As we have said, we are going to be observing the Lord's Supper if we're given time to do that here shortly. And we are told in 1 Corinthians 11, the 26th verse, Paul telling the Corinthians, he says, For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. In all three of the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we read about this Lord's Supper. We read about Matthew's recollection and his view as well as Mark and Luke's. The Gospel of John does not record the Lord's Supper. but it does record something that occurred, many believe, in that same supper. Others believe it was at a different time, but it records another circumstance in the 13th chapter of the Gospel of John that we want to direct your attention to today, and this scene when Jesus washes the disciples' feet. We believe that we will be observing today the second of the two ordinances that the Lord left His church, The second in chronological order, first with baptism and then as a member of the church, partaking of the Lord's Supper together. There have been many through the years who have observed this washing of the feet as a third ordinance, and we don't see that. We see this more as a symbolical lesson that Christ is giving his disciples. And while it's not an ordinance, it certainly reveals much about our Lord. And if we are to observe this Lord's supper this afternoon, remembering and thinking about the Lord's death, certainly it helps us to see Him in the capacity that He comes to them in this 13th chapter of the gospel of John. And we're gonna read the first 20 verses today of the 13th chapter here. And I want us to think together as we read this, just if you've read this many times, if you've heard it preached on or a Bible lesson given on it, I would ask you to, as I so often do, try to hear this anew. And to think of the incomprehensible reality of what we're reading, the unthinkable, facts of what we read. Knowing who Jesus is, knowing what he does here, it ought to arrest our attention and cause us to think upon our Lord, who would go to a cross and die for every one of us in this room. 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 the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet? Jesus answered him, what I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. 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. 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 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 Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet, for I have given you an example that you also should do as I have done to you. 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. I am not speaking of all of you. I know whom I have chosen, but the scripture will be fulfilled. He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. I am telling you this now before it takes place, that when it does take place, you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send, receives me. and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me." These first five verses, and certainly all 20 of them, but certainly the setting that we find in these first five verses, present an unthinkable scene in many ways, an incomprehensible scene. The hour of Christ's betrayal, His crucifixion, His death on the cross, His time when all of those that claimed to love Him and support Him and follow Him, every one of them, in just a few moments, a few hours, are going to betray Him or at least abandon Him. And Jesus knew what was coming. He knew what He was facing. Jesus knew every bit of pain that he was getting ready to endure, not just the pain of the cross. As terrible as that must have been, and certainly I can't imagine that kind of pain, but that wasn't all of it. But the beating, and if you'll read of the crucifixion of the Lord and His trial prior to that, how they spit on Him and how they slapped Him and how they struck Him, All of these things were already known to the Lord Jesus Christ. And here He is in these last few moments of His life here on earth. And if it were me in that position, I would have a very difficult time thinking about anybody but myself. The pain that I'm getting ready to endure. But Jesus is not like me at all. Jesus is already and still as always thinking of those around him, though he knew that pain and humiliation and the rejection that was so close at hand. We find Jesus not off on his own, not abandoning those who shortly will abandon him. But we find him presenting to them lessons and a teaching that they should take with them. And we find him, the son of God, washing the feet of these sinful men. It's incredible. It's remarkable in in greater degree than we could ever describe. His thoughts are upon those who would follow him. And Jesus, as I just, the scripture when it says that Jesus, knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hands and he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper, and prior to that, speaking to them that he loved them, in the first verse, to the end. Jesus' love did not stop short. Went all the way through the trial that was coming His way. His love for you goes all the way to the end. Jesus' love for you is sufficient and is enough for you to be saved and for you and me to follow Him and to walk with Him in our lives. His love should merit that attention that only His love can give. It's like no other Jesus' love is. His love, again, is so unthinkable and incomprehensible to the natural man. Jesus' love is just like no other. When we remember the Lord's death today, When we partake of this supper, we remember the fact that His love went all the way to the end, to the cross, and to the grave, and to the resurrection when He went back to His Father and