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 going 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're 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 just 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. 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'm 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. A lot is going on in this chapter, in these several verses that we're looking at this evening. And I hope that we can get through them in a timely fashion. Lord willing, we're going to shoot for that. About an hour, right? Hour and a half? I've got the clock up here. Tonight's title for the lesson or sermon, whatever you want to call it, it's probably going to be more like a lesson. It's probably going to be more teaching than preaching. But I want us to just go through these verses together and to draw out nuggets of truth through here, how we can apply this to our own lives. And so tonight's title is Lessons Learned from a Betrayer, a Basin, and a Bath. And so that's what we're gonna pretty much be looking at, each of these lessons that we can learn from these things that are discussed here in this chapter, a betrayer, a basin, and a bath. Now, I wanna give us some background, and if you've been coming on Wednesday nights, which I'm sure most of you have, in chapters one through 12, every chapter up to this point's been focusing on the rejection of Jesus by the nation of Israel by his own people. They've rejected him. So we get to chapter 13 and it's shifting. Jesus shifts from public ministry to the masses, these masses of people that have been following and hearing Him speak and teach and observing His miracles, and so now He's moving from the masses and He's focusing on private ministry to His disciples, this faithful few, this small remnant, these faithful few disciples and followers of Christ. Now, just FYI, this is commonly known when we get to this private ministry to the disciples. When he's pulled away from public ministry to the masses, this is known as the upper room discourse because it's taking place in the upper room. He's gathering his disciples in this upper room. And this is, to again set the context, this is the day before the crucifixion. So we're mere hours away from Jesus going to the cross and dying and being Buried. This is actually the same night, just moments before the Lord's Supper is going to be instituted. He's going to go out. He's going to be betrayed. He's going to be arrested. So all of this is about to go down. All this is about to take place. And so what we see here are the final words and works of Christ. Not the final words in the sense that He speaks from the cross, but some of the final words He speaks while ministering to His disciples, to His followers. And tonight, you and I can very much personalize what he's saying to them, because by extension, he's saying the exact same things to us, because we are his disciples, we are his followers. And so, you can personalize this. Now, I think Brian mentioned it, Jacob mentioned it, I'm pretty sure Todd, all of them have probably mentioned over the past several weeks, months, that John 20, verse 31 is the theme to the overall gospel. Everything in John's Gospel fits under the umbrella of what he says in John 20 verse 31, which is, these things, or we could say this Gospel, these words in this Gospel have been written so that you will believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that believing In Him, through Him, you may have life in His name. So everything that John writes in this Gospel, the narrative of all of these historical events that are taking place, all of these things that Jesus is doing is to emphasize the fact that He is Messiah. He is God. You can believe that He is God. These things have been written so that you may believe that He is the Son of God, the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, and that believing in Him, you may have life eternal in His name. the overall theme of the book of John and now I want to go ahead and give you the application of the sermon before we even unpack it. So I'm going to give you the end at the beginning and then hopefully work to the that came at the beginning and tie it all together. And so here's a good summary of the lesson. I said it's lessons learned from a betrayer of basin in a bath. And so the summary of the lesson or lessons learned or to learn from this text is actually found in Philippians chapter 2. verses 3-8, so go ahead and flip over there, turn over to chapter 2, verses 3-8 of Philippians, where Paul writes, again, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Philippians 2, 3-8, he's speaking to believers, speaking to Christians, followers, disciples of Christ, and he says, "...do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit." But in humility, oh, there's that word, that's a key word in chapter 13, verses one through 20. In humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. And I would say the key verses are verses five through eight here that summarize the lessons learned over in John chapter 13. Have this mind among yourselves. which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself," the fancy word for that is catharsis, He is setting His deity, not His deity, but He's setting all of, this equality with God, He's putting on flesh in the incarnation, He's setting this aside and becoming man. He emptied Himself. He puts it off by taking on the form of a servant, a slave, and that's going to be a key word too, a slave. Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human flesh, He humbled Himself. That's what we're seeing, humility, we're seeing humiliation, and then we're seeing humbleness. And so we're going to come back and unpack that. But being found in human form, he humbled himself. Well, how did Jesus humble himself? By becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And so, wow, there is unbelievable. God became man and set His Godship, if you want to look at it that way, not His deity, I mean, He was still God, He was God in the flesh, He was Emmanuel, God with us, but He set all of that aside and put it on flesh and humbled Himself. Well, it was humiliating for God to become human. It's humiliating, it's lessening and lowering yourself to become a man. What if we decided to become a slug? I think I'm going to become a slug to save slugs. A human becoming a slug to save slug would be humiliating. God putting on flesh to become man, that's humiliation. Leaving the glory of heaven and coming on here and putting on flesh to become man in order to save man is unfathomable. And yet, that's exactly what God did to us in his humiliation. He humbled himself, but not only in doing that, Not only in doing that, when He came to earth, He did not come so that everybody would ooh and aah and worship and bow in the sense that Israel thought that Messiah would come. He came to serve. And how did He serve? By giving His life and dying, even to the point of death, humbling Himself so that He could save us while we were yet sinners. I mean, goodness! That is absolutely amazing that God would do that. And so we see humility. humbleness. And so I'm getting ahead of myself and I've got to reign it in. So Philippians 2, 3 through 8, that sums it up. But we've seen this, we see this also in Gospel of Matthew. Look at Matthew chapter 20, verses 25 through 28. And this also is Another summary of the lesson or lesson learned from this text, John chapter 13. Jesus, this is actually coincided with things that are going down as he nears the crucifixion, nears going to the cross. Matthew chapter 20, verses 25 through 28 set the context. Again, good old mom of the sons of Zebedee says, Jesus, let my son sit at your right hand in the places of power, at your right and your left. And hey, and that upset the disciples, but let's not say, hey, good for them. Let's say they were jealous because they wanted to be at the right hand and the left hand of Jesus in heaven. They were fussing about who's the greatest and who deserved to be at the right hand and the left hand of Jesus in heaven at the throne of God. And so we get to verses 25 and 28, and shockingly, listen to what Jesus says, tells them, tells us, Jesus called them to Him and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and that their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant." Wow, he flips the worldly economy just upside down and backwards and sideways right there. That's not the way the world works. It's the way the Gentiles work. They lord it over you. They like to rule and boss over you. and do that, and that's how they're going to be respected, you know, fear me, and do what I say, and all that. And so, that's what Jesus is saying. It shall not be among you. Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, your slave. And I keep saying that word because we're going to see amazingly how this plays out in this text tonight. And whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but what? To serve. That's why He came. That's why He came to serve. He came to save. and to give his life a ransom for many. So, what do we glean from that? Those two texts, Philippians and Matthew and John? Jesus is summing it up this way, saying, guys, gals, it's better to serve than to be served. You want to be great? Be a slave. Not a master, not a ruler. Be a servant. Be a servant. Humble yourself. John Piper, can't go a night without quoting one of the Johns, right? John MacArthur, John Piper, so today's Piper's night. This is the way he put it, and I love it, and I wanna read it, and this is the application, so you can cut me off at this point after we finish this. Don't, but you can, and we're gonna unpack it, but if you leave here tonight, this is what you need to remember. And so, buckle up, we're about to dive in. All believers have the amazing standing as children of God. I mean, just let that, children of God, you're a child of God, you are a child of the King if you're a believer in Christ. It's a high calling, the high calling of ambassadors for Christ. If you're a believer, you're a child of God, you're an ambassador of Christ, you're a representative of Jesus. And what we see in John chapter 13 verses 1 through 20, because Jesus went low, that's another way of saying he humbled himself. Because Jesus went low, and because going low is the path of joy, and because you are completely clean in Christ as a Christian, don't exalt yourself, but go low in humble service. That's the point. That's what Jesus is getting at here in this text. Let me put it another way, another way that Piper puts it another way. And this is what he says, Christians of high standing should give themselves gladly to lowly serving. In all that you do, do it with a view to getting under others to lift them up, not getting over others to look down on them and feel superior to them. Let me go old school, 80s, what would Jesus do bracelet? What would Jesus do? WWJD, that's what we should do. Okay, well, what would Jesus do in any and every given situation, circumstance that we encounter in life? We need to be asking WWJD, what would Jesus do? And here's what we see Jesus doing. He would be humble. And He would be self-denying. He would be a servant. And so guess what you and I are supposed to do? We're to be humble, self-denying servants in order to do something. Why are we doing what we