Loved to Love Part 2 - The Joy of Being Christ's Slave - John 13:12-17

1:59They actually say, you are happy if you do them. The word blessed is that state. We just read it in the Beatitudes. We read that in Matthew 5 just a few moments ago. Well, John adds another Beatitude. Blessed is the slave. Specifically, blessed is Christ's slave. Happy. The idea of blessedness is that state of divine favor that shows up in the way we think and feel. It is an awareness of divine favor and that happiness or joy that is associated with it. Now, every time I read the words of Hebrews 12, specifically verse 2, I am fascinated by the joy that characterized Jesus' ministry. Listen to these words. I'll just pick it up in verse 1. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. So let us run. And then he gets on: how are we to run? Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who, for the joy, the joy, the joy set before him, endured this cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus found a kind of joy in serving man and serving man to the most humiliating degree. He found a joy that transcends our ability to even comprehend. There is a joy in service that he found.

3:55So to be like Jesus is to find supreme joy and satisfaction in humble service. That's what it's going to be to be like Jesus. But you know what? As I look around, there is a lot of joyless church attendance I see around our globe, around our nation, around our denomination, and even at times in this church. Joyless church attendance. Why is that? Why do people seem to bounce around in Christian circles and never really finding a connecting point? Or why do people struggle with getting connected?

4:47Or why do those attend, maybe some of you today, why coming into this assembly, is there really no joy? Why is that? Why do many ministers of the gospel see ministry as a drudgery? Why? Why? And I confess, I'm not preaching this as me, somebody excluded. Okay? Thank you. I'll take that as an amen. A good laughter, isn't it, right? Why does so much of our why is so much of our ministry not characterized by joy?

5:35I think the bottom line is, I believe many of us have not truly learned humility and the joy there is in slavery to Christ. You know, one of life's main challenges is overcoming our desires to be great. And as long as we are on a personal Personal quest for greatness, we will never know the joy of humble service. And just understand that worldly greatness and pursuit of worldly greatness is antithetical to true gospel ministry, it doesn't mix.

6:25And if the disciples that we've just been studying, who just got their feet washed, if they are going to bear the gospel to the nations, guess what? Jesus is going to have to cleanse them of this desire to advance themselves. As long as they're interested in advancing themselves and seeing themselves as the one to be satisfied, pleased, calling the shots, they would not be fit to carry the gospel at all. Amen. But even in ministry, and I would say sometimes, especially in ministry, we can seek to advance ourselves.

7:24And so this morning, I want us to focus our time on how Jesus dealt with this issue. Of greatness in the hearts of his followers. And that personal promotion was on the minds of the disciples is very clear from the other Gospels. In fact, it's what prompts largely this washing of the feet. In fact, in Mark's Gospel, in chapter 10, you remember the disciples were following Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. And as they were going up, I'll pick it up in verse 32, I guess, 32. As they were going up, Jesus was walking on ahead of them. They were amazed. Some were fearful. Verse 33, he said, You know, the Son of Man is going to go up to Jerusalem. He's going to be delivered to the chief priests, the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles. They will mock him and spit on him and scourge him and kill him. And three days later, he will rise again. So what do the disciples do? Oh, interesting. And then James and John says, Teacher, we want you to do whatever we ask for you. He says, what do you want me to do for you? He said, grant that we may sit on your right side and on your left in glory. Did you not even hear what he just said? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, we know all that. That's great. Can we have that place of glory on your right side and on your left side?

8:54And then the other disciples, verse 41, they get indignant. Why? Why did they get indignant? Well, because I want that spot. Why should they get it? We should be up there, right? So calling them to himself, Jesus said to him, You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you. But whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.

