Basin Theology 101 - Part B

You know, a person can be very close to salvation and hear all the right things and sing all the right songs and carry a Bible and say praise the Lord, hallelujah, and be lost forever if they have never personally invited Christ to wash them of their sins. Welcome to Connect with Skip Weekend Edition. Some studies have shown that talking about doing something is one of the best ways not to do it.

You heard that right. If you want to lose weight or start a new exercise program, don't tell anyone. If you want to start saving money, keep it to yourself.

When you start something new, don't tell because you risk not doing it at all. Well, as believers, our lives should definitely be all about our faith, and we certainly shouldn't keep it to ourselves. But sometimes we can end up talking about our beliefs more than living them out, and today we'll encounter someone who did just that with a message from Pastor Skip entitled Basin Theology 101.

John chapter 13 is the focus of today's teaching, so if you have a Bible or a Bible app handy, you'll want to be sure to open up there as Pastor Skip begins. Can I just say you can't say in the same sentence, not so Lord. He's not the Lord for you to say not so to. You could say not so friend, not so you, but you can't say not so Lord. If it's the Lord, you say yes sir Lord.

So Peter objects. It is not humility. You see, humility is often misunderstood. A lot of people think humility is where you walk around with your head down all the time and you just say hi. You're talking a real mealy voice.

Hi. I really can't do anything, and I'm really not good at anything. If anything ever good comes to me, it's just the Lord. That's not humility.

That's just weirdness, because here's why. Humility isn't thinking poorly of yourself. Humility is simply not thinking of yourself at all, and there is a sort of false humility that is actually a pride, and I believe that Peter, wanting to be spiritual, is making this all about Peter. Then Jesus says, well Peter, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me at all. Now we see a pendulum swing from objection to overreaction.

Look what he says. He says, Lord, not only my feet also, but my hands and my head. Lord, just give me a bath. Just give me the works.

I want the interior done, the wheels done, everything. I want the full works from objection now to overreaction. Peter has a hard time with seeing Jesus wash the disciples' feet, and I believe it's because Peter himself had a hard time washing those feet. And so Jesus starts doing it.

He's feeling a little bit convicted. Oh man, look how humble Jesus is. Well, I'm not going to let him out-humble me. Watch this. No way, Lord. You're not going to wash my feet. Humility is often misunderstood.

Stooping is often misread. I spoke to a husband a while back who had a radical conversion, and he started loving his wife. He started serving his wife, and his wife became so suspicious. Like, there's no way that's my husband. He's on drugs or something.

It took a long time before she was convinced that he really loved her and really wanted to serve her. There's got to be an ulterior motive. There's got to be something else. Stooping is often misunderstood. Here's the second principle. Cleansing is never unnecessary. Look at verse 10. Jesus said to him, he who is bathed needs only to wash his feet but is completely clean, and you are clean, but not all of you. You are clean, Peter. You don't need a bath. You've had a bath.

You just need your feet washed. You're clean, but not all of you, verse 11 explains, for he knew who would betray him. Therefore, he said, you are not all clean.

Okay, here's the deal. Here's the explanation. In those days, before you go out to dinner, you go home after a day of work, and you take a bath. You clean yourself, a total bath of your entire body. Then you put sandals on your feet, and you take a walk to wherever you're going to have dinner, especially here, the Passover meal. By the time you've crossed town with dusty roads that are not paved in open-toed sandals, by the time you get there, your feet are gnarly.

They're dirty. So there was a pot of water and a servant who would wash the feet. You don't come to the house after you've had a bath, and you just have dirty feet. You go, I need to take another bath. No, you just need your feet washed, and that's the idea here.

Now, look at verse 10 a little more carefully. There's two words I want you to take note of. First is the word bathed. Jesus says, He who is bathed, the word is luo, and it means to take a total bath. That's washing the entire body, a bath all over.

That's what you did at home. The second word is the word wash. He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet. That's a different word.

It's the word nipto. It means to selectively wash a portion of the body. Here it would be the feet. Here's the spiritual illustration. When you come to Jesus Christ, that's the bath. He washed you away of all of your sins. Hebrews 10 says, Their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more. But what happens as you start walking through this world, the world is defiled. It is contaminated. You get your feet dirty. From day to day, you and I get dirty feet. So the Bible says, If we confess our sins, 1 John 1.9, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So think of it this way. All Christians have union with God because of what Jesus did. All of you have union with God. But not all Christians have communion with God. Communion with God can get broken by a barrier of sin that is put up on a daily basis that should be confessed. If we confess our sins, John 1.9, He is speaking to believers.

So it's not like you have to get born again, again and again and again and again. I had a guy say, I've been saved many times. No, you haven't. You've been saved one time. It's the one time we'll do it. It's not like, well, the first time didn't take.

Maybe it'll take this time. You get saved once. You get dirty feet a lot. And so sin needs to be confessed because unconfessed sin hinders our relationship with God. That's what Jesus means when He says, you will have no part with Me.

