Wednesday Night Study on March 19th

This week we looked at a passage of scripture that is very familiar to Easter and to most Christians. We read just briefly a few statements made by Peter and a few statements made by Jesus during the Last Supper. This was the last meal that the disciples would eat with Jesus before His death on the cross. I believe the statements Jesus made and the statements Peter made in this passage (John 13:8-9) were a foreshadowing of what Jesus’ death on the cross does for Peter and us.

The first statement Peter makes is simply “Jesus you shall never wash my feet.” I believe this statement is a staring point for Peter and for us regardless if we are a Christian or not. Peter understood how humbling, how lowly, and how filthy it was for a man to wash another’s feet. I believe Peter more importantly understood that Jesus was much more that a man, He was God. Peter had spent the past three years with a man who had raised men from the dead, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, and made the lame walk. He had fed five thousand men with just one boy’s lunch, He had made a spectacle of the religious leaders of that time, and He had declared salvation for the weakest of people. And now He, God in flesh, sought to wash the calloused, dung covered feet of Peter. Peter had the guts to say NO! This statement tells us this: Peter understood how great, holy, and perfect God was and he also understood how filthy and unworthy he and his sin was. That was our first point; in order to accept the salvation and life that Jesus gives we first must understand how filthy we are, and we all are!

The next statement made in this conversation is Jesus’ statement. He says to Peter, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” I believe this is incredible foreshadowing of the work that God does in a sinner’s heart. He says to Peter and to us, “I know you’re filthy and I know I am not, but through me is the only way you can be clean.” Clean to be set free from the bondage, guilt, and destructiveness of our sin. We all come to church and act like sin is not destroying our families, our loved ones, or even ourselves but it is. I would dare say that each of us know someone who is feeling the effects of divorce, alcoholism, adultery, murder, theft, selfishness, or lies. The world around us is falling down and if we are a part of this world we too shall fall, but Jesus’ death on the cross sets us apart, raises us up, and changes everything.

The third statement is Peter’s reply to Jesus’ promise. Peter says, “Then wash all of me!” We bathe regularly but Peter didn’t. I believe he is saying what every person who has ever trusted in Jesus says in their own language. He’s saying Jesus have all of me, everything I was, everything I am, and everything I will be. Peter doesn’t care that it may be awkward for one grown man to bathe another man. Peter says it doesn’t matter what you want just wash me clean. I believe that is what God moves us to do as we trust in Him as Savior and Lord and receive the blessing of eternity in Heaven not Hell. I also believe that this is the process that we as Christians should continue in until we die.

We closed with and invitation to the lost and undone. We invited them and I invite you now to trust in Jesus as Your Lord and Savior. We also closed with a challenge to the Christian to surrender a current struggle to the will of the Father. I encouraged them that there is freedom and confidence in the change that worship brings.

walk brave, dustin