9:42So that happens on the way up to Jerusalem, just a couple days before this foot washing, or soon before, right? And now, consider what took place right after Jesus washed their feet. Right after this, he washes their feet. If you pick it up in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 22, having after washed their feet, if you put it in the strict chronological order, this conversation happens afterwards. And I'll just pick it up in verse 14 and read parts of it. When the hour had come, he reclined at the table, and the apostles with him, and he said to him, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I shall never eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And when he had taken the cup, given thanks, he said, Take this and share it among yourselves. And for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes. And when he had taken some bread, he said, he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way, he took the cup. And after they had eaten, he said, This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

10:57But behold, the hand of the one betraying me is mine on the table. For indeed the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that man whom he has betrayed. And they began to discuss with them who might do this. In other words, here he says, He's going to be betrayed. He's going to be crucified, and one of you is going to betray me. And then they say, Okay, well, man, who might that be? Okay, back to topic. Now let's pick up discussion again. Verse 24. And there arose a dispute among them as to which of them was regarded to be the greatest. So yeah, it's nice about the crucifixion. That's nice about all that. That's nice about someone betrayed. Now, which one of us is going to be the greatest? Peter, John, you know, and this conversation begins again. He's already washed their feet.

11:51Verse 25 of Luke 22, he says, And he said to them, the kings of the Gentiles lorded over them. I think we just went over this, didn't we, on the road coming up here? But let's. Go over it again, and those who have authority over them are called benefactors. But it is not this way among you, but the one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant. For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table, speaking of himself? But I am among you as the one who serves. And you think about put that in the context. I am the one among you who has just served.

12:34So, what's going on in Luke 22 is that Luke, I mean, that Jesus is actively promoting people with God, and the disciples were actively promoting themselves before man. You see, Christ once expects, demands that his followers go low, go low. And yet it is one of those persistent challenges that man faces, including Christians. And why is this? Why is this that we have this trouble to go low? Well, look back at verse 8 and just look at, let's look again carefully at Peter's objection to being washed. Look at verse 8. You remember, Jesus had gone around washed, and then comes to Peter, and Peter said to him, Never. Shall you wash my feet? And the Greek is even more emphatic.

13:35You've got this double negative, and we translate something like, In no way should you wash my feet into the ages. Never. In no way into forever. You're not going to wash my feet. Never. You've got to stop and pause for a minute and say, what was going on in Peter's mind and heart that would cause him to say something like this? I mean, what's going on? And if we can step back and think about the situation a little bit, Jesus had taken the form and appearance of a household slave. He was not in the posture or in the clothing of a kingly Messiah, but of a slave. And Peter knows that Jesus is the Messiah.

14:26He is the Christ. And by the way, Christ, Greek, Hebrew for the same word, Messiah, idea, anointed one. So they're used interchangeably, different languages. So when you hear those, different language, but the same office. Sometimes referred to as Messiah or Christ, same idea. But so here's Jesus looking like a household slave. Peter knows him to be. The Son of Man, the one coming in all of his glory, and he's not clothed in such. And so Peter is alarmed at the rank disparity. There is a rank difference. Jesus is so much higher in rank. Peter is so much lower, and he understands that.

15:25And so it shocks his senses. I mean, after all, someone else could wash Peter's feet, right? Peter's like, I can wash my own feet for that matter. I don't need you coming over here dressed like this to wash my feet. You see, there was a great deal of personal pride in his idea of Messiah. And I would say, oftentimes, our personal pride shows up in our view of Christ, as it did with Peter here. You see, let me tell you what pride wants. Pride wants a Messiah that will go out and strut his stuff so that we might strut around with him.

16:17You know, the sight of Jesus Messiah looking like a household slave completely offended Peter's sense and notion of the Messiah. This is not what I have in mind for the Messiah. I get it. You're not going to wash my feet ever. Of course, Jesus is like, you need to clean that up. In fact, I need to clean that up, or you have absolutely no part with me whatsoever. And you saw Peter's 180 and 360, right? We didn't wash everything. No, no, no, just listen, Peter.

16:58You see, the Jews rejected Jesus because he offended their prideful notion of what the Messiah ought to be. They wanted a champion who would champion them. And his cleansing ministry was not welcome. They didn't want him up there cleaning out their temple. They wanted him focusing his attention upon the Romans and promoting them. You see, we want a Messiah who will make much about us. That's what pride wants. You see, Peter's personal ambitions to greatness were offended because Jesus' servant posture.

