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| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) |
Humble Servants
Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, how do we measure greatness in our world today? What does a person have to do, what does a person have to be, or what does a person have to attain in order to be considered great? Anyone who has lived in this world even for a little while is probably qualified to answer this question.
The world often measures greatness by the immensity of someone’s accomplishments. The world also measures greatness by a person’s rank or title – how far have they climbed up the social ladder, or the corporate ladder. Greatness is measured by a person’s name, wealth, popularity or status as a celebrity, as a professional athlete, a pop singer, or a country singer.
It could be anyone who has risen to the top of their respective careers; anyone who has set themselves apart from the competition. These are the people who are honored and revered – dare I say -- even ‘worshipped and envied’ by millions of so-called followers.
I don’t think this comes as a big shock or surprise to any of us here. This is what we know to be true about greatness in the kingdom of this world. But what might come as a shock and surprise to us is the way greatness is measured in the eyes of God and in the kingdom of God.
In Luke 9:48 Jesus said, the one who is least among you is the greatest. In Matthew 23: 11 Jesus said The greatest among you shall be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
That doesn’t sound like greatness, does it? Being least? Being humble? Serving others. What exactly is Jesus talking about here? Was Jesus calling everyone in his day to give up their regular vocation and become a household servant? No. The truth is, you can be a household servant and still be filled with worldly pride and selfish ambition.
Jesus was teaching his disciples, and the church of all ages, something radical, something revolutionary, something counter cultural compared to the teachings and principles of the world around them. You’re going to hear more about this in the sermon tonight – on the parable of the mustard seed -- the greatness of small beginnings!
But here Jesus was teaching them the greatness of sacrifice, the greatness of selflessness, the greatness of dying to self instead of promoting one-self. Jesus was teaching them about humility and putting the needs of others before their own. Jesus was teaching them the principles of the kingdom of God, and what is true of the character and heart of the child of God.
In whatever we do, no matter what our calling or vocation, we are to have a servant’s heart. Earlier in the service, these men were installed into the office of elder and deacon. To be sure, it is an honor and a privilege to serve as an office bearer in the church of Jesus Christ. But notice, we use that word serve. We serve in the office.
In the form for installation, we were reminded that the tasks which belong to the office of elder and deacon are solemn and serious tasks. They require Christlike love, humility, and faithfulness. Being an office bearer isn’t a status symbol. The office does not come with a crown and a scepter. No, if anything, it comes with an apron, a bowl of water, and a towel.
That’s what Jesus teaches us here in John 13. Jesus Teaches us to be a Humble Servant. Notice:
- The Heart of a Humble Servant
- The Example of the Humble Servant
1) The Heart of a Humble Servant
I’ll start with the context here from the opening verses – and I am reading from the NIV as it reads a bit more clearly. It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.
John wrote these words as a prologue to the week of Christ’s Passion – the week of his suffering, crucifixion and death. John wants us to know in advance that everything that was about to transpire – from what was said and done in the Upper Room, to the betrayal of Judas, to the denial of Peter, and all the shame and humiliation that Jesus was about to endure - it was all done willingly, with divine forethought and intention, and it was all motivated by Christ’s great love!
We’re reminded of what Jesus said earlier in the book of John, in John 3:16 -- For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life! The extent of God’s love, the depth of his love, the full degree, measure and magnitude of God’s love was about to be demonstrated as Jesus Christ was going to suffer and die on Calvary’s cross for undeserving sinners like you and me.
Pastor John MacArthur commented about the love of Jesus in John 13: 2 (and I’m paraphrasing him just a bit). When it says that Jesus loved them/us to the uttermost, it means he loves us eternally and infinitely. He loves us as much as an infinite, eternal God can love. It’s immeasurable and inconceivable in its depth, height, length and width. It’s beyond human knowledge and description.
We should all be amazed and encouraged by this thought, beloved, that Jesus loved his disciples, and that he loved you and me like this! We are loved more than we can ever imagine. We are loved eternally and infinitely with a sacrificial love of the Lord our God.
