Church Requel
Servant Or Master?
When the disciples argued about who among them was the greatest, Jesus demonstrated who and what great really means. Was he the servant or the master?
Locations & Times
Church Requel
2 Marion Ave, Mansfield, OH 44903, USA
Sunday 11:00 AM
Why "Requel?"
Here at Church Requel we want to celebrate the good news of Jesus in a way that makes sense and relates to every day people. From the songs we sing (contemporary) to the clothes we wear (casual) to the language we use (understandable) we want to be “requel” in our approach. We want to retell the story that has been around for more than 2,000 years in a new, fresh way with a message each week that is straight from the Bible. We invite you to join us as we sing, pray, celebrate and learn from the Word of God.
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Servant or Master? - John 13:1-11
We are coming into the final half of the Gospel of John, an intense recounting of the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life before his crucifixion. These chapters provide us with a prescription for how we should live our Christian lives. That is certainly true in this story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. The risk to us is that these Scriptures can be so familiar that we skip over the details. If we are willing to go just a little deeper into these verse I believe we shall see 4 reminders for daily living…
#1 - Jesus KNOWS what’s going on.
“Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.” “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power…” “For he knew who was going to betray him…” John 13:1,3,11
We sometimes struggle with the idea of Jesus being both fully God and at the same time being fully human. As a human it would be easy to think that Jesus doesn’t know everything. Here, though, John sets us straight. Jesus knew exactly what was happening. He knew his time on Earth was short and that he was soon returning back to Heaven. He knew that God the Father had put all things under his power. That means that in this moment Jesus had the exact same power and authority that he had in those first creation moments. He merely had to speak and it would be done. Imagine having that much power and authority and at the same time being willing to suffer the cross! Lastly Jesus knew Judas was about to betray him. And Jesus let him!
There is a lot that goes on in our lives that we just don’t know about. What does my future hold? Will I get that job? Will I be accepted into this program or school or opportunity. Will my love be returned? Will my children make good decisions? So much of our lives are full of uncertainty.
Here is one thing we can be certain of… Jesus knows even when we don’t. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but he does. And - as we’ll see in a moment - Jesus loves us to the very end. So I may not know the exact details of how things will turn out, but that’s ok. I can rest easy. Jesus knows and I know that Jesus loves me.
There is another important and deep lesson to take from this Scripture:
#2 - There is a SECOND SPIRITUAL reality to life with Jesus.
There is a second dimension to our living that goes beyond the physical reality that we know. There is a second and deeper reality to life with Jesus. For lack of a better term, we call this the spiritual life. Our lives are more than physical. They are spiritual as well. We each have our own spirit and as a son or daughter of God, we also have the Holy Spirit.
It’s really easy to go through life and just ignore this deeper spiritual level. We have a spiritual enemy as well! He will do everything he can to distract us away from this second deeper spiritual reality. But it is important and will help us immensely if we can see it and live in it!
We see a couple of these deeper spiritual things going on in Jesus’ life at this last supper. Here’s one - the devil had already picked off Judas!
“The devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.” John 13:2
Try to imagine just how devastating this revelation must have been to Jesus. He saw it plainly. He knew what was coming. At the spiritual level, it had already been done. Judas had already betrayed Jesus in his own heart. The hurt must have been horrible. The next time you are disappointed in a friend or a loved one walks away or that special person you’ve invested your life into takes your relationship and just throws it away… know you are in good company. Jesus knows exactly what it’s like. This wasn’t the only deeper spiritual thing happening…
“Jesus knew that he had come from God and was returning to God.” John 13:3
Jesus knew his life here as a human being was soon going to be over. He fully realized exactly Who He was, What He was, and Where He was headed. We don’t always get to see this for ourselves, but every now and again, the Holy Spirit does award us a revelation… a certainty… that we are God’s child. That there is more to us than what the rest of the world sees and that we are here on this Earth for such a short period of time… that our citizenship is actually more in Heaven than here… and that we are soon to return. Somehow knowing all that helps in those disappointing moments when we are let down or betrayed. So because we can know this deeper spiritual life all around us, it should change how we respond to people…
#3 - That second spiritual reality CHANGES OUR RESPONSE…
This deeper spiritual understanding of the events playing out all around him, unseen and unknown by the rest of the disciples, changed how Jesus responded. Consider that they had all come in from the outside and that their feet were dusty and dirty. It was customary for there to be a servant there to wash the feet as people entered the room. The table was low to the ground and the feet were close by the food. Pretty important then to have clean feet! Somehow this detail got missed. No one was assigned the duty to wash the feet. Everyone thought someone else would do it and so no one actually did it. Meanwhile everyone is wondering why someone else - anyone else - isn’t doing it!
