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As we come to look in the word of the Lord, I remind my heart and I remind you of an indispensable principle, and it’s not only an indispensable principle of Bible study, but it’s an indispensable principle of the exchanged life, and that is total reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit; only God can reveal God. This is His Book, He inspired it, and now He wants to illuminate it, so that we might behold the Lord Jesus.
I want to share a verse from John 10:4 before we go to prayer. “When He puts forth His own, He goes before them. The sheep follow Him because they know His voice.” You are His sheep, and He said that you know His voice. His voice doesn’t necessarily sound like my voice, and you’re going to know if I say something that is not His voice. You are going to know that in your spirit. The Lord is going to show you that. He promised that every word that goes forth out of His mouth would not return void. He never promised that every word that goes out of Ed Miller’s voice would not return void. So, as we pray, I want to ask the Lord to kindly protect His people from any voice that is not His. The Lord Jesus deserves the worship that we just had. That was awesome, and the Lord deserves that and more. Let’s bow together and commit our time to the Lord.
Our heavenly Father, we thank You that You’ve given us another opportunity to hear Your voice, to listen to You. We know that You will grace us to respond to everything that comes from You. Lord, I ask You to protect Your people from anything that might be flesh and blood and my own idea. We pray that we might hear Your voice tonight; a voice of strangers they will not listen to. So, Lord, speak; Your servant hears. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Welcome to our second look at this tremendous theme, this prevailing theme of John 13-17, precious words that our Lord Jesus spoke only hours before He went to the cross. John 13:1, “Now, before the Feast of Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come and that He would depart out of the world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end, to the utmost.” I suggested that the prevailing theme of these five chapters, even though He was pouring out His heart, there was so much He had to share, but basically it’s, John 10:10, “I came that they might have life, and have it in abundance.” He was praying, He was instructing, and He was reminding them of the life that He came to give, life as God intended man to live it, life as God created man to live it, life as He was about to go to the cross and redeem man, so that he might live that Life, abundant Life. This weekend we are focusing on that life, just the Christian life, the life God intends us to live, and we’re using the expression “the exchanged life”. I like that because it seems to me to be a perfect expression—His Life in exchange for my life; His Life in exchange for your life. That is the exchanged life.
Now, we looked at what it looked like when God created man to live, and Adam, as you know, he didn’t live that life. So, our Lord Jesus, the second man, the last Adam, started all over and He came and displayed the life that God created us to live. I’m not going to review all that we looked at this morning, but I’ll give a review with a fresh scripture, and I’m referring to Philippians 2:5-11. Theologians call this one of the greatest Christological passages in the New Testament. Verses 5-8 takes you through the suffering to the exaltation. Let me read verses 9-11, “For this reason, also, God has highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,” as we were worshipping and singing, “so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth; every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” But I only want to look at the first part; that’s the exaltation, and there’s much to be said about that, but I want to look at His humility, His stooping love, or in the context of the theme this weekend, the exchanged life.
I want to read verses 5-8, “Have this attitude in yourself which was also in Christ Jesus who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but He emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death on the cross.” That’s the theological statement of the exchanged life; it’s exactly the same. Verse 6&7, “Have this attitude in yourself, which was in Christ Jesus, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied, taking the form of a bondservant, being made in the likeness of men.”
Let me give it to you in terms of principles. This passage teaches that Jesus set aside who He was by nature. By nature, He’s Almighty God; that’s who He was by nature. He set that aside. When He was on the earth, He was still 100% God and 100% man; there’s no question about that, but He laid aside the prerogatives of His deity; He laid that aside. He never used the fact that He was God to rescue Himself; He never used that for His own purposes. He set aside who He was, and the word became flesh, lived in humanity, lived as a man, and He set aside who He was by nature. The second thing I want you to notice is the second part, “He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.” In other words, He set aside who He was by nature, and determined, “I’m never going to grasp at that I’ve set aside. I set aside and there will never be an occasion in My life, no matter how hard things get, no matter how difficult, I’ll never fall back on My divinity in order to be rescued. He laid it aside and He said, “I’ll never grab it again.” Hebrews 2:14, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless Him who had the power of death, that is the devil.” Not even when He was opposed and tempted by Satan, did He ever say, “I’m going to grab for My Godhead.” He didn’t do that; He humbled Himself, verse 8, “Being found in appearance as man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.” He absolutely refused to live an independent life. He laid aside who He was by nature. He determined to never reach back and ever depend on what He had laid aside; He would never do that again, and instead He would become obedient to the One who indwelt Him, to His Father.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ. If you want to know what the exchanged life is, it’s you lay aside who you are by nature and you determine by the grace and power of the Lord never ever ever to grasp that again, and never depend on your own wisdom, your own strength, or your own gifts. You set aside who you are, never to grasp it again, and instead become obedient to the One who lives inside of you, even to the point of the death of His Son. That’s the exchanged life; that’s what Jesus did, and that’s what He’s calling us to do. So, we accept that exchange. That’s a picture but the principles are true. Jesus was our representative and He put on display that we set aside who we are naturally, that is our flesh.
