Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Reading and John John 13.
John's Gospel, chapter 13.
And verse 13.
You call me master and Lord, and you say, Well, for so I am. If I then your Lord and master have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I've given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If he know these things, Happy are ye if you do them.
I speak not of you all.
I know whom I have chosen, but that the Scripture may be fulfilled. He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. Now I tell you before it come, that when it has come to pass, you may believe that I am He.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit and testified.
And fed Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
And the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus bosom, one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he fake even lying on Jesus breath. Faith unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered. He it is to whom I shall give a thought when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the saw, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
And after the thought, Satan entered into him.
Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest do quickly.
Now no man at the table knew for what intent he faked this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judith had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him.
By those things that we have need of against the feast, or that he should give something to the poor.
Even having received, the thought went immediately out, and it was night. Therefore, when he was gone out. Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him? If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify him. Little children, yet little while I'm with you, you shall seek me, and as I, as I said unto the Jews, whither I go?
You cannot come. So now I say to you, a new commandment I give unto you.
That you love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord.
Whither goeth thou? Jesus answered him. Whither I go? Thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy fake Jesus, answered him. Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto you unto thee, The **** shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice.
In First Peter, we're told that Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in His steps. And the Lord Jesus here in this chapter was giving a very wonderful example to the disciples with many practical lessons that they were to carry out after the Lord Jesus went back to the Father. This wasn't just something he was showing them. And then it was over.
No, He was giving them an example as He had washed their feet. They were then to wash one another's feet. But I want to notice a little difference between the 13th verse and the 14th verse. I've sometimes said to the young people, you know, Scripture is tremendously accurate, and we never want to read Scripture quickly. We want to read it slowly and with prayerful exercise and see the little differences that God puts in and inserts in His Word because they're very, very instructive.
And in verse 13 the Lord Jesus says, ye call me Master and Lord.
00:05:01
And you and you say, well, for so I am, but notice in the 14th verse, he reverses the order. If I then your Lord and master, I think it's significant that he reverses the order. Now master simply was probably better translated teacher. That's the way Mr. Darby translates it. And that's I, I believe an accurate translation. So it's teacher and Lord, Lord and teacher. And I believe at least part of the thought is this. It's like the young man or the man in, uh, Mark chapter 10, he came to the Lord Jesus.
And he said, Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He thought the Lord could teach him something that would earn him or show him the way to obtaining eternal life. But I often like to contrast him with the apostle Paul as Saul of Tarsus. When Saul of Tarsus went down on the Damascus road and his conversion took place, he said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And it was told him then from heaven that he was to get up and go into the city, and it will be told thee what thou must do.
In other words, brethren, we may have a lot of knowledge, we may have a lot of teaching, but until we really own the Lordship of Christ in our lives, there's not really going to be true discernment to put that teaching in practice. And so the Lord Jesus said, I'm not so much your master, your teacher and Lord, but I want you to recognize me as Lord and teacher, because as he goes on to say, this servant is not greater than his than his Lord. Again, it's not the servant, It's not greater than his master, but the servant is not greater than his Lord.
And if we don't come to the point where in humility we own the Lordship of Christ and the claims of Christ in our lives, we're not going to be able to affect, effectively serve the Lord and to serve his people. We're not going to be able to carry out in the way the Lord Jesus illustrated here, the truth of feet washing. The servant is not greater than his Lord. The Lord humbled Himself here as we had before us, and it takes humility to wash one another's feet.
A brother or a sister who washes the feet of the Saints may not always be appreciated, may not always be valued, but it's a very necessary work. But it has to be done with the meekness and loneliness of Christ. And so as soon as Solitars owned Jesus as Lord, he was told that he would receive and further instructions. And I believe that that's the order for us in our Christian pathway.
And also with the, uh, various things that the Lord did to wash their feet, which we had there in verses four and five, you know, the, uh, rising from supper and laying inside his garments and girding himself and so on, He says we're to do that. And so in some way we are to replicate that.
In our attempt to wash one another's feet, and I would suggest that the rising from supper would bring before us the thought of.
The fact that we may have to put something down that we really desire to do, that we might be a help to our brother. Now the reason why I say that is because if you turn to Luke's Gospel chapter 22, the Lord said that the thing that he desired the most was to eat that supper. And now we find that he rises up from the supper and puts that aside, even though He desired greatly to do that because of the need of the disciples. And so it is if the Lord exercises us to wash the feet of one of our brethren.
And, uh, we, we may have to put aside some things that we really do want to do, but this kind of self sacrifice we see, I am imaged in the Lord that needs to be replicated in us. Then also to lay aside the garment. You know, the garment speaks to us of what we are before men. And I might speak of the reputation that we have. Well, that delay, that aside would perhaps mean the idea of sacrificing what we might be thought of by others. We all like to be well thought of, but to do this work.
You may not be so well thought of. Are you willing to lay aside your garment? And then it says to gird themselves. He gird himself. Well, we need to gird ourselves too and take the servant's place. And what is that? It's a place of loneliness. We need to get down next to where our brethren are. You know, you know you can't wash someone's feet standing, talking to them. Literally, I'm speaking now. The Lord had to get right down to where their feet were. And it's often been said you can't wash a person's feet with a Longhorn armed handle. Excuse me, a long handled broom.
