I LAY DOWN MY LIFE
Our countdown to the Passover is down to just two
weeks from tomorrow evening. We will be,
many of us here in this congregation, sitting down together on that evening to
keep the Passover one more year. I’d
like to begin the sermon by asking you to turn to Luke 22. I want to take note of some of the things
that Jesus Christ was saying. Not only
what He was saying, but what He was thinking
that evening; what was going on in His mind.
I have covered this to some degree before, but I want to go a little bit
further today in this, in what Christ was thinking as He kept the Passover with
the twelve on that last evening of His life in the flesh. Now, before when we’ve covered this, I’ve
pretty much stopped here. There’s
another account of something that went on that same evening. When we get there, I want you to keep in mind
and remember what is brought out about what He was thinking that night. It’s going to be important when we get to the
other account.
Luke
So on the 14th day of that month, Abib or
Nisan, (in that month that Mike was reading in Exodus where God instructed them
that that was to be the beginning of
months for them) on that 14th day of that month, as it began as the
sun set, He sat down with the twelve apostles to keep the Passover. Now, again, we need to keep in mind that this
was beginning the last day of His life—the last day of His life in the
flesh. Then verse 15:
Luke
So Jesus Christ had a fervent desire to sit down with them. And, as we’ve pointed out before, there were
many more disciples than twelve, but He only sat down with twelve of them that
evening—the twelve that were to become the twelve apostles. Of course, we know Judas blew out that very
evening. Jesus Christ sat down with
these twelve that evening and, as we have said on many occasions, I feel that
those twelve represent all of us. Those
twelve that He sat down with that evening represented all of the firstfruits. As
they sat at the table with Him, I
want to emphasize that. As they sat at the table with Him that
evening. In verse 15, now, He said,
Luke
Jesus is saying here that their sitting, eating, and
drinking together would have fulfillment in the
Luke
Now, I’d like for us to hearken back to the sermons
we’ve been covering here about the fact that the church is going to have an
opportunity to become the Bride of Jesus Christ and function as His wife in His Family. Remember what we read in Revelation 3:21,
which parallels very much what He’s saying in verse 29 when He said:
Revelation
Here He’s saying it a little bit differently, He’s
saying, “I bestow upon you a kingdom,
just as My Father bestowed one upon
me.” So, just as He is sitting beside
His Father now, He’s saying we’re going to have an opportunity to sit beside
Him. Then in verse 30:
Luke
Jesus, in this last evening of His physical life,
looked beyond the physical into the time when He would be able to eat, drink,
and sit at a table with His Bride, His Wife.
Then, at that time, the family will administer the government of God and
will judge the twelve tribes of
Luke
The sharing in the Passover experience is very, very
important. It’s very important to
us. All of us who have received a
special calling to participate in the Family of God need to have a fervent
desire to sit down together for the Passover, just as Christ had a fervent
desire to sit with those twelve as He projected forward to the time when He
would sit with them at His table in His kingdom. We need to think about the fact that those of
us whom we sit down with on that
evening will be sitting at that table with Him in His Kingdom. It should be a very, very positive experience for us as we sit
together on that evening. Now, here in
verse 17, I want to continue to read down through verse 20. It says:
Luke
Now that’s a very, very brief description of what
occurred that evening—a very brief record.
I have to believe that He took some time to explain the meaning of the
bread that evening. Remember, in John 6
the year before, He had introduced them to the concept of eating His flesh and
drinking His blood. But it was more in
the context of consuming Him at that
time. Whether He explained to them at that time what He was going to do a
year later, we don’t know. It’s not in
the scriptures if He did. Perhaps this
was the first exposure they had to these new emblems that were going to replace
the eating of the Passover lamb. Whether
this is the very first exposure they had, we don’t know for sure, but I have to
think that He took some time to explain this as He stood there that
evening.
Now what I would like for us to do is try to sense
the solemnity of that evening. As Jesus Christ with those twelve began to
explain what He was going to do, He took this little piece of broken bread and
said “This symbolizes My flesh; this is My Body
which is given for you.” Now, again, try
to picture yourself there. Because,
brethren, if those twelve in fact represent all of us, in one sense we were
there in type. So, try to picture
yourself there and try to picture the solemnity—the seriousness—of that
evening. Then verse 20,
Luke
So, no doubt He again explained to them that He was
going to have to go through a great deal of suffering which this bread
pictured—this broken bread. And
eventually, before another 24 hours had expired, He was going to spill His
blood for them and was going to die. He
was going to give up His life for them.
