That You May Believe Pt. 3: Washed by Jesus

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hi, welcome to the Divine Life Church podcast. We're in Boulder Kalabadama and we're following Jesus by staying limited in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission so that hearts are awakened with his awe-inspiring love. And if we can help you in any way, reach out to us at VineLife.com. For now, here's a short sermon from last week in Avine Life. Again, thanks for joining us.

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If you have your Bibles, you can open up to John 13. That's where we're going to start today. And we've been in the Gospel of John the last few weeks. We've been tracking with us as a community. We're reading through chapter by chapter, day by day, the Gospel of John. And part of the impetus of this gospel is that you may believe that the things we see in Jesus, this revelation of Jesus is about generating and cultivating, initiating faith and belief. And not just belief as in concepts that we agree and we we give mental assent to, but belief and trust that Jesus is who he said he is, that his words are true and his words are life. And so over the last few weeks we've been making this journey. Piper a few weeks ago brought a fantastic message, and really in it was a call to come and see, a call to come and see Jesus, to not settle for a secondhand revelation of Jesus. But as uh as uh as the people of God, we have to, we must, we must press in to see Jesus firsthand. We're living in a time where if you're living off of a secondhand revelation, I'm just saying, it's it's you the your feet will buckle underneath you, the ground will fall out underneath you. We must be living from a firsthand revelation of Jesus. He is our source, he is our food, he is life. And so to come and see Jesus, this is what we get to do. This is what John is calling us into. Last week we talked a little bit about this uh in another invitation from Jesus to uh to know the truth, that the truth would set us free. And uh and the invitation last week had to do with allowing the voice of Jesus to uproot the lies from the deceiver, the accuser, the one who lies to us day in and day out. He wants nothing more. Everything that comes out of the voice of the enemy's mouth is a lie. And it's critical that we know that we are rooted into the voice of the Father so that he can rewire us and remap us in the way that we think, so we can live into the truth. Because we're the Son sets us free, we are free indeed, right? Because he is the way, he is the truth, he is the life. Truth matters even in a culture that says it's relative, it's not relative. Jesus is truth and his words are true. And you can fight it. Oh, you can fight it. I'm telling you. His words are true. So we're gonna continue on that theme today, and uh, and we're gonna explore uh uh a variety of passages in John 12, John 13, okay? I want you to hang with me because we're gonna make some interesting connections here. But let's start in John chapter 13, and really the context here is Jesus is making his way back to Jerusalem. It's Passover, and he knows that his time is coming. He knows that his purpose on the earth is uh coming into fruition. And so he's very purposeful. I mean, he was purposeful his entire ministry, but but we really read here that he's purposeful about what he does and about what he says and what he is leaving behind with his guise. Okay? So let's read this in John 13, starting in verse 1. Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had 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 back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with a towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet? And Jesus answered, What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. And Peter said to him, You shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no share with me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. And Jesus said to him, The one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet. But is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you. For he knew who was about to betray him. That was why he said, Not all of you are clean. When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me teacher and lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then your teacher and Lord have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. Truly, truly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. And this is the word of the Lord for us today. Amen. And so there's a few layers here going on in this passage, but again, Jesus knew his time was coming to the end, and the text says that he loved them to the end. He loved them to the very end. And he knew who was in the room with him. He knew that his discipleship of his twelve guys didn't go perfectly to plan. Out of all 12 guys, there's there's a you know, there's a few things that had gone wrong. He knew that in the room was Judas, the one who was about to betray him. He also knew what was in the heart of the other guys. He knew what was in the heart of Peter. He knew the fear, he knew the insecurity. He knew that Peter would even disown him. And so he's in the upper room, he's he's at the feast of the Passover. And he's preparing, he's preparing to show them. Really, it's the pinnacle, it's the paramount picture of his