John 13:2-11 (Teaching)

[0:00] Good morning. Good morning. Back to John 13. Last week we got a whole one verse deep into it.

[0:14] And that's okay. We actually cut Sunday school just a couple of minutes short last week. I wanted to continue but my next stopping point, I knew we didn't have enough time to get into all that so we just cut it short.

[0:32] So we went through John 13 and verse one last week. And we talked about that and it was to say rather extensively, there's a whole lot in that verse and truth be known, I didn't touch everything that is in that verse, but that kind of sets the stage for really the rest of this passage.

[1:00] And the rest of the passage has to do with servitude and cross servitude toward his disciples, which would be the role of a servant leader.

[1:14] And that's something that personally, and not patting myself on the back at all, in doing so I've prayed a lot for God to help me with that.

[1:27] You know, my job and my family and church, wherever I may be viewed as a leader of some kind, my prayer is God helped me to be a godly leader and a godly servant.

[1:45] It does no good to pray for godly leadership if you're not willing to be a servant. Jesus displays that wonderfully here in John in chapter 13.

[1:56] But again, 13 and 1 kind of sets the stage for everything. And verse 2, which we'll read here in just a moment, gets the details of that stage setting that we see in verse 1.

[2:12] So we'll begin by reading John 13 and verse 1, and then we'll continue on into the rest of this passage. But John 13 and verse 1 says, Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

[2:35] And verse 2, And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God and went to God, he riseth from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself.

[2:58] So back to verse 2, it begins with in supper being ended. This is not the ended that you and I are accustomed to.

[3:09] In fact, other English translations of the Bible have this as supper being underway, or supper taking place, something along those lines. It ended because Christ ended it for a moment, or for a few moments, or for a few minutes.

[3:25] However long it was, it took Christ, we haven't gotten that far, but however long it was, it took Christ to wash the feet of the disciple. And then we read in verse 12, a little bit later, that Christ had his seat back at the table again.

[3:41] And then we read in verse 26, where he actually dipped sops, so supper was not completely ended here in verse 2. It was only, it was ended temporarily.

[3:52] And like I said, there are several other English translations of the Bible that render that correctly. It was not completely ended. In supper being ended, the devil, having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him.

[4:09] John makes it very plain, or rather we should say, the Holy Ghost makes it very plain through John, that the devil is the one that put into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray him.

[4:22] Now the thing about this is, and I've preached sermons, I've taught lessons, I know Vern has, because I've heard him preach at least one since we've been here, about Judas Iscariot, and how we look at Judas, and we look down our noses at Judas, and we wonder how in the world could he do that.

[4:42] And I wonder that, and I have wondered that, because the man had the greatest teacher that's ever walked the planet, had the Son of God himself, and he heard all the lessons that crossed out, he heard all the sermons that crossed preached, he saw the miracles that all the rest of the disciples did, he had been following Christ around with the other eleven for over three years at this point, and still, still the devil put into his heart to betray Christ, which shows us that there's something personal about this, there's a personal decision that must take place, and repentance is necessary.

[5:32] Judas had a problem, Judas' problem was money, Judas loved money, he was the keeper of the bag, and we know from the Scriptures that he was also a thief, and that's something that obviously, through the Scriptural accounts, Judas never repented of, Judas never truly repented of that.

[5:53] So regardless of the hearing of the preaching, and the seeing of miracles, and regardless of all these things that he had been witnessing for over three years, Judas the Scariot still died, and as the Bible says, went to his own place in the Book of Acts, but Judas the Scariot died as a betrayer of Jesus Christ, and there's many people out there that think, if I go to church, and if I listen to the Sunday School lessons, and if I hear the preaching, and if I agree with the preaching, if I am in the preacher, whatever the case is, if I do these things, I'll go to heaven.

[6:34] There are people that think that, but no folks, a decision for Christ must be made, a decision to repent of our sin, and to believe on the Son Jesus Christ, and to believe in the Word of God, to believe the instructions that we have in this book, and to believe in the work that he wrote for us on Calvary.

[6:57] We are a pen of our ways, we believe these things. That is what brings salvation, because if hearing a wonderful preacher preach gets people saved, Judas the Scariot would have been saved, because he had the best preacher and the best preacher for three years.