17:40You know, I would say that we're fine with humbling ourselves before God. I mean, this is some deep problems, deep heart surgery here. Look at yourself. I think oftentimes we are fine with humbling ourselves before God, right? At least to some degree. But we're not always fine with him dealing humbly with us. Our pride wants him to make much of us and to make much of us publicly. I don't think we really want his refining ministry as much as his exalting ministry in our lives. And I think Peter would have greatly washed Jesus' feet. He may have had trouble washing some of the other guys' feet, but I don't think he would have had any trouble washing Jesus' feet if he had asked him, right?

18:31But you need to understand this and get this. Our ability to humbly serve does not begin by giving service, but by receiving service. And that's basically what Peter, what Jesus told Peter. Your ability to serve is going to be based on your ability to receive my cleansing service in you. And if you're not humble enough to receive that, you never will have part in the ministry that I'm all about. So, in order to begin humble service, we have to receive his humble service for us.

19:20And we must recognize that we need to be cleansed of this worldly ambition and humbly receive Christ's cleansing work in our lives. It's one of the last things that goes. I mean, look at these disciples. Look at how much they stood through. Look at all that they went through, what they gave up, and yet here at the end, they're still holding on to this personal promotion. And that's the pride of man. You see, pride is not characteristic of God at all.

20:04Man was called to reflect his image. You know, a dirty mirror doesn't really do a good job reflecting an image, right? So you clean the mirror so that it can do its job better. Its job is to reflect an image. Likewise, Christ's followers are to reflect his image. And so Jesus is going to do a cleansing job in order for him to be reflected better in his disciples. And one of the things that has to go is this dirt of pride because God is not at all proud like the world is proud.

21:01And so it's completely incompatible with who he is for him to have humble or for him to have prideful followers. Well, I want you and I, and I want this church and all of its ministries to be cleansed of every hint of worldly greatness. And I wanted to do that so that we will find our joy in serving Christ. We need to end our quest for greatness, and you can end it today. Three musts, three musts, three must-dos.

21:50If you will do these, you will end your quest to worldly greatness. And I hope many of you today will hear me and that today will be the end. And I don't care where you are, I don't care if you've never even heard the name Jesus before, that you will, that today will be the day that you cease your quest for worldly greatness, that you will embrace your Savior, embrace the truth of the Christ that is revealed in Scripture, that you will follow him, and even if you've been following him for many, many years, I pray today will be that nail in your quest. For worldly greatness.

22:33Three must-dos. Three must-dos. First of all, three imperatives of finding joy in serving Christ. First of all, you need to crucify worldly ambition. You need to crucify worldly ambition. Look back, verse 12. We'll just pick this up and we'll walk through this. First of all, notice that Jesus asked them a question. So he's just washed their feet. Verse 12: So when he had washed their feet and had taken his garments and reclined at the table again, he said to them, Do you know what I have done to you?

23:11Notice the to you, I have done. There's something I have done to you. And it's something more than just washing their feet. In fact, as you go along, realize what Jesus has done. He has just removed every justification for any hint of worldly ambition in his people. Let me tell you what I've done to you. I've just ruined every justification you have for your pursuit of worldly ambition. Second thing, notice that Jesus affirmed his role in their life. Look at verse 13. You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.

23:56So he's here. Clear affirmation of how Jesus sees his role in his disciples' life, not just there, but for all time. He sees himself as their Lord and as their teacher. So he affirms his rule over his people in no uncertain terms. I am Lord, as he said, you are right, and I am your teacher, and you are right. Next, notice the logical connection that Jesus makes in verse 14. If I then, the Lord and the teacher, wash your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. Notice how he reverses it. Up there, he said, You call me teacher and Lord. And in verse 14, he says, If I then, Lord and teacher, I was putting an emphasis there on the Lord, if I, both your Lord, who you are not above, and your teacher wash your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. You see, both his roles demand his followers to do likewise. As Lord, since their Lord washed each other's feet, you should wash each other's feet. You're not above me.

