Everything Jesus says is important. Everything Jesus says comes to us as the Word of God. But there are some things in what Jesus says that He indicates are particularly important. And in John's gospel, these are prefaced by the words, amen, amen.
Truly, truly, I say to you. And one of the times Jesus used those words was with His disciples in the upper room. He knew the time was fast approaching for Him to depart this world. As they sat there with their Master, unaware of what would soon take place, Jesus served them. He taught them and prayed for them. Today on Renewing Your Mind, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson paints a vivid picture of the disciples' final moments with their Savior. Now we're coming to our second study in the farewell discourse of our Lord Jesus and our passage John chapter 13 and verses 12 through 20.
And I think I'm going to call this study the movement from understanding to experiencing blessing. Most of you have probably seen that optical illusion where you hold a picture up and some people see an ugly hag, old ugly woman, and other people see a beautiful princess. And there are some people who are never quite able to do whatever it is you need to do in order to turn that ugly woman into the beautiful princess, or for that matter, vice versa.
I think actually if you experiment you'll notice that there's a particular point in that optical illusion which if you look at it you can actually see the picture changing from the ugly hag to the beautiful princess. It's a picture that is showing us apparently two very different things. And in some ways this section of John's Gospel is like that. When you look at it from one point of view, you see Jesus portraying Himself as our Savior. But then if you look at the right point, the key point, you also notice that actually at one and the same time Jesus is portraying Himself as our example. As our Savior, He brings us the blessing of salvation. As our example, He brings us the blessing of a transformed life.
Look at the picture from one point of view. Jesus is stepping down from glory. Jesus, who is the Lord of all, is becoming the servant of sinners in order to save sinners. And having accomplished His work of redemption, He is exalted again at the right hand of the Father. And Jesus has portrayed this to His disciples. But now He wants them to see something different in this picture.
He wants them to see how this picture applies to their lives. And if you're going to be able to see the transition from Jesus as Redeemer to Jesus as example for Christians, there's a particular point in the passage that you just need to focus your attention on. You'll find it actually in chapter 13 here and in Jesus' words to Simon Peter. Peter, he says in verse 7, what I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.
Interesting, isn't it? He's saying to Peter, Peter, you can't fully understand the inner meaning of this dramatic parable. But later on you'll look back and say, oh, now I see what Jesus was showing us.
He was showing us how He became our Savior. But then, fascinatingly, just a little later on in the passage, Jesus says to the disciples, once He's back at His seat as the host of the Passover meal, He says, recorded in verse 12, do you understand what I have done to you? In the first use of the word understand, He assumes that they can't yet understand. In the second use of the word understand, He assumes they ought to be able to understand the significance of what He's doing.
And what is it that He is doing? He is giving them, He says, an example that they are to follow. So I want to suggest to you as we look at these verses together, this word understand can be a real key to the significance of Jesus' teaching and a real key to us grasping what it means ourselves to see Jesus as our example. First of all, Jesus wants them to understand the significance of what He Himself has done for them.
He wants them to be able to make the connections between what they've seen Him do and what He wants to see them do. And He says now the key here lies in the understanding. It's a very important principle of the Christian life, isn't it? That the key to transformed Christian living does not lie primarily in our emotions, in our feelings, in our instincts. The gospel will change all these, but the key to the transformed Christian life lies primarily in our understanding of the gospel. And as that understanding impacts the way we think, the way we feel, and then of course inevitably the way we live for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The gospel transforms the way we think and then it fuels, gives energy to the way in which we speak and live. It's the principle of Romans 12, 1 and 2, isn't it? Where Paul says that we are to give ourselves to the Lord and to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. That emphasis on the mind and the understanding is not an invention of the Apostle Paul. It is something that our Lord Jesus emphasizes here.
Now, what are we to understand? We are to understand that this picture of Jesus rising from supper, washing the feet of His proud disciples, and then entering into glory is also a model for the way in which you and I and these disciples are called to live the Christian life. Sometimes we live, don't we, as we say, by the golden rule.
It's a great central part of the teaching of the Lord, isn't it? That we should do to others what we would want others to do to ourselves. We should love our neighbors as ourselves.
But the golden rule has a center and a core. It isn't just doing to others what we would like others to do to us. It's doing to others what the Lord Jesus has done to us.
So, the picture in my mind as a Christian is not, how would I like her to treat me or him to treat me? The picture in my mind is, how has the Lord Jesus treated me? And that treatment is the treatment, the display of grace that I am to show to others. One of the marvelous things about seeing this passage in the light of the rest of the New Testament is that you can see the impact that it made particularly on Simon Peter. Very interesting, Peter is at the forefront here.
