The Lord commissions the disciples to teach as He did. John 13:3-7

John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

 

John 13:2And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him,

 

John 13:3Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God,

 

 

John 13:4 rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself about.

 

“and laid aside his garments” - dramatic present active indicative of tiqhmi[tithemi], which means to place them in a neat pile. It doesn’t say He took off His clothing.

 

It means having taken them off He placed them or hung them up.

 

Christ becomes the servant of the disciples just as He will become the servant of all on the cross. They are all dressed up with dirty feet; He is undressed of His outer garment and clean, looking like a servant.

           

“a towel” - the word here is a special one: lention[lention] which is like a beach towel and is an article belonging to a servant in which he uses one end of the towel to wash the feet and the other end to dry, and he strings it around his neck. That is why He didn’t wear His garments, because He would get dirty in the process and He is always clean, He is the impeccable servant.

 

John 13:5 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

 

“After that he poured water into a basin.” Ballw[ballo] means to throw. The devil ballw s into the heart of Judas; Jesus Christ ballws water into a basin.

 

The devil is trying to throw his influence into the souls of people in order to use them for his evil purposes that he hopes will promote him to the highest authority, while Christ throws water into a basin in order to serve man so that man may be delivered from his inherent evil, the evil of the world, and the evil of satan. For this, Jesus will be exalted to the highest authority.

 

The water here represents the word of God, which cleanses us from our inherent evil thinking and the influence of evil thinking that attacks us from without.

 

“to wash” - niptw[nipto], which means to wash an extremity, e.g. hands or feet. The word louw[louo] means to wash the whole body. He went from one to the other of the disciples’ feet. Salvation is not the issue here; rebound is the issue.

           

Principle: Rebound is necessary for metabolizing doctrine; rebound is also necessary for service. Christ became our servant in salvation so that we could be His slave/servant in our Christian walk on this earth.

 

Because of our sin natures; because of our old man, we have to make the choice to be filled with the Spirit. We have to make the decision to confess to God our sin(s).

           

“and to wipe” - present active infinitive of e)kmassw[ekmasso] which means to wipe off clean. The infinitive expresses the result: they were clean.

           

In this passage the Lord Jesus Christ is not only teaching humility. He is showing eleven disciples who are all going to have the gift of communication that in order to be a communicator you have to study and teach; study and teach while filled with the Spirit.

 

The studying of the communicator is humiliation, but not in the sense of being embarrassed, but by being a servant to those he is teaching. Humiliation is the act of learning humility. It is a nominal sense of self and rank and importance.

 

That process is achieved through years of doctrine. The communicator has a solemn life that is surrounded by doctrine, history, languages, literature, words, words, and more words. It is a unique and different life. Unless God gives the spiritual gift to handle such a strange life there is no way a man can be prepared to teach the word. Many men, who seek approbation, and have charisma and public speaking ability, stand behind pulpits without the spiritual gift. 99% of the work of the PT is solemn alone time studying until he is mentally and physically exhausted. Those who do not have the gift speak unprepared.

 

Like all spiritual gifts it cannot function without the filling of the Holy Spirit. The disciples all have communication gifts and the Lord is showing them here that they cannot prepare and therefore serve their listeners if they don’t use the rebound technique to wash the filth of the world off of their feet.

 

The listeners of doctrine must also be filled with the Spirit. The prepared pastor under humiliation also produces the reaction of humiliation to the teaching.

 

The joy or reward of the PT is to see his congregation growing in grace and knowledge right behind himself. In fact, the congregation that honors their humiliated pastor the most are the ones that are right on his heels spiritually and therefore they motivated him to study more in order to stay barely ahead of them.

 

A congregation that honors their pastor also supports him so that he is not distracted. The communicator is the congregation’s source of doctrine and those that are positive realize his importance to their spiritual lives. Those who understand the importance of their spiritual lives are not just playing church as many have done.

 

Even Paul had to go back to work as a tent maker because the churches at one point were not supporting him. In stepped Philippi and put an end to that nonsense.

 

EPH 4:11-13

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up [edification complex of the soul] of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.

 

For this reason a pastor will stand with his congregation at the Bema Seat evaluation before Christ and give an account for his humiliation and the congregation theirs as well. He will receive the grown of glory if he has served and been served by his congregation.

 

1 Peter 5:1-11

Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, 2 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; 3 nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. 5 You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety upon Him [why am I not exalted now?], because He cares for you. 8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour [arrogance allows his false doctrines to devour you]. 9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. 10 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. 11 To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

 

John 13:6 And so He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?"

 

We always have a little help in whatever we are illustrating from the apostle Peter. Whenever the Lord needed to drive home a point Peter was there with his mouth open. He was a very noble, impetuous type of person. When he opened his mouth he always made the right noises from the human viewpoint.

           

 

Principle: Before one can eat food, enjoy food, and fulfil the principle in eating—the sustaining of life—the food must be clean and the one who is eating the food must be clean.

           

In the natural, dirt will become a source of illness. Bacteria and parasites are found in all unclean countries and once inside the human body they create illness and in some cases even death.

 

This natural illustration serves our point: doctrine must be accurate or clean, and the hearer must be filled with the Spirit or clean.

 

False doctrine and/or accumulating knowledge without the proper understanding that comes from your true teacher create illness in the soul, which is always in some form of arrogance.

 

Peter, in human viewpoint, pulls his feet back as the Lord approaches, and makes the mistake of thinking that the Lord should not serve him in order to clean him. But the opposite is true. Only the cross can clean us fully, which is analogous to taking a bath, and only returning to the cross in confession can clean us from personal sin that robs our fellowship with Christ, which is analogous to washing the feet.

 

John 13:7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you shall understand hereafter."