Or a mop, that's not gonna work. Long range work is not the idea with foot washing. It's a hands on thing. And then also we find that they poured the water in the basin and then he applied it to their feet. That would bring before us the idea of the knowledge of the principles of God's word. We need to know how do you, For instance, if I see you needing something and I have a hard exercise for you, so I take up Genesis one with you about how God created the earth, you may not get the connection.
00:10:17
Because I'm using the wrong verses for the situation. But uh, if we have priestly discernment that only communion gives, which is what the chapter is about, we're going to know the exact verse that it would be needed for the situation and will bring it to bear upon the situation. And the person will be helped by it. And there may be some remote verse, It may be some verse that's taken out of its primary context, but used in another context and in spirit of God can identify with that and use it for blessing.
And so it requires a knowledge of you and, and the use of the word of God that comes only by, uh, being in the word of God. And then Natal while the Lord used the towel, we need to know how to finish the job too. And that would bring before us the thought of leaving them comfortable. And, uh, we don't want to just rebuke somebody and leave them offended or, uh, perhaps feel, feel discouraged about the failure that or whatever defilement that they have contracted. And no, we need to know how to use the towel.
And to comfort them, as old Mr. Blount used to say, you know, you don't wash someone's feet with a club. You make them black and blue, but you're not gonna make somebody's feet clean. And so it takes wisdom as to how to do it and to leave them comfortable. You know how the idea of a towel after you've been washed is makes you comfortable. And the Lord would do that. If the work is right, we'll do it as well. Now, maybe I could just take you to Psalm 141.
Psalm 141 Let the righteous smite me, and it shall be a kindness, Let him reprove me, and it shall be excellent oil, which my head shall not refuse, for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. That's a little bit at the end there. But the thought is here is that we, when God does send a brother to us or a sister to us to wash our feet, we need to have that spirit of reception.
Of being willing to receive the person that we might get the good out of it. And I think that's why the Lord Jesus mentions in verse 20, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me. And he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me. You know the Lord may be behind that brother or sister that sent to you. He may be coming because the Lord has laid it on his heart. And Yusuf, I'm not going to receive something from that person. But remember too that the thought of foot washing is not necessarily some.
Corrective matter, uh, measure in the sense of a person rebuking and reproving. It's more the thought of just a gentle, uh, work of the word of God coming to bear upon the conscience whereby defilement is detected and judged and person is cleansed. Remember, this is the mildest form of Christ advocacy work as an advocate. It's not one who's overtaken with, uh, a course of sin and self will, but rather just for picking up the defilement as we move through this world. It was mentioned at the beginning of the meetings and it needs to be mentioned again.
But at any rate, we should have here a model for us on how the Lord did it and how we are to do it. And what's the grand result if you know these things, happy or ye, if you do them. And that ye there, I understand, is in the plural, apparently in the English, in the original languages. He wanted them then to be a happy company. He wanted this little company that he left behind, and not only in communion, but looking after one another, maintenance, the maintenance of one another's communion as best as we can.
And he says that if you do them, you're going to be a happy little company that's waiting for me to come. I think that's important to see and understand. We often take this 17th verse and we apply it in a broad sense to lots of aspects of the truth. And certainly obedience and happiness go hand in hand. But I think we missed something if we don't see it in the context here. And as Bruce said it, Bruce said, what the Lord is really saying is.
If you want to be a happy company of Christians in my absence, you need to be in the enjoyment of My love and seeking to refresh one another in the path of faith and service. Washing one another Speak. But I want to stress one other point and that is the order in which the illustration is given. First of all, it's the Lord Jesus washing the disciples feet. Very important. And then he instructs the disciples to wash one another's feet.
00:15:10
You know, sometimes perhaps as the people of God, we get together maybe for an evening or some activity. And don't misunderstand me, I have nothing against activity. It's good for the people of God to be together for activity. And our young people need diversity and activities together and so on. But perhaps we come away and we say, well, we had a nice time of activity, maybe there was some nice conversation, but we really didn't enjoy the Lord much together. There wasn't much true fellowship together. Sometimes we confound the word fellowship and activity. They're two different things.
Fellowship is our enjoyment and our sharing of Christ one with another.
And so we come away and we say, well, there wasn't much refreshment or much really of Christ. Why? Because I cannot wash my brother or sister's feet if I haven't had my own feet washed first, if I'm not opening this book every day.
And letting it have its cleansing effect, the washing of water by the Word. I can't share Christ with a brother or sister if I haven't enjoyed Christ in my own soul. And if I do that, if I do share, try to share Christ, and I haven't appropriated it for myself, either the water is going to be too hot or too cold. I can be clear as ice and just as cold. Or in my fervency, I can scald a brother or sister. I'm speaking figuratively.