do? Why are we humble? Why are we self-denying? Why are we a servant? In order to show Christ to others. And to share Christ with others. Let other people see Jesus in you. Well, how are they going to do that? by you serving them and becoming humble. And he goes on and says this, and I'm going to get away from John Piper, and I'm going to go solo, and we're going to sail together here in a minute. But John Piper says this, he says, you will find the deepest joys in life are not when people are hailing you in your status, but when they are helped by you in your service. So, there's a so to that. So, for His glory, for God's glory, and for your greatest good, for your greatest joy, go low. Humble yourself. Serve. Serve. All right. So that's it. I mean, that's the sermon. That's the application. That's the take-home. And now we're going to unpack it and see what lessons. There's more here. We're not done with everything that's here, so we're going to mine it together. What's up with the betrayer, the basin, and the bath? And that's where we're headed to next. So let's check the clock and start right out of the gate at verse 1 and walk through this together. Now before the feast of the Passover, so they're celebrating Passover. What is Passover? They're celebrating, remember when the Jews were freed from slavery from Egypt, and they were told to put the blood of the Passover lamb on the doors and the lintels so that the death angel would pass over them if they were covered by the blood, picturing Christ, our Passover. that in the future Christ would be our sacrificial perfect Lamb to sacrifice His life, and if we are covered in His blood, washed in His blood, we are cleansed and covered so that the wrath of God will pass over us when Christ returns. We're called home. So, this is the last divinely ordained Passover. What do I mean by that? It's changing from the old Passover where you're remembering the Lamb of Exodus to tonight you're going to remember I'm your Passover. And it's going to become the Lord's Supper. This is my body and this is my blood. From now on, you're going to remember me in the blood I shed so that you could be saved from your sins. So, Lord's Supper starts tonight. So no need for us to celebrate Passover. In that sense, we celebrate our Passover, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord's Supper and the fact that he's coming back one day. But this is before the last divinely ordained Passover meal where they're remembering the Exodus. They're celebrating the salvation of Israel because of God and because of the lamb and the Passover angel. So they're having this feast. It was an annual feast, and so they were celebrating Passover, Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father. His time is drawing nigh. The hour had come to say he's near death. Crucifixion's coming, remember? He would say, it's not my time, it's not my time. And they would try to get him and they couldn't get him because it was not yet his time. Okay, his time's here. He's going to the cross, he knows he's going to the cross. Everything, nothing is taking Jesus by surprise. It's all working according to providence, the purposes of God, the plan of God. And so, it's just rocking along. on imperfect time and he's about to depart out of this world and where's he about to go? To the Father. This is deity. Jesus is Messiah. He knows this is about to happen and he knows where he's going to go. He's about to depart out of this world and go to the Father, having loved his own who are in the world. Now, He loved them to the end. That's another way of saying He loved them perfectly. He loved them fully. And He loves them eternally. All the Father gives Him will come to Him, and of all the Father gives Him, how much is He going to lose? How many is He going to lose? None. They are loved perfectly, completely, salvificly, to the end. They are secured in Christ. His sheep hears His voice, and they know Him, and they follow Him, and no one can snatch them out of His hand. He loved these disciples. that He poured His heart and life and ministry into to the very end, to the time where He's about to go to the cross. And it says, And two, He came from the Father, He's going to return to the Father. That's stressing deity. He is the God-man, God incarnate, Emmanuel, God with us. And when you see Jesus, we beheld His glory. Glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He is the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah, the Savior. And so, during supper, during this Passover, The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. So here, let me just go ahead and stress, and we talked about this some last week, I believe, during service, after service, Judas Iscariot, yeah, Satan was hardening his heart, Judas was hardening his own, Judas was doing exactly what Judas wanted to do. It wasn't that he was overcoming, it was going against his desire. He desired to betray Christ. And so there is sovereignty taking place here because that's what he's supposed to do according to God's sovereign purposes and plan and preordained plan that is playing out to perfection right on time here, but he is still 100% responsible for what he did. And so you have sovereignty and responsibility, and how's that working here? Hey, it looks like it's left and right, this far apart, but in God's mind, it comes together like this in the distance, and we can say, we don't understand how it all works, but hey, it's working together, Judas is hard in his heart, God's hard in his heart, Satan's working in Judas Iscariot's life, he's going to do what he wants to do, and he's going to bear the wrath himself because he's responsible for what he did, and so Judas is about to betray him, and this is building up the intensity of what's being spoken of here. Jesus is God incarnate. And here we have a guy who's one of His disciples who is going to betray Him to death. Now, we get that picture here. And we're like, yeah, we already know this, we're believers, but I want you to catch the intensity that John is building here, the drama playing out here. You have God Almighty seated at a table with a godless man who's about to betray Him. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot's Simon's son to betray him, Jesus, knowing he knew it, not catching him off guard, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, all things have been created by him and for him and through him and to him are all things, and so he's about to go back to glory, he knows he's about to endear the cross, he knows he's about to be betrayed, He's going back to the Father and going to be glorified up there in heaven, seated at the right hand of the throne of God. But look, He knows He's going to God. Look where He came from. And that He had come from God and was going back to God. So again, John's just emphasizing the fact, this is the incarnate Son of God. This is a God-man. This is God Himself, right? Sitting at the table with these followers, these disciples. God in the flesh is there. And look what he did. He rose from supper and socked Judas with a holy punch. No! No! He got on to all the people and said, you scotty brats, you're seeking to be the greatest. No, that's not what he said. He said, how dare you talk about you being the greatest, and you being the greatest, and all this. That's not what Jesus does. That's not at all what God in the flesh does. Look at what He does. This discussion's going on over here. Hey, can my son sit at your left hand and your right hand, Jesus? How dare they say that they sit at the right hand. I belong there. You got that? And you got Judas over here saying, it's about that time. It's about that time. Get some of that money. Jesus is knowing all this is playing out in the room. Now, one thing they're missing there at a feast, and at a feast, something needed to take place before you eat. Well, what needed to take place? Jesus rose from supper. Remember, they reclined. They kind of did like this, you know, and did like that, and had their feet laid back sideways. And I guess if, you know, it was a wide table, you'd have your feet right here, and somebody's nose, and then a feet and a nose. And it went like that. And so you can get that picture here. They're reclining. And they had been reclining. Now something should have taken place already at this point. But everybody's missing it. Nobody's catching it. Nobody's doing what was proper procedure protocol prior to eating a meal when you recline at the table. And so, all this is going down, all this is happening. Jesus is not shocked. He knows exactly what's taking place. He's about to teach the disciples a huge lesson. And again, to give Simon some serious shut-up juice, and to teach him a huge lesson. And by default, teaching all of us a lesson, because you know we'd be doing the same thing. They're just representations of you and me. We would have been there bickering about it, the same thing. And he says, he 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. So here's the basin. We've already heard a little bit about the betrayer. And he began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. What we see here is Jesus becoming a slave. Who had the job of foot washing? Slaves. Not Jewish slaves, Gentile slaves. Not even Jews would stoop so low to wash a Jew's foot. It was not proper procedure protocol, the audacity to expect a Jew to wash a Jew to stoop so low as to wash somebody's stinking feet. Now, I am somewhat of an expert in this area, and Tracy, you are too. You sold shoes as well. We worked at Sample Shoe Center. And people have sweaty, nasty feet in the summertime. They don't wear socks. Their shoes smell funky. Their feet smell funky. And they can gag a maggot. And guess who's got to get down and change their shoes and their socks? The shoe seller, right? Well, the slave was supposed to clean feet. Now, we didn't clean them, praise the Lord. God knows they needed it. And many of them just needed to cut their feet off and burn them. It was bad, people. And people are proud of their stinky feet and corns and crustaceans and toe jam and everything else. And I know that's gross, but that's the picture we need to get here. It was gross. And if you think that's gross, they wore sandals back in the day of Jesus. They didn't have sidewalk concrete and asphalt roads. They had dusty roads and sweaty feet and sweat and dust makes mud. And they rode on horses and cows and donkeys. and there was manure strewn everywhere, and so their dusty, manure-crusty feet, sweating, nasty, stinking, is right in your face when you're reclining at the table. And you know, there they are. Now do you get that picture? Picture somebody's nasty feet right there. Make you gag, wouldn't it? You're sitting there. Most people don't like feet anyway. I know some of y'all, that just took you out when I said the word foot. You're like, oh feet, I hate feet. And then nasty feet. That's what's going on at the table here. Somebody should have gotten up already at this point and cleaned the feet. But nobody did. Nobody did. They're too busy arguing about who's the greatest, and who's going to sit at the right hand of God, and who's going to sit at the left hand of the throne of God. And Jesus, very quietly, without any rebuke, without saying one word, gets up, and He takes the place of a slave. Now, what do you think those disciples felt? Ooh. I