Again, I think that we can sense the solemnity that must have been present there as Jesus Christ instituted the new emblems for the
Passover. Now, I want to go to Hebrews
10. We’re going to weave a couple of
threads through this so be aware of that.
Hebrews 10:23, let me back up and begin reading in verse 19,
Hebrews 10:19 …Brethren, having boldness to enter the
Holiest by the blood of [Christ] 20) by
a new and living way which He
consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh 21) and having a High Priest over the house
of God, 22) let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed
with pure water. [So realizing what
Jesus Christ had done then, and what is possible now, he’s asking them just to
think about that. Then verse] 23) Let us
hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is
faithful. [Now the King James
Version—the Authorized Version—is rendered this way] Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without
wavering.
If we put these two together, I think we’ll come to
a sense of what is being said here. The
word profession is better than confession. I think we understand that if we’re
confessing something, we’re admitting that we’ve done something wrong. That’s not what this is meaning. It better means profession; that we profess to believe something. That’s what this means. Let us hold fast the profession, and the AV has “of our
faith”. The NKJ has that better with the
word “hope”. Let us hold fast the profession of our hope without wavering. The
Today’s English Version renders it this way:
Let us hold on firmly to the
hope we profess.
The hope that we profess is what we believe. Now this speaks to those who have received
this special calling. This special
calling to, eventually, have the opportunity to sit with Jesus Christ at His table.
Hebrews
This word consider means, “to consider attentively,
to fix one’s eyes or mind upon. So let us be cognizant of one
another. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good
works. We need to think deeply,
brethren, about the value of our relationships.
If you think about it, there is nothing more valuable that we can have
than relationships. I don’t care what
you think about, I don’t care how valuable it is in dollar amounts—there is
nothing that’s more valuable than relationships. For a man and a woman, there’s nothing of more
value than marriage—nothing. Now you
think about it. You think about it. There’s nothing. There’s nothing of greater value than
marriage. Stepping that down, it’s very
valuable the relationships that we can have with others; the time that we can
share with one another. The sharing and
relationships with those who are holding fast to the profession of their hope
is very, very valuable as he’s saying here,
Hebrews 10:23-24 Let us hold fast the profession of our hope without wavering, for He who has promised is faithful. 24) And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.
Let us consider one another who hold that same profession of hope. In particular, we need to be there for one another.
We need to provide for the needs of others. Verse 25, this is one we probably can quote
virtually [verbatim] or come close:
Hebrews 10:25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the
more as you see the Day approaching.
Those of us who share the same profession of hope need to truly appreciate the
opportunities we have to gather together—not only on the Passover, but any
other occasion we have. Like Jesus the
Christ, we need to have a fervent desire
to share in these opportunities. Now I
want to go to 1 Corinthians 11. I have
said in the past that I feel the church at
1 Corinthians
1:1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ
through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother. 2) To
the
So this was a
1 Corinthians
In the Amplified Bible, it has it,
It not the Supper instituted by the Lord that you eat.
Now, the reason why I wanted to point out the solemnity that was present when Jesus
the Christ instituted the new emblems—I want to go on and read now verse 21 and
22 to see if that was maintained or if they were wavering in that:
1 Corinthians
I want us to think back to what we were encouraged
to do as the apostasy began in the
Think about this.
Let’s say you were living in 57 A.D., which is approximately the time
this was written, and were being transferred into the city of
The reason why I bring this up is that I received a
phone call that just caused me to think more deeply about this. I get a call every once in a while similar to
this, but this gentleman had moved into a new area—a fairly large city. I won’t say where and I won’t say what his
name was, but he was calling and expressing to me his concern about feeling
that he, in his words, was unable “to keep the assembly” with the groups
there. He said he’d have a knot in his
stomach when he was considering what he was going to do—whether he would or
whether he wouldn’t assemble. And he
told me some things about what was being said and what was being done and so
forth and I don’t want to get into all that.
But this scripture came to mind.
So, what was extant then, is extant today and people are confronted with
this kind of situation.
I told him, I didn’t have the answer to his
dilemma. He asked me, “Am I keeping the
assembly when I meet with these folks?”
I said, “I don’t have an answer. I don’t know. I know conditions in some congregations are
worse than others. I know that just because it’s part of a given organization
it may not mean that it’s necessarily bad, you know. It depends on where you are and what
conditions are extant there. You’re
going to have to make the judgment yourself.”