But when we are in the enjoyment of having our feet in the hands of the Lord Jesus and the Word of God having its cleansing effect on our lives every day, and brethren, we need it every day, we're in a world of defilement as we've been saying. And when that is true in our own lives personally, then it's going to be true of us collectively. And again, that's what the Lord Jesus wanted. If you know these things that I believe it is a plural thing here. If you know these things.
Have your if you do them, you're going to be a happy Christian company in my absence. I think you have both in Hebrews chapter 10, the individual as well as the company there in chapter 10 and verse 24. Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but an exhorting or encouraging one another, and so much the more you see the day approaching.
And so you have the individual aspect there as well as the collective. So consider one another to provoke and to love and to good works. I'll just point that little phrase that the Lord uses here. One another. You ought to wash one another's feet. And so you know, the Lord allows that there might be an individual work, a private individual work of affection. And the Lord did this with tenderness and greatest affection for His own.
It wasn't a cold hearted thing at all. And so he sat down here or he, he humbled himself and there, uh, took their feet individually into his hands and he said, now you do that one and another. And so we don't just line up and a whole row of seats and do seek to wash everyone's feet all at once and a production line, so to speak. But the Spirit of God gives us this little picture.
That there's an individual discernment of what's required, and there's to be the affection and the provoking or the encouraging into a course of good works for the Lord. That there might be fruit for himself in our lives. And so this is the desire that he has, that it's an individual work with affection and with affection for Christ, but affection for the believer too. The question came up over the noon hour as to why in the Old Testament.
The priests had to come to the labor and wash both their hands and their feet.
And here the Lord Jesus, when he institutes this service, it's just the feat. Well, I believe the typical teaching is that in the Old Testament with the priest, their service, the the feet speak of our walk and the hands speak of our service. And in the Old Testament, the priest's service was never done. It was an endless round of offering sacrifices. Every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which could never put away sin.
But the Lord Jesus was about to go to the cross and offer himself as the supreme sacrifice.
And there was nothing that the disciples could contribute to that work of atonement. So he washes their feet, because they were going to be left in a world where they still had a walk for the Lord and a path of service. But having said that, I'd like to make just this practical application. Now, brethren, I don't want to take these illustrations too far, but I would like to make this practical little application because you and I today still have a path of service.
00:20:21
A pathway through this world. We have a walk through this world and we have a path of service. You and I have a, uh, a service for Christ, every one of us. And we're walk to walk through this world in a consecrated way, both hands full, full of Christ doing his service and so on. Now let's just for a moment go to the thought of the litter. What literally happened here, just for a moment, or the thought of literal feet washing. Suppose I'll use Eric for an illustration, but suppose I was to get down.
And to literally wash Eric's feet. And then he reciprocated and got down and washed my feet because the Lord said wash one another's feet. I know it's not literal as we stressed this morning, but just for the sake of my my illustration, suppose we both literally washed one another's feet. What is cleansed in the process? Both our hands and our feet are cleansed. In other words, when you take that to apply it in a spiritual way.
When you and I share Christ and the Word in the way that we've been speaking, and there's that cleansing effect, we are going to both be strengthened for the path of faith and the path of service. And so rather, this is necessary in the day in which we live. Now, before we pass on, I want to read a verse in Luke.
Uh, just to, umm, show that the service of that the Lord took up here.
Is a service that in a little different way he's going to carry on for eternity. He's going to serve us forever. But I want to notice a marked difference as to what it will be in the coming day. Luke chapter 12 and verse 37.
Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them. Brethren, isn't it a tremendous thought to consider? I I think this is one of the most tremendous verses in the Word of God, to think that the Lord Jesus.
In the coming day is going to come forth and serve us forever. He's serving us now in the way that we've been speaking up. But it's interesting that when we get home to the Father's house, He's going to come forth and serve us. But there's no mention of feet washing in Loop 12. Why? Because we will be beyond the path of faith and service. We will be beyond the defilements of the journey here. We won't need that which removes those things that now dull our souls and chill our affections. Those things will be gone.
But what is the service that He's going to carry on for us in the Father's house for eternity? But if I could illustrate it this way, when I enter the homes of my brethren, they often come out and they try to do everything they can to make you comfortable while you're in their home to serve you. If you need anything, just ask. And there's this and that, and we put this in your room for your comfort, and so on. Think of it, brethren, when we get to glory.
The sun is going to come forth as just to me, as if he says now I'm gonna minister to your every joy and your every satisfaction for all eternity. He's going to be in that capacity of being gird and serve us forever. Now if that doesn't motivate us to serve him now and to gird ourselves in humility and serve the Lord's people now, I don't know what will motivate us. But to think that he's going to serve us forever. Can't we serve Him and one another in the little time that's left us here?
Darby said that, uh, that verse in Luke 12, that what he will serve is he'll serve as heavenly happiness. Isn't that wonderful heavenly happiness?
But I was just thinking about this as we've been reading, you know, to get down next to someone's foot, you're awful close to it. You could get kicked.
What if a person you run across a person? Like Peter said, resist the foot washing.
Well, you take that chance, don't you? There is a risk.
But the Lord doesn't make allowances for the fact that you might run into that scenario. He says wash one another's feet.
