Text: John 13:6-11 Title: Cross-Shaped Community Where Growth Happens

Transcription

1 Text: John 13:6-11 Title: Cross-Shaped Community Where Growth Happens When we are saved Jesus calls us to come and follow Him, but it s not just a oneon-one thing with Jesus. He calls us to follow Him in relationships with other believers. This community to which Jesus calls us is a Cross-Shaped Community relationships that are shaped by the love displayed by Jesus on the Cross where He was crucified. So our vision is that every member of Travis Avenue will be a disciple of Jesus in community with other believers. I m challenging us to not just hang out on the front porch of church life (attending a worship service only). We want you to come into the family room of church life and become involved in a group where the church becomes really small and we go beyond just hi/bye relationships. Our college students have a great network of small groups and I ve asked one of our students Michelle Prokof to crack the door and let us see inside one of those groups. Michelle is a senior at TCU. She was the captain of the TCU soccer team, but most importantly she s leader in our college ministry here at Travis. Welcome Michelle. INTERVIEW: 1. Michelle, how long have you been attending our church? And how did you get introduced to our church? 2. You are part of our college student small group ministry. What happens on a typical evening when your small group meets? 3. What does it mean for you to be in a small group where there's a high level of sharing and vulnerability? 4. Why is this kind of community important to young adults? Thank you, Michelle. If you aren t involved in a small group, either a Sunday Bible Study class here on our campus or a weekday small group, go to the Welcome Center after the service and at the I m a Disciple table someone will get you connected. Let s open our Bibles once again to John 13. We re camping out here in this chapter where we learn about Jesus small group, His twelve apostles. What we have on display here in John 13 is truly a Cross-shaped community created by Jesus Himself. He gathered with His disciples to share in the Passover meal, what would come to be known as the Last Supper, and the basis for what we know as the Lord s Supper. It s Thursday night, the night that Jesus will be betrayed and arrested. The next day, Friday, Jesus will be crucified and buried the first day He s in the tomb. Saturday is the second day, and early Sunday, the third day,

2 Jesus will rise from the dead. So on this night meeting with His disciples in an upstairs room Jesus shocked His disciples when He took off His outer garment, wrapped a towel around His waist, took a basin filled with water and one-by-one began to wash the feet of the disciples. Read John 13:6-11. What I want to drive home to you today is that Jesus intends for us to grow as followers of Jesus in community with other believers. For three years Jesus molded and shaped these twelve men; they grew together. And that s the way Jesus still does His work of maturing us as disciples. In an atmosphere saturated with the love of Jesus Christ we are to grow as disciples. The NT explains how this growth happens. Turn to and read Ephesians 4: ILLUSTRATION You see, this was the first Master-planned community. You may live in a neighborhood that is a master-planned community. The plans were drawn up for this neighborhood before the first house was built and before you ever moved in. And there are guidelines for the community and they regulate how neighbors in that community live together. For example, your neighborhood guidelines may say that you can t park an old junker car in your front yard, or you can t have a large statue of Elvis in your front yard, or a four-story playhouse in your backyard. So there are these restrictions. But in the community that Jesus planned the rules are designed not to restrict us but to empower us for growth. Spiritual growth should be the top priority in your life even more than being a great spouse or parent certainly more than being a successful salesperson or an excellent golfer or having a big bank account. Spiritual growth is has to be the top priority for us because that s God s top priority to shape you into the image of His Son. And again, that growth doesn t happen in isolation. It happens in relationships with other believers. And we see that here in our text in John 13. Huddled together with Jesus in this atmosphere of unconditional love Peter and the other disciples will grow to better understand some important new truths. First, they grow to better understand 1. THE CHARACTER OF JESUS (vv.6-7) Remember what Jesus is doing here. He s shocked His followers by taking the initiative to wash their feet as they have come in off of the dirty streets of Jerusalem. He slips off their sandals and washes their feet work that was usually performed by a slave. So

3 John 13:6 - He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? The wording here is fascinating. Pulling up his feet and pointing to Jesus Peter said, You are going to going to wash my feet? No, it doesn t work that way. This is way below your pay grade, Jesus. You shouldn t be doing this. We saw this last week. Jesus knew exactly what He was doing. He knew who He was, where He came from and where He was going. The Father had given Him all authority, but He was humble enough to set that aside to come to this earth, take on a human body and to serve. John 13:7 - Jesus replied, You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand. Later after Jesus crucifixion, resurrection and ascension they will come to fully understand who Jesus is and why He did what He did. Growth is happening. Hopefully you understand more about Jesus today than you did a year ago. Your knowledge of Christ is deeper and fuller today than it was a year ago. That understanding grows through your personal time alone with God in Bible study and prayer. It grows as you listen to preaching and teaching. But it also grows as you sit with other believers and share how Jesus has been faithful. And we grow to better understand the character of our Lord. Also, Jesus followers grow to better understand 2. THE IMPORTANCE OF OBEDIENCE (v.8) Look at Peter s protest again: John 13:8a - No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet. This is about as strong a protest as anyone could make. No, never ever in million years will I let you wash my feet. Jesus, this is beneath You. Get up off the floor. You re not a slave. And by the way, I don t need my feet washed anyway. How could anyone ever talk to Jesus like that? But Peter was prone to buck up like that sometimes. One time Jesus revealed to His disciples that He would go to Jerusalem and suffer and be killed and rise from the dead on the third day.

