[0:00] Good morning. It's good to see you. I know we've got a team. A whole bunch of people are away today. Chris and Fiona have taken a team to Taiwan, Franklin and Teresa in Taiwan. So people are everywhere, but it's good to see you. And what a grand weekend, right? This is definitely the best weather I've experienced in Hong Kong in the three months we've been here. A beautiful day.
[0:24] So it's good to see you with us this morning. Now, if you're new, we as a church are going through this mini-series called Who is This King? And we're going through the Gospels and we're looking at the life and the impact and the claims that Jesus Christ made. And last week we looked at the chapter before, John chapter 12, and we looked at how Jesus said this most unusual thing. He spoke about his imminent death as the moment of his glory. And we looked at how Jesus said he's come to inaugurate a kingdom, but he hasn't done it through a coronation service or by wearing a gold crown.
[1:08] He's come to do it by bearing a cross. Now this morning we look at another passage of scripture in which Jesus says some very unusual things. And today we're going to see how Jesus serves his people by saving them. And how his death on the cross washes them, washes us, not just for all eternity, but even for today, for right now, for this week as we go into our city. Now this passage that Freya and Jonathan read to us is a favorite passage for followers of Jesus throughout the centuries.
[1:39] A passage that talks about humility and Christ-like service. And that's true. But as we look at this passage, we're going to learn a couple of other things about Jesus. We're going to learn about Jesus the King. And there's four things in particular I think Christ wants us to see.
[1:53] We're going to learn about Christ the serving King, or the servant King, Christ the saving King, Christ the cleansing King, and then fourthly, Christ the commissioning King. Okay? So let's dive in and Christ the servant King, Jesus the servant King. Now in verse 1, Jesus talks about how he knows that his hour has come, and he loves his disciples. And then in verse 2, if you look at the first three words of verse 2, and the first three words of verse 4, it says this, during supper, Jesus got up from supper. Okay? So Jesus is having this meal with his friends, his disciples, and he gets up. But John wants to tell us far more than just Jesus got up. He wants to tell us something of there's a showdown of power that's going on here, right? So let's read verse 2 to 4 completely. It says this, during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Jesus,
[2:57] Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God, rose up from supper. Okay? So John is telling us here, verse 2, that Satan has come and seduced Judas Iscariot. Judas has willingly gone along with that. He wants to pursue his own glory. And then in verse 3, he tells us that Jesus has come from God the Father. He's going back to God the Father. And the reason is because Jesus is nothing less than God himself.
[3:28] Christ left the throne room of heaven and has come to earth, but he's nothing less than God himself. And so with this imminent showdown of power, what's going to happen? On the one hand, you've got Satan seducing Judas. You've got Jesus Christ, raw power and status and authority, the God of all creation, in this showdown of power. And what's going to happen? Well, ordinarily, I'll tell you what I would do if I was Jesus. I would smite my enemies. I would destroy those that are opposing me, and I would establish my rule and authority. Right? Am I the only one that would do that? Or is there one or two others?
[4:11] Perhaps I see that smile on your face, and I know what you're thinking, right? If I were the sovereign God of the universe, and here is someone that I know is busy calculating how to betray me into my enemies, I would take them out. But what does Jesus do? What does Jesus do? Well, he gets up from the table, he undresses, he lays aside his respectable gear. He then does what no respectable man would do.
[4:39] He gets on his knees, and he washes the feet of his disciples. Now, washing someone's feet is something that's not very common in our culture, I'm assuming. It's not very common in South African culture, and I don't think it's very common in Hong Kong culture. But it was something that was very popular and common in Jesus' day. And if you were a respectable member of society, it was something that you would have experienced fairly often. It was something that was fairly common. And the reason is obvious, right? You're walking these long days on dusty roads, hot Middle Eastern climate.
[5:16] Your feet are getting sweaty and dusty. And at the end of the day, as you go to somebody's house, someone would be waiting there to wash your feet so that your feet feel clean as you enjoy a meal with your guests or with your hosts. Now, let me just interject here and say we as a family have been living in Hong Kong for three months now. Tomorrow will be three months since we left. And for me personally, it's been probably three of the most exciting, exhilarating, fun-filled months of my life. I'm absolutely having the time of my life. And there have been a couple of tough days.
[5:55] There have been a couple of moments where I thought, God, I don't know if I can do this. But as a whole, I'm having the time of my life. And I think our family, we really feel at home here. We're really enjoying Hong Kong. It's been amazing.
