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[0:00] Morning. Morning. Back in the Gospel of John this morning. John chapter 13. Moving right along through the Gospel of John.

[0:13] And I'll be it, it might be slowly, but that's alright. There's a whole lot in this Gospel. A whole lot in the Bible. Back up to chapter 1 in John's Gospel, which we started well over a year ago, and not repeat a whole lot, if we wanted to.

[0:36] Back in John 13 this morning, a couple Sundays ago, we spent the entire Sunday School Lesson just in verse 1 of John 13.

[0:48] And last Sunday we covered verses 2 through 11. Just a real quick recap on that. This is when Jesus stood at the supper that he was having with the disciples on the eve of his crucifixion.

[1:06] And Jesus stood and girded himself and grabbed a towel and washed his disciples' feet. And pretty much in a very small condensed nutshell, what happens in verses 2 through 11 in John 13.

[1:24] And of course we have the things that we covered last week. You know, Jesus coming to Simon Peter and Peter, we spent a little bit of time on the last week.

[1:41] Peter of course saying, the style washed my feet. And said, you know, you'll never wash my feet. And Christ explained to him that this had to be done.

[1:53] Basically if you're going to follow me, you've got to let me wash you. That's in layman's terms what Christ told Peter there. And of course Peter, when he come to that realization, when Christ brought him to that realization, Peter said, you know, not only my feet, my head, pretty much from my head to my toes, I want you to cleanse me.

[2:17] And Jesus does that for Peter and for the other 11 disciples. And we talked last week about how it's very significant that he done that for all the disciples, because Judas Iscariot was part of those that were around.

[2:40] And Christ knowing good and well, not only that his crucifixion was very imminent at this point, we find that in verse 1 of John 13, but also knowing that the betrayal of Judas Iscariot was just hours.

[3:01] I mean, at most a few hours from where we're reading at right now, yet he still washed the feet of Judas Iscariot. If he washed the feet of the disciples plural as the Scripture says, Judas Iscariot would have been included in that number, and that's very significant.

[3:22] So all that being said, we'll pick up in John 13 starting at verse 12. He says, so after he had washed their feet and had taken his garments and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you.

[3:39] So he asked them a question here. Now back up just a little bit, still in verse 12, but it says so after he had washed their feet there, the 12 disciples that were gathered there with him, what's commonly referred to as the Last Supper, but we learn in verse 1 that it's a Passover feast, and really that they're having here.

[4:05] And that in and of itself is significant because it mentions how Jesus knew that his time was at hand, how close it was.

[4:18] And Jesus here being the Passover lamb himself. So that has some significance, but says after he washed their feet and had taken his garments.

[4:32] Now remember a couple Sundays ago, he had laid his garments to the side. He had taken a towel. He had girded himself up, but his outer garments he had laid to the side to do what?

[4:44] To wash the feet of the disciple. And we talked about last week about how that was normally reserved as a very menial task for a menial person within the household.

[4:59] Sometimes it was the lowest servant in the household. Sometimes it was a slave within the household, but it was something that was reserved for people of a lower class and the very maker of the entire universe, the very master of everything and everyone, stooped down and washed the feet of these disciples that have been following him around at this point for a little over three years.

[5:31] So we see Christ earlier in the chapter said his garments to the side and here it says that he takes his garments. He took them back up, says after he washed their feet and had taken his garments and was set down again.

[5:49] So I brought this up last Sunday. I guess it was when it says in verse two, and supper being ended. Well, supper had not quite ended yet.

[6:02] It was ended for this time and it was ended for a purpose. But it resumed again because we have Christ setting back down at the table and just a little while after this we see Christ dipping his bread.

[6:16] So supper wasn't completely ended, but Christ, he put an end to it for the time being, but it resumed.

[6:28] So he had taken his garments and was set down again. He said unto them, Know ye what I've done to you. This is a searching question that Christ asked the disciples.

[6:41] Know ye what I've done to you. And every one of us in here now and every Christian truth be known could have the same question applied to them.

[6:52] Know ye what Christ has done to you. Do you know what He has done to you? Do you know what He's done for you? If you're truly born again, now, again, this question was directed at all of the disciples, all those that were around, which would have included Judas Iscariot, what had Christ done to Judas?