He is the one who protests about the foot washing. And it's clear in Peter's first letter that it was this foot washing that made such a powerful impact on Peter. He says to his fellow Christians, you are to clothe yourself with humility. And clearly the picture in his mind that lies behind these words is the picture of Jesus clothing himself with humility.
It's Peter who says that Jesus has set as an example. And actually the word he uses is the word that would be used for the writing of a teacher showing pupils how you would write in the Greek language or any language for that matter. It's actually how I learned to write, joined up writing cursive script.
I'm not sure that they teach that in schools any longer. But the teacher would come and sit down beside you. In my case I would be almost asphyxiated by her heavy perfume and she would show me how to write. There would be a light stroke up and then a heavy stroke down. And she would write on one line and then I would imitate it rather poorly. Although I did once win a prize for handwriting when I was seven and I wish I'd kept it to prove I once was able to write properly.
And then you would learn slowly how to write. Now that's the picture Simon Peter is giving us. He's saying now Jesus has written in large letters what it means to live for the glory of God. And now the Spirit wants to write those same letters, that same disposition of being a servant into your life and into your lifestyle. So in the first place, you and I need to understand the significance of what Jesus has done. And that becomes all the more important because there's a second element in understanding that Jesus is teaching us here. Not only understanding the significance of what Jesus has done, but understanding the significance of who Jesus is who has done this.
And that's a huge emphasis here, isn't it? This isn't just one of these Galilean fishermen deciding that he's going to be the one who will break the embarrassed silence of pride that no one will wash the other disciples feet. The significance of this foot washing is that it is the Lord of glory, the King of heaven, the Word of the Father, the Son of the living God, the one whom John has introduced in the first verse of the gospel as the Word who was with God in the beginning. The preposition he uses has the suggestion of was face to face with God. You know how in our Western world there are only certain people with whom your etiquette allows you to lock eyes. No one but my children may lock eyes with my wife apart from myself.
That's an intimacy that stretches beyond proper borders to lock eyes with someone. And in a sense what John is saying is the one about whom I'm writing my gospel is the only one who in all eternity was able to lock eyes with the heavenly Father. He was in the beginning with God and he was able to lock eyes, gaze into the eyes of the heavenly Father because he was God. Now what this passage is emphasizing right from the beginning is that it's when we understand not only the significance of what Jesus has done, but the significance of who Jesus is, who has done it, that it begins to impact my life so that I come to understand because of the deep instincts of the gospel created in me, that of course that if the Lord of glory did this for his disciples, should not I follow his example and learn from my Master? How proud I must be if the Lord Jesus, the King of glory, washed the dirty feet of these disciples, if I am not willing and indeed eager to wash the dirty feet of other disciples whom I know. Actually, I find one of the most moving features of this particular chapter is this, that Jesus actually knelt down and washed the dirty feet of the man he knew would deny him three times before the next day dawned. There was no holding back with Jesus. Oh, I won't wash his feet because he will deny me. And perhaps even more remarkable is this, that we learn in this passage that he knew who was going to betray him and he knelt down apparently and washed his dirty feet as well. This is surely what we mean when we speak about unconditional love for others, that Jesus washes the feet of the one who will deny him and washes the feet of the one who will betray him. And the impact of that on me is surely to be this, if he is willing to do that, should not I also be willing to follow his example? Do you know that beautiful line in George Herbert's poem, The Elixir, part of which we sometimes sing as the hymn, Teach me my God and King. Nothing, he says, nothing can be too mean, which with this tincture for thy sake will not grow bright and clean. You know, this is a very simple thing, isn't it?
Nothing complex or complicated about this. What Jesus did is described in simple sentences. He got up from supper. He took off his outer clothes. He put on the servant's towel. He got the basin of water. He kneeled down, washed the dirty feet of his disciples.
He put on his clothes and went back to the center place in the table. It's not rocket science. It's a matter of love. It's a matter of following the example of the Lord Jesus. And we are helped to do this not only because we understand the significance of what He has done, but because we are overwhelmed by the knowledge that He has done this for us.
Who? Would this not also be true? Who have denied Him and also perhaps in the past betrayed Him and trodden Him under feet and despised the blood of His covenant? And if Jesus has done this for me, His reasoning is, should I not do this for others? So we're helped here by understanding the significance of what Jesus has done.
We're helped. Our lives begin to be transformed when we understand the significance of who Jesus is, who has done this. But we're also helped, I think, in the third place when we understand the significance of who we are. And Jesus points this up to us in verses 15 and 16, doesn't He? I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you. Of course, He doesn't mean that the only thing we do is wash other people's dirty feet. He's saying this is an example that transforms the whole of your life. But we're going to be helped, He says, verse 16, when we understand this. Truly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now you'll notice this is one of the sayings of Jesus that begins with the Amen, Amen. And you probably also know that in this world of antiquity, they didn't have red letters, they didn't have underlining, they didn't have italic script. So if you wanted to emphasize something, you said it twice.