Some people have an idea that the flesh is something that occasionally rises in me and gives me a lot of trouble, and I don’t like the flesh because it occasionally does that. The Bible defines the flesh. Let me tell you what it is in Romans 7:18, Paul says, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, my flesh.” Do you want to know what the flesh is? It’s you; it’s me. That is what we set aside, my flesh; that’s the thorn in the flesh; it’s me; set it aside, and determine all of our days never to go back to that, and never depend upon our wisdom or our strength or our personality or our temperament or our experience or our education, and never lean on anything except the One who lives inside.
As bondslaves of the Lord Jesus, living in union with Him, Jesus displayed that, and He’s calling us to live it. That’s the exchanged life; it’s not me, and it’s not ever me, and it will never be me; I love, but not I, but Christ lives in me. And Paul said of Himself, and we can say of ourselves, “He was my substitute on the cross.” Most Christians have no quarrel with that. Even the most uninstructed Christians, if you ask, “Did Jesus die for you? Was He your substitute on the cross?” They’ll say, “Yes.” Here’s the part they miss. Romans 5:10, “If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son,” that is that He’s my substitute on the cross, “much more having been reconciled, we’ll be saved by His life.” That’s the salvation that we’re talking about, the exchanged life; His life in place of mine; His life in place of yours. Jesus lived that life as the second man, as the last Adam, and then He explained it in John chapters 13-17.
I told you there were two parts to that ministry. He came to do the will of God, John 6:38, “I’ve come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” He was on a mission, and actually the mission had two parts. The first part was to undo all the damage that Adam and sin has ever done in this world, and to pay the penalty for that disobedience. That’s the first part of His mission. We know what His mission was; it’s stated in Luke 19:10, “The Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost.” That’s His mission; that’s why He was sent, to seek and to save the lost. So, to fulfill that He had to become a man. John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and reality and truth.” It was a mission to save the world, to seek the world, to save the world and required the first part of His ministry that God provided for Him. He said it when He was born, “The body You’ve prepared for Me, My incarnate body,” He lived thirty-three and a half years in that body, and in that body He went to the cross, and in that body He paid for all the damage that sin has ever done. We call that His first body. When it was completed, John 19:30, from the cross He said, “It is finished; it is done; it is over; it’s through. I did it.”
But there’s another part of His mission, and He can’t fulfill that in His first body, His incarnate body. You see, in His first body He finished it, salvation, but now it needs to be demonstrated and proclaimed. For that He needs another body, and that’s what it’s all about. He went to heaven, but His mission is not done. He came to seek and save the lost. He said, “I’ve come as far as I can come in My first body, and now I need another body. You know what that is; it’s you, it’s me; we’re the body of Christ. The Lord Jesus was sent on a mission. He said, “I finished it, I finished salvation, and nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken from it, but now it needs to be declared. It needs to be demonstrated.” So, He says, “I’m not going to force this, but to finish My mission can I use your body? Will you let Me live and finish My ministry? I need to finish it.”