[6:07] But there's one thing about Hong Kong which I'm struggling to get used to. There's one thing that makes me a little bit squirmish. Do you know what it is? It's not the food. Okay, the food is amazing. It's not the people. People are amazing, right?
[6:23] It's not the long hours. That I can do with. It's not even the chicken feast that Carlo and Justin allowed me to order this week without warning me. Okay, even that I can put up with.
[6:33] Do you know what it is? It's when I walk down the pavement, down the sidewalk, and I get that smell. That smell that dogs have been there just before me, right? Do you know what I'm talking about?
[6:46] The smell of dog urine and dog fowl. Has anyone else experienced that? And sometimes you walk down the pavement and a few minutes later you're thinking, what is that smell? And you look under your shoe and you know exactly what that smell is, right?
[7:00] You're looking at me like you've never experienced that. Okay, well I experienced that quite early on and I'll stay here. Now, think about this, right? What's happening in Jerusalem in John chapter 13?
[7:12] Verse 1 told us, the time for Passover had come. What's happening at Passover? Hundreds of thousands of animals are being brought to Jerusalem to be sacrificed for the Passover meal, which is going to happen this very night. So Jesus is having his Passover meal.
[7:29] Jerusalem is just filled everywhere with animals, mainly sheep, lambs, some cattle, some goats. Jerusalem is filled with animals, which means Jerusalem is filled with animal fowl, right?
[7:42] And there aren't cute little signs saying, please clean up after your dogs or, you know, everyone walking around with a water bottle. Jerusalem is filled and these people are wearing open sandals.
[7:55] And so think about it, hot Middle Eastern climate, dusty roads, animal fowl all over the place, open sandals. How clean do you think your feet are at the end of the day?
[8:08] Not very clean, right? Don't smell so good. And so customarily, someone, when they come to your house, what do you do? Your servant, as an act of service and love, gets a bowl of warm water, a towel wrapped around them, and they wash your feet.
[8:24] They wash the dust and the sweat and the grime and the muck off of your feet. However, this is a job that no Jewish servant would do.
[8:34] No matter how lowly the servant, no matter how esteemed the master, this is a job that no Jewish servant was required to do. Only foreigners would do this. Only Gentiles would wash the feet of their masters.
[8:49] Remember John the Baptist comes to Jesus, or before Jesus comes, and he says, after me is coming someone who is so worthy, I wouldn't even be worthy enough to untie his sandals.
[9:00] What's happening there? In Jewish culture, you could ask your Jewish servant to do almost anything, but there are two things they couldn't do. You couldn't ask them to untie your sandals or to wash your feet.
[9:11] But here John the Baptist says, when the Messiah comes, when the King comes, He is so worthy that if He asked me to wash His feet, to untie His sandals, I would gladly do it.
[9:22] But in fact, so unworthy am I of Christ the Messiah, that I wouldn't even consider myself worthy enough to untie His sandals, to wash His feet. So amazingly majestic is this King, I wouldn't even dare wash His feet.
[9:37] And friends, this sovereign, amazing, majestic, Messiah King gets on His knees, and He washes the feet, the muck, and the grime, and the foul, and the sweat, and the dust, off of the feet of His disciples.
[9:59] Who is this King? Who is this King that would do such a thing? You know, one of the astounding things about this passage is how many people are present with Jesus at this meal?
[10:11] It's Jesus and His 12 disciples, right? Now are there 12 of them, or are there 11 of them? Verse 30, a little bit later on, tells us that Judas Iscariot is still there.
[10:24] And later on, Judas gets up to go and consult with the leaders how to betray Jesus. But right at this moment, Jesus Christ, the supremely sovereign God, the one who holds all power, the one who the New Testament tells us will one day destroy His enemies with a mere breath of His nostrils, Jesus Christ, the most supreme act of selflessness, gets on His knees and washes the feet of the very man who right now is calculating how to betray Jesus for a few silver coins.
[10:57] You know, in the Psalms, there's a Psalm 68, it says this, Lord, teach me your ways that I may walk in your truth. Oh, friends, how desperately we need Christ to teach us His ways. How desperately we need Christ to teach us how to swim upstream, to be the men and women that are countercultural, that follow the way of Jesus in a world which is so fixated on glory and power and me and my rank.
[11:23] Oh, God, teach us your ways. Teach us your ways. Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, the servant king. Secondly, Jesus, the saving king. Now, this idea that Jesus is this servant king is not very new, right?