25:22I washed your feet, and I am your Lord. Therefore, Peter, You can wash John's feet, etc. But both demands, not just that he is Lord, but he's also teacher. He's teacher. You're going to receive his role as teacher? He said, I'm showing you the way you are to live. I'm telling you about my kingdom. I'm telling you the way it is supposed to be among you. Let me teach you about my kingdom. Let me teach you about the Messiah that you need in your life. Don't tell me what kind of Messiah you want. I'm here to reveal to you the kind of Messiah you need. And you need a Messiah that's going to love you enough to cleanse you from your filth and present you holy before God.

26:15And it's dirty work. That's what you need. So every time I refuse to serve even the most undeserving, guess what I'm doing? I'm elevating myself above my Lord, and I pretend to know more than my teacher. So both his roles as Lord and teacher demand that his disciples would do the same. And notice in the next verse that Jesus gave them a timeless principle. Look at verse 15. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I do. To you.

27:02So Jesus instructs them by way of example. And not only does he just say, okay, this is what I'm doing, you should do the same, but he gives us the basis and standard for our interaction with one another. This is how we are to relate. This is the kind of interaction he expects between his people. People are not the problems in your life, they're the opportunities for your service. Listen, if there is anyone who crucified worldly ambition, it was Jesus.

27:46And if you're going to follow him, guess where he's going to take you? To crucify worldly ambition. If that is how he dealt with us, then if he is our Lord and our teacher, then we will be doing likewise. He doesn't lead anywhere else. There's a lot of people who sign up to follow Christ because they get a false notion of where he's going. And then when they find out, like Judas, well, he's not going where I want him to go, they bail and the multitudes that peeled away from him.

28:27Now he's going to lead you to crucify worldly ambition. Ambition, and if you aren't fine with that, you need to get fine with it. You need to be cleansed with, or you're just going to need to walk away because that's where he's going. You're going to find him leading in a way you totally despise. So, if you're going to find joy in serving Christ, first of all, you're going to have to crucify worldly ambition. Second, must do to end your quest to advance yourself is to see yourself as Christ's sent slave. You need to see yourself as a slave sent, as a sent slave. See yourself as Christ's sent slave.

29:21Look at verse 16. And notice that Jesus gave them two timeless principles. First of all, truly, truly I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. So, first of all, Jesus is, these are principles, these are axioms, but make sure you understand the implications. He has already declared himself to be Lord. That puts them in position of slave. He uses this statement here. He is seeing himself as Lord. He is seeing his disciples as slaves.

29:57We are slaves. How dare he think of us like that? The very word slave, duas, I mean, we're talking galley slave, we're talking the low. In fact, I mentioned to the elders as we're going through our elder deacon process right now, I said, you know, we might need to have another category and call it the duos category, the slave. The only requirement there is absolute menial service for absolutely no praise whatsoever. Do the dirty work of ministry to be called upon and to give yourself completely. That's what we're all called to be.

30:40You listen, we have such a negative understanding of slavery because of so many abuses. But at its basic level, it's not about the function of slave, but who you serve. A slave is really, at its basic level, a slave is loyal to the purpose of another individual. That's what a slave is. Enslaved or loyal to the purpose of another individual's mind. And such was Christ, when you put it in those terms. He was enslaved to the Father's will, but he was not enslaved against His will. Will. He absolutely loved the Father's will. He didn't want to do anything without the Father. And so his love for his Father and that beautiful relationship between Son and Father compelled him to do nothing but what the Father preferred.

31:49And so his is a freedom. He loves, and so he is connected. He doesn't ever want to be separated. And out of his love, he commits himself to the Father's will. And so Jesus wants his disciples to see themselves as his slaves. And the principle is very straightforward. Slaves are not greater than their master. The slave is to be loyal to the will of the master. And if it is the will of the master to wash his people's feet, and if you are following the master, guess what you're going to do? Wash his people's feet.