[7:16] What had Christ done to Peter? What had Christ done to the other disciples that were gathered around there? He had washed their feet. And I'm sure that that's all they would have thought was, oh Lord, you stooped down, you took water and you washed our feet.

[7:34] That's what you've done to me. The folks that go so much deeper than that, so much deeper than that, the Lord showed them, and we're going to get into it in the next few verses, but the Lord showed them true servanthood.

[7:50] And He showed them that in order to be great, which we find throughout the Gospel accounts, not just here in John, but even more so really in the synoptic Gospels and Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we show that to be considered great within the kingdom of God, we need to humble ourselves and be servants, not only to one another, not only to brothers and sisters and Christ, but we need to humble ourselves and in the utmost humility serve those that are around us.

[8:26] Once again, that's not just the church. That's not just those of a lack faith, that is all of those that are around us. Christ made no distinction when He said that the two greatest commandments were to love God and to love our neighbor.

[8:43] We talked about that, I believe it was last week. When He said, love your neighbor, He didn't make a distinction between your saved neighbor and your lost neighbor. The Bible, not only when Christ says it, but in the Old Testament where that's originally given, it says to love your neighbor.

[9:00] And it makes no distinction whether that neighbor believes in God, whether that believer is saved, whether that believer is white, black, or purple, or yellow, or anything else. It makes no distinction of those things.

[9:14] And if we love our neighbor, we will serve our neighbor. And that not only applies in the neighborly sense, but it also applies for husbands, it applies for wives, it applies for children, it applies for grandparents, it applies to grandchildren, nephews and nieces and aunts and uncles.

[9:35] It applies to everyone. And if we are to be great, and that's one of the things that's so significant about this, we don't read it about here in John's Gospel, but in the Gospel of Luke in chapter 22, you read in this very same account, you read there was a strife among the disciples, and what was that strife?

[9:59] What was the argument between the disciples? Who should be great? Who should be great? And Christ here in verses 2 through 11, which we covered last week, and here in the next few verses, which we'll cover this week, Christ is showing them exactly who shall be great.

[10:18] First of all, Christ is great. Christ was great when this was going on, and Christ laid His greatness to the side.

[10:29] He didn't lay the fact that He was God to the side, He didn't lay His deity to the side. He was God just as much when He was washing the feet of the disciples as He was when He was laying in the manger in Bethlehem.

[10:43] He was just as much God upon the cross. He was just as much God over the past three years that He'd been going to around all these different areas and all these different villages and places and cities and towns and performing miracles and preaching.

[10:57] He was God the entire time, but God Himself had stooped down and washed the feet of His creation, of people that He had created that should have been serving Him, but we learn in the Gospel of Mark in chapter 10, He didn't come to be served.

[11:21] He didn't come to be served by them. He came to serve, and we talk briefly about it last week, how Christ even now is still serving the redeemed.

[11:32] How so? Because He is forever making intercession for us. He is still our advocate, and He ever will be our advocate if there is no Christ in this life or in the next, folks, we don't have an advocate and we do not have an intercessor.

[11:51] The Christ ever lives. Christ ever lives. And He ever lives to make intercession for His redeemed, for those that have believed in the Gospel and they've repented of their ways and they've trusted and crossed, and crossed alone.

[12:09] And the very one who this entire Gospel is about, who the entire Gospel is about, not just the Gospel of John, but the very one who this entire book is about, stooped and washed the feet of His disciples, giving us a lesson, a very stern lesson, a very vivid lesson.

[12:35] If we want to be great in the Kingdom of God, we must in humility, in humility. If we do it in pride, folks, it will do us no spiritual good, and it certainly won't be to further the Kingdom of God if we do it in pride.

[12:52] But if we do it to the glory of God, if we serve our neighbors to the glory of God, if we serve our wives and our husbands, if we serve all those around us in humility to the glory of God, that's what makes us great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

[13:09] Know you what I've done to you is the question Christ asked here. Verse 13, you call me master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am, and I just got through saying that Christ was just as much God as He was performing the service of washing the feet of these disciples as He was at any other time, as He was before this, as He was during this, and as He has been since all of this. He was just as much God, and He reminds the disciples here, you call me master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am, I am master, and I am Lord, but yet, yet I just washed your feet.