In John 14:12, He said, “Greater works than these will you do because I go to the Father.” When He was in His first body, He was limited in His incarnate body. If He was in Jerusalem, He was not in Jericho. If He was in Jericho, He wasn’t in Bethany. If He was in Bethany, He wasn’t in Nazareth. If He was in Nazareth, He wasn’t in Capernaum. He had a body and He was in one place doing the will of His Father, but now He has another body, and it’s not limited—north, south, east, west, Europe, Asia, the islands of the sea, and everywhere that there’s a Christian who understands the exchanged life, Christ continues His ministry to seek and to save that which is lost. His incarnate body is now exalted. He went on to explain His present ministry, but now to His mystical body He’s says, “You’ve got to learn the exchanged life, and I’d like to explain it to you.” That’s what He does in these five chapters, because it’s true that those who have understood by revelation what that life is, that the Lord Jesus can continue His ministry to reach, to seek and to save that which is lost. We are His body. 2 Corinthians 5:20, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” God is living in us, in His new body, proclaiming the finished work to those who are lost, bringing salvation and light and Life.
We ended this morning, and I want to read it again, John 21:22, “Jesus said to them, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’ And when He said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” That’s the only possibility; that’s the Life that we’re exchanging. That’s why Jesus said, “These hours before I go to the cross I have so much to share, and I want you to especially know how God has created you to live, and what that Life is and how abundant it can be, and how full, if you understand that Life.”
I want to share one more thing before we begin the first principle. I told you that I’m going to suggest four principles. There is more than that, obviously, but these are so basic, so fundamental, so cardinal, and so important. I want to share a truth, and we’re going to look at it in all of the subsequent lessons. It’s Isaiah 55:8&9, “’My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” Don’t read that la, la, la. That’s a tremendous truth. We’re talking about God’s thoughts and God’s ways, and they are light years away from your thoughts and your ways, and my thoughts and my ways. 1 Corinthians 1:21, “Since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God; God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those that believe.” Isaiah 55:9, “As the heavens are higher than the earth,” and He’s not talking about the atmosphere where the birds fly and the clouds float around. He’s talking about His universe, the galaxy. His ways are the most distant star in the most distant galaxy. You can’t even begin to think like God thinks and to know His ways.
The reason I bring that up is because His explanation of the exchanged life goes against human wisdom; it goes against what seems reasonable, what seems logical. I’ve heard some people say, “I’m starting to get it; I’m starting to understand it. It’s becoming a little more clear. I think I’m getting closer.” No, you are not. If you miss, you’ve missed it by light years. Either you have it, or you don’t. His ways are as high above your ways, and His thoughts above yours and mine, as the heavens are above the earth. 1 Corinthians 2:9, “Things which the eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard, which have not entered into the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him, to us God revealed them through the Spirit, where the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” Since God’s ways are not our ways, and since His thoughts are not our thoughts, everything that He says, the letter that kills, everything He says about the exchanged life, seems unreasonable. If you just went with your mind, you wouldn’t get it. The exchanged life requires revelation. 1 Corinthians 2:14, “A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them.” They are spiritually discerned; it’s impossible to use human wisdom and come up with the truth. You can’t. The more logical you become, the further from the truth you get. It’s an amazing thing!
God always existed; He knows everything and He’s everywhere at the same time. He’s sovereign. We look at the physical creation and I don’t know how many billion galaxies there are; you read all these crazy things. But I know this, Habakkuk 3:3&4 calls this creation “the hiding of His power”. That’s not His power. You look at all these galaxies and say, “What power, look what God did!” That’s the hiding of His power. He did that in six days; He could have done that again in six days and made as many galaxies and never even duplicate a color, a size, a shape, a force, a law, and He could have done that every six days until now, and He still wouldn’t have run out of galaxies He could make. It’s the hiding of His power.
I call attention to this to show how much we need the Lord. I take seriously this indispensable principle. It’s not just a teaching; it’s not just something that I learned; it’s something that I apply. That Bible would be a closed Book if I didn’t have that truth. How I praise God for that truth, that I know who I am. My mother one day handed out my transcripts from my school to my grandchildren. That was a dirty trick. My transcripts were terrible. I was flunking out of everything. God said, “I’ll teach you the Bible if you’ll trust Me.” He did that for me. May I suggest that there is nobody in this room with an excuse.
