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And that battle was tangible, it was physical.
SPEAKER_00: They're going out to serve the needs of the broken and the hurting.
SPEAKER_00: Catherine said, if we are able to reach the people, the gospel must be clothed with living reality.
SPEAKER_00: Living reality.
SPEAKER_00: What is that living reality?
SPEAKER_00: It is you, it is me, it is us.
SPEAKER_00: We are the living reality of Christ, demonstrating his example in practical, tangible ways.
SPEAKER_00: She believed compassion is the consequence of love.
SPEAKER_00: Compassion being, um, in her in her wording, just the tangible uh expression of meeting people's needs, there is the consequence of love.
SPEAKER_00: Love is an action in her view.
SPEAKER_00: William Booth said, while women weep as they do now, I will fight.
SPEAKER_00: While little children go hungry as they do now, I'll fight.
SPEAKER_00: While men go to prison in and out, in and out, as they still do, as they do now.
SPEAKER_00: I'll fight.
SPEAKER_00: While there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, I'll fight to the very end.
SPEAKER_00: And it became this kind of this whole community of people in the arm, believing they were in the army of God.
SPEAKER_00: Why to serve the least of these in ways that is tangible, practical, and real?
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we have been served by Jesus in both his death as well as in his daily washing of his fierce formation in us for sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna go out in his model and his example and serve others.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is servant and Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And that is one hope for us as a community, that we would follow in his example, just being servants, like you are doing with six points.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you work at six points every week.
SPEAKER_00: And just as a community, regardless of how busy we are, what we're doing in life, that we would be a people of service to this community, service to Gunnison, and ways that are tangible and practical, sacrificial, and following in the ways that Jesus has called us to, has taught us to.
SPEAKER_00: Um that we just continue to grow in that as a family here.
SPEAKER_00: Um so that's kind of the prayer and the hope that when Jesus is servant and Lord, He was He had all power.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had all power in all the universe.
SPEAKER_00: And it's profound that he didn't use his power to be served.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't use his power to be served, but he used all his power in all the universe to serve.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have all the power, right?
SPEAKER_00: But we have some you know influence and using whatever small influence, whatever space we have, not to be served, but to serve, to have an impact with whatever space that Jesus puts us.
SPEAKER_00: That is our hope, that is my prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And with that, I will pray.
SPEAKER_00: But Lord Jesus, we do just thank you, God, that Lord, you've given us an example, Lord, that of service, of sacrifice, of Lord, and and and just it is bizarre as it is, Lord, bowing down and washing our feet, having washed us um with the water of the word through just your death, Lord, that Lord, we can just continually be washed.
SPEAKER_00: And and we just thank you, Spirit of God, Lord, that you demonstrate humility.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, I just pray that we would follow and like-mindedness, Lord, that or we would be servants and following your example and being faithful and Lord, just be present, Lord, in people's lives, Lord, in tangible ways.
SPEAKER_00: That Lord, the love within our heart that we love until the end translates into real compassion, Lord, in people's lives, God, and that we would just feel that, be encouraged in that, be sent in that.
SPEAKER_00: Just you would stir dreams and hope in that, Lord, and that, Lord, even now, Lord, just stir ideas, dreams, vision, even if it's just you know, serving the neighbor that we've known for a long time, Lord, it, or anything else, God, just pray that, Lord, we would just be a people that is aware and attentive, Lord, to everyone around us.
SPEAKER_00: And just encouraged, Lord, you've sent us, you've placed us, you've equipped us, and that, Lord, we are given the privilege that we can love tangibly, God.
SPEAKER_00: I just thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.