[14:04] If I then, your Lord and master, have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet, and you're an example that you should do as I have done to you.

[14:16] He done this as an example. Folks, He didn't do it out of obligation. He didn't do it because He was being paid to do it. He didn't do it because He had to.

[14:28] He done it as an example to not only these disciples here, but to us. This fast-forwards to us, the current church, the Bible-believing church.

[14:41] It comes to us as well, but it's not just the act of washing one another's feet. As I've already said, it's the act of serving one another.

[14:53] It's the act of serving. There's so much serving that needs to be done within the church, and so much of the church has left it to the pastor and the deacons to do the serving, folks.

[15:06] When Christ gives certain commands within the gospel, they go to all believers. You know why most people think, most of the modern-day church thinks that it's the pastor's job to go out and visit at the hospitals?

[15:21] They think that it's the deacon's job to do that because the pastor and the deacons years and years and years ago saw the falling away of this service, the service of humility.

[15:32] They saw the falling away in the churches, and they said, I will lead by example. And that's what put it in people's head. Well, it's the pastor's job to do that.

[15:44] Is it the pastor's job to feed the hungry? Is it the pastor's job to close the naked? No. It's believers' jobs to do that. It's the church's job to do that.

[15:57] But so many people and so many pastors, again, years and years ago, they saw the church, their congregation's not being the church. And they said, I'm going to do this by example.

[16:10] I'm going to show them how it's done. And that put it into the congregation's head. It's the pastor's job to do this. Folks, it's believers' job to do this. It's believers' job to serve, not just pastors and deacons.

[16:27] And I promise you all, Vern didn't pay me to say any of that. It's the truth. It is the Bible truth. I mean, it's no different than in the Old Testament times.

[16:40] You know, God created laws and God created ordinances and all these other things. But He gave commandments to whom?

[16:51] To His people, to the Israelites. He didn't command the people from Moab. He didn't command the pagan nations that were all around Israel.

[17:03] He commanded His people to do things. And one of those things was that if a sojourner came in, if a sojourner, someone that wasn't off then, if someone come in from outside, they were to make provision for them.

[17:20] Not just Moses, not just Aaron, not just the tribe of Levi. It was a commandment to all of the Israelites to do that.

[17:31] And folks, it is a commandment to all of the church to be the church and to serve in humility and to serve in love and to serve to the glory of God.

[17:43] That's the commandment that we have. He says, again, verse 15, for I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you.

[17:57] And if you all flip with me real quick to Philippians chapter 2, Paul actually does a really good job of describing exactly what Christ is talking about here in John chapter 13.

[18:12] In Philippians chapter 2, starting at verse 1, we'll read several verses here. It says, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded, having the same love being of one accord and of one mind.

[18:32] Folks, that's what Christ was trying to get through to those disciples. Remember in Luke 22, there was a strife among the disciples. And Christ is trying to show all of them at the same time you must serve and you must do it in humility.

[18:49] And the entire church is to do this. And Paul here says, being of one accord and one mind, he is writing to the church. He is writing to believers in Philippi in this letter saying, you must be of all of one mind and one accord.

[19:06] Verse 3, let nothing be done through strife or vanglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

[19:20] We should look more so on the things of others than of ourselves, and especially when salvation is concerned. Folks, I'm a redeemed, born again, washed into blood of Jesus Christ, child of God.

[19:35] I know where I'm going when I leave here. But I also know where a lot of people out there are going when they leave here. If they don't repent of their ways and they don't believe the gospel, it is my job to serve them by telling them about the gospel.

[19:53] It is my job to serve them by showing them the goodness of God. It's my job to serve them in humility. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

[20:06] What mind? He's about to spend a few verses telling us what mind. Verse 6, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man.

[20:25] He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

[20:50] Christ took the form of a servant upon himself when he was crucified, and again to this very day Christ is still serving those that will repent, and those that will believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[21:13] The folks have already said it, to be considered great in the kingdom of God. And I'm not saying we do these things so that when we get to heaven, God gives us an atta boy, or an atta girl, or a pat on the back, or a blue ribbon, or a smiley face on the chalkboard, or any of those other things.