[7:13] We must remember that the devil put it in his heart. Now, us who were born again, we're not immune from devil's antics, we're not immune from attacks of the devil, we just spent three days in Bible school talking about a spiritual warfare that goes on between believers and the devil and his army.

[7:41] And I know this was between believers, because it was written to the church, the believers at Ephesus, the scripture that we were using. So that war is ongoing, and it will be ongoing as long as we're here on this earth.

[7:55] It will be a constant battle between good and evil. It will be a constant battle between right and wrong. And as we've gone over for the past three days last week, we must fight this in the whole armor of God, and we must do it in prayer unto God.

[8:13] So we're not immune from the attacks, us who believe and are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. But Judas here, again, and supper being into the devil, having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, John makes sure that everybody knows who this Judas is.

[8:34] Judas was a very common name during the Bible times. In fact, Jude, the half-brother of Jesus Christ, his name was named Judas according to church history.

[8:51] And I can see why he would have shortened his name to just Jude, because nobody wants to be known as Judas. You don't really hear anybody named Judas nowadays, and there's a reason for that.

[9:05] But the devil put it in the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. Here we have a major contrast between what we read last week in verse one, what we're going to read this week in the following verses.

[9:27] And all this is contrasted here in verse two, to betray Christ. The devil had put it in Judas' heart to betray Christ. Going back to verse one, the very end of verse one, says that Christ loved his disciples unto the end.

[9:44] So we've gone from love that Christ has for his disciples to the hatred that Judas Iscariot obviously had for Christ. I promise you, if the devil puts anything in anybody's heart, it is full of hate.

[9:59] It is full of hate, because the devil, Satan himself, is full of hate. So we're contrasting between verse one and verse two. And in the coming verses as well, because we have this betrayal and action that Judas Iscariot is going to take against Jesus Christ.

[10:22] And we contrast that with the servitude that Jesus Christ shows to his disciples, including Judas Iscariot. There's people that'll argue that.

[10:34] There's people out there that say Judas' feet couldn't have been washed by Christ. Christ wouldn't have done that. He says that he began to wash the disciples' feet.

[10:45] We'll get there in just a few minutes. But he began to wash the disciples' feet. Judas was one of the twelve original disciples. Granted, he was not a saved individual.

[10:57] He was not a regenerated individual. He didn't have the belief that the other disciples did, but nonetheless, he was one of the twelve. In verse three, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God, he rises from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself.

[11:21] This is remission of verse one that we went through last week. Again, verse one says, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father.

[11:32] And here we read Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God. So John is reiterating something that he's already brought up in verse one.

[11:46] Why would he feel it necessary to do that? Why would the Holy Ghost see it necessary to do that? Because of what Christ was about to do. Because of what he was about to do.

[11:58] Jesus knowing the Father had given all things into his hands. In other words, the world belonged to Christ. All power was in his Christ. He was in his Creator.

[12:10] He was in his Master. He was in his Maker. He is all of these things. And the very Maker of these men, and the very Maker of the entire world, and the very giver of the Word of God itself, the very one that all power in heaven and earth was given unto him, was about to take on the role of a servant and wash his disciples' feet.

[12:39] And folks, that shows us an incredible amount of humility that Jesus Christ condescended to. Again, he was the Maker, and he is the Maker of it all.

[12:53] Anything that he wants, anything that he desires, anything could be his. Anything that he desired for these men here could be his.

[13:04] He could have desired that they all gather around and wash his feet. But no, no, Christ, the Son of God, whom all power belonged to him, condescended to him.

[13:21] And it says that he girded himself up. That's exactly the way a servant would have dressed.

[13:32] He took on a servant's guard. He was taking on a servant's role. He might as well take on a servant's guard while he's at it. But he girded himself up to wash these disciples' feet.

[13:43] Jesus knew that the Father had given all things into his hand, and that he was come from God. He knew where he had come from. He had come from glory. There's people that say that here in verse 4, the Father laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself.

[13:58] There's people that say that this was a picture of what happened the very next day at the cross. And I can see that.

