John Lesson 35

Introduction

Very pleasant today and welcome to our program, Let the Bible Speak. I sincerely hope that all is well with you and that you’ll be able to get a new testament and study along with us. We’re in the Gospel of John, and we’ve come to John chapter 13, which, according to this text, is descriptive of the last week of the life of Jesus Christ. For it’s come at a time of the feast of the Passover, and it was at Passover that Jesus was crucified. In John chapter 13, verses 1 and 2, the scripture says, now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

1. Jesus Knew the Hour of His Death

And suffered being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Jesus Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him. Jesus knew that this was the hour of his death. The fact that our Lord was crucified was no surprise to God. It certainly was no surprise to Jesus Christ. In fact, he had come to this point on purpose and voluntarily had given himself to die for the sins of all men. There are many passages in the Gospel of John, as we’ve emphasized as we stated up to this point, where the statement was made, mine hour is not yet come. Jesus knew from the beginning the purpose for which he had come to this world. Everybody today we talk about the second coming of Jesus Christ as being a time which will issue in a period of a thousand year way on earth.

We describe them generally as those who believe in the doctrine of premillennialism. Now it’s a very popular belief, and certainly you’ve heard it, and perhaps might even believe it, that looking for the second coming of Christ as being a time when there will be a rapture, and then there will be a period of tribulation, and followed by Armageddon, and finally being the time of a thousand years on earth. There are some basic things about that doctrine that really are not supported by Scripture. In fact, they’re contradictory to Scripture. And let me say to you at this very point in our study of John, one of the most significant parents of the doctrine of preliminary, it contradicts what the gospel teaches us about the first coming of Christ and about what we look forward to in the second coming.

And that is that the doctrine of prenumeralism basically says that the kingdom of Christ was not established as first coming because the world was too wicked. It says that Jesus was crucified because the world was not yet ready. And yet, when we study the Bible and prophecies about the coming of Jesus Christ, what we learn is that Jesus Christ came for the purpose of dying. That is, he knew that he must die if men should be saved. You see, he was not crucified because the world was just too wicked to receive him as king. He was not crucified as as an afterthought of God’s plan. But rather even as the scriptures had foretold in passages like Isaiah 53, and in passages like Psalm 22, that the Messiah, the Son of God, would suffer for the sins of others.

That even he would be crucified. So that when Jesus came to the earth, some seven hundred years after Isaiah, and some one thousand years after David prophesied in Psalm 22, the fact that he lived on this earth and was rejected by man was no surprise. He was fulfilled in a prophecy. And believe that the death of Jesus Christ was not a surprise to God or to Christ, but rather it was the very purpose for which he came. Remember when I study last time in John chapter twelve, in verses 23 through 28, in fact, Jesus said, The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. In his death, it will be exaltation of the Son of Man. And we compare his death to like a grain of wheat.

He said, You you if you want the wheat to bear fruit, it must be put in the earth and it germinates, that is, it dies. The outer shell dies. And then it bears much fruit. And so he said it is with the death of the Son of God. Now, he did not look forward to death, that is, from a perspective of knowing the agony and the torture of it. Jesus Christ was troubled in his spirit as he considered it. And perhaps you remember, and as requested in the book of Matthew, how at three times Jesus Christ thought it would be possible that this cut passed from me. Nevertheless, not my will that dying be done. Yet Jesus Christ, though he agonized about the death itself. As in verse 27, John 12, he said, Now is my soul trouble, and what shall I say?

Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause came I under this hour. Though he agonized about it, Jesus willingly gave himself to die for others. And Jesus said, For this cause came I under this hour. And then in verse 28, Father, glorify thy name. Through his death, the Father would be glorified. Through his name, through his death, you see, all of us would have opportunity to be saved. And so, as we come to John 13, and in fact we’re coming to the very last week of his life, it is significant that Jesus knew the hour of his death was at hand. He was no surprise. He came for this very purpose. And indeed, as he fulfilled the will of God, when he comes a second time, it will be to judge the world.

There will be great resurrection of all that in the blaze, as John 5, verses 28 and 29 says. And there will be judgment by the word that Jesus Himself has spoken, John 12 and verse 48. And then there will be, following God judgment, heaven and hell, even as the parable in Matthew chapter 25 describes, when he separates the sheep on the right hand and the goat on the left. So it is that those who have lived according to his word and obeyed him shall spend eternity with him in heaven. What we look for in the future is a second coming of Christ, but it’s going to be followed by judgment and heaven or hell. Are you ready for his coming? What more could he do in a thousand year period when it’s earth that he’s not already done?