32:42And he goes on: Not only are we slaves, but we are to see ourselves as sent. Look at the second part of this. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. And Jesus. Is going to send his disciples out to accomplish something that he wants them to accomplish. That's the idea of being sent. To go out and to accomplish something that the person who sends you sends you out to accomplish.

33:18And yet, so he's going to send the disciples out to accomplish something for them, but yet all the time throughout this gospel, he refers to himself as having been sent. He is sent by the Father to do the Father's will. And the one sent is not greater. And so, when you put these together, we are to see ourselves as slaves sent by Jesus to love one another like he does. Do you know why you're sent to this church?

33:58To love the people here to the uttermost. That's why he sent you here. There is no other place where this love is to be displayed. He's talking to his own, to the congregation of his own. That's why you are sent here. You are a slave sent to this church, especially if you're certainly if you're a member, if you're a regular attender, if you're part of this, know that God is. Sending you here, and if wherever you attend church and wherever your church home, know that Christ has sent you there to love the people there to the uttermost, like he loved his disciples.

34:47And if you see yourself as such a sent slave, it will end the advance of your own greatness. Your purpose isn't to go in and to see how many will serve you. He wants us to love to the uttermost, and such love was displayed through menial service. And unless we see ourselves greater than our master and teacher, we must follow his example. And we can do this, right? We can do this, not because we have it within our own capacity, right? That's why we started this whole study on verse 1, right? We can do this because he has loved us to the uttermost. We have been loved to love. It's not something, this isn't just another moral command that's thrown out there. And here, go figure this out. You do this in your own strength. No, you've been loved like this. Now you go love like this. And you can do this because it's a work of grace.

35:56And when your mind settles upon who loves you and to what Degree he loves you, you can freely love. And let me tell you something. I've got really good news for you. There will always be a job opening for a slave. There's real job security in being a slave. I don't care who wins the next election. I don't care what changes happen on planet Earth. I don't care what happens wherever, at any time, there's always going to be a market for a slave according to Christ standards.

36:38Now, there are always going to be shortages of lordship positions because there's always competition for those spots. But slave positions are abundant everywhere. Well, a third must to end your quest for worldly greatness is seen in verse 17. You are to act upon his instruction. Act upon his instruction. Look at verse 17. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. You see, the ones who are in this state of divine favor and understand and are aware and are blessed and Are happy in their blessing with God.

37:34These who are in this blessed state are the ones who act. They act upon the instruction that was just given. He is the teacher and they do what he teaches. Is he your teacher? Then do what he teaches. You know, intellectual agreement, theological agreement, agreement alone or, you know, doesn't promote the blessing. But doing. I bought a gym membership because I know the importance that exercise is for the body. But you know what? It was easier to buy the gym membership than it was to actually go to the gym and routinely exercise, right? I don't ever really get excited about going to the gym or going for a run. Now, sometimes I like to get excited about going for a bike ride. But most of the time, I don't really just get out there because I love exercise. I don't like to inflict a lot of pain on my body because I want to. It's just I know it's good for my body, and so I go and do it. And I think I could say it's almost an absolute statement: I am glad I did. Almost every time, unless I really overdo it. Or something, but I'm always glad I exercised. Well, the same is true in, relate this to spiritual exercise. You know, we don't always feel like humbly serving a brother or sister in need, and especially to the degree that Jesus has displayed, right? I don't think we wake up, we have too much of a personal agenda each day, and people get in the way of that agenda, and so, so, but you know what? Even if you don't feel like it, you're blessed if you do them. It's not blessed if you do them and feel like you ought, you know, blessed if you do them. And so, we need to develop this spiritual exercise, this spiritual practice of loving service, moving outside of ourselves.

