Tag Archives: Peter

2018 Lent Day Fourteen – 3/1 – Jesus washes feet

Lent Devotions
Lent Week Two for catch up.
Lent Week Three – this week.

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Lent Day Fourteen
Jesus washes the disciples feet.

Music
The Servant Song – Maranatha Music Band
Take My Life – Chris Tomlin

Scripture

John 13:2-17 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
2 Now by the time of supper, the Devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, to betray Him. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into His hands, that He had come from God, and that He was going back to God. 4 So He got up from supper, laid aside His robe, took a towel, and tied it around Himself. 5 Next, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around Him.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who asked Him, “Lord, are You going to wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t understand now, but afterward you will know.”
8 “You will never wash my feet—ever!” Peter said.
Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with Me.”
9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”
10 “One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For He knew who would betray Him. This is why He said, “You are not all clean.”

The Meaning of Footwashing
12 When Jesus had washed their feet and put on His robe, He reclined[a] again and said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you? 13 You call Me Teacher and Lord. This is well said, for I am. 14 So if I, 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 also should do just as I have done for you.
16 “I assure you: A slave is not greater than his master,[b] and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

Devotion

“Servant”
I looked up the definition of servant from Vines via Blue Letter Bible, and it means Bond slave. It means servant. It means everything that you would think that slave would mean. If you’ve ever watched Downton Abbey, you’ve actually seen the issue between Masters and servants. They do not interact. The Masters do not serve the servants. But our Master chose to serve his servants.

The job for washing someone’s feet, the most disgusting job other than possibly one other area of the body, was for the low man/woman on the totem pole. The upper servants didn’t do this. This was the lowest of the low servants. Add to that, the knowledge of what was on the ground back when it was Jesus’s day(no paved sidewalks with gutters that all of the gross stuff could wash down into).
For your information:
I’ve even heard some people say that they didn’t really even go out behind the house to go to the bathroom mad. When they had to go to the bathroom, they just went. Apparently, not true! I did some research on Ancient biblical practices of personal hygiene.
Toilets in Biblical times – NT and Rome
Toilets in Biblical Times – Old Testament with levitical rituals.
Suffice it to say, it wasn’t just dirt on the ground that these people were walking in their sandals.

I happen to live in Florida. Nine months out of the year, if not more, we wear sandals. That’s just because restaurants and stores require shoes on our feet in order to enter! I can wash everything on my body and walk around outside and come in and take off my sandals and I have lines from the dirt that has gotten on my feet, even though my feet have been above the so-called dirt because of my sandals. All sandals do is protect the bottoms of your feet from rocks and such. In Jesus’ day, they all wore sandals.

Jesus was listening to the guys as they were trying to figure out who was the greatest. He was going to teach that the kingdom of God is based on a servant heart. We have the discourse between Jesus and Peter as Jesus sets up to wash Peters feet. Peter is not going to have anything to do with this man that he believes is the son of God, the Messiah, the Christ, washing his feet. He’s not going to have anything to do with someone who deserves so much glory and worship and honor bowing down before him and doing the work of the most base servant.

In Wycliffe’s Bible Commentary, he supposes that

The materials for washing the feet were present(Lk 22:10) but there was no servant (Jesus had requested privacy). One of the disciples might have volunteered, but all were too proud. At this time they were disputing as to which of them should be regarded as the greatest (Lk 22:24)

Maybe Peter was embarrassed – shamed that HE had not volunteered to do the washing before the meal!

Jesus looks at him and says “if you won’t let me wash your feet you have nothing to do with me.”
So then Peter, good old Peter, says “then wash me all of me from the the head to my feet!”

Jesus says “no, you are clean but not your feet.”
So Peter finally acquiesces.

What is the POINT? Why did John make sure this story was IN the gospels?
There are two points to this story that I am interested in today.
1. the Servant heart.
The God of the universe obviously had a servant heart to decide to leave His glory and be born a baby, needing to have His diapers changed and to be fed and being born where He had to be laid down in a Manger! He chose to participate in the filthiness that is man! Even though He was without sin and He was not filthy, He chose to enter the world of man. That is the epitome of the master choosing to come as a servant.

2. Why did Jesus insist on only washing Peters feet and not his whole self? I believe that this has something to do with being washed clean at salvation but having our feet get dirty by walking in this world. I believe this shows us that we’re only saved once, but we need to have our feet washed often and by Jesus so that we are clean to come before the throne.

I searched Blue Letter Bible on the word servant. In the Old Testament

  • Abraham is called a servant of God
  • Moses is called a servant of God
  • David is called a servant of God
  • Job is called, BY GOD, a servant of God
  • the prophets called themselves Servants of God,
  • those who were the followers of God identified as servants to their master God.

Many many verses about being a servant can be found in Psalms and proverbs. Psalm 119 specifically talks a lot about being a servant to God’s law.

