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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 one 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 one who was going to be the king on David's throne. Jesus was the one 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 one 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've 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. Let's start in chapter 13 and verse one. 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 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 the and, and, and, and Judas being there, and the devil having put into Judas 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 two characters, a character of love, which we just read about in John chapter 13 in verse one, right? He loved his own and he loved him all the way to the end. Nothing changed that, not even that argument that he heard on their way to Jerusalem that had been about who was to be the greatest. Jesus still loved them. He loved them completely because God's love is an everlasting love. It is an unconditional love, and the Bible here says Jesus was not ready to give up on the 12 even though they had faults. That's good news, isn't it? That's the character. On one hand, the devil's character on the other hand, is the character of selfishness. Of what? Selfishness, unselfish love and selfishness. If you could summarize the great controversy, it's selfishness versus unselfishness is the devil trying to pull us into his camp of seeking our own, and God trying to con pull us into his camp of transforming our hearts to be reflecting His agape love. That's what this, this whole life is about. 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, believe it or not, even though the disciples had never thought, I want to be number one, Jesus could be my number two, 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 selfishness. That's the ultimate egocentricity and narcissism and what the devil had done in the minds of those disciples is he had, 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, they were heading down the same track that the devil had been down. Only they didn't realize it, and so you know the story. 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 GERD himself. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel, which he was, with, which he was girded, and you know the story. We won't look at the focus, focus on the part with Peter here. We're gonna skip down to our verses for today. We'll start with verse 11, 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 washed their feet. Of course they knew. 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 wanna have any part with me, you submit to Jesus washing your feet. Do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. There was only one person who, among those 12, could demonstrate what unselfishness was like, and that was Jesus. If anybody else had stood up, gerd a towel, take off their outer garments, gerd a towel, and started washing the other disciples feet. If Peter had done that, or John had done that, or, or James or or or Philip or Nathaniel or any of the others had, had gotten up and and done those things that Jesus did here, or Andrew, I should have said, not Philip, if they had done that, The others would've thought, you're just trying to get somehow a leg up. You're trying to maneuver, you're trying to be political, you're trying to, right? Isn't that what they would've thought? They're trying to act humble. You're trying to, you're trying to make it look like you are your, you know, whatever. There's only one person that could demonstrate unselfishness, and Jesus here says, I've just done that. You call me master in Lord, and you're right. None of you think that you are superior to me. I don't think, I don't think any of them thought that they were above Jesus, at least not yet, not that point. That's where the devil would take us if we stay with them long enough, right? But you call me master and Lord, but do you know what I've done to you? Do you know what I have done? Do you understand what the meaning is of what I have done? You call me master and Lord, and 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 one another's feet. I'm thankful for Jesus, aren't you? 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 we're bickering about who was the best about who was to be the greatest, who was to be number two in the kingdom, while the disciples were Bic bickering, number one, 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 they wouldn't hear, he wouldn't hear their arguments, and that had, that had even the very feet of the one 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, the Jesus ends here with this passage in verse 15, for I have given you an example that I, 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 one 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 is right. This ceremony, we call it the ordinance of humility. The ordinances of humility is designed to draw our minds to what real, loving, agape loving service is all about. And the only one who can really teach us that is Jesus. I can come up here and preach about it, but hu 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 can say, oh, he says that, but he doesn't practice it. Oh, he's saying that because he's trying to influence or he, I don't know, maybe somebody could find fault with what I say, but friends, you can never find fault with what Jesus did cuz Jesus was the master in Lord. He, he is the master in Lord. He was the king of the universe. He was the creator of all. 