You know, some of us were brought up that way, weren't we? Our mother says to us, I've said this twice to you. So you thought it's really important if she said it twice. Everything Jesus says is important. Everything Jesus says comes to us as the Word of God. But there are some things in what Jesus says that He indicates are particularly important. And in John's Gospel, these are prefaced by the words Amen, Amen.
Truly, truly I say to you. Now what's so significant here in what Jesus says is this. First of all, I am a servant and I'm not greater than my Master. Second of all, I am a messenger and I'm sent to represent my Master. You see, when I understand these things, it begins to change the way I think about living the Christian life. I am a bond slave of the Lord Jesus. My will is to do the will of my Master. As Paul says, I've been bought with a price. I am no longer my Owen.
You know, if you grasp that principle, it really does change the way you think about being a Christian, doesn't it? So that Jesus has come to top up your life or to reorganize your life so that you will have a better life. He's come in order that you may become His bond slave in the most gloriously free service of the most loving of Masters and Kings. But my will is not my Owen. My will is now His.
And His will is that if my Master has stooped to wash others' dirty feet, then who am I as His servant, His bond slave, to think about doing anything else? Remember on one occasion being at a wedding reception sitting with one of my longest standing and closest friends, and one of the waitresses as she came by dropped an entire tray full of fairly decent crockery. It fell all over the place and I, in a moment of folly, turned to my friend and said to him, somebody should help that girl. And he turned to me in a moment of seriousness and said, well, and I got the point. And I rose from the banquet and tried to help the girl.
And it was a moment of self-revelation that's so characteristic of all of us, isn't it? Whether it's governments or churches or where you work, somebody should do something about that. Somebody should humble themselves and do something about that. And Jesus is watching and listening and I think He's saying, well, I wonder if that conjures up life situations or people. You know, there are some people who are just so difficult, such a pain in the neck, that of course you shouldn't kneel down before them and help them.
They don't deserve it. Yes, like Simon Peter didn't deserve it, like Judas Iscariot didn't deserve it. When we understand who we are, and this seems to be so difficult for us in the contemporary Christian world, doesn't it? The old days, sacrifice, service are the big words. But now the big words are all to do with self and how our lives are rearranged.
And we need those lives to be rearranged around Jesus because we're not only servants, we're also messengers. Every breath we breathe, every step we take says something about our Master. I remember reading as a youngster because in those days every morning we would down a pint of milk in the post-war era because apparently children had been deprived of milk and so much so that apparently Japanese people said Scottish people smell of milk.
And I suppose if you're not a milk drinker and people are drinking gallons of milk it seemed every week, then it would affect your breath. And Jesus is saying, people smell you. You give off an aroma. When you leave the room, you've left an atmosphere behind you.
Is that atmosphere the atmosphere of the messenger of the Lord Jesus Christ? And the marvelous thing, and of course this is where Jesus leads us in verses 17 through 20. The place where this leaves us is that we receive the most unusual blessing when this takes place in our lives. Verse 17, if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
That's not rocket science either, is it? There is a blessing that I will never experience so long as I'm standing on my feet, but I will experience it when I'm kneeling before even those who don't deserve the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, here's the question with which we finish.
Before whom did you last kneel as a Christian believer? What a bold and profound description of what it means to serve, even those who don't deserve it. We've heard an encouraging message today here on Renewing Your Mind. Dr. Sinclair Ferguson has joined us, sharing portions of his series, Lessons from the Upper Room. In 12 messages, we hear the important instructions Jesus passed on to His disciples. We'd like for you to have this series. We will send them to you in a two-DVD set for your donation of any amount to Ligonier Ministries.
You can make your request online at renewingyourmind.org, or you can call us with your gift at 800-435-4343. Dr. Ferguson wrote a book by the same title, Lessons from the Upper Room, and in it he provides a good synopsis of Jesus' time with His disciples, and it's really the takeaway for us. He writes this, the key to transformed Christian living lies primarily in our understanding of the gospel. As its truth affects the way we think, it begins to change the way we feel.
That, in turn, affects what we want and the way we behave. Again, we invite you to request this series from Dr. Ferguson. There are 12 messages on two DVDs, and you can request it with your gift of any amount. Our phone number again is 800-435-4343, and our web address is renewingyourmind.org. Well, tomorrow Dr. Ferguson will show us the personal nature of Jesus' time with His disciples in the Upper Room. We hope you'll join us for that Friday here on Renewing Your Mind. .
