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Weimar University

Don Mackintosh

Why the Devil Hates Foot-Washing

Father in heaven, thank you tonight for the opportunity we have to come together and to worship together as we're welcoming the palace in time, entering that palace in time you've created for us.

So bless us as we study why the devil hates foot washing.

So let's look at the passages that's about foot washing first so we can see what we're talking about and This is of course in John chapter 13 John chapter 13 Says 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.

And supper being ended, the devil having already put it in the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, and Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and took a towel and girded himself.

Verse 5, after that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and wiped them with a towel with which he was girded.

Then he came to Simon Peter, verse 6, and Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet?

And Jesus answered and said to him, what I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.

Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet.

Jesus answered, If I do not wash you you have no part with me.

Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but my hands and my head.

Jesus said to him, he who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean.

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

So when he had washed their feet, taken his garment, and sat down again, he said to them, do you know what I have done to you?

You call me teacher and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am.

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

For I've given you an example that I should do as I have done to you.

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

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them." So that's the story of foot washing and why is it the devil hates it so much and tries to get it postponed and tries to get it put off.

I actually had someone call me so disappointed, they said, if there's another church tomorrow that's doing communion, I'm gonna go there.

But why is it that the devil hates foot washing and communion so much?

Because he wants us to be unprepared in our lives.

Foot washing was done to prepare for many different things in the Bible.

In fact, they had a phrase, and this was the phrase, he's going about that with unwashed feet.

Unwashed feet was the idea that someone was doing something hasty, was not really taking the time, was not spending the time to prepare themselves.

And the reason we wanted to have a full Washington night for our faculty and staff is because We're preparing for a new school year.

We're going to try it next Friday night, OK?

So we're going to keep trying until this works at the first available possibility.

Well, in Old Testament times, they would wash their feet before they entered the house.

Closest we come now, at least in my house, is my wife saying, take off your shoes.

That's as close as we come to preparing our feet.

But back then, they would wash the feet before they entered a house.

They would wash their feet before they would partake of a meal.

In fact, this communion service mentioned in John 13 is quite unusual because it has a foot washing in the middle of a meal, which means it's transcending just the hygienic aspect of foot washing.

It wasn't just to clean their feet hygienically.

They probably had already had their feet washed, or potentially could have, but of course they didn't in this case.

So Jesus looked around and they hadn't done that, the meal's already starting, And he's doing it in the middle of a meal.

It was preparatory to partaking in religious services.

In the Old Testament, the priests would bathe themselves completely in the water from the labor, and all of the sons of Aaron, all the Levites did that, and then every time they went back, they would wash their head and their hands and their feet.

And so it was preparatory to be involved in religious services.

They had to wash before they entered the temple grounds.

And even in Islam today, when I was over in Turkey looking at the various mosques.

There are washing stations in the front of the mosque so that they could wash before they went to prayer.

They would wash before they had marital relations.

This is why David said to Uriah the Hittite, go home and wash your feet.

It was a euphemism for, you know, have intimate relations with your wife.

He says, how can I do that when everyone else is out fighting?

Of course, it was also preparatory for burial as well.

And Mary prepared Christ for his death by washing his feet.

And then of course, preparatory for the communion Supper itself.

So what I like about what's happened is, as we learn more about foot washing tonight, we actually maybe can prepare ourselves better for communion next week, or fully.

Christ acknowledged them, that is the disciples, as his desire of ages says, but temptation had led them into evil and they still needed his grace.

Christ girded himself with a towel to wash the dust from their feet.

He desired by that act to wash, listen to this, this is why the devil hates foot washing, to wash the alienation, jealousy, and pride from their hearts.

He wants you to be alienated from somebody, jealous of somebody, and prideful in some way.

With the spirit they then had, not 1 of them was prepared for communion with Christ.

Until brought into a state of humility and love, they were not prepared to partake of the Paschal Supper or to share in the memorial service which Christ was about to institute.

Pride, self-seeking, create dissension and hatred.

But all this Jesus washed away in washing their feet.

You think this is something the devil would not want to have happen?

Looking upon them, Jesus could say, Ye are clean.

Now there was a union of heart and love for 1 another.

How many think it would be good to become humble and teachable before we try and teach other people?

This is actually very important foot washing and that's why the devil hates it.

Foot washing was a turning point that prepared them for the hour of trial and temptation.

And when you look at John 13, it's just before John 14, 15, you know, at the end of the book.

The end of the book was all focusing on what?

The death of Christ and the coming together in unity of everybody and it was the instituting of the Christian Church.

Well, no wonder the devil didn't want that to go on.

Now who was seeking to have the place next to Jesus more than any other disciple?

And there are intimations that Judas' feet were washed first.

Jesus washed his feet first for a couple of reasons.

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Why the Devil Hates Foot-Washing

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