Jesus was going to explain the exchanged life, and we’re going to begin it by telling you that the natural mind can’t understand it. So, in this message, and in the ones to follow, here is what we’re going to do. We’re going to come to the Bible with good hermeneutics, with good exegesis, and with a heart that really wants to know, “What does this say?” We’re going to want to really know the truth, and we’re going to follow it with human wisdom and see where it ends, and then we’re going to pick up the revelation of the Lord and see what it looks like. Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is so different. May God help us get beyond human understanding!
You might say, “How will I know?” I love John 7:17 in this connection, “If anyone is willing to do the will of God, he’ll know the doctrine; he’ll know the teaching.” We’re taught down here that knowledge comes from here that you need empirical knowledge and more evidence; you need to study more and learn more and get your head full. God said, “No, no, no; if you really want to know, he that is willing shall know.” The knowledge of the Lord is a matter of the will; it’s not a matter of the mind. I don’t care if you know Hebrew, and I don’t care if you know Greek, and I don’t care if your know Aramaic, and I don’t care if you have good exegesis, and I don’t care if your homiletics is good and your hermeneutics is good, if you just follow that, you will never see God’s truth. May God help us! In these five chapters I can’t be overstating how much we need the Spirit of God, and only the willing heart will be convinced. Even when you hear it, you’ll say, “That doesn’t make sense; that’s not logical; that’s not truth.” That’s why I was telling you to listen for the Shepherd’s voice, not what I’m saying, and not what I’m concluding but listen to the Shepherd’s voice.
We’re going to focus on four principles that Jesus gave, and He didn’t say, “And the first principle is…” He was just talking, and in His talking and in His illustrations, He laid down these great truths. The four I’m giving are not in any particular order, but I’m not surprised that the first one was illustrated by the foot washing, and that’s what we’re going to look at this evening. The plan is to study the foot washing on the level of earth, and then may God take us upstairs. May we see what is His heart!
I’m going to read the record, John 13:4, “Jesus, 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, He got up from supper and He laid aside His garment, and taking a towel, He girded Himself, and then He poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with a towel with which He was girded. So, He came to Simon Peter and he said to him, ‘Lord, do You wash my feet?’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.’ Peter said to Him, ‘Never shall You wash my feet.’” Do you know why he said that? It’s because it’s not logical; it doesn’t make sense. That’s why he said that. Jesus answered, and I think this is one of the most profound things Jesus ever said to His children, “If I do not wash you, you’ll have no part with Me.” Just let that sink in. Simon Peter said to Him, “’Lord, then wash not only my feet but my hands and my head.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘He who has bathed need only to wash his feet, but is completely clean, and you are clean, but not all of you,’ for He knew the one who was betraying Him, and for this reason He said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’”
Now, by studying this with an honest heart, and you want to know what the Bible says, “I want to be accurate, I’m serious and I don’t want to have false idea; I’m going to study it with all the resources that I have at my disposal,”coming with an honest heart and searching the words, what He’s saying and what He’s teaching, what He’s doing, on the level of earth I’m assuming that you know this story well enough that I can just refer back to it now and then. It’s not uncommon when consulting the theologians… I have quite a large library filled with theologians. I love that verse I found in the Bible, and it says, “And they were amazed when Jesus was twelve years old, that He was in the midst of the masters.” People are amazed that I can see Jesus in some of these commentaries, and I’m amazed, too. I think part of my calling is to disagree with all of my commentaries. Anyway, it’s not uncommon to study truthfully, desiring the truth, to observe that almost all the commentaries say that this passage teaches two things, one or two or both. What they say is that this is a teaching on humility. You read that and you can see where they get that. They have proof texts. They say, “This is also the teaching on cleansing because He washed their feet.”
I don’t want to spend a lot of time here, but I want to trace out, if you were an honest scholar and you wanted to know the truth, and all you had was the words, where would it lead you? One evidence that they say the passage teaches humility is the build-up, the context to this story. Luke 22:11, “You shall say to the owner of the house,” this was to the question about where they were going to have Passover, “and you’re going to go and find a man carrying water and follow him to go in the house, and find out who owns the house, talk to him and you shall say to the owner of the house, ‘The teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ And he’ll show you a large, furnished upper room; prepare it there.” It was a guest room; it was large, unfurnished, like you would rent, like in a firehouse where they have big rooms or like a dance hall or like an auditorium or like a school auditorium.