We started with umm.
00:25:01
At supper, uh, uh, he lifted himself up at supper and uh, I was thinking of, uh, what we have in verse one, which was brought before us earlier this morning. But umm, having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them onto the end of the uttermost. And you know, I feel there's two things connected with that.
Uh, one is he loved them enough.
To see a change in their life and to have a concern.
But on the other side, they knew that he loved them.
They, they knew that that that this was one that cared for their need. And sometimes I feel that we need to earn the right to be able to get that close to our brother and to be able to see when there's a change in their lives and to be close enough to them where they know we love them and that they would receive a word of admonition from us.
A word of encouragement from the Word of God. You know, sometimes we can come in a critical spirit.
We might call it love, but it may be an opportunity for us to elevate ourselves. It may be that we haven't shown much love to the person in the past and now all of a sudden we feel that we have some right to come and wash their feet.
I think we need to realize it where there's a responsibility to earn, uh, to earn a place in their hearts and in their lives and they should know that we love them. Uh, and I think that that's really the very first thing that moved the Lord Jesus to stand up at supper.
And brother, then we see that sequence you just mentioned in the first Peter chapter 4 and we could just read 3 verses there.
In first Peter four and verse 8 says above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover a multitude of sins. That's the first thing. Then verse 9, use hospitality 1 to another without grudging. That's the second thing. And the third thing in verse 10 is, as every man hath received the gift, Even so minister the same one to another.
So if I don't have, if I haven't shown someone that unfeigned love, brotherly affection, and especially, and if I haven't had them even in my home, we haven't been anywhere else together to enjoy hospitality together. Like you say, how do you have a right to come to them and say I have something I need to say to you? But I think that's a nice progression there, to have that love, the genuine love that we feel for one another and then to have the the Saints in our homes and that's paving the way.
For the exercise of any gift and something that we might have from the Lord to share with them to, uh, wash their feet, as it were.
Apostle Paul says to tell you that there were going to be those that would take up the work of oversight and they were to be lovers of hospitality or given to hospitality. But then he speaks to the I think it's.
In First Timothy chapter 3 and he says that the those that were deacons were taken up with the practical service among the people of God. They were to be hospitable as well.
And so you have a little picture, I believe in the New Testament, in umm, Acts chapter 18 in connection with Aquila and Priscilla. It's a beautiful picture of how it says they took him unto themselves. It says, uh, Acts chapter 18 in connection with Apollos and umm.
It says.
In verse 26 he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom, when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded the way of God unto him, the way of God more perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass into IKEA, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive Him, who when He was come, help them much which had believed through grace. Now I know that this is not really in connection with defilement in the pathway.
But really it's the principle is this, that they, they brought this man Apollos into their own home at their own expense. And, uh, they put themselves out and it was evident, their love for that man was evident and it bore fruit for God. As a result, they were able to just, uh, minister the truth to him in a private way. And so this is another thing that I think we need to bear in mind that when it says one another's feet, there was a private individual meeting.
00:30:16
With the Lord and each one of these disciples. And it wasn't done in a public scolding way in any way. It was done with tenderness and with love. And so you have that in that portion of Scripture that you just referred to. And I believe in equivalent Priscilla. We have that little picture of the grace of God operative in their hearts. And the fruit that was born was wonderful. We may have our feet washed in a meeting like this. They're at a conference like this, but that isn't really the context of what the Lord was saying here.
This is, as we've been saying, a private personal work. And so the Apostle Paul said in the 20th of Acts that he not only ministered to the Saints publicly, but from house to house. He recognized the fact that if he was going to get close to the Saints, if he was going to wash their feet, sit where they sat, it was going to be to get into their homes as well. And so I think it's very important to see that. And Paul said too, of the household of Vanessa Forest. He off refreshed me.
There was refreshment when Paul entered that home. There was a household that refreshed the heart of the Apostle Paul. Paul would enter that home weary, no doubt, from traveling and from this journey and from the burdens and cares of the assemblies he'd been visiting. But there was a home where the, the, the household was, uh, exercised in the refreshment of the Saints of God. And I believe it's important, brethren, to have the Saints in our homes. I know it takes sacrifice. I know when I was working especially, and even now sometimes when I come home from a trip, if I'm home a Lord's day, I just want to shut the door and be alone with my wife and family.
But I'm thankful for a wife who's always been exercised to have the Saints in our home and not just to share a meal, but to share something of the things of Christ and encourage the Saints of God. And brethren, that's what we need. There's lots to discourage, lots to weary us by the way. But are our homes a sanctuary, not only for ourselves, a place of refreshment, not only for ourselves, but for our brethren. So again, as I alluded to this morning, the godly widows.
They refresh the heart of the Saints, and this isn't just something for the brothers.
This is brothers and sisters alike. I'm thankful for sisters who wash, have washed and wash my feet. Some of the most refreshing times and things I've learned that have encouraged me the most have been from godly sisters who have just spoken a word to me in season, and I'm thankful for that. And so, sisters, you have a part in washing the feet of the Saints. This isn't just something for the brothers. First Timothy 5.
