Lesson - November 6, 2004

Love is Not Proud 

Pastor Tom Holladay

Welcome everyone to session 4 of the Love Series.  This week we're going to focus on Bible verse in 1Corinthian 13:  Love is not proud.

If you're like me, pride is difficult to define sometimes.  I like to define it in the positive action that happens when we choose against pride in our life.  Love is not proud in choice to serve others. 

Please open your Bible to John 13:1-17

It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

    ^{JN 13:2} The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. ³ Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴ so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵ After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

    ^{JN 13:6} He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"

    ^{JN 13:7} Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."

    ^{JN 13:8} "No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet."

    Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."

    ^{JN 13:9} "Then, Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!"

    ^{JN 13:10} Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you." ¹¹ For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

    ^{JN 13:12} When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. ¹³ "You call me `Teacher' and `Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴ Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. ¹⁵ I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶ I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

This is a perfect picture of someone who made a choice of serving others.  Perfect picture of a servant.  What I really want to do during this study is to paint for you a picture of a servant.  Have you ever try to picture someone, for instance, who you hear on the radio, or a favorite author reading a book and you have heard this person for years, or read their books for years.  You have a picture in your mind what this person looks like and then when you see them for real and it's not at all the same picture!  Many of us have that same kind of problem with the pictures that's behind the word servant.

I want to give you this week John 13 from the life of Jesus, the incredible picture of what a real servant is.  It's not at all of what some of us think.  Sometimes we think of a servant as weak.  Or a servant is someone who has no vision, no energy, or a servant is someone who's unwilling to step out and risk in faith. 

Jesus wants us to know what a servant looks like.  And so, He gave the picture.  When you open up the Bible to John 13 and read these verses, there's feeling of being there for one of the most significant events in all history.  This was the night that absolutely changed apostle John's life.  John, the same John who wrote this book that we are reading from.  His life was changed, never the same ever again that night. 

When Jesus said to the disciples that night, "Love one another".  Those words made their way into John's heart and he became a different person.  Those actions of Jesus, because of His love for them, served the disciples that night changed John's life, forever.  Let's look  the picture Jesus gave us. 

Truth #1:

The choice to serve always begin with love.  John 13:1   It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

Without love, service is always motivated by pride.  It's a spirit of self-satisfaction.  I serve because it makes me feel good about what I've done.  Or in the spirit of pleasing others.  The reason I serve is to make other people happy.  When you have love, all of the sudden service is motivated by the way you care about other people, by your real concerns for other people. 

Without love, service sours into bitterness.  What happens is my spirit of service at the beginning, eventually, becomes bitter because people appreciate me as much as I thought they would.  People don't serve me back as much as I hope they would.  And all of the sudden, all these motivations has helped me to serve in the first place, has become a person who is bitter.  Bitter about their service.

Have you had one of those candies that's sour on the outside but sweet on the inside?  Kids love to fool you with that.  They tell you it's sweet and then you put it in your mouth and it's all terrible but if you leave it in there long enough, it will be sweet.  That's like what real service is all about, to be honest with you.  It's not always sweet at the beginning.  Sometimes there's even a sense of "Boy, this is difficult, this is hard".  But the sweet comes later, when you see the impact that it made on people's lives.  That's what real service does to people's lives. 

Truth #2 about service and what it really means:

The choice to serve includes imperfect people!  Now, that includes the servants, you and I and it also includes, I want to focus it more importantly, it includes the people that we serve.  Look at who, the people, Jesus decided to serve.  Please read John 13:5-10.

Let me give you a picture of what happened in the upper room that night.  Sometimes we think of the upper room, the night before Jesus died, He walks in and in a hush tone and a Holy glow.  Let me shatter that picture entirely.  This was the Passover meal.  It was a celebration and they came in to celebrate.  They reclined around a low table, it wasn't at all like that DaVinci painting that you see where everyone is on one side.  Jesus never said, "Hey guys, all of us on one side of the table for pictures."  There was no picture made that night. 

They laid around this table with sort of a party, noisy kind of atmosphere.  If you were to come in that night, you would have came into an excited noises, kind of like our Christmas.  Because their Passover was a celebration they look forward to like we look forward to Christmas.  He was also came into a group of disciples that were dreaming greatness. 

And suddenly, in this room, you would have heard the volume increase.  But no longer was it excitement that was going on in that room.  The Bible tells us that these disciples began an argument.  They began to argue about who's going to be the greatest.  Is it me who's going to sit next to Jesus besides the throne, or is it me?  They figured that Jesus, very soon, was going to become the leader of all of the Roman Empire. 

And they began to argue in that room about who is the greatest.  Jesus walks into that room, knowing that He's going to die the next day on the cross for these disciples, can you imagined how he must have felt?  First, He realized how far they had to go and He was going to leave them the next day.  But secondly, He's going to sacrifice His life the next day and all they can argue about is who's the greatest? 

One of the reasons that arguments may very well have begun is because no one was willing to wash anyone else's feet.  You see, in those days, washing someone's feet was not a religious ceremony.  It was just a practical way to meet needs.  When you walked in from dusty street and your feet were dirty, and you would need to have somebody put your feet in a basin, wash them, and then you would be ready for a meal. 

These disciples walked in and no one washed the feet.  Because they were all greater.  None of them felt like they could be the one serving another person.  The fact that greatness is measured by the yard stick of service, it hadn't even registered with them!