4 Matthew 16:22 - Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord! he said. This shall never happen to you! And that would be one of many times when Peter said never to Jesus. Never say never to Jesus. That s a sure-fire way to break your relationship with Him. To disobey or resist Jesus in the smallest thing distances us from Him. Don t question His will or His way. Don t try to change it. He knows what He is doing. EXAMPLE: In my devotional reading last week I came to Luke s account of the birth of Jesus. When the angel Gabriel told Zechariah that he and Elizabeth would have a son (John the Baptist) it says that Zechariah protested, How can this be? We re no spring chickens anymore. He doubted God s ability with his question, and the Lord had to discipline Zechariah for it. However the same angel Gabriel revealed to Mary that she was to be the mother of the Messiah in spite of the fact that she was a virgin. Mary s response? How will this be? not How can this be? Zechariah s was a question of doubt; Mary s was a question of submission. In this atmosphere of unconditional love Jesus followers grow to better understand His character, the importance of obedience and also 3. THE NATURE OF SALVATION (vv.8-11) We ve already seen that Jesus used the washing of His disciples feet to teach them about the importance of service. But now we ll see that Jesus uses the footwashing episode to teach His disciples about the nature of their relationship with Him through the salvation that Jesus would provide when He was crucified the next day. Look at it again. Read John 13:8-10. ILLUSTRATION Think of it this way: At the beach you get out of the surf and you ve got the grungy sand and salt from the seawater sticking to you. So you go stand under the shower and wash it all off from your head to your feet. But then you have to walk to the house and you get more sand on your feet which you don t want to track into the house. So you have to wash off your feet again. In ancient times a person might bathe at their home or at a public bath before going to visit a friend. After taking a bath he would strap on his sandals and walk along the dusty streets to his friend s house. A servant would be waiting at the door to wash the guest s feet before entering the house. Jesus said that a person whose has had a bath only needs to wash their feet.

5 Jesus is talking about our salvation. The bath is the complete spiritual cleansing that comes when we put our trust in Christ and the Gospel. Later in His teaching that night Jesus would say John 15:3 - You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Sitting around Jesus that night were twelve men, eleven of whom had been made clean by their trust in Him. They put their faith forward to the death of Christ like we put our faith backward to it. And because of that they were clean at least everyone but Judas who betrayed Jesus because he wasn t a true believer. So when Peter refused to let Jesus wash his feet Jesus used that as an opportunity to teach Peter and the others about the nature of salvation and the importance of specific confession and cleansing. John 13:10 - Jesus answered, A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you. Christ in His death on the Cross provided the big bath we need for eternal life and cleansing of our sin. We are united with Christ forever. Your salvation is secure because of the keeping power of Christ. He remembers our sin no more. But then day by day we apply the death of Jesus to our daily sins. It s by this hour-by-hour confession, repentance and cleansing that we maintain our relationship with Christ. Again, we ve had the full bath of salvation, but in our walking everyday through this world we are prone to sin. We need specific cleansing. ILLUSTRATION In the OT Jewish priest were set apart for their ministry as priests by a special bathing. He was bathed all over one time and that experience was never repeated. But as the priest reported for his daily ministry in the tabernacle or the Temple he needed to be cleansed from the corruption of the world that he picked up in everyday life. So the priest would walk over to the brass basin filled with water and wash his hands and feet. Then he could enter the holy place to minister before the Lord. And we need that daily cleansing. 1 John 1:8 - If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

6 Now let me just come back to remind you that this happens in community with other believers. Yes, we go straight to Jesus to confess our sins for forgiveness and cleansing from our everyday, specific sins. But the NT also teaches us that forgiveness and cleansing of our sin is realized through our relationships with other believers. James 5:16 - Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. When we are open and honest with one another (in an appropriate way) our about our struggles with sin others can pray for us and remind us of the Gospel and the forgiving love of Jesus. It s in this community that we experience what it is like to be forgiven by Jesus. ILLUSTRATION Some of you know that in the Catholic tradition believers are to confess their sins to a priest who then absolves them of the sin. We don t believe that as evangelicals, but there s something powerful about confessing our sins to another trusted brother or sister in Christ. They help us to realize the forgiveness of Christ. Bible scholar N.T. Wright tells the story about a Catholic priest who was hearing the confession of three rebellious teenagers. All three boys were trying to make a joke out of it so they met with the priest and confessed to a long list of ridiculous and terrible sins that they had not committed. It was all a joke. The priest saw through their bad practical joke and played along with the first two who ran out of the church laughing. But then he listened carefully to the third prankster, and before he got away told the young man, Okay, you have confessed these sins. Now I want you to do something to show your repentance. I want you to walk up to the far end of the church and I want you to look at the picture of Jesus hanging on the cross, and I want you to look at his face and say, You did all that for me and I don't care. And I want you to do that three times. And so the boy went up to the front, looked at the picture of Jesus and said, You did all that for me and I don't care. And then he said it again, but then he couldn't say it the third time because he broke down in tears. There is something about the cross about Jesus dying there for our sins. And sometimes we need others to point us to that forgiving love. Let s take sin as seriously as God does. Let s remind each other of all that Christ did for us on the Cross to take away our sins and give us a new life in Him.