said, I'm coming again. But His love did not stop when it became difficult. His love did not stop when it became hard and when it became sacrificial. All of His life was a life of sacrificial love for you and me. This One who would wash these men's feet, akin, He was the Son of God. He had come from God. He was very God. And He bends down and He takes upon Himself this apron, this clothing of a servant to wash the feet of these disciples. There's such a beautiful picture of what Jesus had already done just to be there in the first place when he'd already taken off the robes of his glorious setting and position with God in heaven. And he took those robes off and put upon himself the robes of flesh. And not, by the way, a rich man even, or a king, or someone that people lauded and appreciated and loved and wanted to see succeed. This was a life that he came to live here that men put him on a cross for. He'd already done this though, in the Philippians we read it, have this mind, Paul says, among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count a quality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. By taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death on a cross. The fact that you've heard that Scripture so many times should not relieve it of its power to change our hearts towards Him. Not only did Jesus condescend in His coming, but He did so in every action and deed that He performed while He was here on earth. Here, Jesus, the Son of God, bends down and washes the feet of the disciples. It's a complete reversal. of what we think should be done as normal, natural, fallen man, complete reversal. And in many ways, it's a complete reversal, truly, of what should have been done. It certainly should have been the disciples washing the Lord's feet, but instead it was Jesus who was washing theirs. It's just unthinkable to our fallen human minds that our lost in pride and blind with personal ambition. And I want to ask you today, after hearing the reading of Jesus, the son of God, bending and washing the feet of these disciples, do you realize what that means for you? For me? Does it have the impact that it should, that Jesus took off his royal robes and took upon himself the clothes of a man for you? The one who was with God in the beginning and through whom all things were created, which means when Adam and Eve were formed from that dust of the ground and God breathed into their nostrils the breath of life, do you realize that that was for you? That Jesus came for me? And when we understand that, is there a moment in our lives that we ought not say, God, it's yours? When we remember what Jesus has done and when we see him here in the 13th chapter of John, taking upon himself this apron, taking off his outer garments and putting upon this apron so that he can wash their feet, do you know what that means for you? He didn't wait to see if you would merit his love, he came. He didn't wait to see if he would earn it. He didn't wait to see if you would receive him. He performed the service knowing that many would not. But what about you? When you see the son of God bent on knee and washing these feet of these disciples, do you know what that means for you? It's the most unthinkable story that's ever been told. Unthinkable, incomprehensible, but it's true. It's what we read in black and white in the book here in John chapter 13, Jesus bending the knee and washing the feet of these disciples. Peter, as he is so want to do, speaks up and puts himself in a position of ridicule by us, or questioning, or we wonder at him. But no doubt, he was not the only one who thought what he was thinking. But Peter is willing to say it. He came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet? And in the Greek, this you is what has the emphasis in the grammar, in the Greek. Will you wash my feet? Peter could not conceive of such a thing. He knew that Jesus was far superior to himself. He knew that without any question. He knew that Jesus was the Son of God. He'd already said so. Jesus, you are the Son of God. You are the one who will take away the sins of the world, John the Baptist had said, and these disciples believed. early on in Luke when Jesus had told the disciples to launch back out or to throw their nets back out after they had toiled all night long and had not caught a thing. And Jesus comes on the scene and he says, let your nets down on the other side. And Peter had said, Lord, we've toiled all night, but at your word, we'll do it. And we know the end of the story. They had a catch that they had to bring other men and other people in just to bring them all in. And the results at the end, how did Peter react? In Luke 5, verse 8, when Simon Peter saw it, that is, this great miracle of Jesus, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. And here, towards the end of Jesus' earthly life, Peter's feeling much the same type of thing, perhaps. He knows how much greater Jesus is. The gospel of Jesus Christ is an unthinkable gospel. It's incomprehensible, but it can be comprehended through the Spirit of God. Because this is not a story that you and I would write. We've said this many times. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the message of the Bible is not a book. It's not a message that we as men would write. It's not how we would design our path back to God. You look at all the major religions of the world and it is always at root when you boil everything down and all that's left there, what's left is what man must do to be made right in the eyes of God. From Buddhism, to Hinduism, to Islam, to Catholicism, to this religion, to that religion, other than that that is prescribed in the Bible is about what we do to be made right again with God. That's not the message of the Bible. And do you know why we want to write a story like that? And do you know why these other religions are so compelling to human nature? It's because we want to deserve God's presence. We want to merit heaven. We want to earn it. We want to feel as though God owes us. So then he rewards us with heaven. We want to feel as though we have served God in such a way that we he then is somehow in our debt. But that's not the message of the Bible. It's not what Jesus came to do. He came to show grace and mercy alone. All kinds of different religions. It comes down to I'm going to live a life so good that I'm going to impress God and he'll allow me into heaven. But that type of cleansing is that's not unthinkable, is it? That makes sense to you and me in our fallen human nature. that if we impress God, if we give him our ties, if we give him our time, if we give him our service in life, then he will be duty bound and honor bound to let us into heaven. But that type of cleansing is not the type of cleansing that you need or that I need. And there's certainly not the cleansing that the Bible talks about in the Bible. It is God who cleanses us and not we ourselves. Even our very repentance does not cleanse us. God does that. The Spirit of God cleanses us from all sin. Repentance is absolutely essential. You cannot get saved without it, but it by itself does not cleanse. Christ alone does. In the Bible, it is a perfect God. who cleanses the imperfect sinner, it is not the sinner who cleans himself up and then desires to present himself to God as clean. Some may hesitate to come to God because they're unwilling to come to him that way. They want to somehow come to him having already cleaned up their life. They want to come to God somehow already with virtues, and this is, by the way, the terrible danger of the Hellenization of Christianity and the Greek mindset of virtue and honor and beauty. This is the danger in those things. We begin to think that we can possess them apart from Christ, and we can't. Beauty and honor and virtue are found in Christ and in Christ alone. It's God that cleans us up. It's not we that clean ourselves up and then present ourselves to God and ask Him, God, are we clean enough yet? It's a sinner coming to God. God, I am a sinner and I cannot clean myself up. I cannot make myself righteous. I cannot make myself, in your eyes, holy and just and justified. I cannot do that alone because all I end up doing is spreading the sin around as much as I'd like to claw it from my life. It clings to me and I cannot but do it because I am a sinner. Gospel's just unthinkable, and man can't comprehend God's motivations even sometimes. And Jesus refers to this, or at least he infers it in verse seven, when he says to them, to Peter, Peter, I know you don't understand what I'm doing right now, but you're going to one day. As Peter says to him, Lord, will you wash my feet? And it's almost a statement, isn't it? It's not just a question. It's almost as Peter's saying. And then he does say it out loud. You'll never wash my feet. But at first, it's this incredulous. Will you wash my feet? Do you know, sometimes we think about washing feet. And again, we don't believe that it's an ordinance of the church. This is an example of an attitude of humility. And we can get into that in a Bible study someday later. But you know, sometimes we think about the humility is in washing someone's feet. But do you understand the humility that it takes to have someone else wash yours? It's greater in some ways. Do you want to know why some people are not clean in Christ today? Because they're unwilling to let him wash their feet. Too embarrassed. And by the way, embarrassment is often pride dressed up in a different emotion. Too embarrassed, never wanting to admit it, wanting to hide simply something from God that can't be hidden. And sometimes we can't even imagine why God would act in this way. We cannot in our fallenness sometimes fathom the love of Christ that is so deep, so selfless, and so unmerited, and so true that our human fallen minds just can't possibly imagine it. This love that is so deep that we can't imagine, this selfless love that we cannot comprehend, this unmerited love that we doubt as a result of its unmeritedness. It's true, his love, and it scares us to be loved like this, because we know that if we are loved like the Bible tells us we are loved, it demands our response. Demands our response, does it not? Does Christ on the cross not shout out to you, respond to this love that I am showing to the world and to you? This man who knew all was omnipotent and omniscient in his position as God, and yet in his humility and in his humanity, he is bent on knee and washing the feet of these hard-hearted and hard-headed, though loving and desiring to follow disciples. Jesus tells him, I know you can't understand this fully, but I'm asking you to trust me that one day, Peter, you will. And sometimes when God comes and he convicts us of our sin, I think sometimes sinners struggle the most, not with whether Jesus died for them or that he loves them, but that he truly, truly would save such a sinner as they. But that is exactly who he came to save. When everything is said and done. When this age has ended. And eternity has begun. It is going to be understood that Jesus selfless love, his sacrificial death on the cross, his cleansing of our sins apart from our own works. We're going to see all of that and more. just brings honor and glory to him and his father. Because you know what Satan will do? He will twist these words and man, he has been successful at doing so in the cultural Christianity of our day. Begin