Verses 9 and 10 let not the widow be taken in the number under 3 score years old, having been a wife of one man well reported of for good works. If she had brought up children, if she had lost strangers, if she has washed the Saints feet, if she have relieved afflicted. My question is, uh, is that a literal washing of the feet or is that, uh, in the spiritual sense that we're talking about?
Well, if there was an understanding of what the Lord had instituted in the 13th of John, which of course when Paul wrote this about the widows, the Spirit of God had been given, and no doubt there was another, I would say that it may have been literal, but I think in a spiritual way too. Don't you? I was waiting for Vern to tell us.
My spouse is short. I don't know.
Well, it may have been literal, but it it's certainly for us to learn today because as we've been saying, there's a spiritual application to what the Lord wasn't literal feet washing that he was introducing here. He illustrated by literal feet washing. But there was more to it than that. And so we can learn that the sisters and the widows and they have a part to play in the refreshment of the Saints of God.
Now one of the things that you see as a result, and it's beautiful.
If you just take the moral order of things as it's developing in the chapter, as we've had in the opening series of verses, we have the Lord washing our feet. The result is that we have part with Him in communion. We enjoy His love. And what is the first response that would come as a result of that? Well, that's what we had in these versus 13 to 17, and that is that we wanna bring somebody else into the enjoyment of that love. It's one thing to enjoy the Lord's love, but it's such that His love is so contagious and so over.
00:35:11
Uh, flowing and over overwhelming. I don't know what the right word is, but uh, what we want to do is the reaction is we want to bring our brethren into that. And so he says, well, that's what you should do. Wash their feet so they can enjoy, uh, my love as well. And then in the next series of verses, we have the Lord. It looks like he's changing the subject here, but I noticed that the mark, the paragraph marker in verse 18 is not to be there in the other translation. It flows right along. And, uh, what he shows here is that there's another thing that's going to result from foot washing.
And that is that there's going to be discernment of his mind. There's going to be the discernment of his mind. He says, I tell you it before it comes. And now we're let into the secrets of his mind. On this occasion, it was The Who was the betrayer. But that's not the point. The principle of it is that we are let into the insights of his mind. And that's what one of the results. So let me recount them. Now we have not only the fact that we have part with him in the enjoyment of communion, but we also react in wanting to bring our brethren into the enjoyment of that love by watching their feet. And then thirdly, he gives us discernment.
He gives us discernment and then we'll get later in the chapter, uh, the fact that we will render a powerful testimony before the world because we will go on and as a happy company and enjoying one another and the love of the Lord. He says in verses 3831 to 38 that, umm, you know, by this all men know that you are my disciples if you love one another. And so there's going to be some, there is in this chapter some wonderful results that come out of there are that are born out of the foot washing.
And this is not so much insight into his mind and we get in verses 1819 and 20 and so on as to the the the deep truths of God, because that's something that is been committed to us through the revelation that God has given the word of God. It's more the idea of the discernment of his mind for the occasion, just knowing and having the wisdom for the occasion. And what was the occasion here? There was this. There was a betrayer in their midst.
And.
The Lord, uh, uncovers that and exposes that to them. And I believe it's put in here because it has a, because there's a moral order in the teaching here, because it really is bringing out the thought that we're going to have moral discernment in the mind of Christ for the very moment. Isn't that what we need?
Discernment for the path and for the moment.
The Lord Jesus was troubled in spirit, verse 21.
Trouble in spirit.
He who is feeling the rejection that would come as a result of the betrayer, the spirit of betrayal is part of his the sufferings because of the betrayer is part of the Lord's martyrdom sufferings.
You see, as he suffered as a martyr, not only physically but also in spirit, he felt the rejection of, of men, He felt this betrayer and he was troubled in that way. Now it's true martyrdom sufferings also are physical. That is when they apprehended him and they, they beat him and they did all these things. But when they mocked him too, though that's martyred them suffering because he suffered in his spirit as he saw what his creatures were doing.
Having been under the influence of the blindness of sin and what it had wrought in their souls, and what Satan had LED them to do.
And so the Lord here is is troubled in spirit.
That's why I could say reproach has broken my heart to be rejected by those that he had come to bless. To think that Judas had walked with the disciples and with the Lord Jesus for the years of his public ministry and was now about to betray him and so on. So reproach had broken his heart. But I just want to say this in a practical way too, that you see the Lord Jesus in this chapter, He moves calmly ahead. Yes, He's troubled in spirit.
But He moves calmly ahead, He rises from supper, He washes the disciples feet, He goes on here even in the midst of the betrayer and the the one who was going to deny Him and so on and all that. He knew that was ahead. He calmly moves forward. How could he do such a thing? Well #1 All things had been committed into His hand. There was one in full control of the situation. He knew that the import of that verse that says weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. He looked beyond.
00:40:29
To the fruit and the glory, and so on.
Brethren, if we could in spirit have that too, it would help us to move on quietly and calmly amidst the many difficulties and trials that the Lord allows in our lives personally, as families, sometime even as assemblies, gather to the name of the Lord Jesus. You know, things might seem out of hand sometimes, but they're never out of the Lord's hand.