And SO we come to this most important word in verse 4…
“So he … began to wash his disciples’ feet.” John 13:4-5
What does the “so” refer to? That Jesus was aware of the spiritual reality all about him. Jesus knew what was going on with Judas. Jesus knew that His Heavenly Father had given Jesus all power. Jesus knew that he had come from God and was returning to God. And that deeper spiritual reality gave him the ability to do the thing needed in that moment - to wash the disciples’ feet. Something everyone else should have done. Something that any servant should have done. Something that the Master should not have had to do. But with this spiritual awareness and power, the Master becomes the servant.
Now here is my question for you this morning. Is this something you can do? Is this something you should do? Do you have an awareness of the deeper spiritual life playing about all around you, and can you respond with the same power and authority that Jesus did?
We can respond like Jesus IF…
IF… we are not spiritually blind
That’s the first thing, right? If we refuse to acknowledge this second, deeper spiritual battle raging all about us, then we’ll never be able to respond like Jesus did. Are you willing to pray, “Lord, let me see what is happening all about me? Help me to see life in the same way that You do!”
IF… we tap into Holy Spirit power
“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power.” John 13:3
There is a word that perfectly describes Jesus in this moment - meekness. “Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the Earth.” (Matthew 5:5). We often think of meek as weak, but this is not so. Meekness is always strength under control. Power under control. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and so he could serve from that position of power. He was the Master. He didn’t have to prove it. He didn’t have to show it. He didn’t have to lord over the others the fact that He was indeed the LORD!
We also can do extraordinary things to serve others when we see what really is going on AND we tap into the power of the Holy Spirit (which after all is really Jesus, right?) The same power that Jesus had in that moment is available to us!
IF… we exercise our faith
“You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” John 13:7
Faith can be described as not really know what is going on but trusting in Jesus anyway. Jesus told them that later on they would understand. That means that in that moment they really didn’t understand. This could really help you if you’re willing to accept it. What we discover here is that there are times when Jesus is okay with us not getting it… not understanding it… in that particular moment. Sometimes we have to trust… sometime we have to exercise our faith muscles… to survive those moments when we don’t understand the WHYS of life.
IF… we trust in Jesus’ love for us
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” John 13:1
This is the key to the whole passage. Right in the very first verse. It is the how we do it. It is the who behind it. It is the fuel that helps us get through the uncertainties of daily life. We may not be certain about anything else, but this one thing we do know… Jesus loves us… to the very end! Because we know Jesus loves us, we can trust, we can have faith, we can tap into the power of Jesus (the Holy Spirit power) and we can do the things like serve others as Jesus would because we can see as Jesus sees… with our spiritual eyes. It all starts (and ends) with Jesus loving us to the end.
Lastly, a word of warning…
#4 - We ignore our changed response AT OUR OWN PERIL.
It’s not like this is optional. There is no such thing as good Christians and bad Christians. There is no such thing as the Christ-follower who doesn’t really follow Christ. There is no such thing as a Christian without the Christ. We who name ourselves Christian do so because we are like Christ. We follow Christ. We do the things Jesus did. We have a different outlook, a different way of seeing things, a different way of responding to things, because Jesus is really in us. He change us. He changes our response. And if we ignore this. If we throw away the lessons learned today. If we don’t apply this to our own lives, then our fate could very well be the same as Judas…
“He who shared my bread has turned against me.” John 13:18
Has it ever crossed your mind why Judas’ story ended the way it did? Why couldn’t he have been changed? Why couldn’t he have responded differently? Why couldn’t he have been saved too? Why couldn’t he have changed his mind at the last minute… or confessed his sin?
I don’t profess to know the answer, but I will venture this guess. Judas’ story could very well be our story. Consider what it must be like for all eternity to know that you shared bread with Jesus and then turned against him? To know that you were that close to your own eternal salvation, and yet turned away!
Sadly, this is not only Judas’ story. It can be ours as well. How many will say for all eternity that I was in church and I took communion and I shared the bread and the cup, and yet I ignored every spiritual indicator of a changed life. In the end I decided I wanted to live my life my way instead of God’s way… only to hear God say “Have it your way then.”