He has already brought redemption for mankind. He has already already brought us the way of truth. He is the way, the truth, and the life. What more could he do? He is now King of Kings, and He is now a Lord of Lords. Or indeed we look forward to the second coming. We look forward to the Second Coming for a time when the kingdom shall be delivered unto the Father, the spiritual kingdom. But now in this passage, you notice we read in verse 2, where it says that supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him. The supper that he’s talking about here is the Passover Supper. John chapter 13 does not really give us the details about this last supper that Jesus had.

We can study in Matthew chapter 26 and in Mark and in Luke, and there we can find more details of what John gives us. John tells us some things that those do not tell us. But but in Matthew, in the book of John, we do not really read about his institution of the Lord’s Supper. That is how he took bread and said, This is my body, and how he took the feet of thine and said, This is my blood of the New Testament. That is what we quoted in John. John tells us some other details. He tells us about how Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. And that’s really our lesson today. Why did Jesus washed the disciples’ feet? Well, if we get the whole set of circumstances, I think we can understand the purpose for it and the lesson that he was teaching them, and the lesson that really is left for us today.

2. The Passover: A Memorial Feast of Deliverance

Now the scripture says for the supper was in it. And maybe we ought to take a moment to talk about the Passover itself. The Passover feast was one of the major Jewish holidays. It was a feast that lasted actually seven days. And it began on the 14th day of the first month, when they would take a lamb, uh a male of the first year, without spot and without blemish, and they would sacrifice that lamb. And even on that day they will eat the Passover Supper. When you read in Luke chapter 22, for example, the scripture tells us how that uh how that Jesus uh sent his disciples, verses 7 and 8, says, Then came the day of unleavened bread, and the Passover must be killed, and he sent Peter and John saying, Go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat.

And then in verse 13, he says, They went and found as he had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover. And when the hour was come, he sat down in the twelve apostles with him, and he ate the Passover with them. Now, this Passover was a memorial feast of a time of deliverance. You may recall in the Old Testament in Exodus chapter 12, when the children of Israel were in Egyptian bondage, that God sent plagues upon that Egyptian pharaoh, trying to persuade him to let God’s people go, let the Israelites go. Pharaoh hardened his heart. The scripture says also that God hardened his heart, and then they expressed him and hardened his own heart. That is, if heaven God made his appeal to Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, Pharaoh rebelled.

He would not, he would not let the Israelites go. And there finally the tenth plague. And it was a plague that involved the death of the firstborn. You may read in Exodus 12 how that the Israelites then were instructed by Moses to take a lamb on the tenth day of the month, and then on the 14th day he were the slain, and they would take the blood of that lamb and sprinkle it on the doorpost and on the rental. And every house that did not have the blood sprinkle on it, the firstborn should die. That night, death passed throughout Egypt. And that night Pharaoh let the Israelites go. And they were in haste. For years after that, they kept this as a memorial feast.

Taught him how they were to remember this deliverance by God from Egyptian bondage. He was called Feast of Passover, for the Lord had passed over every house that had the blood sprinkled, and their sons and daughters were saved, but in every house where the blood was not sprinkled, there was death.

3. Satan Put It Into the Heart of Judas

And now they were delivered. Jesus Christ was crucified at Passover. He is our deliverer. He is our Passover, Paul said in first Corinthians. Through Jesus Christ, his blood was shed that we might live. And that is therefore through him, we have remission of our sins. And so it is significant, I believe, in this Bible story that we have the tithe of the death of Jesus Christ for us a spiritual deliverance, just as it had been for Israel a physical deliverance. But it was at this time, and the scripture says in verse 2 that Satan entered Simon’s heart, or Jesus Iscariot’s heart. Now, that does not mean that Judas couldn’t make a choice in the matter, and yet he was forced to betray our Lord. It simply says that Satan tempted Judas, and Judas himself obeyed the temptation.

Passages like Romans chapter 6 and verse 16 suggests to us that every man is a free moral agent. God will not force you to obey him, nor can Satan force you to obey him. The scripture says that know you not that to whom you yield yourself servants to obey, his servants ye are, to whom you obey, whether of sin and the death or of obedience and the righteousness. You’re the servant that you yield yourself to. You do not have to obey Satan. In fact, the scripture says in James chapter 1, verses 13 through 15, that every man is drawn of his own lust. Don’t say that God has taken you to evil, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted to any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn around his own less than in Christ, then when he must have conceived it, bring before sin and sin when it is finished, bringing forth death.

