Bible Study - Connected (1) - A Life of Humble Service - John 13:3-16 - March 6, 2022

 

Bible Study – Connected (1) – A Life of Humble Service – March 6, 2022

This is lesson one (1) in our series entitled, “Living Life Connected to CHRIST.”

Our focus scripture is John 13:3-10, 14-16.

We reflect CHRIST when we serve others with humility.

We begin a new series of study entitled “Living Life Connected to CHRIST.” Let’s consider verse 17, ¹⁷ If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. Christians are to apply what they know to do as led by the Holy Spirit. Let’s explore!

JESUS is our example.

Let’s read John 13:1-5:

Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet

13 Before the Passover Festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

The Passover Festival was to celebrate when the Israelites were set free from Egyptian bondage. Death of their first-born child and/or animal was the final plague GOD sent upon the Egyptians. They were spared because they placed the blood of a lamb over the doorpost of their home, thus Passover, because the death angel passed over that home.

This is so precious. When a person accepts JESUS as his or her Savior, he or she is saved from eternal death because the blood of JESUS has redeemed that person from eternal death. It does not mean the person will never die physically but the redeemed person will never die Spiritually. But GOD gives every redeemed person the assurance that they are GOD’S Child by giving him or her the confirming presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit. When JESUS returns to earth the second time, those who have been redeemed by the shed blood of JESUS will receive their Glorified bodies for eternity. WOW!!!

JESUS was 100% physical. Satan’s plan was to kill JESUS physically and that would be the end of JESUS. Do you recall that Satan tempted JESUS after HE had fasted in the desert? JESUS countered Satan’s temptations with GOD’S Word, it is written. That is how we fight Satan. We are to hide GOD’S Word in our hearts.  

² Now when it was time for supper, the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son,^[a] to betray him. ³ Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his (JESUS) hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God. ⁴ So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself. ⁵ Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him.

In that day, people wore sandals and they walked and the roads were dusty. It was common for the host of a gathering to provide a container of water for guests to wash the dust off their feet and towels for guests to dry their feet.

The disciples of JESUS gathered for the Passover meal but no one had offered to wash the feet of those gathering. So, JESUS, their leader, took it upon himself to wash the feet of HIS disciples.

JESUS set the example of humility. JESUS the LORD and Savior of all who have placed their faith in HIM set the example of service.

Let’s read John 13:6-10:

⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who asked him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷ Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.”

⁸ “You will never wash my feet,” Peter said.

Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.”

⁹ Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”

¹⁰ “One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.” ¹¹ For he knew who would betray him. This is why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

The Meaning of Foot Washing

¹² When Jesus had washed their feet and put on his outer clothing, he reclined again and said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you? ¹³ You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are speaking rightly, since that is what I am. 

In the early years there was a group referred to as “Foot-washing Baptist.” Going through a ritual is one thing but the question is why are we doing it? A ritual can soon become something we do and forget the why.

What else can become a ritual? Can the LORD’S Supper become a ritual? Yes! Why do Christians do what we refer to as “The LORD’S Supper?” Our focus scripture is foundational and is the foundation for the LORD’S Supper. It is a time for reflection on our relationship with JESUS and are we, as Spirit-born people, ministering to others as led by the indwelling Holy Spirit? It is a time when we invite JESUS to wash the dust off our lives and sit with us in a moment of one-on-ONE fellowship. It is a precious moment for it is just you and JESUS come together and have an honest conversation about where we are and where are we going.

Let’s read John 13:14-17:

¹⁴ So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you.

¹⁶ “Truly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master,^[b] and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

As we study GOD’S Word and pray GOD reveals to us, via the indwelling Holy Spirit, the things HE desires for us, as HIS Children, to do or not to do.

In verse 16, ¹⁶ “Truly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master,^[b] and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him.”

The term “servant” that was used by JESUS in verse 16 was not referring to the Hebrew servant who, when he or she served seven-years, the servant was free or to a bond-slave who could purchase his or her freedom. JESUS referred to a “bond-slave” who was his or her master’s property. This slave would gladly take on a permanent role in the master’s household. This slave loved his or her Master based upon love for the family and the love of the family back to them.

This is recorded in Deuteronomy 15:16-17:

¹⁶ But if your slave says to you, ‘I don’t want to leave you,’ because he loves you and your family, and is well off with you, ¹⁷ take an awl and pierce through his ear into the door, and he will become your slave for life. Also treat your female slave the same way.

The servant is never greater than his Master. JESUS was giving HIS disciples then and now a lesson in humility.

First Corinthians 6:20:

²⁰ You were bought with a price [you were actually purchased with the precious blood of Jesus and made His own]. So then, honor and glorify God with your body. (Amplified)

Please continue to pray for the Ukraine and the precious people still in the Ukraine and those displaced. May wisdom prevail and the power of GOD cover the Ukraine.

Blessings!!!