ministry. And so he he begins to wash their feet. And uh, and in this particular passage, there's a few things that there's a few layers here. And as I spent time with this passage this week, I realized that it goes much deeper than we think it does. And we're gonna talk about a few of those layers here. Some of you have experienced this before. Have you ever experienced somebody washing your feet? Has anybody experienced somebody washing your feet? Okay, some of us have experienced that. Um I have, but it's usually in the context of me paying somebody to do that. It's called a pedicure. I have to pay people to wash my feet. Because they're not gonna touch my feet, right? Because if you saw these feet, woo! Dear Jesus, somebody lay hands on these feet. Somebody recently called them hobbit feet, which was yeah, that's poor me. Uh not only that, but uh about about a month and a half ago, um my daughter decided she wanted to paint my nails on my feet. And what I didn't know was uh my wife gave her permission to use, it was supposed to be the washable markers, right? And uh it turns out it was permanent marker. And so uh if I were to show you my feet right now, I would have pink and green and black all over my toes. And so it's an interesting scene down there, guys. I'm just gonna be honest with you. It's an interesting scene. So I understand where Peter, um, I understand where Peter would even be uncomfortable with the Lord washing his feet. There's some things that I'm sure that you have heard, or maybe if you've heard this passage before, um, you you understand some of the connections. In the first century, the reason why this was uh you know a particularly um poignant symbol uh was the condition of their feet. When you're walking around in sandals in the dirt all day, um, the feet are the part of the body that obviously take the most, uh take the biggest sit. They were dirty, dirty feet. And so when Jesus takes off his outer garment and he begins to wash his disciples' feet, there's several things that we see in the picture of Jesus here. We see that Jesus begins to resi, he continues to reveal himself not just as the master and the teacher, but as the servant king. And this is one thing that we have to be reminded of that Jesus is the servant king. He didn't lead in a different way. He came to serve. He came to serve, he came to seek and save the lost, he came to serve the least of these. And in this particular act, washing his disciples' feet. As you know, or maybe you've done this before, um, when you wash somebody's feet or when you have your feet washed is an extremely vulnerable, intimate exchange. It's so intimate that it's it's a little bit uncomfortable. Um and the the the other the other time uh that really sticks out in my mind very early on when I was uh back in high school, I went with the trip with my youth group to Guatemala. And one of the, this is my first international trip. One of the first things I did, or one of the things that we did on the trip was we uh brought duffel bags of shoes and socks with us. And uh, because we knew we were gonna go into some remote villages, and and one of the nights we actually set up the whole sanctuary just became wash basin basins all around the sanctuary. And uh, and we invited people from the village that didn't, either their shoes had worn out or they didn't have any shoes and socks. And they came in and uh they began to take a seat one by one and just a line coming out to the door, and we had the opportunity to with these little children sit down and begin to wash their feet one at a time and then begin to dry them and put new socks and new shoes on. I'm telling you, it's one of the most beautiful, powerful things I've ever done. And it's and and and in an exchange like that, I guarantee you I left with a greater gift than they did. They got new shoes, they got new socks, they had clean feet, and I'm sure that was a blessing. But there's something about getting down on your knees and being with being with somebody to prefer them and say, My life, my life is given to serve you. And this is exactly what Jesus is doing. He's saying, if you remember nothing else, I want you to know that this is what I am doing, this is what I have called you into, to be servants, to serve the least of these. And not just serve the least of these, but in this context, to even serve his enemies. If you knew that somebody was about to betray you, if you knew that somebody had evil in their heart towards you, how easy? How would you be able to do what Jesus did? Right? If you knew who was around you in this room, how likely would you be to continue to get on your knees and say, Let me, let me serve you. I want to serve you. I know you're gonna betray me, but let me serve you. So he so this is a servant act. It's an act of vulnerability. It's something he does with his enemies, even in the room. But the last thing we see here for this kind of first layer we're gonna look at is Jesus is setting a pattern. He's saying, Listen, what I'm doing here, I want you to do for others. He's modeling a way of life. He's modeling this is what life in the kingdom is about. It's a way of seeing the world, it's a way of seeing your friends and the least of these and your enemies in the place of how do I give myself into your service, even if it means lowering myself to do something that nobody