The culture was that if you came to somebody’s home, they would wash your feet or give you opportunity to have your feet washed, but this wasn’t a home; this was a guest room. He should have rented it, but he just gave it to them. He provided the water; he provided the basin but in a guest room you don’t have a servant. So, who was going to do it? Before and after the disciples learned that Judas or somebody was going to betray the Lord, they had this conversation. Listen to Luke 22:23&24, “They began to discuss among themselves,” this is at the supper, at the Lord’s Table, “which one of them might be who is going to do this thing. And there arose a dispute among them as to which of them was regarded to be the greatest.” Can you imagine that discussion at the Lord’s Table? And they’re discussing, “Which one of us? It wouldn’t be me; I’m not going to do that; I’m not going to deny the Lord.” No one volunteered because they all thought, “Not me; I’m great; I’m greater than him and maybe he’ll do it.” They were all shocked when the Lord Jesus stood up and put on the slave’s apron, took the basin and began to wash their feet. That’s why the theologians say that it’s humility. These guys were proud, and you read the record, they were discussing who was the greatest and Jesus then shows an example of humility because He’s going to do it.
When the foot washing was over, Jesus said in John 13:14, “If I then, the Lord and the teacher, washed your feet, you are to wash one another’s feet.” He gave them an example, “You should do as I did.” “Truly, I say to you a slave is not greater than his master, nor is the one who sent greater than the one who sent him.” So, logically, reasonably, you would conclude that this is a lesson on humility. “You saw Me; I took the slave’s place, and I put on the apron; follow My example; you do the same thing.” Theologians refer to verse 4, “Jesus got up from supper and laid aside His garments, taking a towel, He girded Himself.” They say, “That’s very much like He did when He first came to earth; He laid aside His deity and He took on the form of a servant, and He clothed Himself in humanity,” and so on.
But then others say, “You know, there’s a lot about cleansing here, cleansing feet and washing feet.” Verse 5, “He poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and wiped them with a towel with which He was girded.” Verse 10, “He said, ‘He who has been bathed needs only to wash his feet. You are completely clean; you are clean, but not all of you.’” Water, washing, a towel, a bath, cleansing, and so they’re studying the words, and they say, “This has to be some principle on forgiveness.” So, they conclude, “Well, they must be because Judas was called ‘not clean’; they must be talking about the saved and the unsaved. So, He must be talking about justification; those who are saved, they have the baths, they got saved, and then He must be talking about sanctification because you are walking out and you’re in sandals and your feet get dirty and you need to confess your sin every day, so it’s all about forgiveness, all about cleansing.” And then Matthew 6:11, “Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts.” Our feet get dirty; this is a dirty world, so we need it constantly. 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” Faithful and just, He’s faithful to His Son and He’s just to the work He did on the cross. That’s why there’s forgiveness.
Clearly, Judas was not a Christian. Verse 11, “He knew the one who was betraying Him, and for this reason He said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’” Once again, I’m just trying to call attention to the fact that it’s reasonable to study the text and come up with this. It’s a text teaching us to be humble, and it’s a text on cleansing, that we need daily to be cleansed. You can’t read it and not see that; that’s logical. Let’s look at the same identical facts and ask this question. This will transcend those facts; it’s not going to contradict those facts; it’s going to transcend them. “As high as the heaven is above the earth,” it’s not going to make it any more logical, but is there a way to look at the same facts and see what Jesus was saying that would cause Him to say, “If you don’t allow this, you have no part with Me.”? That is so powerful, no part. He wasn’t saying, “You are going to die and go to hell, and you are going to lose your salvation. He wasn’t saying that. He’s saying that you are not going to have union and fellowship and relationship and we’re not going to be able to communicate. If you don’t let me do, whatever it is, whether it’s be humble or cleanse, whatever it is, you are going to have no part with Me.
