Joyce Meyer - John 13:1-17 (08/22/2019)
Joyce Meyer highlights Jesus washing the disciples' feet in John 13 as a powerful example of humble service, teaching that true leadership involves serving others, not just talking about it. She stresses that doing what Jesus commands—especially serving one another—benefits us greatly, keeps us humble, builds real relationships, and brings God's blessing, reminding us that our worth isn't defined by our job but by who we are in Christ.
Why Jesus' Example of Foot-Washing Matters Today
Well, thank you for joining us today on Enjoying Everyday Life. And you know, the way I feel that we can enjoy our life the most is if we really learn the importance of doing what Jesus told us to do. Everything he tells us to do is ultimately for our benefit. It's going to make our lives much better.
And so, I don't know about you, but I need to sometimes hear the same stuff over and over and over again. And so one of my favorite sections of Scripture is John chapter 13, the first 17 verses where Jesus washed the disciples' feet. I think it's something that we need to remember that he said to do, and then make sure that we do that and kind of discuss today what does that actually really mean.
I mean, in their culture, people wore sandals if they wore shoes at all, and the roads weren't paved like they are today. And so, feet were quite dirty and dusty. And it was very customary when a guest came to your house to wash their feet. Actually, it was considered an insult if you didn't do it, or you didn't have somebody to do it. But it was usually a servant who did it. It wouldn't have maybe been the master of the house. It would have been the servant.
And so, Jesus not only taught with words, but he taught by example. And that's something that I try to remember in my life. I have to remind myself from time to time. But even with our children, it really doesn't do any good to tell them what to do, but then have them see you do the opposite of what you told them. So actually, we could do less talking and more doing of the right thing and probably teach people more than we do with all of our talking.
Knowing Truth Means Living It Out
And you know, sometimes we get a little bit proud of what we think we know. And so we like to tell everybody what we think we know. But one of the things that I've had to face is that I really don't know anything unless I'm doing it. No matter how many scriptures I have underlined and highlighted in various colors in my Bible, if I'm not doing them, then I still really don't know them. Maybe it's in my head, but it hasn't gotten down into my heart yet.
So there's several lessons, I think, that we can get out of these 17 verses. So let's just start. Now, before the Passover feast began, I'm starting in verse 1 of John 13, Jesus knew and was fully aware that the time had come for him to leave the world and return to the Father. And he had loved those who were his own in the world. He loved them to the last and to the highest degree.
So first of all, I think that Jesus is now... knows that he's going to very soon be ascending to the Father. And he's had these disciples that he's been training that he already knows are going to be the ones that are going to carry the gospel to the known world at that time. And so he doesn't have a great deal of time left to show them anything or teach them anything.
And so I think that some of the things that we see Jesus teach them or say to them in this last little bit of time that he has are super important. Like in John chapter 14, he talked to them about peace. He was ready to leave. He said, my peace I leave with you. Stop allowing yourselves to be upset and disturbed.
So I take that, that that's something that's really important for my life is I need to make sure that I stay in peace at all times. And I don't know about you, but that doesn't happen accidentally for me. I have to be determined to do that.
Jesus' Awareness of Power and Humility
And so now he's getting ready to tell them something he apparently feels is very important because he doesn't have a lot of time left to tell them anything. Verse 2, so it was during supper, for Satan having already put the thought of betraying Jesus into the heart of Judas Iscariot. So we see plainly from that, that the devil puts thoughts into our head.
So every thought that you have is not necessarily one that you've generated. If it's a thought that doesn't agree with the word of God, then you can be pretty sure that the enemy put it in your head and you can accept it or reject it. And here again, you know, where the mind goes, the man follows. I love that little saying that God gave me a long time ago.
I think that when we think about something, it's going to come out of our mouth and we're going to end up doing it. So I've kind of discovered that if I want to do the right thing, I have to spend a certain amount of time meditating or thinking about doing the right thing.
So, Jesus knew that Judas already had had that thought of betraying him. And verse 3 is especially important. We want to miss this. That Jesus knowing, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his hands and that he had come from God and was now returning to God.
So, he knew the power that he had. He knew that he could do anything that he wanted to, that nobody could make him do anything. He knew where he came from. He knew where he was going. And look what he did. He got up from supper, took off his garment, and taking a servant's towel, he fastened it around his waist.
