Sermons
THE GOD OF THE TOWEL
Series: The Glory of ChristTHE GOD OF THE TOWEL
Pt.12 - “The Glory Of Christ”
Sermon Outline By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / April 19, 2015
I want to thank you for the encouraging feedback you have provided throughout this sermon series.
We’ve titled this series, “The Glory Of Christ”, and our emphasis has been on certain texts
(mostly in the gospels, but also some in the NT epistles) that remind us of the constitution of our Lord Jesus.
Jesus was fully HUMAN, but He was also fully DIVINE.
While He was thoroughly human, He was not just a MAN - - GOD-MAN (God in the flesh).
This is a “mysterium tremendum” that demands serious study.
When we encounter these revelations of the glory of Christ in the gospel it forces us to think deeply about Christ.
Mysterium tremendum is best translated as an 4 overwhelming mystery.
The Latin word “tremendum” is in the same word family from which we derive our English words:
tremendous … tremble … and even tremor - - these are all words describe what it means to be shaken to the core.
? ? ?
Nowadays the word awesome has become so overused and misused that it has lost its real meaning.
Cars are awesome … Girls are awesome … Athletes are awesome … Movies are awesome …
Epcot is awesome … Cedar Point is awesome … The Buckeyes are awesome … The Browns’ new uniforms are awesome …
You get the picture - - just about anything and everything that excites us in any little way now qualities as awesome.
When everything comes to be described as “awesome”, we have mutilated the word.
I have a preacher friend who uses this word way too much.
He is smart, he is well-educated, he has a good vocabulary, but he has ruined a perfectly good word.
And some of you have fallen into this same lazy trap: “awesome” is not just a synonym for “cool”.
Awesome means “full of AWE” and it is best used to describe GOD & CHRIST and that which is sacred and holy.
It is one of those words that ought to be reserved for that which is truly OTHER - - for sure that which is extraordinary.
I sometimes wonder how THE ALMIGHTY might feel when we use this word so carelessly throughout the day and
then we gather round the Lord’s table (or fireside at a Camp 2:52 devotional) as sing, “Our God is an awesome God.”
Awesome is a word that originally carried the idea of “striking fear & reverence in our hearts”.
Our awesome God is what the ancients rightly described as4 MYSTERIUM TREMENDUM.
Heb.10:31 states4 “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Heb.12:28-29 echoes this idea, ”Let us show gratitude…for our God is a consuming fire.”
If I had to choose one verse that could serve as the golden text for this series it would be Jn.1:14
“The word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Open your Bible and follow along as we read the full text for this morning’s sermon.
John 13:1-1
I am grateful to Sinclair Ferguson for many of the ideas that we will now share in the balance of this sermon.
Ferguson has a really good DVD series on “The Upper Room” produced by Ligonier Ministries.
I am planning a more detailed series on this section of Scripture in the months to come.
The setting for this morning’s sermon is the upper room.
Luke’s gospel (Lk.22:7-13) tells how Jesus had instructed Peter & John to go into Jerusalem
in order to make preparations for Jesus and His disciples to celebrate the feast of Passover.
These instructions include the securing of a “large, furnished, upper room” (vs.12).
This is the place where Jesus and His disciples will partake of the Passover feast.
This gathering is what we often refer to as “The Last Supper”, The Passover Supper which becomes The Lord’s Supper.
This event takes places during the 24 hour period prior to Jesus’ crucifixion.
This upper-room event spans about five hours during which time Jesus will:
Dismiss Judas as His betrayer (13:27) …
And Identify Peter as one who will deny Jesus three times (13:38).
It is also the occasion for “The Lord’s prayer” (the longest prayer in the NT).
(While Mt.6:9f is often called The Lord’s Prayer, it would be more appropriate to call it “the model prayer”).
John’s gospel has a prologue and an epilogue.
The rest of his gospel can be divided into two sections.
¡ Volume I includes chapters 1b-12 - - and can be spoken of as a Book of Signs.
