Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: What a shocker. Here's God sitting with these goofy disciples who were arguing which one of them is the greatest. Jesus, he gets up and like a slave starts wiping their feet.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Mether says Jesus lived and taught what it means to be great in God's kingdom.

Brett Meador: Jesus girds himself like a servant. He wasn't insecure in one tiny little bit. He was more interested in doing the will of the Father than he was worried about who he was or wasn't. Boy, if we could get to that place, that'd be great.

Guest (Male): John's gospel reveals Jesus washing his disciples' feet, an act reserved for the lowliest servant. But his remarkable gesture demonstrated and modeled the spirit of love, humility, and sacrificial care for others. On Today's Word, Pastor Brett Mether reinforces a call to believers to embrace humility, serve others selflessly, reflecting Christ's love to all those around us.

Brett Meador: John chapter 13 If we start out verse one, it says, Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, mark that, his hour was come. That's a big deal, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. Man, we could meditate on this verse just all night. It's such an amazing verse. There's a few things there I want you to see. First of all, mark the word end there at the end of the verse.

The word end is the word telos. It kind of is linked to the word telescope. What do you look when you look into outer space and you look through a telescope? You're looking way out as far as you can see. You might say to the uttermost. That's what the word telos is in the Greek. It means the uttermost. Another phrase you may notice that pops out of this verse one is Jesus knew that his hour had come. The hour of Jesus, we've talked about this before, but Jesus has said over and over and over again, Mine hour is not yet come.

But now, here in verse one of chapter 13, mine hour's come. This is it. And this is where we begin the whole upper room scene. So, we're right there at the very door of the cross in the story of Jesus here in John chapter 13 when he says, Mine hour is come. When Jesus is speaking about his hour, you can sort of understand what he means by the context of the the use of mine hour. Jesus' hour where Jesus would be glorified through his death, his resurrection and ascension. You might just say that would be the hour that Jesus is referring to his death, his resurrection and his ascension.

It's this moment in his life that would sort of encompass the work of salvation. It's not just his death, but it's his burial and his resurrection that is the hour that's being talked about here. From a human point of view, you know, his hour is a that of suffering. But when you read Jesus and you realize what he's talking about, it's an hour of glorifying which Jesus is is talking about here. So, we get back to our text here in verse two. And there it says, And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son to betray him.

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God, he riseth from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself. After that, he poureth water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. This is why in verses one through five we call it this section of humility. Jesus, I mean, what a radical thing. In Luke's gospel, we know what the disciples are debating right now. Does anybody remember in Luke's gospel what are the disciples talking about when this happens?

Yeah, which one of them was the greatest? That's embarrassing. We were talking about which one of the greatest. Meanwhile, the greatest among us stripped himself of his clothes, put himself wrapped him a towel, which is only what a slave would have done. Did you know in biblical culture at that day the washing of another's feet was pretty common? But it was always a servant or a slave who would wash everybody else's feet. It was very rare to see a colleague or an equal wash someone else's feet. So, by the way, remember when Mary anointed the feet of Jesus?

That would have been very out of the ordinary, but it was known as as the highest way of respect and honor. By the way, there's two foot washings that take place. The The two most important foot washings in the history of the world happened in chapter 12 and chapter 13. Jesus had his feet washed in in chapter 12 by Mary, and now he's washing the disciples' feet. Some interesting things as we kind of look at this foot washing scene of humility by Jesus. Notice he washed all their feet including Judas Iscariot which brings up a question.

Why would Jesus have washed his feet? Why wouldn't he just skip over him? We already know from the narrative Judas is the one who's going to betray. We know that that's the way the story's going to shake out. And so, why would Jesus wouldn't he just skip over just and Judas be like, Hey, why don't you wash my feet? Well, cuz you're a loser. That's not what Jesus does. Um, it sort of begs some interesting question. Was Judas ever really saved or did Judas lose his salvation? Now, I I bring that up just because I know there's a bunch of people that get all flipped out about that question.

Once they've always saved eternal security, and I get that, and I'm I'm an eternal security fan. I love that. I believe in eternal security. Can someone lose their salvation? Well, that's a nuancy thing if you ask me. I think it's more like can someone leave their salvation? It's a good question and it's worth debate. And I think good scholarly people can and should debate that issue. If you're one who says that nope, once you're saved, you're locked in, nobody can pluck you out of the hand of the Father. I got scriptures by the way that totally affirms eternal security.

But at the same time, there's enough scripture that makes me not sure enough as just a normal dude is not uh you know a theologian. Here's the takeaway if you ask me. Don't mess around with this topic. Like don't play the stupid game of did I lose my salvation or should I? No, just follow Jesus with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and then you can just know, man, guess what? You're saved and you're secure. But play games like say I'm I was saved in sixth grade at summer camp and because I'm eternal secure, I'm just going to go sleep around and sin and become a homosexual and mark gay and march, you know, prideful and and I'm going to do some meth on the side.

I'm just going to do all the sins I can think of cuz I'm saved by grace through faith. I can't assure that person that they're eternally secure. Maybe they never were saved because part of the thing is when a person's saved, you'll start to see fruit. That's where James's word comes in to what he originally meant, I think. So many people make more of what James said when he said, Faith without works is dead. And so people say it's faith and works that saves you. That's not true. It's faith alone. You're saved by grace through faith, not of yourselves, not of works as any man should boast.

Well, then what's James saying? I think James is saying if you see real faith, real faith you're going to see works, not that a person is perfect, but you are going to see some fruit or evidence of that in their life. If they're just doing totally the opposite, you might have reason to wonder, am I really saved? So don't play the game. Uh, we'll leave the scholars and the theologians to debate can a person lose their salvation or or maybe they were never really saved. And there's some things we'll get into. We'll We'll take this a little deeper when we get into the book of Hebrews because there's some great stuff to talk about there.