[11:38] I think if we were to really understand it, it would blow our minds. But the fact that Jesus is this selfless, humble, servant-hearted king is something that's not very new.
[11:49] It's one of the reasons why Jesus is somewhat respected in culture, especially in Western culture. People think of Jesus as a good moral man. But there's a problem with separating Jesus' actions from His claims, separating who Jesus was from what He claimed to do on the cross.
[12:08] Because look at what happens in verse 5 and verse 6. Verse 5, Jesus gets this bowl of water and He starts to wash His disciples' feet. And then in verse 6, Peter says to Him, Lord, You shouldn't wash my feet, right?
[12:24] Peter's like John the Baptist. He's seen something of the majesty of Jesus and He says, It's not right that You wash my feet. And Jesus says to him, Peter, you might not understand what's going on now, but afterwards, you'll understand.
[12:38] Now, after what? After the meal? After He's washed their feet? No, after I've been crucified. So Jesus is specifically linking what He's doing now, the washing of feet with what He's about to do in 24 hours time, which is be nailed to the cross, right?
[12:56] But Peter still doesn't get it. And so He says, Jesus, You will never wash my feet. And what does Jesus say? He says, Peter, if I do not wash you, you have no share in me.
[13:09] You have no part of me. Friends, the reason why we can't just admire Jesus as a good moral man or as a good moral teacher is because Jesus tells us He never came to be a good moral teacher.
[13:20] If you think of Jesus as just a respectable man that we can look up to and learn some good things from, you don't understand who Jesus is and what He came to do. You see, what Jesus says to Peter is actually what He says to each of us.
[13:33] He says, I didn't just come to wash your feet. I didn't just come to demonstrate humility or servant-hearted leadership. What I came to do is nothing less than to wash you of your sin and your self-glory and the self-awareness which has marred your life.
[13:49] I've come to wash you of the sin that clings to you even though you try everything to eradicate it from your life. The stain which marks every thought, every motive, every ambition, every word, every deed that you do.
[14:04] You see, in this story, if you're anything like me, it's so easy to look at Judas Iscariot and think, there's someone that needs Jesus, right? There's someone who's self-centered, self-righteous, living for his own glory.
[14:20] If there's one person that really needs to understand who Jesus is, there it is. Cole Truman writes this. He says, we must be careful, friends, at pointing the finger at them.
[14:33] In fact, if we're honest, most, if not all of us, feel the attraction of self-glory. And that's not surprising given that self-glory is the default position for fallen human nature.
[14:46] See, friends, in a sense, there's a little bit of Judas inside all of us, isn't there? And Jesus Christ is trying to teach his disciples what he's trying to teach us. He says, I haven't just come to give you a leadership lesson.
[14:58] I haven't just come to tell you to be servant-hearted and to be humble. I've come to show you that the way I've come to serve you is to wash not just your feet, but to wash your hearts. I've come to wash the inner motivation of your lives.
[15:11] We sang it earlier. Jesus has paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Remember, Paul, the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians, and he says this in chapter 6.
[15:27] He says, Don't you realize, friends, brothers and sisters, that our sin is an affront to God. Our unrighteousness is offensive to the holiness of God. Don't you realize that idolaters and adulterers and the sexually promiscuous and thieves and the greedy and drunkards, such people have no place in the kingdom of God.
[15:47] He says, if that's the trajectory of your life, you haven't met God yet. And then he says this. He says, But such were some of you. Such was I. But Christ has washed us.
[15:59] Christ has sanctified us. That means cleanse us. Christ has justified us. He's given us his righteousness in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God. Peter says this.
[16:10] Peter, Jesus says, Peter, unless I wash you, you have no part of me. Friends, this is why Jesus is washing his disciples' feet. He's showing that he came to wash them of their sin and their unrighteousness.
[16:22] He came to atone for the sins of those who would believe in him. This is why Jesus came to die for the sins of the world. As the prophet Micah says in Micah chapter 7, he came to wash our sins into the depths of the ocean.
[16:37] Friends, what Jesus says to Peter, he says to each of us, unless I wash you, you have no part of me. And I think we need to be careful about moving on too quickly.
[16:49] We ought to examine ourselves because as we said earlier, here in the midst of this table, as they stand around and Jesus washes their feet is none other than Judas.
[17:02] And as we said earlier, there's a little bit of Judas inside all of us, right? But here is Judas. Judas, isn't it astonishing that Judas, who had walked with Jesus for three years, listened to all of his teachings, seen the miracles, Judas, Judas, who had handed out fish and bread to the 5,000 and then collected up the scraps afterwards.