He's always in full control, and the Lord Jesus, it says of him again in Peter, who when he was reviled, reviled not again when he suffered, he threatened not. You say, how could he do such a thing? He committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. He knew that God had the record down properly. He knew that there was a day coming of vindication and so on, and he could commit himself to him that judgeth righteously. And brethren, if we could learn to do that, it would give us.
Not indifference to our situation. We never want to be indifferent. The Lord wasn't indifferent.
To what was happening here, but he could move ahead calmly and as a man with that faith in his God, knowing that all was in full control and rather everything is in full control and he's going to work it all out, not only for a purpose, but for a purpose of blessing.
Thinking of the rest of that verse that you quoted, Brother Jim, in Psalm 69, reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. And then the rest, and I look for some to take pity, but there was none. And for comforters, but I found none. And then he speaks of what they did on the cross. They gave me also golf or my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. But it's true that the Lord wanted comforters, didn't he? And I've often thought that that's the, uh, that's the place we can play to the Lord now, can't we?
Uh, he wants comforters. He wants those that, uh.
Are in communion with his thoughts and his purposes and his counsels. And, uh, it's often been said that this upper room ministry is, are the family secrets. Uh, it's as if the Lord took his. He did literally took his disciples apart, uh, the apostles apart. I should say. He closed the door and he said, I wanna tell you some family secrets. And so he said in that verse there in Psalm 69, he looked for comforters. Now I know we often apply this.
It's often struck me particularly on Lord's Day morning. And no doubt that's true. The Lord passed through that scene at Calvary without any comfort whatsoever from men, from men. And yet, uh, vicariously, we use that word. It means that a substitutionary way, as it were, we can go back now and, uh, in a sense, be those comforters the Lord didn't have at the time. I think that's one of the grand privileges of remembering the Lord Jesus and his death. There's many, many privileges, of course, but that's one, isn't it?
The Lord sought for comforters when he was going through that awful time. There were none. But now, vicariously, we can go back and be those comforters that He didn't have. Well, that's maybe a little off of our subject, but I think the point is that the Lord is quietly bringing us into these these family secrets that He wants us to appreciate them because they're close to His own heart. They have eternal value and He wants us to enter into it and to be those that have fellowship with them.
Along that line, I've thought of that verse when he said, Could you not watch with me one hour?
You know he wanted them to watch with him, but they couldn't do it. The the Spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. But you know what an opportunity we have to watch with him. One hour on the breaking of bread.
And think of how the sufferings of Christ were punctuated by His infinite foreknowledge. Imagine if you and I knew what we were gonna suffer tomorrow or what we were gonna go through next week. Why? It's a burden we couldn't bear. We suffer or go through circumstances today we look back on what we have gone through. But it's interesting here. The Lord said, I tell you before it comes verse 19, He was a divine person. He knew what was ahead. Only a divine person could tell them something before it happened.
00:45:05
I can't tell you what's going to happen next week. I might have all kinds of plans and suppose this and that, but I can't tell you for sure what I'm going to do or what's going to happen in my life next week. And thank God, I can't. Thank God He hasn't put that burden upon us. But think of how the sufferings of Christ were punctuated by the fact that he had infinite foreknowledge of what was ahead. He could sit here, and even before he was betrayed, he knew it was going to happen. He could tell Peter he was going to deny him before it was going to happen.
He knew as he bowed in the garden in his agony, he knew that he was going to suffer.
In those hours of darkness for sin at the hand of God, he could anticipate that rather than what a person he was. And if don't we get something a little bit of that here and and umm of what was being brought out in in John here, having his his head upon the bosom of the Lord Jesus.
Uh, the love, the intimacy that he was feeling with Christ. It was John that he revealed what was going to happen. And isn't that true with us? We, we have the privilege, we have the, we have the, the loaf and we have the cup and we come together collectively and the intimacy of our heart is connected with that one whom we love, who died upon Calvary's cross for us, that, that he brings us in to the sorrows that he was suffering.
He brings us into what it was and a measure to be forsaken. We don't really enter into it completely, but he unfolds his heart to us and we can respond in fellowship with the father about what his son was going through. And so that's really what's happened to John here. He's leaning, he's leaning on Jesus bosom, one of his disciples whom Jesus loved silent turns to him. He says, uh, uh, therefore beckoning to him, the one who was the closest.
That he should ask who it should be of whom he spake here. He, he, he gets divine knowledge directly from the Lord Himself, because of his nearness. So he says, he that lying on Jesus breast said unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered He, It is to whom I will give a stop when I have dipped it. That was divine knowledge. That was something only He Himself knew, and only the one that was nearest to Him was revealed. We have that kind of privilege, don't we?
It's interesting too, as we've talked about the little expression one another and we as we said earlier, we're to wash one another's feet. But you have the expression again. Now they look to one another. There was a question arose and they looked to one another, but looking to one another didn't answer their questions. No, it only caused out and brethren, when problems and difficulties arise, if we are things we don't understand, we just look to one another. Now thank God for brethren who are helps to us, but looking to one another.
