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Dalton SDA Church

Chester Clark

The Example

As the disciples debated who was to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, there was 1 name that never came into consideration.

Now don't get me wrong, I think all of the disciples probably thought that they were contenders for the title, Except they weren't really arguing about who was to be the greatest.

They were actually arguing about who was to be the second greatest, weren't they?

In their minds, they all, I think, were fairly clear that Jesus was the 1 who was going to be the king on David's throne.

Jesus was the 1 who would be the greatest.

And so as they debated and disputed, as they each made their cases, maybe shamelessly for themselves, perhaps more politically for another, they were all aware that Jesus was the 1 they were trying to be closest to.

They wanted to be second in command, Jesus would be first.

They wanted to be the greatest among the 12.

They never would have thought that they would try to be greater than Jesus.

Now this is interesting because if we look at the story here in John chapter 13, We notice a couple of things.

If you have your Bibles, we're going to just look briefly at this story.

Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come that he should depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end." That's a whole sermon in itself in that verse.

But it says, "'Supper being ended, the devil already having put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him.

Here we find the great controversy between Christ and Satan coming head-to-head in flesh and blood.

Here we find a conflict between the spiritual powers of eternity, well, the devil isn't eternal, but from ages past, coming right into the present, into the upper room with Jesus being there and Judas being there and the devil having put into Judas's heart what he was about to do, Christ and Satan.

Now What's fascinating to me is that when we summarize when we sort of when we simplify the great controversy We recognize that the great controversy is a great controversy between Christ and Satan right but it is a controversy between 2 characters a Character of love which we just read about in John 13 in verse 1, right?

He loved his own and he loved them all the way to the end.

Not even that argument that he heard on their way to Jerusalem that had been about who was to be the greatest.

He loved them completely, because God's love is an everlasting love.

And the Bible here says Jesus was not ready to give up on the 12, even though they had faults.

The devil's character on the other hand is the character of selfishness.

If you could summarize the great controversy, it's selfishness versus unselfishness.

It's the devil trying to pull us into his camp of seeking our own, and God trying to pull us into His camp of transforming our hearts to be reflecting His agape love.

That's what salvation is about, is us letting God change our hearts to be more like Him.

It's about selfishness versus unselfishness.

And believe it or not, even though the disciples had never thought, I want to be number 1, Jesus could be my number 2.

I don't think any of the 12, maybe except Judas, I don't know what he really thought.

Believe it or not, there was a being once who thought that.

The devil actually came to the point where he said, I want to be above God.

That's the ultimate egocentricity and narcissism.

And what the devil had done in the minds of those disciples is He had so imbued them with His spirit of selfishness, even though they didn't think, I want to be greater than Jesus.

That's the same spirit the devil had which eventually took him there, isn't it?

When they were fighting over who was to be greatest, they were heading down the same track that the devil had been down, only they didn't realize it.

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.

After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded." And you know the story.

We won't look at the focus on the part with Peter here.

We're going to skip down to our verses for today.

"'For he knew who would betray him, Therefore he said, you are not all clean.

So when he had washed their feet, taken his garments, and sat down again, he said to them, " listen to what he said, "'Do you know what I have done to you?

That sounds like a rhetorical question, doesn't it?

He had just had this interchange with Peter who said, no, no, no, no, no, no, you don't wash my feet, but no, if you want to have any part with me, you submit to Jesus washing your feet.

You call me teacher and Lord and you say, well, for so I am." There was only 1 person who among those 12 could demonstrate what unselfishness was like, and that was Jesus.

If anybody else had stood up, girded a towel, take off their outer garments, girded a towel, and started washing the other disciples' feet, if Peter had done that or John had done that or James or Philip or Nathaniel or any of the others had gotten up and done those things that Jesus did here, or Andrew I should have said, not Philip.

If they had done that, the others would have thought, you're just trying to get somehow a leg up.

You're trying to make it look like you're, you know, whatever.

There's only 1 person that could demonstrate unselfishness.

And Jesus here says, I've just done that.

You call me master and Lord, and you're right.

None of you think that you are superior to me.

I don't think any of them thought that they were above Jesus, at least not yet, not at that point.

That's where the devil would take us if we stay with him long enough, right?

But you call me master and Lord, but do you know what I've done to you?

Do you understand what the meaning is of what I have done?

You call me master and Lord, and that's correct.

If I then, verse 14, if I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, You also ought to wash 1 another's feet.

I'm thankful that Jesus was willing to come down here to this world to show us what unselfish love is all about.

While the 12 were bickering about who was the best, About who was to be the greatest, who was to be number 2 in the kingdom.

While the disciples were bickering, number 1, Jesus, demonstrated what real service and love is about.

He took those dirty feet, the very dirty feet who had been, of the men who had been ignoring Him and walking behind Him so He wouldn't hear their arguments, and even the very feet of the 1 who was about to betray Him.

He had washed their feet and shown them what service is all about.

I want you to know, friends, that Jesus ends here with this passage in verse 15, "'For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you.

Most assuredly I say to you, a sermon is not greater than his master, nor he that is sent greater than he who sent him.

If you know these things, happy are you if you do them." Jesus did not just give us an example, He pointed out that He had given us an example.

And He said, this is what I want you to do for 1 another.

You know, a refusal to do what Jesus has asked us to do would seem very much like us putting our own judgment above Jesus'.

This ceremony, we call it the ordinance of humility.

The ordinance of humility is designed to draw our minds to what real loving, agape loving service is all about.

The only 1 who can really teach us that is Jesus.

I can come up here and preach about it, but human nature being what it is and me being imperfect as I am, somebody's going to find me as a stumbling block, right?

They're going to say, oh, he says that, but he doesn't practice it, Or he's saying that because he's trying to influence.

I don't know, maybe somebody could find fault with what I say, but friends, you can never find fault with what Jesus did.

He was about to die as the Savior of the world, and yet it was not beneath Him to soil His own garments, to bend down and wash in what had to have become dirty water those disciples' feet.

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