Now, what I want to emphasize here—to those of you
who are here at
Another thing that each of us needs to recognize is
the responsibility we have of not wavering in providing an atmosphere where people
can worship and feel that they’re actually “keeping the assembly”. I want to go now to John chapter 10. All of this is going to weave together. Please just bear with me. This is a section of scripture that we’re all
very familiar with. In John 10:1-5,
Jesus Christ gives what the NKJ calls an illustration and what the AV calls a
parable. So verses one through five of
John chapter 10 is called a parable in the AV and an illustration here in the
NKJ version. In this parable or
illustration, Jesus refers to a sheepfold, sheep, and shepherds.
John 10:1 “Most assuredly I say to you, he who does not
enter the sheepfold by the door, but
climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. [Now over in verse 7, Jesus is going to say] 7)
…I am the door of the sheep. [I am the
door. Here verse 2 says] 2) But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. [And verse 11, He says] 11) I am the good shepherd. [So, in this parable then, He is both the
shepherd and the door. He’s the shepherd and
the door. The only way into the
sheepfold is through Him. So He’s the door; the only way you can become part of
His fold is through Him. We’re going to see in a moment how that
comes about.] 3) To him the doorkeeper
opens, and the sheep hear His voice; and He calls His own sheep by name and
leads them out. 4) And when He brings
out His own sheep, He goes before them; and the sheep follow Him, for they know
His voice. 5) Yet they will by no means
follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of
strangers.
Now, it says here in verse 4 that the sheep know His
voice. How do Jesus’ sheep know His
voice? Over in John 10:27, He clearly
says there,
John
Now, how do His sheep know His voice? Over in John
18:37,
John
“Everyone who
is of the truth hears my voice”
Now, what does it mean to be “of
the truth”? We’ve been through this
just recently but let’s rehearse it real quickly here one more time. Go over in 1 Peter 1. I’m going to tie in
some of the things we’ve been talking about recently into this sermon, and this
is one of them.
1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a
living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, [So we have been begotten again. Over in
verse 23 of chapter 1, it says] 23)
having been born [or, it’s the same Greek word—having been begotten it should be there] again, not of corruptible seed but
incorruptible, through the word of God.
We are begotten by God’s Holy Spirit but, as we
pointed out just recently, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth. Here it says that we are begotten through the word of God. So, coming to a knowledge of the word of God
is very instrumental in us being begotten.
And then in James
James
Of His own will, He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that’s what it
means to be of the truth. He begat us; part of the begettal process was
us coming to a knowledge and understanding of certain truth till we could come to the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ. Back in John 10,
John 10:5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger
but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.
And, as I have pointed out before, this is very true
of sheep. Apparently, once a sheep
develops a relationship with its shepherd, it will not respond to anybody other
than its shepherd—it recognizes the voice and it won’t follow a stranger, in
other words. And this is true of sheep
but is not altogether true of human beings.
Sometimes we can be fooled in cases like this. But, now, I want to go ahead and go on in
John 10,
John 10:6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not
understand the things which He spoke to them.
7) Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep [It is through Me that you enter into the
fold.] 8) All who ever came before Me
are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9) I
am the door. If anyone enters by Me,
he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. [Now, verse] 10) The thief does not come
except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may
have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
He’s speaking here of life that they don’t
have. They were alive. The sheep were alive that He came in contact
with. You’re alive. I’m alive.
We have life. But He said, I have
come they may have life and that they
may have it more abundantly. I looked
through my sources and I found ten Greek words—ten different Greek words that
are rendered “life” in the New Testament.
Just the word “life”; I’m not talking about living or liveth or any of
the others, but just “life”. There are
ten different Greek words. Of those ten,
five of them are used only one time. Another one is used two times, another
three, and another one four. So, eight
of them are used very sparingly and, in most every case, they refer to a way of life, not life itself. Only two of the words refer to life
itself. The Greek word used in verse 10
here for life is zoe in the Greek and
I’m going to pronounce that zo-ee. It
probably isn’t correct but, for the sake of just being able to utilize it in
this sermon, that’s what I’m going to call it.
Zo-ee. It is used 130 times in
the New Testament. In contrast to these
others that are used very sparingly, this one is used 130 times. It almost always refers to “eternal life”.
Very rarely, maybe one or two times, it seems to be referring to life
other than eternal life but, in almost every case, it’s referring to “eternal
life”.