It looks like from the text that when the Lord Jesus began to wash their feet, He didn’t start with Peter, because we read in verse 5, “He poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with a towel with which He was girded. He came to Peter,” so that’s down the road a little; He had washed some other feet, and now He comes to Peter. Simon Peter said, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” Whatever the heavenly principle is that transcends human wisdom is illustrated by verse 6, “He came to Simon Peter, and Simon said, ‘Lord, do You wash my feet?’” Scholars reminds us that in the original language the Greek words are placed in order of emphasis, and that it’s really, “Lord, now? My?” He’s shocked, “Are you going to wash my feet?” To Peter that didn’t make sense; that’s illogical. Verse 8,” Peter said, ‘Never shall You wash my feet.’” I think many of you are familiar with Wuest in his Expanded Translation he tries to get to the heart of the Greek. Here is how he translates what Peter said, “You shall by no means wash my feet, no never.” “If I live to be a hundred and I live to be a thousand, to the ages of eternity I will never allow such a thing. You are God Almighty. You’re going to wash my feet? It makes no sense; I’ll wash yours; I’ll serve you but I can’t have this; never will You wash my feet. It’s not reasonable logically because He’s the Lord, He’s the Creator; I’ve come to see Him as the Christ of God; He’s Messiah. I’m not going to let Him wear a slave’s apron. Wash my feet? I’ll wash His; I’ll serve Him but it can’t be the other way around.
On the level of earth, Peter was absolutely right. Jesus said that in verse 13. He said, “You call Me teacher and Lord, and you’re right, and so I am. You’ve come as far as wisdom could take you. That’s logical, but here’s the statement, again, that blew Peter’s mind and theology right out of the water, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with Me.” Those words were so personal and so powerful to Peter, he immediately responded, “If that’s the case, I don’t ever want to be in the place where I have no part with You. If that’s the case, Lord, wash not only my feet, but wash my hands and give me a whole bath; I need a head to toe cleansing. Whatever, you said by “no part”, I want no part of that.”
What did Jesus mean when He said that? Again, He wasn’t condemning Peter; He was saying that in the exchanged life there’s a high principle. You’ve got to get it, and you’ve got to understand it, and if you miss it, you are missing fellowship with Me; you are missing union. What is the spiritual reality illustrated by the foot washing? I don’t think that it’s only in the New Testament; it’s in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. It was a culture; there’s a principle illustrated in that culture, and we call it the principle of hospitality. They had that principle. Their shoes were sandals, and their feet did get dirty, and as an act of hospitality when you welcomed a guest to your home, you would offer them water to wash their feet, and refresh themselves, “Come in and relax, and have a good time; take off your shoes. Let’s enjoy one another together.” It’s not, “Wash your feet; I don’t want my rug to get dirty.” It wasn’t about that.
Remember when the three visitors came to Abraham? He didn’t know that it was the Lord. Genesis 18:3, “My Lord, now if I have found favor in your sight, please do not pass your servant by; let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourself under the tree. I’ll bring a piece of bread that you may refresh yourself. After that, you may go on, since you have visited your servant.” They said, “Do as you have said. Go get it.” Even in the wicked days of the judges when everyone was doing what was right in his own eyes, Judges 19:20 describes the old man from Gibeon who was welcoming the travelers. “The old man said, ‘Peace to you, only let me take care of all your needs. Do not spend the night in the open square,’” that was dangerous, “so, he took him into his house and gave the donkeys fodder, and they washed their feet, and they ate and drank.” That was hospitality, fellowship. When Jesus sent out His disciples, He said, “You aren’t going to be received by everybody, and if they won’t receive you, shake the dust off your feet.” Remember when Jesus was invited to Simon the Leper’s home? Luke 7, “Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house, and you gave me no water for my feet. She has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.’” That’s hospitality, fellowship, having a part with Him. In 1 Timothy Paul identifies the widows that were worthy of support. 1 Timothy 5:10, “Having a reputation for good works, if she’s brought up children, if she’s shown hospitality to strangers, if she’s washed the saints’ feet, if she’s assisted those in distress, if she’s devoted herself to every good work…” It doesn’t contradict humility and it doesn’t contradict cleansing, but it transcends it. What’s the revelation?
Okay, let’s go back to His first body. Here is what Jesus said, Matthew 20:28, “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” That was shocking. He didn’t come to be served; He came to serve. Peter couldn’t accept that concept; He thought as many thought and many are taught, and I was taught that you’re saved to serve. Have you ever heard that? You are saved to serve the Lord. That’s why He saved you. It completely misses the heart of the Lord.