should have done that. Oops. You should have done that. Not Him. Definitely not Him. Because do you just hear who He is? He's God. The One that created all of creation and upholds it with His righteous right hand is the One that just got up and stripped and put on a towel and became a servant and begins to go around with a basin and washing people's feet. Sinner's feet. Arrogant sinner's feet. And so you get that picture here, it's just building up. And it says, he came to Simon Peter, of course Simon Peter was the loudmouthed spokesman, who stuck his foot in his mouth, often times, and he's about to do it again. And he came to Simon Peter and said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet? Basically saying, what in the world are you doing? And why are you doing that? Because only a Gentile slave should be doing that. Not only are you not a Gentile nor a slave, you are God incarnate and you're becoming a slave and you're washing stinky, nasty, muddy, manure feet. How could you do that? The message that he's teaching them right in the action of what he's doing right there is just speaking louder than words. And Peter's catching it. It's not lost on him totally at this point. Why are you doing it? How in the world could you do this, Lord? Jesus answered him, What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you'll understand. Boy, that's true. because He's going to tell them. He's going to show them, and then He's going to tell them. But it's not just Peter. All the disciples are watching, and let me remind you, Judas is in the building. Judas' feet are getting cleaned by the Messiah. The one who He knows as God is going to betray Him. In ours, He's washing His feet too. I would say, That's a huge lesson. Jesus says, love your enemies, right? Love them. And I would say the guy who's about to put a hit on me, that's probably an enemy. It would be. It should be defined as an enemy. And yet Jesus, knowing this, washes his feet, serves him like a slave. And he gets lost on Judas. So that's the comparison, and Jesus is beginning to branch off here. He says, what I'm doing you don't understand now, but afterward you will understand. And Peter said to Him, You shall never wash my feet! You know, God forbid that you, the Christ, the incarnate Son of God, wash my nasty feet like a slave, like a servant. And so you've got something going on physically here, physical that's showing a spiritual reality, and that's the lesson we're learning from this basin. We're obviously learning humility, humbling yourself, service, servanthood, as Christ served. And then he says, Peter said to him, You shall never wash my feet. And Jesus said, If I do not wash you, you have no share with me. Now as he's saying, I'm really big on washing feet. I really want clean feet. if you're a believer. He's not even really talking about feet here. He's showing them a reality, okay? It's building. So what's he talking about? He says, if I don't wash you, you have no share with me. You have no part with me. You're not in me. You're not a follower of me. You're not a disciple of mine. And so, Simon Peter, extreme, right? One minute I'm over here, Don't do it!" And I'm over here, do everything, look, here's my hands, watch behind my ears, Lord. Get it all! And so, he says, Lord, not my feet only, but my hands and my head. And Jesus says to him this, now it's a head scratcher, the one who has bathed, so here we come to the bath. Now we've seen what you've done with the basin, and we are learning a lesson, yeah, and he's about to spell it out, because they're probably like us, not the sharpest knives in the drawer, let's put the cookies on the bottom shelf so we can really get it. I want you to get it, I want you to really get it, us to get it. And so that's what Jesus is doing. He shows it, he does it, and then he explains it to them, and he says, "'Lord, not my feet only, but my hands and also my head.' And Jesus said to him, "'The one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet.'" Okay, so here we have to go back to that time frame. If they had bathed, and then they walked somewhere, there was no need for them to get a whole bath. Their feet were dirty, so they just needed to wash their feet, and then they'd be totally clean, right? Okay, so yeah, that's the physical, but there's deeper spiritual things happening, more on that in a minute. And he says, and you are clean. He says, the one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but he's completely clean. And you, and that word you in Greek is plural, so he's saying all of you, and all of you, 11, are clean. But not every one of you, so he knows. There's one of you here that has clean feet, but still has a dirty heart. You're externally washed, but you're internally dirty. Now 11 of you are clean on the inside and now out. But not all of you are clean. So what is this? Real quick, the basin foot washing is picturing a principle of humility, of humble service to others. And that's what Jesus is showing. So that's the lesson of the basin. Humble service to others. Now do you know some people say this is an ordinance? Just like the Lord's Supper and baptism foot washing is an ordinance? No, they're missing the point. Do as I've done unto you, which was what? Take the form of a slave. Become a slave and serve. So it is a picture of a principle of humility, of humble service to others. And so, physical service, and here we go to the spiritual picture. Bathing here, when Jesus is talking about this, notice what He says, "...