to think that, wow, we must be really something. The son of God is on bended knee, washing our feet. Wow, we must be something. God loves us so much that he died for us. We must be something. But we're going to see in the age to come that that love of his makes him shine brighter and brighter because that love that he showed us was completely without merit. Completely. without merit. One of the primary reasons, again, that we struggle understanding the gospel is because we forget that everything that has been done on behalf of man by God is to show his greatness, not our own. We are saved without merit because it shows a love of God that would be unknowable if he merely saved us because of our works. Peter's revulsion, if we might call it that, in verse six, and after Jesus responds in verse seven, saying, I know you don't understand what I'm doing, it turns to outright refusal in verse eight. He says, you'll never wash my feet. And that never in the Greek means never, not a chance. Never, not in a moment, not in a thousand years, not in a millennium, Jesus, will you wash my feet? Peter's so offended by the idea of Jesus washing his feet that he just says, no. He will never wash my feet. One wonders if Peter's rejection was only because of the righteousness and superiority that he knew of Christ or if it was because of an embarrassment and unwillingness to be humbled in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, bowed on his knee, washing his feet. Some think that washing, as we've said, another's feet is a height of humility, but allowing Christ to wash us, knowing that we did not merit it. but that in his love and his mercy, he extends it, requires humility even greater. I fear that many refuse to allow God to save them, not because they do not see him as worthy and mighty and full of love, but because they're unwilling to admit that in order to be saved, they will have to go to God with their sin and ask him to cleanse them. That's why it's hard for people. It's not that they even don't believe in Christ or they don't believe in Jesus. They don't believe that he was a man. They don't believe that he, even in some degree, there's many today perhaps who would say emphatically that Jesus is the Lord. And in fact, Jesus talks about these people in Matthew chapter seven, when he says to them, not everybody who says to me, Lord, Lord, is gonna enter the kingdom of heaven. You can believe that in your mind. You can believe it really strongly. And yet, if you've not been cleansed by the Lord, according to Jesus here, you've got no part with Him at all. Is that not what He says in verse 8, the latter half? Peter said to Him, You shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered, If I don't, you have no share with me. If you've not been made clean by the Lord, then you've got no place with him. That's not according to me. That's according to Jesus himself, who every one of us one day will stand before. If he has not made you clean, I didn't say if a pastor hasn't made you clean through Bible studies and through membership classes. I didn't say moms and dads who brought you up in the fear and the admonition of the Lord. I didn't say that they made you, that's the cleansing that you need. You need to be cleansed by Jesus. You directly must know him, no matter how much you might try to be Christian, no matter how much you may acknowledge who Jesus is, if you have not been cleaned by him. If you've not had the washing of regeneration by the working of the Holy Spirit in your heart, whereby through repentance towards God the Father due to sin and faith in Christ and his love for you, believing that he really does want to save you, believing that he really did go to the cross to save you, believing that his love surpasses understanding, but trusting in him and believing in him and that washing of the Spirit of God in your heart removes the guilt, removes the sin, and replaces it with peace and righteousness and justification. If that's not happened in your heart, in your life, then you've got no part with Jesus. No matter how many bracelets or Bibles or church attendance records you might have, everyone who's truly gone to Christ, everyone who's truly with Christ has been made clean through his forgiveness and his cleansing of their sin. It's unthinkable, this whole scene. And yet, with God, just as Jesus promised, we can understand. Even if we don't understand all of what he's doing right now, we'll know, and we do know now, even things that Peter at that point didn't know. Peter at this point is still blind to the reality that Jesus was the Lamb of God in the sense that he truly was gonna have to lay his life down and was going to have to die and breathe his last in this life on this side in order to pay the penalty of sin for you and me. He still doesn't understand it fully. But we begin to see because we know who Jesus is and what he did in these hours that followed, but Peter didn't at the time. But moving on into verses 12 through 16, we continue to see unthinkable things of Christ, the unthinkable calling of Christ. Jesus tells us in verses 12 through 16 what the Christian life is all about. First, it's being cleansed. It's being made clean by Christ so that we have a part with him. And then he tells us about the calling of the Christian life. It is not a life concerned about self-promotion, recognition, honor, or the respect of others. It's just not. It's a life of service, service to God and service to others. Even the disciples would at times wonder and ask Jesus about who the greatest in the kingdom was. Do you remember those conversations? Lord, who's the greatest? Who's gonna be the greatest? And then the mother of the disciples