When a problem arises in the assembly is only going to cause doubting and fear. But what does John do? He looks to the Lord, he turns to the Lord, and he directs his question to the Lord, and the question is answered. Then when he turns to the Lord, and don't we have to hang our heads? At least I do and say that so often we look to one another and we only add to the problem, we don't help it. But when we look to the Lord, then the problem, the questions and doubts are going to be answered. So I just say that on a practical note, we're to wash one another's feet.
But when there are questions and doubts, we're not to look to one another, we're to look to the Lord. I noticed that he calls himself.
One of his disciples whom Jesus loved.
You know when we are enjoying the Lord's love.
We lose sight of ourselves.
And he spoke of himself in a very self effacing way. He could have said, because he's recounting this as she's writing this gospel. He could have said and when all the disciples didn't know, I was close enough to the Lord and I knew the Lord told me and so I can tell the others, you know, he would it would be making something about himself.
That's not one of the effects of a person who's had their feet washed and they're enjoying The Lord's love it. It makes us humble and not try to put ourselves forward and make anything of ourselves among our brother.
It's interesting that this is the first of five times in this gospel that he is referred to or refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. And at what's significant to me in connection with what we've been saying is that the next time is in the 19th chapter.
00:50:10
When the Lord Jesus looks down from the cross and he sees John the disciple whom he loved, and he is able to commit his mother into the care of John, and that disciple takes his mother, takes Mary into his home.
And comforter and wash it, no doubt in the sense we've been talking. Washes her feet and takes care of her.
What? How could the Lord, Why would the Lord commit his earthly mother to John? Because John had leaned on his bosom at supper, Because John had an appreciation of the love of the Lord Jesus, and having appropriated that for himself, then the Lord Jesus could commit Mary into his care. If if a brother or sister needed some care in the assembly, would you be recommended as the one that they go to, They go to?
Would you would would that one be brought to you as a brother or sister that is recognized as one who's in the enjoyment of the Lord's love, and that you would pass that on to the one who needed help and comfort at the time? Well, it's very exercising, isn't it?
I believe it was quite evident here that John had affection for Christ. He not only had that affection and it showed, but he had confidence in the Lord. And so he leaned on his breast in the place of affection. And so it's nice, you know, if we do desire to deserve something that the Lord has for us, and perhaps we want to take up a portion of Scripture and just enjoy something of Christ together or get some instruction in the path of faith. It's a good thing to go to someone who is enjoying Christ in their souls and walking in a path of nearness to Christ.
And then there's going to be that affection for the soul of those that the one that might be inquiring. There's going to be the desire that they walk in affection and confidence with the Lord too. So it was evident to Peter that John had that place of affection. He he had the way Harry Hail used to say it. We can have as much of Christ as we want in our lives. We'll show it while it was showing with John. And so Peter was the apostle of action.
He was always doing something. He had lots of things to do and he was the first, uh, out of the gate when there was a question to be asked and so on. But, uh, John was quiet and they're enjoying that place of affection. And then you have, uh, Paul, he's the apostle of knowledge. And so, umm, he had that ministry given to him that was, uh, the knowledge and visions and signs and so on. But, uh, instead of being so occupied with action and so occupied with service.
There is that desire of heart. I believe the Spirit of God just gives us to, uh, understand that there is a place that we can enjoy of affection and confidence, and then we're going to be able to discern the, the path and discern those things that might come in among his people.
Our brother AO2, I can't remember exactly how he put it, but he said something to the effect that never tried to love the Lord more than you do, but dwell on his love for you. And that's the secret here, isn't it?
Uh, sometimes people have tried to do that, and I suppose all of us have been guilty of it at one time or the other. And we sometimes sing that song, More love to Thee, O God. And we mean it, don't we? But that's not really how it works, is it? How do we get more love for the Lord? By trying to love the Lord more Might seem logical, but it isn't really true. The secret is just what John learned, wasn't it? He dwelt on his love for him. That increased his love for the Lord, didn't it? But he wasn't taken up with himself.
Uh, my wanting to have more love for the Lord may just be a subtle, subtle type of self. It may be me wanting to, uh, to uh, exalt myself in some way, make myself more spiritual. That's not the point, is it? The point is that as we dwell in the Lord's love, as we enjoy more and more intimacy with the Lord Jesus and enjoy the love He has for us, then indeed we do become more spiritual. But our eyes aren't on ourselves at all.
So it's a, it's a perhaps a subtle thing, but it's a very real thing, isn't it? And as I re remember, uh, reading letter brother Heyo said about it, at least we don't try to love the Lord more than we do. We say, well, we do wanna love the Lord more than we do, and that's a wonderful thing. But the secret isn't in ourselves. That's kind of like the story. The man trying to lift himself up by his own bootstraps. We can't do it, can we? But when we have the Lord Jesus as our object, we become more like him. We become transformed into his image. That's the secret. And John knew that, didn't he? And so.