Here we find numerous open and public manifestations of Jesus’ identity.
In John’s Gospel, a miracle or a sign-ificant sign is often accompanied by a inter-related teaching.
e.g., Feeding of 5,000 (Jn.6:9f) is followed by “I am the Bread Of Life” (Jn.6:35).
The raising of Lazarus (Jn.11:43) is interwoven with Jesus’ declaration, “I am The Resurrection and the Life” (Jn.11:25)
Volume II includes chapter 13-21a can be referred to as the Book of His Passion/Glory.
These chapters contain various events that are basically hidden from the multitudes but revealed to His disciples.
Jn.13:1 makes it very clear that Jesus is conscious of His DIVINE ORIGIN & MISSION.
Jesus knew that His HOUR had now arrived.
His trial … His scourging … His crucifixion - - - these events are now just hours away.
Furthermore, He knows that “the Father had given all things into His hands” (vs.3).
Jesus knows that His Heavenly Father has entrusted Him to do the work of redemption - - to become a curse for us.
It is at this juncture that Jesus does something utterly amazing.
It should have been expected, but the disciples were caught off guard because of their worldly preconceptions.
Here, Jesus acts out the very incarnation event: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn.1:14a).
And it is here, if we look with eyes of faith, we, like His first disciples, can come to BEHOLD HIS GLORY.
We can safely assume that Jesus is seated in the center with His disciples on each side.
But He rises from his central (chief) seat, takes off His robe and kneels before His disciples to serve them.
What an expression of PROFOUND HUMILITY.
God in the Flesh steps down from His chief seat.
The King bows to his subjects. The Master kneels to become the servant.
Jesus empties Himself (Philp.2:5f): His dignity…His majesty…His power…His glory - -
All is relinquished as His takes off His robe and girds Himself with a towel.
The God of the Universe becomes the God of the towel.
Vss.4-5 / “He rose from supper, laid aside his outer garments and girded Himself with a towel.
Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel…”
As we might expect, if we have read the gospels up to this point, Peter expresses resistance.
“Never shall You wash my feet!” (vs.8a).
Jesus rebukes Peter saying, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” (vs.8b)
Here is A PICTURE OF PARDON & JUSTIFICATION.
This is what Jesus came to do: to wash us and cleanse us from our sins.
This act was a very meaningful metaphor for Christ’ work as our Savior.
There is a very serious parallel that we can draw between Peter’s initial refusal to be washed
and our hesitancy to be baptized. If you find yourself balking at baptism, you need to read these
particular words of Jesus (and read them often): “If I do not wash you, you can have not part with Me.”
After washing their feet, Jesus is again attired in His robe.
This is analogous to His GLORIOUS EXALTATION.
Although Paul was not yet an apostle and not present on this specific occasion,
his words in Philp.2:9f seem to echo from chamber of the upper room:
“Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed upon Him the name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…”
This lesson concludes with a PERSONAL & PRACTICAL APPLICATION.
In the later part of vs.12 Jesus asked them, “Do you know what I have done for you?”
Vss.13-14 / “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.
If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
Vs.15 / “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.”
This “ministry of the towel” was a message that should have been learned repeatedly by the disciples (over 3½ years).
But they were slow learners, just as we are today.
~ The unnamed women in Lk.7:36ff got the message while it completely eluded Simon The Pharisee.
~ Just a couple hours before the Passover, James & John asked Jesus if they could be given the chief seats (Mk.10:35-45).
~ Even more disturbing, is Luke’s record of this upper room gathering - - read from Lk.22:24.
It is easy to chide the disciples for their lack of insight.
What is not so easy is to look in the mirror and see ourselves doing the very thing the did:
seeking recognition … pursuing the chief seats … grabbing for something grandiose.
When will we ever learn that this is not the way of Jesus.
Let us listen to Paul’s words from 2Cor.8:9 and then we will pray.
“You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for
your sake He become poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”
Christ suffered and died so that we who are shackled with the debt of our sin might become rich in the things of God.