who said, Lord, have one of my sons sit on your right and one on the left. And Jesus was trying to correct them at every step along the way, teaching them in verse after verse that we could quote about how he says that if you want to be great in the kingdom of God, you're going to have to become least. The first shall be last and the last first. But even the disciples were tripped up in this ambition of human pride. Each time that Jesus would correct them, there was still that trickle of pride in them. And we think you and I think perhaps I know I do at times think that I understand what Jesus is saying, but so few of us are really truly willing to live this kind of life. If we really. Really ask ourselves the question. I'm reading a book now called I am a follower and I can't remember James Sweet. I believe is the author. He's talking about. The fact that our culture and the Christian culture, the greater Christian culture, if we can be guilty of making such a broad statement, is obsessed with leadership. Leadership is worshiped. We say the church today needs leaders. We need leaders, we need leaders, there's a skill, it's much sought after, but Jesus isn't looking for leaders, he's looking for followers. If you want to be a leader of men that matters, and a leader of women and children and young people and coworkers and friends and neighbors, then you need to be a follower of Christ. A follower. He is the leader. All the rest of us. All the rest of us are supposed to be followers. Even those who have responsibility of a leadership position, and I'm not denying that there is, a father has the responsibility and accountability to be the leader in his home. But as a leader, he is first a follower. You're responsible for people at work and people report to you. You're responsible to them. Sometimes people have it wrong. They think that higher on the ladder that you climb, the fewer and fewer people that you're responsible for. It's the exact opposite. The more people you become. responsible for are those that depend upon you. And if you want to be a useful person in the service of God, you are going to have to be a completely selfless, sacrificial follower of Christ. And Jesus is giving us that example. We could go verse by verse, but we won't. Of this example of what he is giving us, that he is showing us, I am giving you an example that the way and as I have treated you, you are to treat one another. And that's unthinkable and incredible as well. But verse 17 is where we want to end our thoughts today. If you know these things, Jesus says, if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. This is unthinkable and inconceivable in the mind of man in a lot of ways because people think simply knowing something is sufficient. Simply having an awareness of what God requires of us is somehow sufficient to being a child of God. But Jesus says there's two things that are required here. Happy are you, which is all that the word blessed means. Happy, content, satisfied are you if you know these things and do them. a life of constant service, the way that Christ has shown here is not the life that we would naturally pursue. We all want the life where others are serving us and our needs are met. This kind of life is not the kind of life that we would naturally pursue. And I came across this as I was studying. Of course, the individual who was usually responsible for washing people's feet before they sat, or as they sat to dinner, was reserved for a servant, slave. And often that individual who was washing the people's feet at the table, that individual was not even regarded, didn't even really know he was there or she. Going about their important matters and their important discussions at dinner and the one washing the feet is completely ignored by the ones around the table. When we live a life of sacrifice for God to where our desire is that He is served and He is honored and those around us are served, that's the kind of life that Jesus looks at and calls us to. Not even noticed by the world, but noticed by Christ. Known of God. The one who Christ looks to and says, you are following me and the example that I gave. And one day we have this confidence that we're going to hear him say, come and enter in, you blessed of my father. Not only did you know the truth, but you followed the truth. Not only did you know what to do, but you actually did what I called you to do. The gap between knowing and doing. could very well be the gap for your eternity. It's necessary to know these things. If you don't know these things, you can't ever do them. But once you know, once you know, the blessedness is not in the knowing, it's in the doing. Sometimes when you find yourself unhappy, discontent, especially if you're a child of God, I would venture to say that the problem that you're experiencing is not that you don't have what you need, it's that you've forgotten that you're supposed to be the one filling others' needs. I know that's the case for me. This unthinkable picture and account of Christ, the Son of God, bowing on his knee to wash these disciples' feet so that you and I would have an understanding of what he's done, to some degree. To then pattern our lives after this, it challenges our entire life, challenges our view even of our Christianity, I believe for some. I pray that you know this one. I pray that he's made you clean. And if He's not, I pray that you would go to Him and seek Him and trust Him, that the love that He says He has for you is real and that He went to the cross and died for you because eternity is at stake for you and for His glory in you. I pray the Spirit of God would work His words into your heart and to mine. Let's have a song if we could.