When I got saved in 1958, I was taught that you were saved to serve the Lord, and then they added this; if you don’t serve the Lord, their blood will be upon your hands and you will be guilty. And then I was told that everyone I met I had to share the gospel. I believed it. Those first seven years of my life I went crazy trying to serve the Lord. Some guy would be washing a window, and I’d climb up a ladder in the back. It’s true, and my Lillian was no better; she did the same thing. I’m serious. We went to school in Bronxville, N. Y. and we would spend our weekends just riding back and forth on the train going up and down. We weren’t going anywhere, but we were meeting people and telling them about the Lord. I drove so many people away from the Lord. I told the Lord that I would be the best servant He ever saved. I had no clue.
I used to beg drunkards to make a decision so that I could get some sleep. I got rewarded at Moody Bible Institute for taking a whole box of tracts and I went to the twenty-first floor of the Lawson YMCA because it’s the windy city, and I littered; I threw all the tracts all over the city, and I prayed, “Lord, let that tract fall at somebody’s feet that needs Christ.” I went crazy. I got an award for being the greatest witness that month because I threw those tracts. We were taught how to drive a car, at what speed and how to hold a tract so that the wind would blow it to the feet of those standing at the bus stop, or hold it up and it would go across the car and go somewhere else. We used to stand on the bridge and boats would go by and we had weighted tracts, and we’d drop them. I was saved to serve; that’s what I was taught. So, I had a ministry in a nursing home, and I had a ministry with the servicemen, and I had a ministry with the teenagers, and I went out as a street preacher, and I went on a beach ministry. I’m not trying to tell you all of that except to say how completely I missed the point. The Lord finally saved my family, my mother, my grandmother, my sister, but for some reason He decided He couldn’t use me. I know why now.
Anyway, Peter is very logical. He says, “This doesn’t make any sense. I can’t allow it.” Jesus said, “If you don’t, you are going to miss out.” Jesus came not to be ministered unto to but to minister. You might say, “Well, that’s while He was on the earth.” There’s a passage on the second coming, and this is future; it hasn’t happened yet. Jesus is coming back. It’s a little parable in Luke 12:37, “Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes. Truly, I say to you, that He will gird Himself to serve and have them recline at the table, and He will come up and wait on them.” That’s heaven. Jesus said, “I’ve come to serve you. You are not saved to serve; you are saved to be served. That’s the exchanged life. He wants to minister to you; He wants to refresh you; He wants to wash your feet. It doesn’t sound logical until the Holy Spirit shows you that it’s spiritually very logical; it’s the heart of God.
John 13:14&15, “If then, the Lord and Teacher washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.” Do you realize this, that I can’t wash your feet until He’s washed mine, and you can’t wash any other person’s feet until He’s washed your feet? Here’s the full truth. I’m not saved to serve; I’m saved to be served in order to serve. My service is a by-product of Him blessing me. That was ministry in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 16:18, “They have refreshed my spirit and yours.” 2 Timothy 1:16, “The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he has often refreshed me.” That was ministry, refreshing one another. Philemon 1:7, “I’ve come to have much joy and comfort in your love because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.” Romans 15:32, “So that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company.”
“You ought to wash one another’s feet;” do you realize if that meant cleansing, how critical we would be? “You ought to wash one another’s feet; I did it to you.” It’s cleansing. I go up to a Christian and I say, “Boy, I see some dirty feet here. You’ve been walking the wrong way, and I need to be the one to correct you.” That’s not what it’s talking about; it’s talking about refreshment, letting Jesus serve me. Do you remember now, and we’re going to get to it later in a fully developed form, He wore the slave’s apron; He lives in your heart; He still has on the apron. It’s a miracle of God to surrender to Jesus; it doesn’t seem right. He lives in your heart to refresh, and then missions, because you are carrying on His ministry to display, to proclaim what He has done. Listen to Acts 17:24, “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He’s Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.” He is not served by human hands. It doesn’t rule out service; it just puts it in perspective, that He serves me, that He blesses me, and when I’m blessed, then I can become His servant.