wants to do. So most of those things that I just shared with you probably those are layers that you have heard before or considered before as you've read this passage, if you spent any time with this passage, that this is a revelation of Jesus. What we see in Jesus here is a picture, this is exactly what God is like, his love demonstrated through service. But the part I want to zero in on is a layer underneath the layer underneath the layer. And if you know anything about Jesus, everything he does has a layer underneath the layer, underneath a layer. It's a multi-layered thing. And so there's a little exchange here. In verse 6, Simon Peter said to him, Lord, why do you wash my feet? Jesus answered him, what I'm doing, you do not understand now, but afterwards you will understand. So a little enigmatic. Peter said to him, You shall never wash my feet. Right? Like you, we should be washing your feet. Why are you washing my feet? Jesus says, if he answered him, and this is this is big. If I do not wash you, you have no share with me. If I do not wash you, you have no share with me. Another way of saying that is if you do not let me clean you, you cannot be a part of what I'm doing. You will not be able to share in my life and what I'm doing. It's a little curious, right? It's like, on one hand, it's like, okay, I get that what you're doing is, wow, this is huge, but that if you if I don't let you clean me, I cannot be a part of what you're doing. And so this is a layer here that Jesus is kind of taking it beyond the physical act, and he's starting to bring them into there's something else going on here. This is not just about the cleaning of your feet. There's a different kind of cleaning that is happening here. And he would even go on to say, not all of you are clean. Now he's not referring to, he's not saying, hey, Judas' feet are dirtier than your feet. But he's saying, not all of you are clean, meaning now he's transitioning. He's not just talking about what's happening in the natural, he's talking about the greater revelation here that what I'm doing to you is on one level, yes, I'm doing an act of service for you, and you needed somebody to clean your feet, but there's something else going on here with Jesus saying, listen, if you want to be a part of what I'm doing, you have to let me clean you. I need to clean your heart. I need to, I need to deal with and bring a purity to your heart if you want to have a share in what I'm doing. Now, we know that what is going on here at the Passover meal, this is a foreshadowing, what he's doing, is saying, There is a cleaning that's coming. I'm cleaning you. I'm I'm about to usher in the forgiveness of sins on your behalf through my the shedding of my blood. We know that that's a layer here of this story, that Jesus on the Passover, on the Passover meal, that the the that his blood would cover would be the one that would atone for all that is wrong, all that is fractured, the inner turmoil, the brokenness on the inside, all that has been tainted, all that is dirty. We're leading up to a place where the cross and his death on the cross is going to wipe away, is going to make atonement for the sin, for that brokenness. But this this topic of Jesus being highly interested in the purity of his guise, in the cleanliness of his guise, this is critically important. And Piper mentioned this during worship. How many of you guys know that Jesus is returning again, and he's returning for a bride that is pure and spotless? And he's serious about it. He's returning for a bride that has been clean before him. And on one level, for those of us as we put our trust in his work, the life, the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus, when we've received the gift of salvation and that that atones for sins, there's there's something about that that brings the cleanliness and it brings the washing that we've always needed and always wanted. But I believe here there's an invitation for us as well that has to do with the way that Jesus wants to wash us with his words. So one of the themes in the Gospel of John, the first thing that we're introduced to in the person of Jesus is that he was the word made flesh. He was the word made flesh. Jesus was the word. Jesus is what God wants to say to us. So Jesus came as the word, and he came bearing words. And his words are life. And his words were sometimes very confusing, but his words are the only source of life. And over and over he would invite people listen, do not just be hearers of the word, but doers of the word. The words that I speak to you are life. And he would even say in John chapter 12, the passage before this, he'd say, Listen, I did not come into the world to judge you. I did not come to judge, I came to save. Let me just read this. This is so important. He says this. This is the end of John chapter 12. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. Well, that's good news. But we keep going. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge. The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. So Jesus is saying here in John chapter 12, if you hear my words, if you do not, if there's not a responsiveness, if you've heard my words, there's not a response of, listen, I'm not gonna judge you. But at the end of the day, my words will judge you. You're gonna get to a certain point of time. I just want you to picture this, all of us, me. This is sobering, this is a sobering thought. Jesus came to save us that we might have life. But he says, listen, there's come a day where I maybe I'm not gonna judge you. My words will judge you. The words that came from the Father through me that you heard, whatever you heard but did not respond to, you will be judged by his words. It's a sobering passage because have you thought about all of the words that you've heard from Jesus that maybe you haven't been responsive to? And Jesus is saying, My word in you, my word, I came as the word made flesh, that as I would speak the word, my words would become flesh inside of you. Jesus came to bring us life through his word. And while so going back to John 13, while he's physically washing his disciples' feet, he's speaking of a greater reality. I am bringing a new purity to you, I'm bringing a new cleanliness to you that will come through the cross, but will also come through a washing of the water of the word. How many of you know that the word of God cleans us? The words of Jesus clean us from the inside out. And he'll even say this in John 15 when he starts talking about the vine and the branches. We'll just flip over there really quick. He says, I am the true vine, my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word I have spoken to you. So, according to Jesus, his words have this ability to continue to usher his people into the purity and the holiness and the cleanliness from the inside out that he was wanting to demonstrate to them. And so he serves them by meeting a need, but the greater need that he's serving is that he's inviting them into a life before him that is pure and spotless before him. And I referred to this already. Paul picks up on this idea a little bit later on in Ephesians chapter 5. As Paul is likening marriage, he's trying to help them understand marriage is so much more than what you think it is. And this is a good word for our culture. Your marriage, and if you're single, your singleness to God or your marriage to another is so much more than you think it is. Your covenant, if you're single, it's your covenant of a life lived to Jesus. If you're married, there's a covenant to each other. Out of your covenant for God, it's a secondary vow that you make to each other. Here's what Paul says: husbands, love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word, so that he might present the church to him in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. This is a critical passage. I just want you to picture this. Jesus loving us and the work of Jesus towards us as his people, as he's loving us, he's giving his life, he's serving us, but part of his service to us, part of his washing of our feet, the washing of us is washing us in the water of his word and renewing our thinking and renewing our hearts and renewing our faith through his word so that we can be presented without spa or wrinkle, radiant. In the message, it says, dressed in dazzling radiant silk before him. I've never done that before, by the way, been dressed in dazzling radiant silk, but it sounds amazing. I would love for Jesus to do that for me and for us. But can you hear the heartbeat? Can you hear the intentions of Jesus towards us? Listen, I want to bring a new purity to your life, and I'm going to do it by bathing you in my words. And this is what Jesus is doing. And he starts by doing it with the feet, but Jesus is very, very passionate about his temple being cleansed. One of the interesting things about your feet is your feet are really for most of the day. Your feet are the only part of you that are touching the earth. The rest of you is walking around in the sky. Don't you love that? It's like, where does the sky start? Where does the earth stop and the sky start? Is it 20 feet up? No, it's 100 feet up. Where does the sky start? The sky starts right here. Our feet are touching the earth. The rest of us are walking around in the sky. When Jesus comes into the temple and he starts cleaning the temple, the temple represents that marriage of heaven and earth. That's why he was so passionate about it, because what God is doing, what God, the work of God, is the ultimate marriage of heaven and earth. Is God summing all things up and bringing together heaven and earth. In the new covenant, he does that through his people that God wants to make his home among us, that heaven and earth would be married once and for all. And that happens in the person of Christ. But think about it, your feet are the only things touching the earth. And so even Jesus, washing the feet of his disciples, he's washing that connection between heaven and earth. He's saying, I want to bring a new holiness and purity because this is if unless I'm able to wash your feet and clean you, you cannot actually share and participate in what I'm doing. So I know this is a lot of uh kind of working around. Are you guys hanging with me this morning? And he says, blessed when you do the same. Blessed when you do the same. It is so critical that for each other, a part of our service to each other. Is it enough to just get down and serve each other and wash each other's feet? Yeah, that that doing feet washing, foot washing things with each other are massively important. But I think that the additional invitation that I would offer to you this morning is that what