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." So getting to the spiritual, let's get to the bath part. when he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place. So he's gone through, he's washed Judas' feet, he's washed all the disciples' feet, he goes back, and they're all sitting there thinking, I should have done that, you should have done that, we should have done that, he shouldn't have done that, but he did that, and Peter spoke up, and now he's hushed him, and there's something big for us to learn here, And so, he resumes to his place and he says, he looks out at them and he says, Do you understand what I have done to you? And then he says, you call me teacher, rabbi, and lord, master. And you're right, for so I am. I am that. I am a teacher sent from God. I am the rabbi sent from God. I am the lord, master, messiah. But then he says in verse 14, if I then, your lord, your master and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash another's feet. Okay, so there's a picture of humble service. You should do like me. You should follow in my steps. And what do I do? What would Jesus do? He would humble Himself to the point of washing people's feet. He would humble Himself to the point of death, even death on the cross. He did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself. So you don't need to consider your high position in all this as something to boast and lord over people about, but you should pour that out and show Christ in your service to others. rather than gloating in your status. That's what he's beginning to unpack here. He says, if I then, your Lord, if I'm your Master and your Teacher, basically if I'm greater than you, and John's already made the fact abundantly clear, this is God Himself. If God Himself is willing to do this, to humble Himself to this point, then hey, if you claim to be in Christ and a God follower, then you ought to be out there doing the exact same thing. and humble yourself. So, 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." Well, let's go back real quick and build up. He's showing through foot washing that we should be humble servants of Christ. serve humility, humble service to others, and that's the physical point. And so that's the foot washing, but what about the bath again? The bath is saying, if you've been bathed, if you've been totally clean, there's no need to be cleaned again. He's saying, if you are in Christ, if Christ has cleaned you, then you are already clean. You don't have to be cleaned again. We can say ceremonial cleansing. You're born again. If you've been born once, you don't have to be born again. I mean, if you've been born again, you don't have to be born again again. You're already cleansed. You've already been justified. You've already been saved. You're completely cleansed. That's the imagery here. You cannot be cleansed unless I cleanse you. And so if I have cleansed your heart, then you still need to have foot washings or to wash your feet. So here's the physical and the spiritual again. What is he talking about here? So if he's cleansed you, you've been ceremonially cleansed. Paul would put it this way, you've been justified. If God has saved you, you've been cleansed of your sins, you have been justified. And so what is the foot washing? Then why would we need to wash our feet every now and then if we've already been clean? That's sanctification. That's growing in holiness. That's confession of sin. That's turning to Jesus for ongoing application of what He accomplished at the cross, which was our cleansing and forgiveness. And so it's just like the song that we sung, what can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole, wholly cleansed again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. But what are we supposed to do if we are truly in Christ? We come to Him and say, God, I messed up again today. Scripture says, 1 John 1, verses 8 and 9, if we say that we have no sin, we've deceived ourselves. But if we confess our sin, there it is, that's foot washing. I confess my sin, I'm dirty today, God. I know I'm cleansed, I know I've been saved, but I'm confessing my sin because I need that application again. I know I'm once saved, always saved. I know I've been cleansed and washed by the blood of the Lamb. But hey, if you confess your sin, He is faithful and righteous just to forgive you of your sin and cleanse us. There's that word, cleanse you of all what? Unrighteousness. and so the basin is a picture of humility and service how we should humble ourself and serve one another because it's better to serve than to be served and then The bath is a reminder that God has cleaned us. If we are in Christ, we've been cleaned in Christ, and we need to continually confess our sins to Christ. So it's the sins that need daily confession and forgiveness. The once-for-all time forgiveness needs daily application again. And so that's what he's saying here, and I've got to hurry because I see I'm out of time. When he had washed their feet, put on his outer garments, resumed his place, he said to them, Do you understand what I have done? 