I was married, I’m so thankful, in 1964 to my Lillian; that’s a gift of the Lord. At that time, I was working as an orderly in a local hospital. After we got married, if I came home, and she wasn’t there, I’d say, “Where is my Lillian?” And if someone said, “She’s out telling the neighbors what a wonderful husband she has.” I’d say, “I didn’t marry her for that. I married her to have a relationship with her; I married her for her.” So many Christians are so busy serving the Lord, they have no part with Him. He married you because He wants you, and He loves you and He wants to have union with you. I pray that you make it a definite act of your will to yield the slave apron to the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants to refresh you; He wants you to know how much He loves you. Take some time and meditate on that. He wants you to know that He delights in you; He wants you to know Him in His fullness; He wants you to know His victory; He wants you to know His deliverance; He wants you to have assurance; He wants to bless you and instruct you in all that you have. He washes your feet by delivering you from condemnation, by letting you know how welcome you are in the presence of the Lord because of all that He has done. He wants to take you deeper and deeper into the knowledge of the Lord, not just as Savior, but Savior, Lord, Potter, Smelter, mind, the door, the Shepherd, and so many ways He wants to reveal Himself.
Has He opened your eyes to the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? Get alone in a room and dare to pray, “Lord, enjoy me; wash my feet; bless me. I want to know Your inheritance in the saints. Open my eyes so I can see the surpassing power available to those who believe. I want to know about my hope; I want to know about heaven; I want to know about union with You; I want to know about fellowship.” The more He opens your eyes to who He is, the more you are going to look like Christ because you are going to be conformed to Christ, and that’s the goal of the exchanged life, to manifest Him, to put Him on display.
A couple of more things, and then we’re done. This is not just a New Testament truth; it’s a teaching of the entire Bible. Remember the sinner in Luke 7 who received forgiveness, and then poured out her life in terms of her tears and perfume? How did Jesus look at that? He said, “She has anointed me.” When you let Him serve you, you bless Him. He’s the One that gets blessed. Acts 3:19&20, but after we come to the Lord he said, “Times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord; He will send Jesus Christ to be appointed to you.” Times of refreshment, Psalm 80 in the Old Testament they worded it this way, “Let Thy face shine upon me.” Psalm 80 three times that’s mentioned. In verse 3 it says, “Lord, cause Thy face to shine upon me.” In verse 7 it says, “Oh, God of hosts, let Thy face shine upon me.” And the last verse, verse 19, it says, “Oh, Lord, God of hosts, let Thy face shine upon me.” He so longs to shine upon you; He so longs to bless you, to refresh you, to illumine you. Let Him; that’s what He wants; that’s what He desires. I’m saved to be served in order to serve. The rest of His mission is missions, reaching the lost; that’s what He came for.
We’ll close with this, Psalm 67:1&2, “Lord, be gracious to us and bless us.” See, that’s Him washing your feet. And then He gives a reason, “Cause Thy face to shine upon us,” and here’s the reason, “that Thy way might be known on the earth.” He blesses you, so that the world will know. That Psalm ends in verse 7, “God blesses us, that all the ends of the earth may fear Him.” That’s the exchanged life; that’s the principle. It goes against reason because reasonably we should serve Him, but God said, “No, no; it’s the other way around; let Me serve you; let Me bless you; let Me anoint you; let Me fill you to overflowing on all sides at all times. And once you’re filled like that, you will become a testimony, and you’ll put Christ on display.
In the Old Testament in Numbers 6, the Day of Atonement, after all the first part had been done, the priest came out, and this benediction I’ll give you and with this we’ll close because I know how important it is for Him to wash your feet. “The Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you and give you peace.”
Father, thank You for this marvelous truth of the exchanged life, that You’ve come not to be served, but to serve us in order that we might become that testimony, that You would serve others through us. Lord, You still wear the apron in our hearts. We have no clue where the woman at the well is; we’ve got to listen to you. We don’t know what tree to look up, and where Zaccheus is. We’ve got to trust you. We don’t know where that Ethiopian is; we’ve got to trust you and not just saturate the neighborhood with literature. Lord, live in us and live through us and bless us that the ends of the earth might know You. Work these things in our heart, we pray, and take us beyond the doctrine and the theory and make it Life. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.