You will have no communion with Me if I don't wash your feet. So a disciple, a follower of Christ will keep short accounts with God. And as sins are committed, as we fall down, we ask Him to forgive us.

We examine ourselves daily. We search our hearts. As David prayed in Psalm 139, search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my ways and see if there's anything wicked in me and lead me in the way everlasting. So confession of sin is necessary for fellowship. So sin builds up a barrier between us and God.

Understand that. Isaiah the prophet said in Isaiah 59, the Lord is not too weak to save you. He is not becoming deaf.

He can hear when you call, but there is a problem. Your sins have cut you off from God. Because of your sin, He has turned away and will not listen anymore. So cleansing from sin isn't an event that happened the day you got saved. Yes, it did happen. But there are other such confessions to restore communion with the one you have a union with.

Listen to what Max Lucado said. He said, give a man religion without reminding him of his filth and the result will be arrogance in a three-piece suit. That's all you'll have is a bunch of religious, cold, formal people who aren't dealing with the necessity of their own sin. But he mentioned something else in verse 11, for he knew who would betray him, therefore he said, you are not all clean.

Who's he speaking of? Judas. We're going to read more about Judas next time, but for a moment just think about, think about Judas.

Think about what Judas has heard and think about what Judas has seen. Judas heard Jesus give the Sermon on the Mount. He was there.

Judas heard Jesus tell people, your sins are forgiven. He was there. Judas saw people rise from the dead. He was there and people get healed and Jesus walk on the water and multiply the loaves and the fishes.

He was there. And Judas kept the money bag and sounded so spiritual. A couple chapters back when Mary pours that ointment on Jesus' feet, Judas pipes up and says, that could have been sold, that ointment, and the money given to the poor. We listen to guys like that and we go, I want him on my staff. He's really frugal.

He sounds so spiritual. That's why I think when Judas betrayed Jesus, the disciples were floored. They couldn't believe it. I think if Judas were today and we found out he was a betrayer, we'd go, no, not that guy.

It's impossible. But he was a phony. He was a hypocrite. He sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

And here's the problem. Judas was never bathed all over. He never had the first bath. He might want to participate in the little foot washings along the way, but he never had the initial bath to make him clean.

You know, a person can be very close to salvation and hear all the right things and sing all the right songs and carry a Bible and say praise the Lord, hallelujah, and be lost forever if they have never personally invited Christ to wash them of their sins. You've all heard of Jesse James, yes, the notorious criminal. Jesse James one day killed a person in a train robbery and the same day got baptized in his local church afterwards. You say, well, maybe he felt guilty.

Maybe. But then on another day, Jesse James in a bank robbery killed two people and joined the church choir that day. He was a singer.

Maybe he had a great voice. Jesse James used to say, I love Sundays. I love going to church. Of course, the problem is he was often occupied killing people in Robby Banks so he couldn't make church all the time. He was a hypocrite like Judas in the choir. Jesus put it this way in Matthew seven.

Not all people who sound religious are really godly. They may refer to me as Lord. They still will not enter the kingdom of heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my father in heaven.

So you see, it doesn't help to get your feet washed if you haven't had a bath to begin with. Now, let's look at the third and final truth activity and that is serving here. Serving. Jesus is serving his disciples and here's the principle. Serving is always indispensable. It's always indispensable.

It's always needed among God's people. Verse 12, so when he had washed their feet, taken his garments and sat down again, he said to them, do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord. You say, well, for so I am. If I then, your teacher and Lord, have washed your feet, you 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. 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 or happy are you if you do them. You notice that Jesus asked his disciples if they understood what was going on. Now, it didn't tell us if they said anything or not.

Hey, do you guys understand this? My opinion is they went like this. When the true answer was, we don't get it. I don't think they got it.

I think they will get it later on. So Jesus asked them, do you understand what has happened? Oh, yeah, I get it. The reason I say they didn't get it is because during this meal, they had been arguing about who would be the greatest in the kingdom. Now, back up a little bit.

Let me give you the whole dynamic. Two days before this very meal, they're walking up toward the city. Actually, two days before Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, they're walking up. Mrs. Zebedee, the mother of James and John, gets Jesus aside, says, Jesus, a mother's request. In the coming kingdom, could you make sure that my two boys, James and John, are sitting right next to you in the kingdom, in glory? I'd like to give them in the kingdom, in glory.

I'd like to give them a position, a title. Well, when the other disciples found out that they had their mom talk to Jesus, they were so torrid, and an argument broke out. And so Jesus said, in the midst of that conversation, the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them.

It shall not be that way among you. Then they have this upper room, this supper, and in the midst of the supper, they start arguing. So Jesus washes their feet. And then he says, now, do you guys get it? Oh, yeah, we get it.

They didn't get it. They were still thinking about the immediacy of the kingdom and their position and their titles on the flow chart. And Jesus is basically saying serving one another is always indispensable. And he gives three reasons. Number one, he says, I'm your boss. I'm your lord. I'm your master.