00:55:22
That's a great secret, although all of us can say the same thing John said can't we? Aren't we the disciple whom Jesus loves? John enjoyed it. That's the difference perhaps perhaps we don't enjoy it as much as John did, but but it's something we can grow in and that's a great secret, isn't it Yes and we want to make that very clear that the Lord loves all his own equally. Sometimes in a large family, maybe it's hard to just show or or even love all our children equally. We tend to show more favor love perhaps to what the one that.
Conforms to what we want them to do and so on. But the Lord Jesus loves everyone of his children equally. And, uh, but as you say, there are those who enjoy it more. And I think, Eric, what you say is illustrated so beautifully in the Song of Solomon, because as the bride is awakened in her affections and restored to the Bridegroom, she is occupied less and less with her response and love for the Bridegroom and more with His love.
And as she enumerates his qualities and beauties, what happens? Why, it just awakens her affections more and more until at the end of it, he's all together lovely, he is mine, and so on. And so at the end her affections are deepened. Not by dwelling on her response or her affection. She realized that had been faulty at best. She'd gone to sleep and her affections had dulled and waned, but the more she was occupied with what he was.
In himself and his affections to her. Why at the end of it, her affections were deeper.
And so I think it just illustrates what you say. And we can get pretty down if we're occupied with our response, but what will lift us is to be occupied with that consistent, as we said this morning, that divine love that is consistent in its outflow toward us. Peter was occupied with his love for the Lord. I say that because when the Lord restored him in the 21St chapter, he said, Peter, do you love me more than your brother? He didn't mean do you love me more than you love John and James and those he meant, do you love me?
More than your brother love me because that was at the bottom of his, his thoughts. He thought he was the Lord's best disciple and he loved the Lord more. He was occupied with his love for the Lord and it led to a fall. John was occupied with the Lord's love for him and he was preserved. And that's the key. And as you said, he recognized his love for all his brethren, right? So, uh, what a, what a difference.
Well, the closer we're drawn to the Lord and the deeper our affections for the Lord, the closer we will be drawn to one another and the deeper our affections for one another. Because I I'll just add this little addendum to what we've said. If we try to love our brethren without there being true affection for Christ, that's not gonna work either. But if there's true affection for Christ, then we're going to unconsciously have love for our brethren and I believe our love for one another.
Is in the measure in which we love, we enjoy the Lord's love for us. The illustration's been given. It's been very helpful to me of a, a wheel with spokes, isn't it? You're exactly right. There actually can be a, a very counterproductive love of our brethren. If we leave the Lord out, we can become friends with our brethren. I was in the midst of all evil in the, in the midst of the assembly. That can cause we can, we can be, uh, partners in crime, as we sometimes say, because the Lord's left out. We come together at the meetings. We think, well, that's a good thing. But then there can be troubles, can't there?
But the proper illustration, I think is a is a as a wheel was spokes. As we get as the spokes, they start at the outer rim. As the spokes get CLO closer to the center, they get closer to one another. And that's the proper order for love, isn't it? Let's notice another little progression in John's gospel in that connection. Just go back to the third chapter for a moment.
John 3, verse 35.
The Father loveth the Son, just that little expression. You know, I believe it's important for us to realize first the Father loveth the Son to, to get a hold in our souls of this glorious truth. When it says the Father sent the Son, isn't that more than if it just said God sent Jesus? God did send Jesus, but there was a relationship there. The Father loveth the Son. That's the first thing. But now go to the 15th chapter.
01:00:20
Chapter 15 and verse 9, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. That's the next thing the dis the Lord says to the disciples. The same love that I am loved by the Father is the same love, the same divine love that I love, that that is shown to you, that I love you with, isn't it? Isn't that something to think about? The same love, the love of the Father.
For the Sun is the love of the sun for his own.
But then notice verse 12. This is my commandment, that ye love one another. But don't stop there, as I have loved you. Do you realize, brethren, that the love that we are to have for one another is no less love than the love of the Father for the Son and the love of the Son for his disciples? There's no less standard for you and I loving one another, but.
We cannot love one another with that love if we haven't enjoyed and appreciated that love in our own souls. And so we need to get a hold of the love of the Father for the Son, the Lord's love for us, and then in that measure we can love one another with that same divine love.
He loved his son in at least two different ways. You know what I'm talking about now, I hope. Uh, John as he read to us there. John 3.
And verse 35 as the Father loveth the Son, that's Agapea love. But in chapter five, he says exactly the same words. Let me read it. John 5 and verse 20 for the Father loveth the Son. Sounds like it's just verbatim, but it's not that word. Love in John 520 is not the agape, but it's a filial love. And so he loved the Father, loved the Son in both these ways. Then when you swing over to John 15, he as the Father loved us.
His father has loved him, he loved us. He loves us in both those ways. That's my point.
First John 4 and 19, uh, it says, uh, we love him because he first loved us and him is not supposed to be in there, is it? No. So it reads like this. We love because he first loved us.
We have the capacity to love not just God or the Lord Jesus, but to love one another and even the sinners of this world because He first loved us.
It's time to close brother. We were 10 minutes over on the 1St Bible reading.
7094 in the appendix.