And he poured water into the wash basin and he began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the servant's towel with which he was girded. So, he took off his garment, which to me represents, for just a moment, he laid aside this position of leadership, this...I mean, he never stopped being our Lord, but to take off your garment to me represents that if I'm the right kind of leader, I don't always have to act like the boss or act like the leader.
Laying Aside Position to Serve Others
I can lay that aside for a period of time and give myself to something else and then you'll see later it says that he put his garment back on. He took the servant's towel off and he put his garment back on. So, I think a really good leader is someone that doesn't have to try to maintain this position all the time. You don't have to come in and take authority. You can just walk in your authority on a regular basis.
And even as a parent, when my kids were younger, I learned that one of the things that was very good was to let them know about some of my mistakes. I didn't always have to pretend to be the perfect parent that was always telling them what they should and shouldn't do. Many times, even when they would need a correction, I would share with them something along those same lines that I had done wrong and made a mistake in.
It's amazing how, if we're willing to lay aside our perfection and share our weaknesses with people, how it kind of disarms them and it does something to the pride factor in all of us and people are suddenly willing to listen because, oh, hey, you have problems too.
So, Jesus knew that he could take off his garment, that he could put it back on, and that he didn't lose his position of power and who he was if he gave himself to something that in that culture would have been considered a lowly task.
So, I want to say something, I want to make sure that everybody gets this today. Your career, your job does not define who you are. And we could probably just camp right there for a long time because so many people say, well, I'm just a... I'm just a stay-at-home mom. I'm just a, whatever, ditch digger, a janitor. I'm just... do you ever hear anybody say, well, I'm just a doctor? No, see, nobody would say that because in our society that's considered a high position.
So, people would say that more with like, well, I'm a doctor, or I'm a lawyer, or I'm... I'm the CEO of this company. But when it comes to positions that the world, remember I said the world, that the world thinks are more lowly positions, we have to remember that in God's eyes, none of that is true.
Our True Identity and Assignment from God
All any of us is responsible to do, now don't miss this, all you or me or anybody else is responsible to do is your assignment from God. And I might add, I think it might be harder to faithfully give yourself to a small task that didn't really seem to be that important to the world and do that faithfully all of your life. That probably is much more difficult than being the person that's in charge. Amen.
Billy Graham said one time, he said, I think that I'm getting a lot of my reward right here on earth because of all the attention that you get when you're in a position like that. But he said the person who's prayed for me all these years is the one that will get the greater reward in heaven.
So always remember, no matter how tiny you think your little assignment is, God assigns great reward to small tasks. Especially if they're done with a really good heart. So let's remember that whatever we do, let's do it unto the Lord and not do it to get attention.
Something that I wrote down, it was just a statement God gave me. If I do what I do to get attention from people, then that may be all I get. But if I do what I do unto the Lord, if nobody here pays attention to me, that gets God's attention.
So somewhere along the line, we have to make up our minds who we want to live for. And remember that what we do in secret, God rewards in the open. So let me say again, your career, your job, does not define who you are. Who you are is who you are in Christ. And your job doesn't add to that or take away from it.
Because we can only do what we're anointed and gifted to do. So, let's imagine this. Got up from supper, took off his garment, put on a servant's towel, and started to wash the disciples' feet. Verse 6, When he came to Peter, Peter said, Lord, are my feet to be washed by you? Is it for you to wash my feet?
So, he wasn't going to let Jesus wash his feet. He's like, oh no, no, no, no, you can't do that. So there's a couple of different groups of people we want to look at today. The one who thinks they're too good to do smaller tasks. But then there's also the one who doesn't know how to let anybody do anything for them. They don't know how to receive from other people.
Learning to Give and Receive in Relationships
And I was talking to somebody coming over here today, and you know, different people are gifted in different ways. Some people are really gifted for helps. They're just gifted to do what we might consider to be smaller things. But that's their gift. They love it. They just love to help.
Well, sometimes those people, because they're so accustomed to helping other people, they number one, won't ask for help when they need it. And number two, they can almost get so accustomed to serving others that they don't know how to receive from anybody else. It's like, oh no, no, I don't need it. Oh no, you don't have to do that for me.