[14:09] But folks, it happened before that. Christ laid aside the robes of glory to come here, to come here and be born, be born of a woman, be born under the law, to be born as a human being, to take on the role of the ultimate sacrifice that he would make not long from where we're reading here.

[14:37] It takes chapters to get to that part here in John, but it took hours to get to it from where we're at right now, to get to the cross.

[14:49] He knew that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and that he went to God. And we covered that last week when we were reading verse 1, that he knew where he had come from, and he knew he was going back to the Father, but there was still work to be done.

[15:08] And it was the very work of destroying the devil, the very work of destroying and defeating death itself, and Jesus Christ came to this earth.

[15:20] Yes, he came to heal. Yes, he came to show us the way. Yes, he came to do all these things, but folks, he came to destroy the works of the devil.

[15:32] He came to make a way that we could be reconciled back to the Father who had cast off the entire human race back in the Garden of Eden. That's why Christ came.

[15:44] Verse 4, He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself. Again, this was the job of the lowest servant in the household.

[15:58] Sometimes slaves would actually do this, whether it was a paid servant, or whether it was a slave. It was the job of the lowest servant available at the time in these times to wash the feet of those who were present in the household.

[16:15] Christ himself, Christ who had healed lepers, Christ who had opened the eyes of the blind, Christ who had done all these amazing things over the past three years that these men had witnessed was girding himself with a towel to serve these men.

[16:37] Verse 5, After that he pours water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with a towel, wherewith he was girded.

[16:49] So not only did he wash, but he went a step further and he wiped them as well, which would have been how a servant would have done it.

[17:02] But it says after they pour water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, the disciples, that is the plural form of disciples, and it's also the possessive form of the disciples because we're talking about their feet, but it is plural.

[17:17] So that includes all the disciples which would have included Judas Iscariot and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with a towel, wherewith he was girded. Hoax, this was Jesus Christ doing this.

[17:31] And who are we to have so much pride about ourselves that we will not help a brother or sister in need or an unsafe neighbor in need?

[17:43] Who are we to have that much pride about ourselves when Christ himself girded himself with a towel and washed the feet of his disciples?

[17:55] Washing something in church services that you don't really hear much of anymore? I've been part of several foot washing services. There were very spiritual services, some of them were.

[18:07] And I'm thankful for them, but that's not the only way we can humble ourselves and serve a brother or sister in Christ. How about just entering the phone when they call?

[18:19] How about checking on them once in a while? And not just brothers and sisters in Christ, but folks, we're to love God, we're to love our neighbor. Regardless of who our neighbor is, we're to love them.

[18:31] And we're to look not only at their physical needs, this was a physical need that the disciples had because we don't read anything up to this point that when they entered into where they were, that their feet were washed.

[18:45] So it was a physical need that they had, but folks, it goes so much deeper than that. It was a spiritual need that they had as well. I know I've talked before here and other places over in the Book of Exodus, and it's talking about the tabernacle and how things were set up and how when you walked into the tabernacle and the brazen altar received a ride, and you walk a little bit further, and you have the laver there that had the water and the priest would wash themselves with that laver.

[19:16] Why did they do that? Because for one, they'd just come from the brazen altar and have blood all over them, and they needed to wash. But mainly because it was a commandment of God that they go in this order, but they would wash themselves, including their feet.

[19:32] Why their feet? Because their feet is what carries them places. Our feet carries us places. Some of those places ain't too godly that our feet go to.

[19:44] School's not too godly. Our places of work aren't godly. There's many things out there that are not godly that our feet carries us to, and we need to be cleansed of that.

[19:57] We need daily cleansing of that. How do we do that? I'm getting ahead of myself in the lesson, but that's okay. How do we daily cleanse? The best way is to read the Word of God.

[20:08] Read the Word of God. The Word of God is cleansing. Jesus Christ says that himself, right here in this same Gospel. But the Word of God will cleanse us, but we repent of our sins that we have committed.

[20:23] We read the Word of God. After 34th water into a basin, he began to wash the disciples' feet and wiped them with the towel worth he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter.

[20:34] And Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Here's Simon Peter doing what Simon Peter does best. Sticking his foot in his mouth. Before it's washed even.