This is the heart of our God, and this is the heart of Jesus our Savior. Everything Jesus did was driven and motivated by His great love for His own. And beauty and glory of being a Christian is this: when we, by faith, believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, when we put our faith, hope and trust in Him, that he died on the cross to save us from our sins – then God’s Holy Spirit so joins us and unites us to Christ that now His heart of love dwells within us.
This means that hearts that were once sinful and selfish, hearts that were once driven and motivated by greed, and filled with evil passions and desires, those hearts are changed and transformed by God’s grace. That is when we begin to love like God loves, that is when we are able to put the needs of others before our own; seeking to love others as God, in Christ, has loved us. That is when we seek to serve, and not to be served – because that’s who we are in Christ.
I want to address you brothers who were installed today, as well as those currently serving – and this applies to pastors as well: what are our motives for entering the ministry, what is our motive for serving as an office bearer. Those motives will be tested and tried. Those motives will be exposed as being genuine and true, or they will be exposed as being selfish and prideful.
And what will test and try and reveal your motives? It will be the calling itself. It will be trial by fire. For while there are many great joys and blessings of serving as an office bearer, that are also many griefs, and sorrows and disappointments – many times when we might want to give up, walk away, and say “I don’t need this”, or “I can’t do this anymore.”
Serving Christ and His church requires both suffering and sacrifice. There are countless meetings, heartbreaking visits, many long hours and some sleepless nights, and at times painful disagreements. You will be asked and expected to extend yourself, as the Apostle Paul put it, ‘to spend and be spent’ for the sake of Christ’s church.
These are the kinds of tests and trials that will expose our true motives (our ambition, our hearts). And when those difficult times come, that’s when you need to remember the motive: We do this because of love. We love Christ. We love Christ’s church, God’s people. Therefore, we serve selflessly and sacrificially.
And by the power of Christ’s Holy Spirit who dells within us, we are empowered and equipped to serve and to endure no matter what trials and tests we may encounter. And may this also be a word of hope and encouragement to all of us who serve, beloved. Yes, serving others can be tiresome and sometimes it can feel like a very thankless job.
But remember, when we’re tempted by Satan to feel bitter, when we’re tempted to feel like we’re the only one helping, when we’re tempted to judge others in our church who don’t serve seem to be doing their fair share of the work -- remember why we serve. Remember who we serve. Remember, we have the heart of a servant – and that means that we don’t look at everyone else and say ‘Why aren’t you serving, too? No. A faithful servant serves selflessly – even if he must serve all alone -- because we ultimately are serving Christ, and we are motivated by love.
2) The Example of a Humble Servant
Secondly, we consider the example of a Humble Servant. Verses 4-5 tell us that he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
What’s happening here? Jesus called his disciples together to celebrate the Seder – to eat the Passover -- and this is also when Jesus would institute the Lord’s Supper by the breaking the bread and pouring out the wine (which were to be symbols of his crucified body and shed blood).
But before they could eat, they had to undergo ceremonial foot washing. And remember boys and girls, the people at that time did not sit at a table on chairs like we do. Rather, that reclined on the floor, which meant that their feet were in close proximity to each other and to the food.
But here’s the problem. There were no household servants to do the lowly task that needed to do be done. The only people with Jesus were the 12 disciples. And keep in mind as well, that the job of foot washing was left to the lowliest servant in the household. So, even among household servants there was an order or hierarchy – as some servants had more dignified jobs than others.
But the lowliest servants would do the dirtiest and lowliest jobs. And keep this in mind as well. Sitting with Jesus, around that table, was a group of proud, ambitious and sinful men. One of them was about to betray Jesus (Judas); another disciple was about to deny him three times. And, according to Luke 22: 24 and following, all the disciples were arguing about who among them would be regarded as the greatest in Christ’s kingdom.
I asked at the outset of the sermon – how do you measure greatness (greatness in the world vs. greatness in the kingdom of God)? Jesus said to them: Who is greater, one who reclines at table, or one who serves? Is it not the one who relines at table? (In other words, aren’t the guests around the table of greater honor and status than the servants who serve them? The answer is Yes.) Then Jesus said: “But I am among you as the one who serves.”