[21:33] That's not why we do it. We do it because we are redeemed. We do it because the Bible commands us to do it. We do it because it brings glory to God.

[21:44] God did not save you because you deserved it, and God did not save you because you're a good woman or a good man. God saved you to bring himself glory when Jesus Christ gave himself, when he emptied himself, not of his deity, but when he emptied himself, when he set his power, I guess you could say, to the side, it's not that he didn't have that power anymore, but he did not use that power to call legions of angels.

[22:15] He didn't use that power to kill the Roman guards that came to arrest him. He didn't use that power to bring himself down from the cross. He emptied himself. He became a servant.

[22:27] The Bible here says Paul wrote to the church of Philippi. He thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Jesus Christ was and is God, and yet, yet he still gave himself, and he still took on the form of a servant, and Christ is the greatest that is in heaven, and he is the greatest that is in earth.

[22:54] He is the greatest under the earth. He is the greatest, period. So with him giving us the example that we have in John 13, and he said, I've done this as an example to you with him giving us that example, we can rightfully say that in order to be considered great, not as great as Christ, but in order to be considered great in the kingdom, we must serve. We must serve.

[23:22] Verse 16, Verily, verily I say unto you that the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. So he says the servant is not greater than his Lord, nor he that sent greater than he that sent him.

[23:41] And he's given them a very practical saying here in this verse, saying, in saying this, the servant is not greater than his Lord.

[23:52] This is something they would have been able to wrap their minds around. No servant is greater than his Lord. No messenger is greater than the person that sent the message.

[24:05] And folks, that goes for the Old Testament, that goes on in the New Testament, and it is not even now here in 2024 that no servant is greater than his Lord. Folks, we will never be as great.

[24:17] We'll never hold a candle to the greatness of Jesus Christ. Never will we do that. He is the greatest, but he says the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that sent that is sent greater than he that sent him.

[24:33] Verse 17, if you know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. Once again, we can bring up Judas Iscariot.

[24:44] Judas was present at this time. He says if you know these things, folks, knowledge and intellect is not what counts.

[24:59] There are all kinds of people. I had knowledge of the Bible before I got saved. I had not back patten Spencer at all. But I knew more about the Bible than most professing Christians that I knew.

[25:13] And I denied the Bible. I denied its authority. I denied the existence of God. But I knew more about Scripture. I knew more about biblical history. I knew more about a lot of things than most professing Christians that I knew.

[25:29] Folks, that did not save me. That did not save me. Crossed again, he says if you know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

[25:40] This runs parallel with what James says. James says be doers of the word and not hearers only. Folks, if we're not acting on the word, if we're not doing what the word tells us to, what good is it doing not only us, but what good is it doing for the world?

[25:58] If we're not acting out and doing what the word commands us to do, if you know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. Judas knew them.

[26:09] The other 11 disciples knew them. Christ was telling them, but who were the doers of the word?

[26:21] Who were the doers of them? Verse 18, I speak not of you all. I know whom I have chosen, but that the Scripture may be fulfilled. He that he hath bred with me hath lifted up his heel against me.

[26:34] This is horribly sad words that Christ speaks here. And he's quoting from the Psalms when he says it. He that hath bred with me hath lifted up his heel against me.

[26:46] Of course he's speaking of Judas Iscariot here. The folks, this goes right back to verse 17. If you know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

[26:59] Judas didn't do. Judas didn't do. Christ says in another part of the Gospels that you'll be justified. He says thou shalt be justified by the words that ye speak.

[27:15] And thou shalt be condemned by the words that ye speak. How so is that? If we know that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sins, how do the words that we speak either justify or condemn us, folks?

[27:30] That's the words of Jesus Christ. He is the one that spoke that. So how do the words that we speak play into that? If we speak something that we don't believe, that makes us a liar.

[27:42] If we're trying to convince someone of something that we don't believe ourselves, but we're trying to portray it or convey it as truth, that makes us a liar.

[27:56] So if we're justified by the word that we speak and we're speaking truth, we're speaking the Gospel, we're speaking salvation through Christ alone and faith alone, we're speaking these things, folks, that justifies us.