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 just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, amen, amen, verily, verily, very important, 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 so let me just go ahead and make another point. It's one thing to know things, it's another thing to do things. It's one thing to say it, it's another thing to do it. Actions speak louder than words. Faith without works is what? Dead. So, if you say that you love me, you're going to keep my commandments. If you truly love me and have truly been cleansed by me, washed in the blood of the Lamb, and you are going to follow in my steps, you will deny yourself, take up your cross, and what? Follow me. So that's what he's saying here. You're blessed. You're happy. There's the joy. You're blessed. You're happy if you do them. And he says, I'm not speaking of all of you. I mean, goodness, how much clearer can you get? Judas should be just writhing around in his seat. I'm not speaking of all of you. I know whom I've chosen, meaning those whom I've loved specifically, salvifically, those who are my sheep, those who will not be lost from my hand, all that the Father called, who will come. But there's one of you that's not saved of this group, even though I chose you. Have I not chosen you, the twelve, and one of you is the devil? And Scripture says, Jesus says that He knew from the beginning the one that would betray Him in John 6 verse 64. And so He gets here, why is this taking place? So the Scripture would be fulfilled. In order that the Scripture would be fulfilled, He quotes the Old Testament, Psalm 41 verse 9. He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me." And then Jesus even clarifies. He says, I'm telling you this now before it takes place. Hey, remember that Old Testament prophecy? I'm telling you now it's about to be fulfilled before it takes place, because when it does take place, you will believe me, that I am He. Some of your translation says, but it's actually the He's added. You will know that I am. Wow! That's Exodus chapter 3. Moses says to God, who shall I say sent me? Tell Him, I am sent you. I am that I am. So Jesus here again is emphatically expressing His deity that He Himself is God. And I am telling you what is going to happen before it happens because that's just going to illuminate the fact that none of this is taking me by surprise. This is taking place because the prophecy of God will stand and will be fulfilled, and this has been prophesied, and this will take place here in a few minutes, and when it all unfolds, you're going to say, wow, how did He know that? Because He's God. He's Messiah. And you're going to know this. And again, there fits under the umbrella, all of these things have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name, eternal life in His name. And so, then it ends in verse 20, Truly, truly, amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one that I send, receives me, and whoever receives me, receives the one who sent me." So this is where it sums up, again, the fact that you and I, as children of God, are representatives of Christ. We are ambassadors of Christ. And He sends us out to show people Christ and to share Christ. Well, how are we going to do that best? By humble service to Him. by seeking to serve rather than to be served, and he's saying, that's the people I'm sending out. Those are the people who represent me, and if you want to represent me, then be a slave. Be a servant. Go out there, confess your sins, pursue sanctification. So it's a picture of sanctification here as well. Those who have been justified, Those who've been predestined have been called. Those who are called will be justified. They'll be glorified one day, but in the meantime, be sanctified. Be holy. Hebrews 12 verse 14 says, "...Pursue peace with all men and holiness, for out of which no one will see God." And so that's what he's saying. These are the people who can represent me. These are the people who are truly in Me. It's the one who see their sin, and they confess their sin, they thank God that they've been cleansed and saved, but they see their sinfulness more and more day by day, and they say, God, continue to cleanse me, help me to put to death the deeds of the flesh, and help me to show you, and help me to share you, and help me to serve you by serving others humbly. to the point of servanthood and to the point of being a slave. Help me to humble myself. And so those who don't desire foot washing, that daily cleansing evidence is that they're not cleansed. Those who don't give a rip about their sin from day to day probably never have had the total cleansing and they need the big bath rather than the basin. And so, confess. Why do we do this? Why do we confess our sins? Because He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, cleanse us of all unrighteousness. We do this because we are in Christ. Why do we humble ourselves and serve? Because we are truly in Christ. So that's why we do what we do, because we've truly been saved. And we do this again for our greatest good and for God's greatest glory. And so, we can sing the hymn in part and say, let others see Jesus in me. How can we humble ourselves today? I didn't give many examples of that. Never think you're too good to do anything. Change a diaper. Scrub a toilet. Mow grass. There are people out there that say, that's below me. I'm too good for that. No. if the Son of God washes feet even of the one who is going to betray Him hours later. You're not too good to do anything. He's already done it. And we're to walk in His steps. To be holy as He's holy. To follow Him. So I wish I had more examples of that. Other examples, I guess, if you're in high school, sit with a kid that doesn't have friends if you're the popular one. You know, don't think you're too good to love the lowly. Jesus said with tax collectors and sinners, And this is saying, you know, you need not fear. You're totally cleansed. You can show them Christ. You can share Christ with them. You're saved. You can rest in your security and your salvation, but you need to be out there showing Christ and sharing Christ. And there's many ways that we can do that. If we just sit back and look, how can I serve this person so that I can show Christ to them? How can I serve these people so that I could share Christ with them for my joy, for our good, for his greatest glory? Let's pray. God, you're good, your word is good.