The last of the Greek words is psuche. You probably
recognize that one. It is found 36 times
and it refers to physical life almost every time. Here, Jesus the Christ said that He came that
His sheep could have zoe or eternal life. Now, please don’t turn there, but in Romans
3:23, it states
Romans
Romans
Now, we all have psuche. Every one that’s in this room right now—those
of you who are listening in today, have psuche
or else you wouldn’t be listening in. If
you’re alive, you have psuche. But, I want us to think about something. Even though we have psuche, we have physical life, we are all—every one of us—in the
process of dying. We are in the process
of dying. Think about it. I don’t care if you’re 20 or if you’re 40 or
if you’re 60, or if you’re 80; you’re just in a different stage, but we’re all
in the process of dying. If it were not
for what Jesus the Christ has done, it would be an eternal death. Once we would die, we would be dead
eternally. There would be no possibility
of eternal life. But He is saying here I
have come so that you can have zoe.
In other words, He has come so that
the sheep will have an opportunity to sit at the table with Him. They will have an opportunity to sit at the
table with Him.
John
In Hebrews 13:20, we find Jesus referred to as “that
great Shepherd of the sheep” and in 1 Peter 5:4, we find Him referred to as “the
Chief Shepherd”. So, this Good
Shepherd, this Great Shepherd, this Chief Shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
What we need to recognize here is that the Good Shepherd gives His psuche for the sheep. He gives His physical life—His psuche
for the sheep. The Good Shepherd gives His life—psuche—so that His sheep may have zoe. Back in 1 Peter 1, please hold your place
there:
1 Peter 1:17 And if you call on the Father, who without
partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout
the time of your [sojourning] here in fear; 18) knowing that you were not
redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless
conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19) but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot.
So His blood was precious. Why?
In Philippians 2:7 it states that Jesus Christ came “in the likeness of
men”. In John 1:14 it says “the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us”. In
Hebrews 2:9 it says “we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels,
for the suffering of death”. He became
flesh. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. (We read that in Leviticus 17:14.) The life of the Word of God, then, flowed in
the veins of Jesus the Christ. Now He
could give His life for the sheep—He could give
His life and this was symbolized by the wine that He instituted. Again, did He explain this to them? I think He did. John 6, hold your place in John 10 yet,
John
Now the focus, throughout the New Testament, is on
the church and what He did to benefit the church. We have statements like this that make us
know that what He did was not just for the church, but it was for the entirety
of the world. Back in John 3:16, it
says:
John
And so He gave His flesh which, again, is symbolized
by the bread that He instituted that evening.
John
John 10:11 “I am the good Shepherd. The
good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
In Acts 20:28, it states—here Paul is speaking to the elders there as he called them together at Miletus, he said:
Acts 20:28 Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all
the flock, [here the church being referred to as a “flock”] among which the
Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd
the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. [So, certain ones have been given
responsibility as shepherds under
the Chief Shepherd.] … to shepherd
the
So the church of God was purchased by the blood, or
the life, of Jesus Christ. He paid the
ultimate dowry for His bride. Once
again, let’s tie this together with what we’ve been talking about, about the
bride having an opportunity—or the church having an opportunity—to enter the
very family of God. In Ephesians 5:25,
it states:
Ephesians
Back in John 10:12,
John 10:12 But [he who is] a hireling, he who is not the
shepherd, one who does not own the
sheep [as Jesus does], sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and
the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.
[So there are shepherds and there are hirelings.] 13) The hireling flees because he is a
hireling and does not care about the sheep.