But pay attention to what Jesus says here. Verse eight, he said, you'll never... Well first, verse seven, Jesus said, you don't understand what I'm doing. But you will understand later. And then Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet. And Jesus said, unless I wash you, you have no part in me. You have no share in companionship with me.
Wow, what a lesson. So what is he saying? Unless I do things for you, and you do things for me, we don't have any real relationship. So see, no relationship is healthy if it's all one-sided. If one person does all the giving, and the other person does all the taking, then you don't really have a relationship.
So you have these people that are anointed and gifted by God for helps, who sometimes have a difficult time receiving from other people. But then you have people that are more like me, and I am not naturally gifted for helps, except I'm very gifted to let people help me. Well, I mean, I'm just being honest with you.
I mean, I'm very gifted to say, can you get me some water? Can you do this? I mean, that works all the time with Dave. It's like, we'll both be sitting in a chair, and I'll say, can you get me this or that? And he'll just go get it, you know?
And probably if he said that to me, I might think, well, you're just sitting there, go get it yourself. You know? It's not, it's not natural for me. It's not my natural gifting. I'm more gifted, if it's a gift, to tell other people what they should do.
Balancing Service and Humility in Daily Life
So, here's what I do. This is what I've learned to do. And I think this is an important part of this, because you have people both ways. You have people that that's their first inclination. You know, like, if somebody else was up here teaching, and they knocked their water off the platform. My first thought would not be to go clean it up. My first thought would be to tell somebody to go clean it up.
But there are people in here today, that if I did that, I mean, without even thinking, you'd jump right up, you'd want to clean it up, you'd want to get me some more water. So there are people that are gifted for that, but then there are people that truly are.
See, it wouldn't even really be a good use of my time, because of the other gifts that God's given me, if I was giving myself to that kind of stuff all the time. Because God anoints some people to do certain things, and then all together, we make one complete person that can bring glory to God.
However, just like a person who is gifted to help others, it's not healthy for you to never let anybody help you. I'm not gifted to do those kind of things all the time, but it's not healthy for me, if I don't do them on purpose, on a regular basis, because it's too easy to start thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to, and think that maybe you're a little too important to do those kind of things.
So what I actually do, and I do this fairly regularly, I will pray in the morning when I have my prayer time, God show me small things that I can do for somebody else today, and help me remember how important they are.
And it doesn't always have to be cleaning up a mess somebody made. Sometimes, like busy people, for me, sometimes serving others is just taking the time to listen. Maybe to something that doesn't even interest me all that much. I mean, it's true, you know.
There's a lot of different ways that we can serve. I believe that praying for people is serving. I mean, I believe that when I study to teach, that I'm serving. You see what I do in the pulpit, but there's hours and hours of study that go into that before you get here. And so that's more the hidden part of what people do that only God knows anything about.
So just remember, if you're not gifted for helps, don't just say, well, that's not my gift. Make sure that you listen to people, and that you do little things for them. You know why? Because it's just good. It helps us stay in a position of humility, and the Bible says that pride always comes before destruction, and it always comes before a fall.
The Blessing of Practicing Humble Service
And I'll tell you what, and just listen to me, because we've got all kinds of people watching the program today. If you happen to be the leader, if you happen to be the person with the authority in your company, if you happen to be the person that's in charge, you especially need to make sure that on a regular basis, you show yourself to be a servant leader.
And that means that you are willing to take off your garment, and put on a servant's towel, and do some of the things that you wouldn't even normally be gifted to do. And when the time is right, you can put your garment back on, and go back to doing what you need to do.
Does this make any sense to anybody? I think that there's so many lessons here that we might miss if we don't take the time to really settle down and listen to them.
So then Peter said, oh, well, wash my hands, my feet, and everything else. So at least he got the message pretty quick. Well, if, you know, us doing things for one another is the only way we're going to have real relationship.
And so even in our relationship with God, we don't want to just go to Him all the time with, you know, this is what I need you to do. I need you to do this for me. I need, I need. I want, I want, I want.
I think we have to come to a place, spiritual maturity demands that we come eventually to a place where our prayers are not just filled with what can God do for me, but maybe you could just take a vacation from, I don't know, two or three months of not asking God to do anything for you and just pray every day, God, show me what I can do for you.