[17:23] Judas, who had given money to the poor and helped serve those that were struggling. Judas, who had walked in the feet of Jesus and yet Judas would not come to Jesus to be washed by him and so still carried his own sin.
[17:38] Friends, Jesus makes it abundantly clear. He didn't come to be merely a role model. He didn't come to initiate a religious right or an institution. He didn't come not just to say, hey, follow me as a humble, servant-hearted leader.
[17:51] He came as the perfect Lamb of God, as the ultimate Passover Lamb to wash away the sins of the world. Jesus, our serving, sanctifying, saving King.
[18:03] Third thing is this, Jesus, the cleansing King. Now, this is very important. Look at what happens in verse 10 here. If you've got your Bible, look here. Jesus says to him, to Peter, in verse 8, he says, if I do not wash you, you have no share in me.
[18:19] And Peter then, in his very, you know, exuberant self, Peter's always the guy that says these crazy things, right? Peter says, okay, Lord, then have all of me.
[18:29] Wash my hands, my head, my feet, take it all, right? Which is a good response. That's how we should respond to Jesus. But then Jesus says something very interesting. Look at what he says in verse 10.
[18:41] He says, Peter, the one who is bathed, does not need to wash again, except for his feet. But he's already completely clean. Now, I want us to think about this because Jesus is saying something very important.
[18:56] Scripture tells us that sin is not so much about our behavior, you know, lying, cheating, stealing, et cetera, et cetera. Those things are sinful, but actually the Bible tells us the root of all those is far deeper.
[19:11] It's actually our heart, right? It's the motivation of our hearts. It's the fact that we live for our own glory. It's the fact that we don't love our maker like we should. We don't trust our maker like we should.
[19:22] And the motivation of our hearts is actually the essence of sin. And that plays itself out in a whole lot of behavior. But what that means is that actually, we probably, each one of us, sin many times a day.
[19:36] And maybe not an outward behavior, but the motivation of our hearts, many times a day, we are self-seeking, self-glorifying, self-justifying. Now the question is this, if we all happen to sin many times a day, what do we do with that sin?
[19:53] Do we need to be baptized freshly every time? Do we need to freshly come to God and be born again? Do we need to be justified by Jesus every time we sin?
[20:03] Otherwise, you know, our eternal safety security is in danger? Well, you know, Martin Luther, one of the great reformers, before he discovered the gospel, he thought this was the case.
[20:14] He was a monk in Germany at a monastery. And he had a very acute sense of conscience. And so every time he used to do something wrong, he thought, I'm in danger of hell.
[20:26] And he used to drive the priests mad because he would go to the confession booth and he would stay there for hours. And they would be looking at their watches thinking, dinner time's coming. How long is this guy going to hold us here?
[20:38] And he would say, you know, Father, I think I probably didn't have the right attitude towards that person. And he would just spend there for hours confessing every tiny little thing. And then he would leave the confession booth.
[20:51] He'd be walking back to his room. He'd think of something. He'd run back and say, Father, Father, I've forgotten something. And there's one more thing. And the monks used to try and hide from him. They saw Martin Luther coming.
[21:02] They would hide out the way and say, you know, don't let him see us. Otherwise, he's going to ask to go to the confession booth again. And there are even stories of sometimes he would wake up in the middle of the night and you'd think of something.
[21:14] And they go, no, what happens if I die between now and the morning? And you go and wake up the priest, Father, Father, I've got to confess my sin now. And you'd wake them up in the middle of the night. Well, friends, is that what we need to do?
[21:27] Every time we sin, we need to quickly make men's in case our hearts, our souls are in danger. Well, look at what Jesus says here. He says, unless I wash you of your sin and your self-glory, you have no part of me.
[21:40] Peter says, okay, then wash all of me. Quickly, take it all. And Jesus says, don't worry, Peter, you are really clean. The one who's been cleansed, who's had a bath, doesn't need to wash himself again and again and again.
[21:55] You are really clean. Friends, when you come to Christ in faith and repentance, when you come and you bank your life on him, you say, Jesus, have all of me. Jesus doesn't just wash away your sins that you are now morally neutral until the next time you sin.
[22:12] It's not like you've got a chalkboard and then he wipes it clean and the next time you sin, he writes up the next sin again. You know, the reformers spoke about this great exchange.