See what Jesus is doing? Jesus takes everything they knew (or thought they knew) about greatness and honor and he turned it upside down. The one who serves is greater. The one who humbles himself will be exalted. This is the Gospel of grace. This is what makes the Gospel so radical and life-changing!
And it’s one thing to preach this – but it is quite another thing to practice this. Yet Jesus did both! John tells us (look at vs 4-5): Jesus 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.
Jesus took on the role of the lowliest servant in the household. Jesus did what none of the other disciples would do -- what all of them refused to do; what all were too proud to do. He got down on his knees and washed their filthy feet.
What incredible irony. It’s far greater than simply a Rabbi, a teacher, washing the feet of his pupils. No. This was Jesus Christ, the divine, eternal Son of God! This was He who shared His Father’s honor and glory in heaven. This was the holy Son of God who (before his incarnation) was worshipped and adored by angels and cherubim and seraphim. Jesus was the Bright and Morning Star; the King of glory – yet here he is on his knees, with a towel about his waist, and he’s touching and cleaning the filthy feet of his proud, selfish and sinful disciples.
How shameful. How humiliating. How embarrassing. No one who regards himself as a king does not do this, right? No Messiah would ever do this – I wonder if that is what Judas was thinking as well. Yet, as commentator William Hendriksen observed: for Jesus, the washing of the feet of his disciples was another necessary step of humiliation on the way to the cross; this humiliation was something that Jesus also must suffer for the sake of winning the salvation of sinners.
For our purposes today, I am not going to address the interaction between Jesus and Peter but rather, let’s skip to the end of the passage, to verses 14-17 where Jesus applies this passage for us: 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,
Of course, what Jesus did in the Upper Room for his disciples was but a preparation, a rehearsal, or perhaps we could call it a microcosm (a small-scale version) of what he was about to do on the cross for his church of all ages. Jesus may have alluded to this in verse 7 (What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand)”.
The ultimate humiliation, the ultimate shame, and the ultimate act of cleansing would happen next -- when Jesus our Savior, God’s Son would soon be stripped of his clothing, nailed to the cross, shamefully mocked and scorned; cursed and cut off – forsaken by God and rejected by men, all so that in the end, Jesus might cleanse us and wash away our sins with his precious blood.
It was on the cross, though His suffering and death, that Jesus would fully take on the role of the Suffering Servant, the servant who would be obedient to death, even death on the cross, all for sinner’s sake.
Yet, in doing so, in being faithful and humbling himself like this, God the Father ultimately glorified His Son. He exalted Him gave him the name above all names. Just as Jesus said: The greatest among you shall be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Jesus showed, Jesus demonstrated what it takes to be a humble servant. He comes to you and me and he says: “If I, the one you call Teacher, and Lord, if I am willing to humble myself like this, and take on the role of a lowly servant, then how much more shouldn’t you my followers, my disciples, my redeemed people, be willing to wash each other’s feet, and to even die unto yourself for the sake of others.”
What a powerful lesson and example Jesus set for us. In closing, I want to make sure we understand how all this comes together. Our lives, even our humble service to one another (in whatever capacity we serve) will mean absolutely nothing if Jesus is nothing more than an example to follow. If all we get out of this passage is ‘Be more like Jesus,’ or “Serve others like Jesus served”, then we have failed to understand the message of the Gospel.
Yes, Jesus gave us an example to follow – and yes, he calls us to serve one another, to ‘wash each other’s feet’ so to speak, but first and foremost, Jesus calls us to believe. He commands us to repent and believe and to put our faith and hope and trust in Him.
We cannot be like Jesus and have the heart of a servant like Jesus, unless we are first united to Jesus by faith, and rooted in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. And if any of you here lack true faith, if you do not know Jesus as your Savior, then call upon God to work in your by His Holy Spirit, to give you saving faith, that you might believe in the Lord Jesus Christ – and then not only will you be saved, but then you can live a life of service to others, a life of service that is motivated by love for Christ. Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Pastor Keith Davis, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
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