[28:17] Not as far as salvation goes, because anybody can go out here and tell somebody, Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. Anybody can do that. But we're also condemned by the words that we speak.

[28:33] So that's a two-sided coin there. But here, Christ says, He has bread with me and lifted up His hill against me. Judas was on one side of that coin, and the wrong side of that.

[28:48] The rest were on the opposite side. Christ says, I know whom I've chosen. I know who I'm here for. But He goes on now, or He says there before anybody, He says, I know whom I've chosen, but that the Scripture may be fulfilled.

[29:07] That the Scripture may be fulfilled. That prophecy may be fulfilled. What was the prophecy exactly what He spoke in His next word? He that He has grabbed with me, has lifted up His hill against me.

[29:23] Verse 19, Now I tell you before it comes, that when it has come to pass, you may believe that I am He. Jesus Christ wasn't telling them this just to be using a few extra breaths before the crucifixion the next day.

[29:38] He wasn't telling them this just to be telling them something. He told them this for a purpose. Everything that Christ did was for a purpose. I tell you before it comes that when it has come to pass, you believe that I am He.

[29:53] I am who? What did He just quote? He that He has grabbed with me, has lifted up His hill against me. The He that is spoken of here in verse 19 is the me that is brought up in verse 18.

[30:06] He says, I tell you these things that you'll know that I am He. So when Judas betrays me, when you see this come to pass, when you see Him come and kiss me, and the guards arrest me, when you see these things happen, you will know that I am He.

[30:29] In other words, it will strengthen your faith. It will strengthen your faith. One more verse. Barely, barely I say unto you, He that receiveth whomesoever I sin, receiveth me, and He that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me.

[30:47] Some people refer to the, I guess, context of this verse as well as other verses in Scripture, as the doctrine of representation, and I can see that.

[31:01] But, Christ says, He that receiveth whomesoever I sin, receiveth me. Remember what He said just a few verses before this, though, that the one that is sent is not greater than the one that done the sending.

[31:16] Here, He says, He that receiveth whomesoever I sin, whomesoever I sin, receiveth me, and He that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me.

[31:29] So when Christ sends us out into the world, and people receive us, does that automatically earn salvation for those people? No.

[31:46] No, I mean, I've been received into a lot of homes where I, when I went in and I presented the gospel, when I left them, people were still lost.

[31:58] So just to physically receive me into a home, or into a hospital room, or a nursing home room, or wherever it is I'm at, to physically receive me does not mean that someone's automatically going to receive salvation.

[32:14] We're talking about true reception here, though. He that receiveth whomesoever I sin, receiveth me. Remember what Jesus said to the disciples when He sent them out, He sent them out in droves?

[32:30] He said, if you come to a house where you're not received, what were they to do? Turn around, kick the dust off your heels, and move on to the next place. Not everybody's going to receive us.

[32:41] In fact, it's getting less and less people in the world that are receiving Christians in general. But Christ says, he that receiveth whomesoever I sinned, whomesoever I sinned, if Christ sends us somewhere, and whomesoever receives that person, and he that receiveth me, receives him that sent me, they'll receive both.

[33:12] They will receive both. They can't receive Christ and say, but I hate your gut, Spencer. They can't do that, and they can't say, Spencer, I love you to pieces.

[33:23] Does that count for anything? Because I'm still not sure about this Christ, fella. No, no. And there are so many people out there that think that. I've talked to more than one father over the years that I've gone and visited homes.

[33:42] And it's always the father. It's never been a mother, not yet. But there's been a few fathers that have said, I want my kids to go to Sunday school. I want my kids to learn the Bible. I want my kids to be in church.

[33:57] I want my kids to love God, and they think that that's earning them some kind of check mark on a bulletin board on high. They think that that's earning them something with God. Folks, it don't work like that.

[34:15] It does not work like that. They say, and I've had them tell me, I don't want to go to church. I don't want to be there around that crowd, but I want my kids to go to Sunday school, and I want them to learn about Jesus. And they think that that helps them.

[34:29] Folks, it's got to be received. The gospel must be received. The truth that Jesus Christ came to save sinners must be received. They receive Christ. They must receive the one whom Christ sent.