How about you this morning? Are you living life as a changed forever being? Are you forever wanting to follow Jesus and His way? Do you wake up in the morning and pray, “Not my will but Yours be done?” May the story of my life be a Jesus story and not a Judas story. Amen.
We are coming into the final half of the Gospel of John, an intense recounting of the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life before his crucifixion. These chapters provide us with a prescription for how we should live our Christian lives. That is certainly true in this story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. The risk to us is that these Scriptures can be so familiar that we skip over the details. If we are willing to go just a little deeper into these verse I believe we shall see 4 reminders for daily living…
#1 - Jesus KNOWS what’s going on.
“Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.” “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power…” “For he knew who was going to betray him…” John 13:1,3,11
We sometimes struggle with the idea of Jesus being both fully God and at the same time being fully human. As a human it would be easy to think that Jesus doesn’t know everything. Here, though, John sets us straight. Jesus knew exactly what was happening. He knew his time on Earth was short and that he was soon returning back to Heaven. He knew that God the Father had put all things under his power. That means that in this moment Jesus had the exact same power and authority that he had in those first creation moments. He merely had to speak and it would be done. Imagine having that much power and authority and at the same time being willing to suffer the cross! Lastly Jesus knew Judas was about to betray him. And Jesus let him!
There is a lot that goes on in our lives that we just don’t know about. What does my future hold? Will I get that job? Will I be accepted into this program or school or opportunity. Will my love be returned? Will my children make good decisions? So much of our lives are full of uncertainty.
Here is one thing we can be certain of… Jesus knows even when we don’t. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but he does. And - as we’ll see in a moment - Jesus loves us to the very end. So I may not know the exact details of how things will turn out, but that’s ok. I can rest easy. Jesus knows and I know that Jesus loves me.
There is another important and deep lesson to take from this Scripture:
#2 - There is a SECOND SPIRITUAL reality to life with Jesus.
There is a second dimension to our living that goes beyond the physical reality that we know. There is a second and deeper reality to life with Jesus. For lack of a better term, we call this the spiritual life. Our lives are more than physical. They are spiritual as well. We each have our own spirit and as a son or daughter of God, we also have the Holy Spirit.
It’s really easy to go through life and just ignore this deeper spiritual level. We have a spiritual enemy as well! He will do everything he can to distract us away from this second deeper spiritual reality. But it is important and will help us immensely if we can see it and live in it!
We see a couple of these deeper spiritual things going on in Jesus’ life at this last supper. Here’s one - the devil had already picked off Judas!
“The devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.” John 13:2
Try to imagine just how devastating this revelation must have been to Jesus. He saw it plainly. He knew what was coming. At the spiritual level, it had already been done. Judas had already betrayed Jesus in his own heart. The hurt must have been horrible. The next time you are disappointed in a friend or a loved one walks away or that special person you’ve invested your life into takes your relationship and just throws it away… know you are in good company. Jesus knows exactly what it’s like. This wasn’t the only deeper spiritual thing happening…
“Jesus knew that he had come from God and was returning to God.” John 13:3
Jesus knew his life here as a human being was soon going to be over. He fully realized exactly Who He was, What He was, and Where He was headed. We don’t always get to see this for ourselves, but every now and again, the Holy Spirit does award us a revelation… a certainty… that we are God’s child. That there is more to us than what the rest of the world sees and that we are here on this Earth for such a short period of time… that our citizenship is actually more in Heaven than here… and that we are soon to return. Somehow knowing all that helps in those disappointing moments when we are let down or betrayed. So because we can know this deeper spiritual life all around us, it should change how we respond to people…
#3 - That second spiritual reality CHANGES OUR RESPONSE…
This deeper spiritual understanding of the events playing out all around him, unseen and unknown by the rest of the disciples, changed how Jesus responded. Consider that they had all come in from the outside and that their feet were dusty and dirty. It was customary for there to be a servant there to wash the feet as people entered the room. The table was low to the ground and the feet were close by the food. Pretty important then to have clean feet! Somehow this detail got missed. No one was assigned the duty to wash the feet. Everyone thought someone else would do it and so no one actually did it. Meanwhile everyone is wondering why someone else - anyone else - isn’t doing it!
