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Pictures of Jesus 13 – John 13 – also a baptismal service. |
When Simon &
I were preparing for this service we were tempted to abandon John for the
morning - John 13 didn’t immediately strike us as a baptismal sermo
However I got
thinking - and actually it’s a prime baptismal passage!
Baptism is
primarily about being buried with Christ and raised with Him to new life,
entering into the sacrifice Jesus made for you in dying, and entering into his
new life purchased for you!
But it’s also a
picture of being washed, getting rid of the filth of the old life and starting
again – a new life of service for Christ.
And that’s what
Jesus is saying to his disciples here!
There are 2
things I want to bring out briefly!
When Jesus washes us - he washes us
totally.
You may have come
to him with some special failing on your mind - you may have realised that
you’re not worthy of his presence and love because of some big sin - a big ‘A’
sin that looms high and threatens to crush you. But His blood cleanses us from all sin - so not
only does He cleanse us from A but B to Z too! It’s what Jesus meant when he
talked about people having had a bath. When you come to Jesus, His blood
cleanses you - cleanses you from your sin, failings, guilt, mistakes - whatever
you want to call them - he washes you clea
He also washes
you of the filth others put on you! The things others led you into, when you
followed irresponsibly, the things others did to you that make you feel unclean
- it’s all done and cleansed away in the blood of Jesus!
I believe it was
Corrie or Betsy ten Boom - the great Dutch Christians of the Second World War -
who said that when we come to Him he takes our sins and dumps them in the
deepest part of the sea and puts up a big notice over it saying ‘NO FISHING
HERE’.- (Micah 7:19 You will again
have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our
iniquities into the depths of the sea.)
When I put the
dustbin out on Tuesday morning I gratefully hear the dustcart backing into
When Jesus takes
our sin he takes it all!
His death is
‘Once, for all’ - Hebrews 9:10 -we
have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for
all.
All our sin was
laid on Jesus,
1 John 1:7 the
blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all si
So what did Jesus
mean by "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his
whole body is clean.”?
In Jesus’ day
you’d probably wash completely at the start of the day. You’d then go out onto
the dusty roads where flocks of sheep have gone by on the way to market, and
donkeys had hauled carts of vegetables. Your feet would need washing ever so
often - especially when going into someone’s home - which was why any decent
host had a servant to wash guests feet.
So we too -
having been totally cleansed - need to keep clean when we pick up stuff from
the streets of life.
It may be stuff
we’ve walked in, it may have been thrown up at us, either way it clings to us
and we need to wash.
Jesus cleanses us from all sin!
Totally and daily - hourly! The Christian life is a life made clean by Jesus, and
seeking His cleansing for each step of the path. In a flash of insight Peter
realised his need of cleansing and washing by Jesus - Jesus assures him of that
cleansing!
2. When Jesus receives us He takes
us totally.
There is a school
of thought that says we only become half a Christian when we’re converted - we
receive Jesus as Saviour and go on to receive him as Lord later - perhaps at
our baptism - perhaps never in this world!
Jesus knows
nothing of this! We belong to Him - he lays his claim to us as his children, He
tells us quite uncompromisingly that having been washed we’re to go out and
wash the feet of others - whether that means mundane service or sharing the
gospel - it’s all part of his call!
Baptism isn’t just being done to us, it’s an
example and a call to follow.
Those who’ve been
washed cannot escape the call to serve (if they wanted to).
So this event in the upper room is,
in a way, a baptism - a baptism to service.
When I became a
Christian at the age of 11 I knew Jesus had called me - not just to the joy of
forgiveness and new life in Him. I knew that he had also called me to serve. My
first lesson the following morning was to get up and do a number of household
chores. And Jesus kept me to it through several years after that. I say that
not to say what a good boy I was but to show the converting power of Jesus to
get a teenage boy up early to do these things! Now I don’t want to hang that
over any other teenager! That was a special lesson I had to learn and others
have to learn other lessons. It was a far greater power than New Year’s resolutions!
Jesus kept me to it! Learning service.
I want to ask all
of us who’ve experienced baptism - I’m sure you see your baptism as a real and
spiritual act of worship, a sense of entering into all that Jesus did for you.
But do you also see your baptism as an act of obedience - the first of many -
as he also says ‘go and wash their feet as I have washed you.’
For further thought and
discussion Groups
– please read John 13:1-17, summarise the notes above and select from the
following. 1. Share what your baptism meant to
you – at the time of the service and since the 2. How much does ‘duty’ and
‘obedience’ play in the ‘inspirational’ baptismal service and life in the
Spirit? 3. In pairs read Ps. 51,
Isa.1:10-18, Luke 11:37-46: What does ‘being washed’ mean? 4. Read 1 John 1:7-9. What does ‘every (all) sin’ mean? Explore
the implications. (You may need to spend a few minutes in silence as you
think this through.) 5. What could it mean if 6. Pray about one thing you may be
able to do to put this into practice.