39:53This is how Jesus wants us to relate to one another. And this is his vision for planet Earth. And what does humble, loving service look like? I think he leaves that up to us to figure it out. You see the real need. Look for the true needs. They are opportunities. Look for ways to promote Christ in other people. And I would say, just coming here, I think there's a way that you can come into a body and start expecting service in order to be served. I want to serve. Okay, what do you want? Want to do? Well, X, Y, Z. Okay, great. Except I can't do X on this day. I can't do Y on this day. And then there's this big effort in order to be able to create the situation for you to come in and do your service. I'll tell you one thing that I've noticed is, and I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but I have gotten the phone call. You know, I've got 60 people. We want to do a mission trip. Can we come to your church next week and do service? Love it. But it takes a couple of months to get ready for that kind, to set the stage for service. I'll tell you, when we go to Honduras, there is an individual who is full-time just receiving all the people who want to come and serve. They have to serve in order to be served, right?

41:16And I would say just as your one of your goals, and we want to create, we want places for people to serve here. And I know sometimes it's difficult to get connected to a new church, but look at it as your loving service to this church to stay tenacious. Find ways to serve. In fact, I would even say start by picking up the prayer sheet. Every week, needs are put out there. Every week, you see people that are going through issues, prayer things, and it may be, sometimes the service may be congratulations on this. Sometimes it's. Maybe I know you're going through. Let me take some time and take you out. Start looking, and if you will apply your mind, you will start seeing needs everywhere. You won't run out of a place to serve, you'll run out of time.

42:14Look for true needs, they are opportunities. Look for ways to promote Christ in people. I would love to say more about that, but it's like as I'm working through this, the point here: Jesus doesn't give a whole lot of specifics, he gives us the principle: act upon his instruction. Act upon it. Act upon it. So, three imperatives of finding joy in serving Christ. And if you want to end your pursuit, first of all, if you want to end your pursuit of personal greatness and find joy in serving Christ, number one, crucify your worldly ambition. Number two, see yourself as Christ's sent slave. Three, act upon his instruction. You know, the gospel is full of good news.

43:16God loves you. Now, I'm going to say it again: God loves you. Let me say it like this: God loves you. Let me say it like. This. God loves you. Let me say this. God loves you. I mean, we let those words just run through our minds and scarcely think about the weight and the truth that they communicate. That's why we started this. Look at verse 1. This is where we started this whole thing. This whole study. It's fixed upon his love.

44:03Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end, to the uttermost. Who loved them? Christ. Can you think of anybody anywhere that has achieved a higher position in all of the universe other than the Son of God, who is at the right hand of the Father? There's none. God loves you. And you know what? Look at who he loved. The extent of his love. God loved you. And look at how he loved them. He loved them to the uttermost. That's the depth of his love. No one is higher. No one can love to a greater degree.

44:54So how could you ever want worldly praise? There's not any man that's higher than Christ. There's not any person, any position, any council, any organization that can love you with a greater degree than Christ. So, having this truth that God loves you is enough and on an embarrassing level, right? It is so much more than anything anybody in this world could ever give you. So, why would we want to pursue personal greatness when it's already been settled at the cross?

45:38There's no one higher, no one's love is deeper, you don't need worldly praise. And those of us, I'll say, who do not know Christ, you need to stop your own pursuit of your worldly greatness, surrender, come, be cleansed, put your faith in him, follow him, and he's here to welcome you today. Turn to him, cry out. But those of us who profess Christ yet long for the approval of men, I'm going to be brutally honest with you. You have little faith.

46:23Do you really believe that Jesus is God? Do you really believe that he loves you at such? To such an exhaustive degree, believe. This is the Christ of Scriptures. You are loved, so go, love. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we look at this incredible depth of your love that you have for your people, those of your own who have come and taken hold of you, you love them so deeply. Father, it is only our unbelief or our momentary deception that we find the approval of man better.

47:20Father, forgive us for every hint of worldly greatness. We want to be rid of it. We thank you for your cleansing ministry right now. That as you are at the right hand of the Father, you love us with the same intense degree, and that you are working all things out for our benefit and our good, and that is according to forming your likeness in us, that we might enjoy uninterrupted, unimpeded fellowship with your Father, that you enjoy so much.

47:56Bring us more into that loving union. Forgive us of our pitiful attempts to make ourselves great. When it's already been settled, you are the greatest, your love can't be expressed more deeply for us. Help us just to walk in that truth today.