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, it was not beneath him. And you might criticize me. We might criticize one another. I hope we learn not to, but we all can learn service and humility as we look at Jesus. Amen. This week, we are starting what we call the season of service. Maybe you've seen the posters, perhaps you've been, you remember from our handouts that were given when we had our rally a few weeks ago. Today, I'm wanting you to pick up a book entitled Season of Service. We're gonna spend 40 days together, and it's not hard, it's not complicated. I'm not gonna it, it's not a huge amount of time, it's, it's, it's 40 days where we as a church family intentionally seek to do something, to serve one another or to serve our community or to serve others. It's really how we should be living anyway, right? And in fact, as you go, we have a book for every single family. If there's adults in the home, adult children, you can take one, two, but the idea is we don't have enough for every single person, every man, woman, and child. But take a book and we're going to go through it every day. It's a short devotional, it's just one page per day. You can read it in about five minutes. It gives you something to pray about, and it gives you some ideas of things that you can do to be of service to other people, right? And if you don't have the book or if, if you know, it's just easier for you to consume through other means. We also are having a video every week, and I'm gonna share with you the video that was that we put on Facebook this morning. If I can find myself here, if you could, we can just see if we can show this video. This is just a sample. Today is actually the first day of our season of service, 40 days. And every single day, pastor Daniel and I will share basically just the contents that in the book. So if you don't read the book, you can watch the video and you'll have the exact same contents here. Pardon me, I don't like listening to my voice or watching myself, but hopefully we'll survive this brief exercise if it works. Good morning, church family. Today is a special day because today we are kicking off our season of service, 40 days of living well, of living like we should be living anyway, serving others. I'm excited because as we journey through these next 40 days together, I believe we'll find amazing opportunities to be a blessing to others. Now, here's how it's going to work. Every day, we will go through a short one page devotional in our season of service books. You'll be doing it in your home. I'll be doing it in mine. The devotional has three parts. See it a verse from scripture. Obey it. What we can learn and apply from the text and share it, a practical idea for how you can reach out to someone that very day. If you're not into reading or don't have the book yet, you can follow along on our church's Facebook page where each morning we'll release a video containing all three of that day's. See it, obey it, and share it elements. It's that easy. Today's text is from Isaiah 61, 1. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. We can learn three things from today's text. First, each of us struggles with something, drugs, alcohol, pornography, gossip, bad moods, workaholism, materialism, legalism, just a sample. The first step to being free is to recognize what enslaves us. As you go through your day to day, give grace to those who are struggling. Remember the grace that God has given you. Second, all can be set free. Whatever your question, God has an answer. Whatever your need, God has the solution. Freedom is not for the few or the privileged, but for everyone including you, do you believe it all can be set free? All third, freedom is a process. Of course, God declares us free when we accept him as our savior, and we call that justification, but it may take some time before we experience the results, and we call these new habits by his grace. Sanctification. It's like walking on solid ground. After spending time in a boat for a while. You feel like the ground is moving and it takes time to become accustomed to the new reality. The fact that you may feel the effects of chains around your ankles doesn't mean that they're not gone. You're now free. Believe it. You probably know someone who is battling an addiction today. Our assignment is to connect with them and let them know that you are available to talk or pray with them. See how they're doing. Let them know you're interested in them and that you care. Father in heaven, my prayer today is for those who are battling addictions, I pray that you'll break those chains that bind them, and I pray that you will help us to be an encouragement to them. Give us the words to say the actions that we can do to encourage and help them. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So this is just a sample of the daily video. Did you catch the thought from scripture? Right? A passage from scripture application to our lives, and then one idea, what was the idea for today? What we could do to reach out and serve somebody? It's particularly somebody who is battling with addiction, right? To just be there for them, to just send them a text message. Say, say hello. Give them a call, and to let them know that you're there for them, you're praying for them, that you are supporting them, and you love them and care for them. That's all it is. Is that hard to do? This is, this is our assignment for today. So the, the, the example that Jesus gave us of serving is a, an example that he, he knew the disciples could not argue with, and I think he knows that we should be humbled by as well. Remember what Jesus has done and the example that that he has given for us. Remember that he has given us the opportunity of serving one another. It wasn't easy for the disciples to learn to love one another. They didn't all naturally get along. But after washing those 12 disciples feet, Jesus said, next, you're going to need to do that for one another. This media was brought to you by audio verse, a website dedicated to spreading God's word through free sermon, audio, and much more. If you would like to know more about audio verse or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audio verse.org.

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