[Now, verse 14] 14) I am the good
Shepherd; and I know My sheep, and
am known by My own. [So, if we are Jesus the Christ’s sheep, if
we have entered through Him into the fold, then He knows us personally. He knows us personally and we are to get to
know Him and we do that by consuming Him—consuming
what He said and what He did.] 15) As the
Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
Now, in John 10 so far, we see that Jesus Christ is
our Shepherd. As our Shepherd, He came
that we may have zoe. In order to accomplish this, it required Him
to lay down His life. If you want to give a title to this message
it is I Lay Down My Life. I Lay
Down My Life. The Word of God
volunteered to go through what He needed to go through in order for Him to be
able to lay His life down. He had to
first of all empty Himself of who He was—He couldn’t die. He was the
Word of God. He was the
Eternal. He could not die in that
state. He had to become flesh; He had to
empty Himself and become flesh in order to be able to die. He volunteered to lay His life down. I want to go to John 15 now and notice what
it says there—what He said there:
John
So this is the greatest act of love that’s ever been
demonstrated. Jesus Christ did lay down
His life and that didn’t just happen when His blood spilled out. He began to lay His life down when He emptied
Himself and came to this earth in the human flesh. And all
that He went through for us was involved in Him laying His life down. Now, 1 John 3:16,
1 John
Now, as we’ve said before, we know that Him laying
His life down wasn’t just Him being nailed to the stake, because we’re not
required to do that. When it instructs
us that we are to lay our life down for the brethren, it doesn’t mean for us to
give our lives in that way—that we’re to be nailed to a stake. That’s why we know that He was laying his
life down before He actually was nailed to the stake and His blood spilled out. He was laying His life down in the whole
process. The entirety of the suffering
that He went through, just being in the human flesh, was involved in it. But we
are to lay our lives down for the
brethren. Now back to John 10,
John
Now this is possibly speaking of those that will be
brought into the fold after the second resurrection, because many feel, as I
do, that these words were actually spoken on the Last Great Day. I don’t think everybody is probably in
agreement with that, but it certainly seems so.
If you go back to John
John
And, apparently, that was said on the evening as the
Last Great Day began, not the daylight portion itself. And then you go ahead
and read and it seems that it’s continuing to talk about events of that time up
and through about verse 19 or so of John, chapter 10. So, it could be possible that He gave this on
the Last Great Day—I’m not saying that dogmatically—but it’s very possible that
He did. But He is to bring others into this flock and, if He’s
saying this on the Last Great Day then it would make sense. In 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians
So there is coming a time when Jesus Christ presents the family to the Father—when it’s complete. So it could be that this is what He’s referring to here.
John
His willingness to give up all that He possessed, as
He sat beside His Father at His right side, all that He gave up was included in
Him laying His life down. The Father,
more than anyone else, realizes what an incredible sacrifice it was. What an incredible sacrifice it was for Him
to lay His life down for us. Now, I want
to go to John 13, we’ll spend the rest of the time there—we know what this is.
John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when
Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the
Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. [He
loved them, perhaps, this would mean here, to the fullest extent—He loved them
to the end—He loved them to the fullest extent.
He laid His life down for them, in all of what that means. Now, He is about to sit down with them here
for the Passover. I want us to hearken
back to what He was thinking, in Luke 22, as He sat down with them then. And now, this is just another account, and
it’s giving us more information about what occurred on that evening.] 2) And supper being [served], [or as the Companion Bible has it, “supper having been served” or supper being
“ended” it has here. The Companion Bible shows that it probably
should be rendered “supper having been served” or others would have it that it
was “during supper”. So, at sometime
after they had sat down, in other words, at the table that evening to keep the
Passover] the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot,
Simon’s son, to betray Him, 3) Jesus,
knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had
come from God and was going to God,
Now I want to just take the time to consider what
this means when it says, “He had come from God”. This involved Him emptying Himself in order
to be able to do that. He came from God
and He was going to God. So remember that
prayer He prayed later in John 17:5,
John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify
Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world
was.
So He had come from
that and now He knew he was going back to it. But, knowing that, sitting at the table with them, it says in verse four that He:
John 13:4 rose
from supper and laid aside His garments, [now, He’s laying aside the garments
that He is wearing, as He sits at the table with them—okay?—He lays aside the
garments,] took a towel and girded Himself.
Hold your
place there, I want to go to Luke 22—I want to go back to that account that we
started with and read one verse. Christ
said:
Luke
So here He rose from supper and laid aside His garments and took a towel and girded Himself. Now I want to go to Philippians 2 to that section of scripture we’re very familiar with where He laid aside His garments. Let’s notice what this is typical of.
Philippians
2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in
Christ Jesus. 6) Who, being in the form
of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God [or didn’t consider it
something to be held on to], 7) but made Himself of no reputation, [or as the
margin has it, He emptied Himself of His privileges and what did He do? He took the form of a servant] taking the form of a bondservant, and coming
in the likeness of men, 8) and being
found in appearance as a man, He humbled
Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the
cross.