4. Jesus Washed the Disciples’ Feet

Judas followed the temptation of his own heart that Satan put upon him. Now Satan will cry you and he’ll test you. You’ll have to make a choice. James chapter 4, verse 7 says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. The scripture here just simply says Jesus did not resist the devil. He allowed Satan to enter his heart. And he covenanted with the rulers of the Jews for thirty pieces of silver to betray the Lord. But now reading verses three, uh verses thirty through eleven, the scripture says Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was coming from God and went to God, he riseth from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and dirty himself.

After that he poured water into a basin, and he began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with a towel wherewith he was girded. Then came with he to Simon Peter, and Peter said unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet. Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, He that is washed, needeth not saved or wash his feet, but is clean every whit, and you are clean, but not all.

For he knew who should betray him. Therefore said he, ye are not all clean. Now the situation here is that after supper they had eaten the Paschal lamb, and after supper, Jesus took a basin and a towel and began to wash the disciples’ feet. What he was doing was an act of a servant. First Samuel chapter 25 and verse 41, we see that that was a very prominent thing, a customary thing to wash their the feet when a guest would come into your home. And Peter said, Lord, you’re not going to wash mine. Here’s his Lord washing his feet. You’re not going to wash my feet. Jesus said, Well, if I don’t, you have no part with me. When he said that, Peter then responded, Well, wash not only my feet, but but wash my hands and my head also.

Peter was very eager to serve the Lord. He just didn’t want his Lord doing the act of a servant for him. He needed to be serving the Lord. You can see how Peter would respond that way. But then Jesus made a statement that he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet. That is, he needs nothing else. There are those who had come and they had gone through the washing of purification, preparing for the Passover itself. And he’s saying, Look, there are those of you who don’t really need a purification. He’s talking about a spiritual washing here, I believe, but he says, Not all. You’re clean, but not all, indicating that there was one among them who would betray him. And later he talks more in detail about Jesus.

5. Not a Religious Ceremony but a Lesson of Humility

We’re going to study just a moment further about the purpose for washing of the disciples’ feet. We’ll be back in just one moment. Why did Jesus wash the disciples’ feet? Was he instituting a religious ceremony that Christians today should be observing? Well, there are some religious bodies who believe that, but I’m convinced that when we get the context of John chapter 13 and other related passages to it, then we recognize that Jesus was not establishing a ceremony or a religious rite that was to be associated with the Lord’s Supper, or even that was to be practiced as a ceremonial basis for Christians today. But rather Jesus was teaching a lesson of humility. He was not trying to institute a religious ceremony. He was not, in fact, establishing a ceremony that was to be associated with the Lord’s Supper.

If he were, then surely we would find other references of it in in the New Testament. But every time we read about the Lord’s Supper, we we do not read about foot washing being associated with it. In fact, in Acts chapter 20 and in verse 7, the scripture says, upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them. Nothing there is said about their gathering or also for foot washing or also practicing foot washing at that time. They gathered to break bread or to protect the Lord’s Supper upon the first day of the week. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 in verses 23-30, where the apostle recalls the night on which Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper and where he talks about the purpose and how that we should keep in memory his his death and suffering, that we show forth his death that he come again through the Lord’s Supper.

Again, in that passage, there’s no mention about foot washing. Now it is true that it is at the Passover Supper, the Last Supper, where Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. And it is also true it was at this supper that Jesus instituted what we know as the Lord’s Supper. But do you realize that in John, which tells us about foot washing, it says nothing about instituting the Lord’s Supper. In the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke that tell us about instituting the Lord’s Supper, says nothing about foot washing. So they are never put together, even in the accounts of the two. And never are they seen as being associated together after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There’s only one mention of foot washing this side of the cross of Christ in the New Testament, and that’s in 1 Timothy 5 and verse 10, where it talks about a widow indeed as having washed the saints’s feet.

And it’s really listed along with some other characteristics of a godly woman who is willing to serve, to serve others. And that’s really the point Jesus was making. That he would be a servant. And if the Lord and Master would be a servant, should not his disciples also serve others. Jesus was teaching a lesson of humility. He was not establishing a religious ceremony to be observed by Christians today. And his disciples needed this lesson. Let’s take a look if we read the rest of this section in John chapter 13, verses 12 through 17. It says, So after he had washed their feet and had taken his garments and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am.

