Washing Each Other's Feet

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: John 13:12-17, 34-35
May 15, 2022

John 13:12-17: When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

John 13:34-35: A new commandment I give to you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Sermon Outline

1. Does Jesus want us to literally wash feet?

• I can't prove he doesn't, but I suspect not

  • Reason #1: Jesus often uses figurative language

  • Reason #2: The Bible is sensitive to people's culture

  • Reason #3: The literal meaning is easier than the figurative meaning

2. Christ teaches me to wash other's feet by becoming a slave

• John 13:34 = "Be a slave of other as I have been your slave."

  • "Slave" in this case is a Greco-Roman slave, who was treated almost like a member of the family, not like chattel, as in the Antebellum South

• I'm to be a slave even if I hold a high position

3. Jesus calls this a "new command."

• Not totally new (Leviticus 19:18), but a new importance was given to it

• A new reason was given for it

• A new degree of self-sacrifice is given in it.

4. As a slave, whose feet am I to wash?

• I'm to wash the feet of Christians I'm familiar with

• I'm to wash the feet of Christians who are different from me

5. 4 questions to ask myself:

• Where do I sit in church?

• Who do I talk with?

• Where, and for whom, do I pray?

• How do I use my home?

Caution: We don't serve in order to be washed. We are washed in order to serve.

Christians as Washed

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: John 13:1-11
May 1, 2022

John 13:1-11, NIV: It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

Sermon Outline

1. Jesus and his disciples prepare for the Passover.
a. Jesus and "his own"
b. Jesus will leave "his own"

2. The threatening world the disciples will stay in versus the love of Jesus
a. The threat of Judas Iscariot
b. The threat of Satan
c. The calmness and love of Jesus

3. Jesus washes their feet.
a. The physical setting
b. 1st Century Jewish culture

4. The meaning of the washing
a. Humility and cleansing
b. The salvation that Christ has worked in Christians