Jesus wants us to do is to serve each other, but to serve each other in a way that leads to each other's holiness and cleanliness before God. Do you know that your words, the word that you live with your life, and your words have a way of affecting the people around you? And so when Jesus says go and do likewise, it's a little bit tricky in our culture. I had thought about even today doing like basins of, you know, let's all wash each other's feet, but the team talked me out of it. They're like, I'm not sure we're ready for that. That might be something you need to do. I've heard of a guy, Bob Goff, who got invited to speak at a church, and in between services, he asked for a bucket of warm sudsy water, and he went outside and started washing all the cars in the parking lot. That's maybe getting a little closer to a modern day thing, or maybe go clean somebody's house and fold their laundry, go clean up their house, that type of thing. But I wonder today if the modern equivalent of what needs to be clean in our lives, some of us have actually really beautiful feet. You're probably your feet probably look a lot better than mine do. Some of you have really beautiful feet, but your soul has been dragged through the muck and the mire and the mud for a long time. And in a season like we've been in, where there's a lot of words spoken to us, we've been washed in a lot of different kinds of words. And there's been a lot of things that have happened to us over the last, specifically as it's intensified the last couple years, some of you, you're you're washed in words all the time when you when you open up your news app, when you turn on the news at night, you're being washed in certain kinds of words. When you are binge watching YouTube, you're washed in a lot of different kinds of words. But I believe that in this moment, I think the core of this really for this morning, I believe we're in a time, both for us at Vine Life and the church at large, where Jesus is invited, and he's saying, Listen, I want you to bathe in my word. I want you to let my words, let me remind you of my words to you, because I'm working in a holiness and a purity that is going to be necessary for you to share in what I'm doing on this earth. Let me wash you. Let me wash you. Well, I don't want you to wash me. This is uncomfortable. No, no, let me wash you, because if I don't wash, if I don't clean, you cannot participate in what I'm doing. And church, I just want to remind us today, the word made flesh came to us. And we're in a time right now where the importance of knowing the word who is Jesus, but then reminding ourselves of his words. I just cannot get away from the call and the necessity, the critical nature of how important it is to be rooted in the word, in Jesus, but then rooted in his words to us. And for some of us, that might just be remembering what he's already spoken to you that maybe you've forgotten about or you've been distracted by or you purposely stepped away from. But the words that he's spoken to you already are still waiting for you. And his words will clean you, his words bring a purity of heart. And so that's the word for this morning. And I I here here's here's what I believe we're supposed to do is I'm gonna have the worship team actually come and just play lightly behind us, but I I want to offer that maybe the best way to respond to this today, just even in this moment, is to create a time of waiting before the Lord and to allow him to remind us of his word to us. I believe that God wants to wash us in the water of his word. And some of you here today, he wants to remind you of words that he has spoken to you, maybe even scriptures that he's spoken to you, promises that he's spoken to you, directives that he has spoken to you. And he's and and he's saying, listen, the way in, the path forward to share in what I'm doing is to be to come back into my word and to live from that place. And as you live from that place, I'm gonna wash you, I'm gonna clean you, you're gonna be a part in what I'm doing. So let's do this together across the room. This is close your eyes. And I'm not assuming I know what God is wanting to speak to your heart. That's something the Holy Spirit wants to do. And the Lord loves to speak. And what we're gonna do is just give him some room this morning to speak to us again. And so today, Jesus, as we open your word, as we see this act of love with your disciples, as we see the way that you not only served them, but you cleaned them. And you asked them to do the same. God, I just I pray this morning, Lord Jesus, that you would speak to us. I just acknowledge this morning that your words are the words of life. And we're in a time, Lord Jesus, where I think globally, I believe globally, you are calling your church into a new rootedness in the very voice of God. God, let us be a people here that not just hear your word, but actually do and respond to your words. And for some of you here today, maybe that's never happened to you, maybe you've never feel like you've heard the voice of God or have a word from God or the words of God, however you want to say that. And I just want to invite you today. I just I'm praying, we're believing here that God is unlocking our ears to hear his voice. So, Jesus, we wait for you. Good shepherd, we wait for you, and we give you the floor to speak when we are listening.