So back here, brethren, as He sits at the table—remember in His mind, He’s projecting forward to the time He will sit with them at a table in His Kingdom. He rose from supper, He laid aside His garments, and He took a towel and He girded Himself—symbolizing His role of a servant. So He emptied Himself—He gave up His position sitting at the table and He took on the role of a servant. Verse 5:
John 13:5 After that, He poured water into a basin and
began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which
He was girded. [This was the role of a
servant. In those days, they walked on
dirt streets and their feet would become soiled and a person who had guests
into their home, if they could afford it, would have a servant who would wash
their feet as they came into the home.
And so this is the role that Jesus the Christ is taking here.] 6) Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said, “Lord, are you washing my
feet?” 7) Jesus answered and said to
him, “What I am doing you do not
understand now, but you will know
after this.” [Let’s remember that the
disciples did not understand a whole lot, other than He was the Christ, the Son
of the Living God—remember that? Okay,
now, imagine yourself—try to put yourself in Peter’s shoes. That’s what you knew—you knew this Being was the Christ, the Son of the Living
God. You expected Him to restore the
Kingdom to Israel and here He is getting down on His knees before you and
getting ready to wash your feet. Now, how
would you react? Same way as Peter,
right? That was a natural reaction for
him. No way was he going to allow this
Individual to get down and perform that service
for him. He just couldn’t see that.] 7)
Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will
know after this.” 8) Peter said to
Him, You shall never wash my feet!”
Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”
Now, what part is He talking about? Ephesians 5:25
Ephesians
He came to do
that and He’s symbolizing that. The
service that He’s giving is being symbolized by Him getting down on His knees
and washing their feet. He’s saying, “if
you don’t let Me serve you, if you don’t let Me lay My life down for you, if
you don’t allow Me to fulfill what the Passover lamb pictured for you, you have
no part with Me. You can never sit at My
table with Me in My Kingdom.”
John 13:8 Peter said to Him, You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” [Now, brethren, just Him physically washing the dirt off his feet didn’t make that much difference whether he was going to have a part with Him or not. It was not just the physical washing of his feet, but what He was doing for him in the entirety of Him laying His life down and Him providing the service—if he didn’t allow that, there’d be no part.] 9) Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!” [To the level that Peter understood, at the time, he deeply desired a part—he deeply desired to be able to sit with Him at His table.] 10) Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” 11) For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.” [So Judas, no doubt, was there. He washed his feet along with the other eleven.] 12) So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments [now, keep the symbolism in mind and what Christ is thinking] and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?” [Do you understand what I have done to you? And each one of us, brethren, were present there, if those twelve represented us and so He is saying to all of us, “do you understand? Do you understand what I’ve done for you? Do you understand I’ve laid my life down for you? Do you understand that I want you at My table and I’m doing this so you can have life, so you can sit there with me?”] 13) You call me Teacher and Lord, [you call me kurios, which is the Greek word for Lord—Owner, Master, Ruler] and you say well, for so I am. 14) If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. [And we are to do that every year at the Passover service, as He instructed. We’re to go through the same thing He went through as He said, but we need to understand what is pictured by it. That as He laid His life down, we are to lay our lives down for the brethren. Do we see how this ties together? Let’s go ahead and complete reading this.] 14) If I then, 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 should do as I have done to you.
So we are to do that. Each year at the Passover we are to do that, but we need to understand the lesson that He was teaching of the service He had rendered and the service we are to render. Let’s go back and read 1 John 3:16 again.
1 John
We’re going to finish a little bit early; I want to finish in Hebrews 10, very close to where we started.
Hebrews
Brethren, it’s such a precious thing to understand what He did and why He did it and the incredible hope that it opens up for us. The opportunity that is available to us of being able to sit with Him at His table, as His bride, in His family. What an incredible hope that we have!
Let us hold fast the [profession] of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24) And let us consider one another .
Again, as we sit there together that evening at the Passover, we need to consider one another as fellow participants at the table with Him to share in becoming His bride.
Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.
He laid down His life for us, and we are to lay down our lives for one another. We are to serve one another. We are to provide for the needs of one another and part of that, brethren, which was mentioned earlier, is to provide a place where others can gather—others who profess the same hope.
Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. 25) Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching
We don’t know how much time we’ve got left—we don’t know how many more Passovers there are in which we’re going to have an opportunity to sit down together with each other. There may be several, there may not be very many, there may not be another one. We don’t know for sure. But, brethren, as we have the opportunity, let’s take advantage of it. Let’s think deeply about the value of our relationships. First of all, the relationship with God the Father and His Son and, secondly, the relationship that we can have with each other.
And think deeply about those words that He laid down His life for us, and we are to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Transcribed by kdo April, 2004