And there sits Jesus, hardly noticed as the others argued.  He gets up, walked across the room, takes off his robe, pour a basin of water.  And a stunned silence began across the room.  He washes their feet.  Imagined the feeling of Jesus, washing these feet of these men of whom He would die the next day. 

And think with me for just a minute about the feet that Jesus washed.  I said a moment ago, He served imperfect people.  And these feet that Jesus washed here, He was washing some imperfect feet!  He was washing the disciples' feet.  The Bible tells us that these were the disciples who struggled with greatness.  Luke 23:24 " Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest."

This is just one of the many times in the Bible that they argue with each other.  These disciples were ready to fight for a throne but not for a  feet.

Now, I don't know about you, but what I would have thought was, "Jesus, let them suffer, that would teach them a lesson, let their feet be dirty."  But not Jesus, He washed their feet, one after another.  He served them. 

Think about the fact that as he washed the disciples' feet, He had to wash Judas' feet.  Judas had already decided to betray Jesus.  The Bible tells us that Jesus knew that Satan was put in Judas heart to betray Him.  How would you have washed Judas' feet.  I know what I would have been tempted to do.  I would have been tempted to use ice water on Judas feet. 

But not Jesus, He served even Judas in that meal. 

If you read John 13 carefully, you might want to do that as a follow up when you get home after this study.  You would see that the whole meal is an appeal to Judas.  Jesus washes Judas' feet, Jesus sat next to him, He dipped in the bowl with Judas as he eats.  Jesus doesn't turn away from Judas, He turns toward him.  In fact, the truth is, Jesus doesn't turn away from us, ever.  We turn away from Him.  And He gave Judas that opportunity and every opportunity to make the choice.  He served him right up till the end.  He continued to stretched out His hand to him. 

I don't know about you but the question I see in that is "How easily do I give up on people?"  It's so easy to write somebody off as "They're never going to have faith, they're never going to get it, or they'll never understand what I'm saying."  Jesus….served Judas…..up to the end.

He also washed Peter's feet.  Now, we don't what all of the other disciples thought as Jesus washed their feet.  But, we do know what Peter thought.  Because was a man who did his thinking out loud.  In fact, in verse 6, As Judas was listening for what Jesus had to say.  The Greek actually used the words "you and me" together to show the greatest contrast. 

Peter and Jesus.  Who was the one who's going to be honored in this circumstance?  Look at Jesus.  Instead of saying to Peter "Have it your way way, Peter" when Peter said "you can't wash my feet", Jesus convinced Peter to let him love him.  Jesus said, "unless you let me serve you, you have no part of me."

Peter is so human.  He says, "You'll never wash my feet" but Jesus does.  He says "I'll lay down my life for you Jesus" but he doesn't.  I am glad that Peter is one of the disciples because he represents everyone of us.  He was so sure and then he was wrong and yet…..he was so loved by Jesus.

If you're going to serve, you're going to serve as an imperfect person and you'll also serve imperfect people.  That's a choice of love.

There's a truth #3.

The choice to serve is a choice to meet people's need.  Washing feet, in Jesus' day, was not some showy ceremony.  It was a menial task.  Churches today, when they have foot washing ceremony, it's okay to do that, but it usually misses the point!  Washing feet then was more like washing dishes or taking out the trash.  Why did Jesus wash the feet? 

He washed their feet because first of all, their hearts were proud.  And He wanted to teach them what real humility was.  Somebody had to be the servant.  He washed their feet to tell them, "Don't miss this, these feet are dirty"  Jesus met their practical need.  No one was meeting that need, but Jesus met their needs.  God, in human flesh, scrubbed dusty toes.  That, to me, tells what real service is all about. 

The question for you is, whose dirty feet do you need to wash?  I don't mean that we should go around the room tonight and smell feet.  I meant, whose needs do you need to meet?  C.S. Lewis challenged us to think about the fact that if we were to meet other people's need, it really requires that we face our own pride.  He wrote: "If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step.  The first step is to realize that one is proud."

I'm proud, you're proud, we're all struggle with pride.  What does it mean to wash the feet of the disciples today?  It's to do something to meet that person's need.  How do wash one another's feet?  What is that need?  It's simple.  You choose a ministry that meets somebody's needs and you make the choice.  Whether anyone else notice or not, meet that need.

The greatest servant knows that the greatest barrier of meeting the needs is the proud heart.  I've got to breakthrough pride to serve other people.  Love is what?  LOVE IS NOT PROUD.  So, I encourage you to ask God to fill your heart with love so that you can breakthrough that pride barrier and make the choice to be like Jesus Christ.  To fulfill His picture and to serve other people who have needs. 

Prayer:

Dear Jesus Christ, I pray two things.  First for me and then for everyone in our group.  First, I pray that You'll help us to break through the pride that's in our hearts.  Help us to see Jesus of how You served others and through that, to have an attitude of love and service towards others.  And then Jesus, help us to meet a practical need that needs to be met.  Help us to see in a very practical way, even though, it's a very difficult choice.  Even though, it may be an imperfect person that we're serving, we still can meet a need.  And picture for the world to see what You're like.  Picture for the world today of what it means to be a servant.  In Jesus' name, Amen.

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