[20:47] He stuck his foot in his mouth again. But honestly, is that what it was? Or was it that Simon Peter in his heart and in his mind thought, I should be the one washing your feet, Lord?

[21:04] I should be the one doing this for you instead of you doing this for me. But he asked the question, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?

[21:15] He recognized Christ as Lord. Peter knew that Christ was Lord. Peter is the very one that made the statement, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

[21:28] He knew that this was the Lord. And Peter had been watching his Lord wash the feet of the disciples. He'd been bearing witness to this event, and he still called him Lord.

[21:45] I can imagine the thoughts that were going through Judas Iscariot's mind as Christ was washing his feet. But what was going through Peter's mind? What is Christ doing?

[21:57] Who does he think he is? Much like just before he made the statement that I'm the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus had asked his disciples who men said that he was.

[22:10] And some said he was like this one, some said he was that one. And Jesus says, but who do ye say that I am? And Peter said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

[22:21] And just a couple of verses later, Jesus Christ gets into how he's going to be killed and how that he must suffer.

[22:32] And Peter says, not so. Not so. Why? Because Peter didn't have a great understanding across.

[22:43] He didn't have a great understanding of him here. That great understanding would come later. Just like it did for us folks. When I got saved, my theology was so bad. My thoughts on scripture were so bad.

[22:56] Everything, almost everything I should say, that I thought about God and about the Bible. Everything was so bad.

[23:07] But I knew that God had showed me I was a sinner and that he was a savior. And I repented and I trusted in Christ. And I believed the gospel that I had heard preached to me.

[23:18] And I was saved. Peter did not have perfect understanding of Christ. And this shows it here. And this is a rebuke of Christ, given in a very loving and tender way.

[23:33] It's a rebuke that Christ gives him, though, in these verses, then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet, Jesus sent unto them, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.

[23:47] Now some people read this, thou shalt know in the hereafter. That's not what it says. And it doesn't say that in the Greek. And it doesn't say that in any English translation that's out there.

[23:59] But I've heard it preached like that. You should, you will know this in the hereafter, folks. It's not just in the hereafter that Peter come to a wonderful realization of exactly who Christ was and exactly what Christ had done for him.

[24:14] Read his preaching throughout the book of Acts. Read 1st and 2nd Peter, if you want to see what Peter come to find out about Jesus Christ.

[24:25] Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, What I'm doing at this current moment, you don't know, but you'll know hereafter.

[24:38] You'll have a better understanding of it. Christ came here to serve. He came here to be a savior, yes. And what did that savior have to do?

[24:51] Christ had to serve. And you know what? Christ still to this very day serves us as savior. He has not stopped being savior since he rose from the grave.

[25:03] He is still the savior of the entire world and he is the only savior that has ever been available. He's the only savior that we will ever need or that this world will ever need, Hallowe.

[25:16] So he tells Peter, you don't know what I'm doing right now, but you'll know in the hereafter. You'll know not at the death, not at the death on the cross, not even at the resurrection.

[25:32] When was all this really and truly revealed to Peter? It was revealed just as Jesus gets into later on in the book of John, in the Gospel of John, here in the next couple of chapters.

[25:46] Jesus is telling them about the comforter. He's telling them about the Holy Spirit. He's telling them about the Holy Ghost. He says, he tells them, he says, I must go away. He said, but if I go away, I will send another comforter.

[25:59] He says, I will pray the Father and he will send the comforter. And the comforter is what's going to reveal these things, or who will reveal these things to you and to the rest of them and to all believers.

[26:14] From that point on, the comforter does that. When was the comforter poured out? That was in the book of Acts. So it was from the book of Acts on that Peter would have had really good revelation.

[26:29] Now, that doesn't mean Peter didn't believe and that doesn't mean Peter wasn't saved. Read John chapter 21. We'll get there one of these months. Read John chapter 21 and how Jesus talked to Peter then.

[26:45] And I believe Peter believed who Christ was then. But again, in John 21, we see Peter certainly didn't have perfect belief, no more than your eye, either one, have perfect belief.

[26:59] We got to be careful looking down our noses at Peter. A lot of people say, well, he denied the Lord three times and most Christians I know have denied the Lord a lot more times than three that we have recorded that Peter did.