And SO we come to this most important word in verse 4…
“So he … began to wash his disciples’ feet.” John 13:4-5
What does the “so” refer to? That Jesus was aware of the spiritual reality all about him. Jesus knew what was going on with Judas. Jesus knew that His Heavenly Father had given Jesus all power. Jesus knew that he had come from God and was returning to God. And that deeper spiritual reality gave him the ability to do the thing needed in that moment - to wash the disciples’ feet. Something everyone else should have done. Something that any servant should have done. Something that the Master should not have had to do. But with this spiritual awareness and power, the Master becomes the servant.
Now here is my question for you this morning. Is this something you can do? Is this something you should do? Do you have an awareness of the deeper spiritual life playing about all around you, and can you respond with the same power and authority that Jesus did?
We can respond like Jesus IF…
IF… we are not spiritually blind
That’s the first thing, right? If we refuse to acknowledge this second, deeper spiritual battle raging all about us, then we’ll never be able to respond like Jesus did. Are you willing to pray, “Lord, let me see what is happening all about me? Help me to see life in the same way that You do!”
IF… we tap into Holy Spirit power
“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power.” John 13:3
There is a word that perfectly describes Jesus in this moment - meekness. “Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the Earth.” (Matthew 5:5). We often think of meek as weak, but this is not so. Meekness is always strength under control. Power under control. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and so he could serve from that position of power. He was the Master. He didn’t have to prove it. He didn’t have to show it. He didn’t have to lord over the others the fact that He was indeed the LORD!
We also can do extraordinary things to serve others when we see what really is going on AND we tap into the power of the Holy Spirit (which after all is really Jesus, right?) The same power that Jesus had in that moment is available to us!
IF… we exercise our faith
“You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” John 13:7
Faith can be described as not really know what is going on but trusting in Jesus anyway. Jesus told them that later on they would understand. That means that in that moment they really didn’t understand. This could really help you if you’re willing to accept it. What we discover here is that there are times when Jesus is okay with us not getting it… not understanding it… in that particular moment. Sometimes we have to trust… sometime we have to exercise our faith muscles… to survive those moments when we don’t understand the WHYS of life.
IF… we trust in Jesus’ love for us
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” John 13:1
This is the key to the whole passage. Right in the very first verse. It is the how we do it. It is the who behind it. It is the fuel that helps us get through the uncertainties of daily life. We may not be certain about anything else, but this one thing we do know… Jesus loves us… to the very end! Because we know Jesus loves us, we can trust, we can have faith, we can tap into the power of Jesus (the Holy Spirit power) and we can do the things like serve others as Jesus would because we can see as Jesus sees… with our spiritual eyes. It all starts (and ends) with Jesus loving us to the end.
Lastly, a word of warning…
#4 - We ignore our changed response AT OUR OWN PERIL.
It’s not like this is optional. There is no such thing as good Christians and bad Christians. There is no such thing as the Christ-follower who doesn’t really follow Christ. There is no such thing as a Christian without the Christ. We who name ourselves Christian do so because we are like Christ. We follow Christ. We do the things Jesus did. We have a different outlook, a different way of seeing things, a different way of responding to things, because Jesus is really in us. He change us. He changes our response. And if we ignore this. If we throw away the lessons learned today. If we don’t apply this to our own lives, then our fate could very well be the same as Judas…
“He who shared my bread has turned against me.” John 13:18
Has it ever crossed your mind why Judas’ story ended the way it did? Why couldn’t he have been changed? Why couldn’t he have responded differently? Why couldn’t he have been saved too? Why couldn’t he have changed his mind at the last minute… or confessed his sin?
I don’t profess to know the answer, but I will venture this guess. Judas’ story could very well be our story. Consider what it must be like for all eternity to know that you shared bread with Jesus and then turned against him? To know that you were that close to your own eternal salvation, and yet turned away!
Sadly, this is not only Judas’ story. It can be ours as well. How many will say for all eternity that I was in church and I took communion and I shared the bread and the cup, and yet I ignored every spiritual indicator of a changed life. In the end I decided I wanted to live my life my way instead of God’s way… only to hear God say “Have it your way then.”
How about you this morning? Are you living life as a changed forever being? Are you forever wanting to follow Jesus and His way? Do you wake up in the morning and pray, “Not my will but Yours be done?” May the story of my life be a Jesus story and not a Judas story. Amen.