What does this have to do with God being our servant? Jesus was trying to point out and to exemplify the fact that in the kingdom of God the first shall be last, the last shall be first. (Matthew 20:16) Those that serve have higher regard to God than those who are served. When you think of the fact that original sin was lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:16 with Genesis 3:6) which actually is three facets to selfishness or plain and simple pride, you recognize that humility exemplifies God.  It is one of the character qualities that God expects out of someone who calls himself by his name. If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and seek my face…(2 Chronicles 7:14) .  God embodies humility, and expects it of us.  When you recognize this, it’s not surprising that Jesus would humble himself to serve. It was less painful than the cross – the ultimate humble sacrifice.

There’s also the concept that and so many other things that in our fallen, worldly, finite minds seems upside down and backwards. Then again it’s because of our fallen, worldly, finite, minds that things ARE upside down and backwards. His ways are higher than our ways and we do not see things the way he sees things unless he opens our eyes.

Isaiah 55:8-9 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
and your ways are not My ways.”
This is the Lord’s declaration.
9 “For as heaven is higher than earth,
so My ways are higher than your ways,
and My thoughts than your thoughts.

This is the last chance Jesus has to teach his disciples. I’m going to be discussing what things did Jesus decide to teach in the upper room. By washing His disciples feet He wanted to impress upon them that He had come to serve. He wanted to impress upon them that He was sending them forth to serve.

Many of the Jews thought that when the Messiah came he was going to come riding on a stallion with an army to set Jerusalem free and deliver them into this great Kingdom reigning and ruling over all the world, or at least just delivering them from Rome. That was not what Christ’s first coming was about. His first coming was to be an offering. He knew he was coming to be the lamb that would be slain on behalf of an ungrateful world.
He knew that his death on the cross would be a complete humiliation in the public arena.

Greater love has no man but that he would lay down his life for another. John 15:13
When someone throws themselves on a grenade or steps in front of the vehicle while pushing someone out of the way, or any sort of thing along these lines, they are considered Heroes. The fact that they put their life on the line for someone else, whether they knew them or not, is considered the ultimate gift. The same as said for any person in the military that gave their life on behalf of the United States, that they had given The Ultimate Gift. The military, the police, the fireman and such are all called public servants. They do put their lives on the line for others.

How much more the perfect Son of God, taking on our penalty for our sin by dying, how much more of a servant’s heart is this? Then He asks of us to be servant leaders. He asks us not lead by bullying or manipulation or Bible beating, but to lead by serving. Quite a few Parables talk about serving another. This whole concept of serving held great importance to Jesus Christ. He was trying to give his disciples a very tangible memory that would hopefully not fade away.

Why the feet and not the whole body?

I think this is a statement of salvation. Because once one chooses to follow Christ, believes in the Lord Jesus Christ believes that he is the Son of God that he died on the cross for our sins and rose from the grave (which they didn’t know yet), that person is saved.

Romans 6:23 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

These disciples had declared Jesus was there Lord, they had given up their old lives to walk with Jesus. They did have to change their ways, because they were walking with Jesus! And Jesus’s life was perfect! They would have wanted to impress Jesus and would try to be the best people they could be to please Jesus. Their works would not gain the them salvation but their works would be the evidence of their salvation.

Did they still sin? Of course they did.
We have multiple evidences of Peter spouting off at the mouth and Jesus reprimanding him. We can be sure not one disciple was perfect because not one disciple was raptured! The Apostle John wrote in 1 John that we aren’t supposed to sin but if you sin… Then we we have an advocate with the father… Jesus Christ intercedes for us and cleanses us from sin. That’s 1st John 1:9-2:2.

John doesn’t say that okay you messed up you need to get saved again. John just said you needed to confess your sins. James talks about if any of you is sick let him call for the Elders of the church. If he’s committed sin Let Him confess, and then they will be healed. James 5:14-16 Sin can have an effect on our physical health! We know sins have an effect on our fellowship with God, and have ever since Adam and Eve left the garden. So it’s not that we don’t get dirty, just that we don’t need to be saved again.

Now here we could go off on the once saved always saved Doctrine and while I believe that there’s some aspect to that I believe that there is an abuse of that wear one person wants told me that they got saved but because they started smoking again they were unsaved and need to get saved again. That’s two extremes. This would be a perfect place to put some sort of a study on the security of the believer but that really gets into some deep theology and I think there are plenty of places online which would answer those theological questions.

Here’s two links to Calvin’s explanations:
Perseverance of the Saints:

And

P – Preservation of the Saints
~ Thanks to my husband Jim for finding these references!

We’ve been washed by the water of the word and cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ therefore we are saved.
But we walk in the world which is filthy.
We have a fallen nature that we constantly fight.
We sin and those who say they do not sin are liars which is a sin. Just ask 1st John 1.
We need to wash our feet, we need to be washed from the effects of the world upon us as we walk around with in it.
We don’t need to be saved again, we don’t need to be baptized again, we just need to be washed so that we could come to the table and fellowship with our father.

The one thing I am sure of is eternity. Every human being has eternal life. And every human being gets to choose where they will spend their eternal life. With God or without God, and as I talked about the other day the place where the rich man was when he was asking Abraham to send Lazarus to talk to his family, didn’t sound like such a nice place.