If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Verily barely I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If you know these things, happy are ye if you do them. Jesus Christ was teaching them a lesson of humility. As we observed a moment ago, whenever Jesus took the basin of water and began to wash their feet, Peter said, Do not want to wash mine. Peter saw Jesus doing the act of a servant. It was customary in that day where they mostly wore sandals, and as they would come into the home of someone or into some gathering like this at the Last Supper, that there would be a servant who would wash their feet.

That was just a customary practice. And so Jesus was doing something that was ordinarily done. But it was ordin ordinarily done by a servant. And Peter reacted to his Lord and Master, washing his feet. You’re not going to do that. And Jesus taught him a lesson. That yes, if you don’t let me wash your feet, then you’ll have no part of me. And Peter really overreacted. He said, Well, wash my wash the rest of me, wash my hands and the head as well. And then Jesus had a little spiritual lesson. He said, Well, really, those who have come and purified themselves for the pastoral will are clean, and they don’t need any more than what I’m doing. But then he said, We’re not all clean. And he had a little fugitive lesson there because he was replying, he was inferring about how that Judas Iscariot’s heart was not clean.

6. Why They Needed a Lesson of Humility

It was not pure. But he didn’t elaborate any more about that at this point in the supper, but rather he began to wash their feet, all of them, and then he told them the reason why. He was washing their feet to teach them a lesson that they should wash one another’s feet. He said, If I’ll give you an example, in fact, the servant is not greater than his Lord. And if I, your Lord and Master, can do this act of a servant, could you not wash one another’s feet? Would you do the act of a servant toward one another? Why’d they need that lesson? Why was Jesus teaching them humility? Well, here’s where it is important to go to related passages. At the same supper, if you look back at Matthew chapter 20, in verses 20 through 28, you observe that just shortly before this time the disciples had had some jealousies among them.

The scripture says in Matthew 20 and 20, that then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons worshipping him and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? And she said unto him, Grant that these my two sons, that’d be James and John, grant that they may sit the one on thy right hand of the other on thy left in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, You know not what you ask. Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with a baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. Now, verse twenty-four gives us a reaction of the others. This mother, as as any mother would, wanting her sons to be honored, she asked simply, let one of my sons be on your right and the other on your left, thinking about an earthly kingdom and a places of honor for her sons.

And Jesus said, You don’t really know what you’re asking. But even when she asked it, verse 24 says, Matthew twenty, when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. But Jesus called them unto him and said, You know not ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you. But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. Now they had some indignation. They they had some trouble among themselves, who was going to be the greatest. Jesus taught them that if you’re going to be great in his kingdom, you need to be a servant. Well, another passage that gives us some insight into why they needed a lesson of humility.

Look at Luke chapter twenty two. In Luke chapter twenty two, the scripture there tells us how that the disciples had some strife among themselves. In verses twenty four through thirty, the scripture says there was strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. And he said unto them, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so. But he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he that is chief as he that does serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at me, or he that serveth? Is not he that sitteth at meat, but I am among you as he that serveth. Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations, and I point into your kingdom as my father had appointed to me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

They have indignation among them, they have strife among them. Who’s going to be the greatest? What is Jesus doing? He’s teaching them that the greatest would be the servant. The first will be last, the last will be first. Now, that hath an application today. We’re not saying that Jesus was not giving us a message too. I simply said that Jesus was not instituting a ceremony that is to be observed as a religious rite or a religious ceremony today. There is no example of it in the New Testament being observed by the early church, and Jesus nowhere taught his disciples that they needed to do this exactly like he did as a as a religious service, like the Lord’s Supper is to be observed. But they needed a lesson of humility because among themselves there were jealousies.

Conclusion

Would you be willing to serve your brethren? Would you be willing to stoop down and humble your heart and do what others have need of? Indeed, sometimes a day there are people who would not do as the Lord, as Jesus said in John 13, 15 and 16. They couldn’t see themselves, them themselves doing an act of a servant. In James chapter 3 and verses 14 through 18, James talked about wisdom that is earthly, sensual, and devilish. It is wisdom that has envying and strife, and there is confusion and every evil work. If you’re really going to be a servant of the Lord, then have the attitude that he taught us an attitude of humility, an attitude of service, of willingness to put others before yourself. If your Lord could do that, cannot you if Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was able to stoop down and wash the feet of others, could we not stoop ourselves to do for others and provide as they have need?

We hope you’ll study with this later as we continue in John chapter thirteen. Until then may the Lord be with you and bless you.