Sweaty Devotion

Text: John 13:1-17, Title: Sweaty Devotion, Date/Place: NRBC, 3/17/13, AM

A. Opening illustration: Cleaning up my dog’s vomit, maybe even having Buddy come in on the stage with me.

B. Background to passage: The public ministry in the sense of preaching, teaching, and miracles in over. From

chapters 13-17 his ministry is private.

C. Main thought:

Last Passover (v. 1)

1. This is the last divinely sanctioned Passover. The death angel would be assuaged no more. The blood

would be received no more upon the altar as an acceptance for the payment for the sin of the people under

the first covenant. The first covenant was over, new one was renewed

2. Argumentation

3. Illustration:

4. Application

A.

B. Truly Great Love (v. 1)

1. John records this whole

episode to demonstrate the love that Jesus had for them. He doesn’t even mention

the elements of what we know as the last or Lord’s Supper. The whole point was to show their Lord and

Master stooping down below the level of a hired hand to do the job that they would have never done.

Jewish slaves couldn’t even be required to do this task, only gentiles. John says that He loved them to the

very end, which was the cross. This was probably the most powerful display of devotion and love that

could have been shown at this time, maybe with the exception of the cross. “…both the foot washing and

the atoning death are supreme displays of Jesus’ love for his own. The foot washing was shocking to the

disciples, but not half as shocking as the notion of a Messiah who would die the heinous and shameful

death of crucifixion, the death of the damned.” –Carson.

2. Rom 8:38-39

3. Illustration: Jewish love story of Joseph and Asenath where a wife desired to wash her husband’s feet,

and when he argued that she would not be demeaned as such and sends for a servant girl, she said, “No,

my Lord, because you are my lord from now on and I am your maidservant. For your feet are my feet,

and your hands are my hands…another woman will never wash your feet.” There was a famous Rabbi

Ishmael whose mother took it to the Jewish high court to win the honor to wash her son’s feet because he

refused to degrade her in that manner,

4. Here he was laying down his dignity for them, soon he would lay down his very life. No greater love

than this than a man lay down His life for His friends. This is a demonstration of the lengths to which he

would go for his disciples. This demonstrates his commitment to us. We are never to doubt his care for

us. No matter how bleak the valley is, or how hard the trial gets, or how dark the blackness is, nothing can

separate you from His love.

C. Satanic Influence (v. 2)

1. Here we see a truth that

is widely overused. “The devil made me do it.” It is evident from this text that

Satan and/or his minions can have influence upon an individual to varying degrees. This text is not

enough to provide us with a full explanation of the extent of Satan’s power to affect or our power to resist.

It would be fun in a message to dive into the depths of this question. And these circumstances may be

special, and also may be most helpful because we might have the most revelation about them.

2. Argumentation

3. Illustration: Charlie Daniels wrote a song one time that the kids suggested that we use as a theme for VBS

4. In brief, without erring to the extreme, here is what we can say: Satan desired to have Jesus betrayed

and he prodded Judas to do it. However, we know that Jesus said that it would be better if the man who

would betray him had never been born. We know that Judas made the decision to betray, and later felt

guilty, even to the point of suicide, having caused the arrest and death of the Son of God. Humans are

responsible for their own sin, and they can be used of a satanic strategy as well, but it is not as though it is

against their will.

D.

Divine Authority (v. 3)

1. John tells us that Jesus knew where he came from and where he was going, and that God had given all

things over into His hands. This was John’s preface to the foot washing. Before all that goes on the in

the next 10-20 minutes, in fact, before all that goes on in the next 10-20 hours, remember you are dealing

with the man who calms the raging seas, causes the blind to see, and raises the dead to life—all things