[27:13] What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, thou shalt never wash my feet. And again, was this Peter doing what Peter was so prone to doing, just blabbing in his zeal?

[27:34] Or was it Peter really thinking, this is the Lord. He shouldn't be washing my feet. I tend to lean that way other than Peter sticking the proverbial foot in his mouth.

[27:50] Could have been a combination of both, I never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Folks, those are strong words.

[28:02] If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with me. What is the part that he's talking about? Is he talking about salvation?

[28:14] I don't think so. Use Scripture to interpret Scripture. What's the part that we're talking about here? We were reading the Gospel of Luke about Martha and Mary.

[28:27] Martha was whining that Mary wasn't helping her with the dishes and the vacuum and all these other things that needed to be going on while Jesus was there. And Jesus said that Mary had chosen the better part.

[28:39] What part was he talking about? He was talking about fellowship. He was talking about fellowship. Just like Paul wrote in one of his letters to the Corinthians.

[28:50] He said, what part hath a believer with an infidel? What's the part that he's talking about? He's talking about fellowship. So that's what Christ is talking about here.

[29:01] When he says, Peter said, thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus said, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. You have no fellowship with me.

[29:12] If I do not wash you. And verse 9, Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.

[29:24] Jesus saith unto him, he that is washed, needeth not, save to wash his feet, but is clean every width and year clean. And ye are clean, but not all.

[29:36] Back to verse 9 again, Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Folks, we, even as Christians, even as those that have already been saved, we still don't have perfect knowledge of Christ.

[29:52] But that does not negate, not one eye-out of that negate the fact that we are to obey what Christ says. Even if we don't have perfect knowledge of Him, if we don't have perfect belief of Him, if we don't have a perfect understanding of Christ, that does not wipe off the fact that we still need to obey what the Word of God says.

[30:17] That's what Peter did here. Even in his question, Lord, does thou wash my feet? Showing that he didn't have an understanding of what was going on, but folks, it didn't take him.

[30:30] It didn't take him very long at all to obey what Christ said. And not only to obey, but to go an extra step or two with it. He said, not my feet only.

[30:42] Wash everything about me. If it means that I'm going to have fellowship with you, and this might have been the thought of Peter, if washing my feet means I'm going to have fellowship, then washing my head and my hands and my chest and my back and everything else about me, maybe I'll have even closer fellowship with him.

[31:02] That's a possibility that Peter might have been thinking of that. Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith unto him, he that is washed, needeth not, save to wash his feet, but is clean every width.

[31:19] Folks, this is talking partially about salvation. He that is washed is washed every width.

[31:30] And partially about sanctification. We still got to wash our feet, like I was talking about earlier. We still got to have our feet washed, because our feet is what carries us into the world.

[31:43] It's what carries us to the ungodly places and to ungodly people, around ungodly things. We need to wash our feet, because our feet get dirty. I ain't saying that ungodliness creeps up from our feet into our mind into our heart or anything along those lines.

[32:01] Take what we're reading here and apply it spiritually. Think about the places that we go. As I've already said, we go to work, which generally is an ungodly place. We go to schools, which are very ungodly places, and we're talking about the public school systems and some private schools that I know of as well.

[32:20] We go to Walmart. Walmart can be a pretty ungodly place. I've seen some ungodly things happen at Walmart. Gas stations, public sidewalks, malls.

[32:32] Sometimes our family members' houses are ungodly places. We got to be washed. We need our feet washed.

[32:45] For he knew who should betray him, therefore said he, he or not, all clean. He had already said in verse 10, you're clean every whit, and ye are clean.

[33:01] That word ye being plural, it's always plural, meaning all those that were around, which was all his disciples, and ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him, therefore said he, ye are not all clean.

[33:17] Judas Iscariot's feet might have been physically clean. But the spiritual thing that Jesus Christ was showing them here, the spiritual cleansing that needed to take effect, that had not happened with Judas, that we read about there in verse 2 of John 13.

[33:35] Nor would it happen with Judas, unfortunately. But anyway, that brings us to the end of that part.

[33:46] And John 13, anybody got any questions or comments? Alright, God bless y'all. I appreciate you.