Do I need to repeat that? I mean, actually, God required me to do that many, many, many years ago. And for six months, I did not have permission to ask God to do one thing for me. Every time I started to pray for God to do something for me, it would almost, I would almost choke on it. And I would just say, well, never mind, God, I just need you. What can I do for you?
Thank God it didn't last forever. I now get to ask Him to do things for me. But how many of you understand what I'm saying? You know, I have grown children now, and to be honest, I want them to do some stuff for me. I don't want them to just come over when they want something. I want them to come by just to say, hey, how you doing?
So, Peter got the message real quick. Verse 10. This is kind of... It is an important part of this, but it might kind of seem like we're taking a little aside here for a minute. Jesus said, anybody who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is clean all over. And you, my disciples, are clean.
Okay, so how could He tell these disciples, Peter, who's getting ready to deny Him, Thomas, who was a total doubter, and I'm quite sure all the rest of them had their own little issues. We know they fought amongst themselves. They were jealous of each other. I mean, they had problems. How can He look at them and say, you're all clean?
Well, I read this recently, and this really blessed me. This writer said, Jesus could tell them they were clean because there's a big difference in rebellion and immaturity. See, Jesus saw their heart. So their heart was clean. They loved Him. They wanted to do what was right.
So they... Like, Peter didn't even really deny Christ out of just rebellion. He just had fear in his life. And Thomas didn't doubt just because he was rebellious and just didn't want to believe. He just had a problem with doubt.
And so I'm so glad to know that even though we might not be totally spiritually mature yet, as long as we're wanting to make that journey that God sees our heart and He can still say, I see you as perfect, and I see you as clean. Isn't that good? I think that's very good.
Doing What Jesus Commands Brings Blessing
And so, you disciples are clean, but not all of you. For He knew who was going to betray Him. And it was for that reason that He said, not all of you. You see, Judas was not clean. Because he had a greedy, rebellious heart. It was not just a matter of immaturity. He knew fully well that what he was getting ready to do was wrong. And he purposely did it anyway. That's rebellion. Rebellion.
But if I get up, and I want to serve God, and I love Jesus, but man, I'm out of bed 10 minutes, and somebody makes me mad, and I... Oh God, I'm so sorry. I don't want to act like that. That's not rebellion. That's spiritual immaturity. And as long as I want to get beyond that, and keep growing with God, we're good.
So when he had finished washing their feet, and put on his garment, and sat down again, he said, now do you understand what I've done? Probably not. I doubt that any of us really understand the full weight of Jesus washing their feet.
You call me the teacher, the master, and the Lord, and you're right in saying this, for that is who I am. If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet... Okay, here it comes. You ought, it is your duty, your under obligation, you owe it to wash one another's feet.
For I have given you this as an example, so that you should do in your turn what I have done to you. I assure you, most solemnly I tell you. You know, I like it when I see this most solemnly. And that's not with everything that we read in the Bible, but it is there. Or sometimes he'll say, verily, verily, or truly, truly.
So, to me, these are things that's like... Now, you don't want to miss this. Solemnly, I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master, and no one who is sent is superior to the one who sent him. In other words, Jesus is saying, look, if I did this, you're not better than me. So, if I can do this, then you can do this.
If he could do that and not feel belittled, if he didn't lose who he was and his position of importance by washing feet, then surely we can do that too. And by the way, let me just throw in here that when we serve other people, it's not an act we put on. It's an attitude that we live with.
It doesn't do one bit of good if you're doing a lot of things for other people, but you feel like a martyr, like you're being taken advantage of. If you know these things, blessed and happy and to be envied are you if you practice them and you really do them.
So, I love that. So, everybody thinks this is a good message, right? You like this today? Okay, well, then you got to go home and do it. It doesn't do us any good to hear it. Matter of fact, I think when we hear something, it's like, what it says in James is like looking at yourself in a glass and if you're not careful, you quickly go away and forget what you look like.
So, we've seen something amazing here today, but the way to really get that ingrained in us now is to go and quickly, okay, God, show me what I can do for somebody else. Because the more we hear and do, hear and do, the more it gets embedded in us.