[22:22] You give your sin to Christ and Christ puts his righteousness, his perfect track record of obedience onto you and so when God sees you, he sees you nothing less as holy and righteous and perfect in his sight.
[22:36] It's this dual exchange that takes place. We give our sin to Christ, Christ gives us his righteousness. Jesus makes a covenant, an eternal commitment based on his own character that we are forever his beloved, his sons and daughters.
[22:51] So think about it like this. Claire and I got married 10 years ago or so and when we got married we made a covenant, an eternal commitment that as long as we both live, I'm hers, I'm hers, she is mine, right?
[23:05] And when we have a disagreement or when I'm being a lousy husband or I say something silly, is my marriage in jeopardy? No, of course not.
[23:16] We're together, our union is intact, right? Signed, sealed, on the dotted line for better or for worse, she's stuck with me, okay? No options. We end this thing together.
[23:27] But when I'm being an idiot and when I say silly things and when I'm self-centered and when I think about myself, our marriage is in jeopardy but is the relationship as good as it could be?
[23:39] No, of course not. What happens when I'm being self-centered? It robs some of the sweetness out of the relationship. It erodes some of the joy, right? It corrodes some of the grace.
[23:51] It takes away some of the gentleness. It means we get defensive to each other quickly until such time as you utter those fateful words. You know what they are?
[24:02] I'm sorry. Oscar, you've had to do that once or twice, right? I'm sorry. Will you forgive me? Right? Now friends, Jesus is saying exactly the same thing.
[24:14] He's saying when you come to Him, you are clean. He's washed you. Your marriage to Christ isn't in jeopardy. He's not going to kick you out of the kingdom. You've been born again. You don't need to be born again, again and again and again every day.
[24:27] He saved you. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Right? Remember the Apostle Paul?
[24:38] He says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come. Every time we sin, we don't need to be born again. But Jesus says, you do live in a real world and there is still a sinful nature inside of you.
[24:54] And the world in which we live is still broken. And the self-glory of the world and the brokenness of the city in which we live, it starts to rub off on us. And it starts to, as we walk the streets of our city, it starts to rub off on our feet.
[25:09] And we pick up some of the grime of our city and some of the foul and the muck starts to attach itself to us. And it corrodes the grace between us and God. It affects the sweetness of our relationship with Jesus.
[25:21] It starts to erode the joy. Does it affect our union? Is God going to kick us out of his kingdom? No, of course not. But it does affect our communion with him.
[25:32] Until we come to Jesus and we say those faithful words, Father, I'm so sorry. Won't you forgive me? Friends, my guess is that some of us here today feel the effects of the sin in our lives.
[25:48] And most of us are probably aware of the brokenness of our world. And we may have been washed by Jesus. We may have been saved. We may have been born again. Christ maybe has given you his righteousness.
[25:59] But I guess that for many of us now, we know that we're saved, but we probably don't feel that clean. We probably still feel the guilt of our sin. I guess there's some of us here that still feel the shame of having lived in a broken world and our sinful nature is still inside of us.
[26:15] Jesus says there's a day coming you'll be in heaven where every sin will be wiped away. Every tear will be wiped off your face. There'll be no more sin, no more wickedness, nothing wrong. But until that day, you live in a broken world.
[26:28] Friends, Christ our King comes to us and he says, if you've come to me in faith and repentance, if you've banked your life in me, you're clean. I've washed you.
[26:38] You are forgiven. But then he says, come to me afresh today. Let me come and wash the muck and the grime and the sin and the dust and the sweat from off your feet.
[26:49] Come and let me wash you. Let me apply the blood of Jesus to your life today. Friends, if you're a follower of Jesus, I hope you have a sharp conscience. I hope that you feel acutely sin and the pangs of sin whenever we do sin.
[27:03] But friends, don't let that stop you coming to Jesus. Come to Jesus freshly today. Come and let him wash you. Come and let him set you free. Come and let the blood of Christ cleanse your conscience from a guilty conscience and let him restore the sweetness and the joy of your relationship.
[27:20] Psalm 32 is the great psalm of confession and in it, David writes and he says this. He says, when I kept silent about my sin, my bones wasted away even though I groaned all day long.
[27:35] He says, my strength dried up as the heat of summer and I was no longer, he says, until such time as I acknowledged my sin to you.
[27:45] I no longer covered my iniquity. You've become a hiding place for me. You preserve my soul from trouble. Friends, Jesus Christ calls us to live a lifestyle of confession and repentance.