Prayer and Worship
Make Me a Servant – Maranatha Music
Here’s My Heart Lord – Casting Crowns
If We are the Body – Casting Crowns
I will serve the Lord– Carmen

To Be a servant of God – you must first be a child of God!
Got Questions provides a detailed explanation of The Roman’s Road.
Billy Graham’s version of the Plan of salvation

Whiter than Snow – Lenny LeBlanc
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow – Best Loved Hymns

Blue Letter Bible has Elizabeth Elliott’s talks on Servanthood.

 

Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

“The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear.
If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation.
If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself.” – from My Utmost for His highest

Copyrights and Legal-eze
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Itty Bitty Bible Study – Galatians 2:11-21

Galatians 2:11-21

My thoughts for the Itty Bitty Bible Study group on Facebook. (join if you’d like to get these in fb!)

Galatians 1:1-10
Galatians 1:11-24 & 2:1-10

Galatians 2:11-14
11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.
12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.[a]
13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Paul had been preaching to the Gentiles.
Because of the freedom from the law – as he explains in Romans and Hebrews, he never required circumcision for Titus, or any of the Greeks that were with him.

Apparently, based on this passage, Peter was fine with the Greeks, until the Jews were watching, and then he reverted to the Jewish clean and unclean practices, and avoided these brothers.

Jesus made clear directions on how to address a brother or sister that was sinning – Matthew 18:15 – 16

If I had better Biblical history Knowledge, I could tell you if the sheet of unclean animals was before or after this – but here is what I think:

  • Acts 9 – Saul’s Conversion
  • Acts 10, God sends Peter to Cornelius, the vision of the sheet of unclean animals
  • Acts 11 – Peter defends preaching to the gentiles, and they send Barnabas after Saul/Paul in Tarsus
  • Now, in the beginning of Chapter 12, Herod kills James, the brother of Jesus.
    In Galatians, in Paul’s first visit to Jerusalem, 3 years after his conversion, he met James, the brother of Jesus. (Galatians 1:19)
  • Acts 12 – Peter is jailed, Herod is smitten, Paul, Barnabas and JohnMark continue.
  • Acts 13 – Paul and Barnabas commissioned
  • Acts 14 ministry, and Paul stoned, first time
  • Acts 15 – here we have the dispute about circumcision.

5 chapters after Peter had been shown that the Gentiles were to be received.
Also, after Paul had been commissioned, based upon his sharing of what he had been preaching.
Chapter 15 is where Peter has a great speech!

Acts 15:7-11
7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

James(the Apostle, not the brother of Jesus), after listening to Paul and Barnabas says this:

Acts 15:19-21
19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, 20 but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. 21 For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”

The council then wrote a letter – and sent it out

Acts 15:22-29
22 Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers,
23 with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings.
24 Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions,
25 it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth.
28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements:
29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

I don’t know where the confrontation between Paul and Peter landed – but the main issue is that the doctrine of grace, not works was confirmed. And it’s the doctrine of works that started this whole dispute in the beginning of Acts 15!
And it’s the very doctrine of works that Paul is trying to undo in this letter to Galatia!

Back to Galatians:
In 2:15-21, Paul writes,

15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;
16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!
18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.
19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Romans 3 discusses this in much detail.
Galatians 3 goes into more detail, and we will get there.

The basic take home here, for me is this:

Galatians 2:20
I am crucified with Christ
Nevertheless I live,
Yet not I
But Christ
Lives in me:
And the life that I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith of the Son of God
Who loved me
And gave himself for me.

If that isn’t clear enough – Paul drives it home:

Galatians 2:21
I do not frustrate the grace of God:
For if righteousness come by the law,
THEN CHRIST IS DEAD IN VAIN!

Basically, Romans 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 all explain this more fully!
It makes sense – Paul wrote Romans!

Today, we are flooded with a lukewarm gospel, not one of adding legalistic bondage.
Of course, there are those versions of Christianity that do hold to variations of the law.

James wrote, in light of favoritism, to explain the dangers of holding to the law:

James 2:8-13
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.
13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

That explains the danger of getting pulled back into the law!
James also addresses the faith without works position in James 2:14-26 (James is going to be one of the Itty Bitty Bible Studies!)

It is such a fine line…and yet, it had the power to potentially destroy the early church. It still does.
Even today, in Amish communities, there are approved shawl patterns and non approved. Approved fabric and non approved. Where there is a difference, there is a split in fellowship!
Look at all the denominations we have.
Look at all the different types of Baptists we have?

We have ONE Lord – Jesus Christ.
Let’s get back to sharing the gospel, and not our own applications!
Applications of the gospel are quite often personal in nature.
And if we are making decisions based upon the fear of man’s opinion, the we have missed the boat!

Blast from the Past Itty Bitty Bible Study from 2009 Galatians 2
Galatians 3 goes more into depth about Faith and Works. I’ll try to go into more detail there.

Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

“The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear.
If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation.
If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself.” – from My Utmost for His highest

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