If your lord and your master did this to you, then you should do it to each other. Second reason Jesus gives is I'm your example. Notice he says, I have given you an example.

A better translation would be a model, a template for you to follow. So if you want to know what to do, you watch what I have done, and you do that. You act that way toward other people. Just look at the life of Jesus, the supreme exemplar, the apotheosis of all servanthood.

And here's the third reason. Not only am I your boss, not only am I the example, but I know that if you do what I'm telling you, it'll make you happy. Look at verse 17. If you know these things, blessed, better translation, happy are you if you do them. If you know these things, notice how it's worded. It doesn't say, if you know these things, happy are you if you know these things. You're really happy if you're intellectually stimulated and emotionally moved.

No, if you know these things, you'll be happy if you do these things. Here's the principle. Humbleness equals happiness.

When you humble yourself before a person, it's counterintuitive, but you'll emerge from that much more content and much happier that you please the lord. You see, studying this passage could move you emotionally. I don't know if it has or not. It could. Studying this passage could challenge you intellectually.

I don't know if it has or not, but it could. But this will never help you or change you spiritually unless you and I decide we're gonna actually do this. We're gonna take basic theology and actually live it until it becomes base in theology. One of the great needs in the church is to see feet washed, is to come and restore people who have fallen and are struggling. But there's a way to wash feet.

In Galatians, Paul puts it this way, if there's any brother who's overtaken in any fault or trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, gentleness, considering yourself, unless you're also tempted. Wash feet, but do it gently. Don't use, for example, ice cold water. So people go, it's cold, don't wanna get my feet in there. And some people are so cold and so formal, don't wash feet that way. The other extreme is don't use scalding hot water, that angry, judgmental criticism.

I know some people that don't even use water, they'll scrape the dirt off the feet. They're just so abrasive in their approach. It's like, get those people away from everybody. Do it gently. Knowing that when you serve people and love people enough to assure them that they can be forgiven and you're gonna teach them how to walk, and you're gonna relate to them by stooping before them, that they're not always gonna get it, they're not always gonna understand it. But it's okay if they don't understand it, because God understands it, and he's the one that's given the command.

I offer this to you before we pass out the communion elements. It's part of one of my favorite stories ever. Marjorie Williams wrote The Velveteen Rabbit. She writes, The skin horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath.

And most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long line of succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger and by and by break their mainsprings and pass away. And he knew that they were only toys and would never turn into anything else, for nursery magic is very strange and wonderful. And those playthings that are old and wise and experienced, like the skin horse, they understand all about it. What is real?

asks the rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side on the nursery fender before Nana came in to tidy the room. Does it mean having things that buzz inside of you and stick out like a handle? Well, real isn't how you are made, said the skin horse. It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become real. Does it hurt?

asks the rabbit. Sometimes, said the skin horse, for he was always truthful. When you are real, you don't mind being hurt. Does it happen all at once? Like being wound up, he asked, or bit by bit? It doesn't happen all at once, said the skin horse. You become.

It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily or have sharp edges or have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off.

Your eyes drop out, and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all because once you're real, you can't be ugly except to people who don't understand. God wants us to be real, authentic. The best way to be authentic is to do what He has done and to humble ourselves before Him and confess our sins and confess our sins and get our feet washed and emerge from that cleansing, desiring to help other people walk in this world, knowing that they're going to fall too, but we wash gently and we encourage wholeheartedly. Becoming real, becoming authentic in our faith is a process, one that begins with confession, being washed at the feet of Jesus. I'm so glad you were able to join us for this message, Basin Theology 101.

It's part of our current series in John, Believe 879. And here's about this month's Connect with Skip resource offer. The Book of Acts says we need to understand the days we live in and how we should be spending our time, energy, and finances.

The first step is information. And this month to complement Skip's series, The End is Near, we're offering the excellent Harvest Handbook of Bible Prophecy by Tim LaHaye and Mark Hitchcock. This 450-page hard cover book is a reference guide to what the Bible says about the end times, covering over 150 topics from Armageddon to the wrath of the lamb. The Harvest Handbook of Bible Prophecy is a comprehensive survey from the world's foremost experts on biblical prophecy. Here's what Tim LaHaye said about the importance of understanding what the Bible says concerning the future. To me, the signs of the times are evident that we're in the last days.

In fact, I call them the last days of the last days. I believe that the people that had a great deal to do with the early church were the expositors of the scripture but gave Christian evidences. Why do we believe what we believe? And one of the reasons we believe what we believe is because of prophecy. This Harvest Handbook of Bible Prophecy is our gift to you this month when you encourage the growth of Connect with Skip with a gift of $50 or more. Make your financial vote of support at connectwithskip.com or by calling 1-800-922-1888.

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Each copy is just $4 plus shipping. We'll continue through our series Believe 879 with more from the Gospel of John next time, so I hope you can join us right here in Connect with Skip weekend edition, a presentation of Connection Communications. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His word. Connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.