[27:56] to live a life where day in and day out we come before his throne of grace and say, Father, forgive me. Father, come and wash me. Jesus, I acknowledge my shortcomings.
[28:07] Truly, we come and admit our sin. And friends, this is something that the modern church doesn't do very well. We don't like to admit our sin but Jesus says, come to the throne room of grace and there you will find healing that you so desperately need.
[28:20] Friends, may we come to Jesus day in and day out. Come confess our sin and find the healing that we need. Fourth thing, finally, Jesus, the commissioning king.
[28:31] Now this is short. Now look at what happens in verse 12 of John chapter 13. Let me just go there. Verse 12, Jesus says this. It says, when he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments, he resumed his place and he said to them, do you not understand or do you understand what I've done to you?
[28:50] You call me teacher and Lord and you are right for so I am. If then I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
[29:02] For I've given you an example that you should do just as I've done to you. So Jesus now commissions his disciples. He says, go and do what I've done. Now is Jesus saying, you disciples need to go and die on the cross for one another?
[29:17] Do you need to save one another? No, of course not. There's only one saving king, right? There's only one perfect sinless man. There's only one God man. His name is Jesus. Jesus did for us what we could not do for ourselves.
[29:30] But Christ does call us as his followers to go and wash each other's feet, to serve each other by washing one another with the gospel. In Hebrews chapter 3, there is one of the most important verses in the Bible for anyone that is part of a local church.
[29:46] Okay? It says this. It says, take care, brothers and sisters, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, a hard heart, which leads you to fall away from the living God.
[29:59] So he says, in a church family like ours, Watermark, hey, some of us, the brokenness of the world, the sin of our lives, it causes our hearts to get hard before God. And that causes us, if we're not careful, to fall away from God, to get hard towards Him and to slowly drift away.
[30:15] So he says, be careful of that. Then he says this, and I'll put it up there. Therefore, encourage one another every day, as long as the day is called today, right, which is every day, as long as it's called today, encourage one another so that none of you become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
[30:33] Watermark, I want to issue this challenge to you. If this is your church, if you consider Watermark your home, I want to issue you this challenge. Can you make it your goal that every single day as long as the day is called today to find one person in the church that you can send a text message to, give them a phone call, write them an email, write them a note, somehow find somebody that you can wash their feet with the gospel of God's grace.
[31:02] Find one person that you can wash them with the word of God's grace and encourage them and help them to fix their eyes on Jesus and to lay aside every sin so that they can run with endurance the race that is set before them.
[31:14] Friends, Jesus looks at each one of us in the eye and he says, I've washed you white as snow but not only that, I've come to wash you today. I've come to remind you of my grace and my gospel. I've come to remind you of the good news of Jesus to wash your feet today.
[31:28] He says, what you've seen I've done for you now do for one another. If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, so you also ought to wash one another. Watermark, I want to call us this.
[31:40] Can we love, whoa, sorry. Can you love, really love, can we love Christ our servant king? Can we worship and honor Christ our saving king?
[31:52] Can we revel in the wonder of Jesus our cleansing king? and can we obey Christ our commissioning king? Let's do that together. Let's pray together.
[32:06] Heavenly Father, Lord, when we look at this passage, we revel and we marvel at the wonder of who you are. God, thank you that you didn't remain in heaven.
[32:20] Thank you that you didn't leave us to our own devices. thank you, Jesus, for not just sending us the prophets or your scriptures, but you, God himself, came to earth to wash us, God, not just of the dirt of our world, but the dirt of our hearts, God.
[32:38] You came to wash us clean. Jesus, we celebrate you. We revel in you. We are in awe of you. We worship you. We thank you. Jesus, thank you that you set us free.
[32:51] And Jesus, thank you that you still wash us. Every Sunday as we come to church and we sing the gospel and we demonstrate the gospel in communion, you wash us afresh. Thank you, Jesus, that every morning when we come to your word and devotions, you wash us with the gospel.
[33:07] Thank you, Jesus, that as we gather in CGs together, you wash us with the gospel. God, we're so grateful for you.
[33:18] Thank you, God, for not only being the most magnificent role model and example of a humble servant king, you also are saving king. You are cleansing king.
[33:30] Jesus, as a church, we want to obey you. We want to follow you and we want to wash one another with the gospel. Help us, I pray. God, I pray for Watermark Church. Won't you make us a family and a community that washes one another with the word of grace, with the good news of the gospel.
[33:48] people. We ask you this in your name. Amen.