But my word just from a pastor's heart is say don't mess around with that. Just be as holy and as set aside for God as you can and then be sure of your salvation. And well what if I make an error or sin? Well, don't forget you're still saved by grace through faith. Uh, join the crowd. Even Paul, who was our big gun, he said, I do the things I don't want to do and I don't do the things I do want to do. He says, I, Paul, find no good thing that is to say in my flesh.

But I think Jesus Christ. What does he think Jesus Christ for? His grace. Saved by grace through faith. So, it's an important nuance of the Bible, but I would say don't play the game. Just sin it up, say I'm saved by grace. Uh, Paul said, Should we continue in sin and let grace abound? He said, God forbid. God forbid. So, if there's one person by the way though that does go to hell in the Bible it's Judas. I hate to say that. I've had people come up, Oh, I was hoping Judas somewhere, maybe after he betrayed Jesus, maybe maybe he made it to heaven somehow.

Don't think so. I'll tell you why. Does anybody remember what the Bible called him? Yeah, some of you got it. Son of perdition. What is a son of perdition? If you look it up, it's a state of eternal punishment and damnation into which a sinful and unpenitent person passes after death. That's pretty clear. Of all the people in the Bible, we can be really certain Judas was not one who went to heaven, which is you know Jesus knew that was going to happen. Uh, here's a little reminder of what was said. If you recall, John 6 64 through 71, But there are some of you that believe not.

For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believe not and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. But then you read on and it says, Then said Jesus unto the 12, Will you also go away? Then Simon Peter answered and said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered them, Have I not chosen you 12 and one of you is a devil. All the disciples, Am I the devil? Is it I? You know like, Can you imagine being a part of that group? Which one of us is the devil? Verse 71, He spake of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon for he it was that should betray him being one of the 12. We already saw this way back in John chapter 6. Isn't that something? And so, you know, Peter of um you know Peter says, All 12 of us believe. Peter boldly steps out and says and Jesus says, Yeah, but not all of you.

One of you is not a believer. You know I think what was Judas's problem? Boy, that that's a study right there of its own, but probably the biggest issue if you really boil it down is Judas, I think, believed Jesus maybe was going to be someone else, maybe a political figure or something like that. But he didn't believe Jesus as the Messiah and all of his claims. So, Judas is not in heaven. And by the way, it's not because he committed suicide. Some people sort of extract from Judas committing suicide being called the son of perdition because he committed suicide.

Like suicide, if you commit a suicide, well, you're going to go to hell because of that. I'm not recommending suicide, by the way, for the record. That is sinful and it is wrong and it's not of the Lord and it's not a way out. But it's not the unpardonable sin that is described as there's only one sin in the Bible that is unpardonable. Now, that's interesting because can a person after they commit suicide confess their sin at that point and have it pardoned? Well, they can't technically. But how then is a person who committed suicide then forgiven?

If it's not the unpardonable sin, how does that become forgiven? This is really important to understand. Jesus died once for all. When Jesus died on the cross, even died for that person who committed suicide. And I say that because we don't know whether a person commit suicide goes to heaven or to hell. But it 's not, praise the Lord, the unpardonable sin. Um, I think suicide often is a evidence of mental illness. And part of the reason I say that is because it's not built in with natural human nature. You know we we've been designed to to protect ourselves, to save ourselves, to not feel pain, to not, you know, go through that.

But when mental illness is part of the issue and I think the Lord is going to be gracious. I think we we will see people in heaven that are suicidal. Having if if you're one who's had suicidal thoughts, however don't just leave that alone. You need some encouragement. You need to seek help. Um, I would just say this as lovingly as I know how, you're not thinking correctly. Whatever you're thinking, if you're thinking suicidal thoughts, you have to remind yourself that is not of God um and you need to do battle against those thoughts. And the way you do battle against those thoughts is pray, read the word, find good godly counsel and get some encouragement from someone who can, you know, help you through that challenging time.

But there's an interesting thing about Judas that is told here and I'd like to show you. Did you see another interesting word not to break things down but in verse two um I've marked a word, a single word in verse two. Supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot. Would you mark the word put? I love this word as a former track athlete. When I was young uh and junior high, I was quick as lightning. Uh, but then in high school I started getting bigger if you know what I mean.

Stronger, broke some records and stuff in weightlifting and my high school stuff and did some fun stuff that way. But I also was a shot putter. Now, what why do they call it a shot put? And if you're technically correct, if if somebody well, he really threw the shot put, that's incorrect. He put the shot. You say big deal, Brett. What's that have to do with anything? Well, the word here is used in that context. Um, in fact, the English word put is the word ballo, the word put there. And it means to throw or to let go of a thing without caring where it falls.

That's kind of interesting. Or to put into, to insert something. But literally to throw is one of the words for this old word. And And that's why even an old English word we used to use put, not just like I put that over there, but I actually threw it is kind of the idea. That's where the old English comes from and that 's why they translated it to the word put. But you might say here that it says and being supper ended, the devil having now thrown into the heart thrown. What did he throw? Well, Ephesians I think tells us that.

Ephesians chapter 6 verse 16 declares above all taking the shield of faith. Why do you And I need a shield of faith? Because it says wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. You know same passage talks about how we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, spiritual wickedness in dark places, stuff like that. One of the weapons of Satan is to throw fiery little darts or fiery arrows at you. Uh, the target is your heart. Um, so you and I need the shield of faith. And And how do you take up the shield of faith?

You You do that by the word. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word. Romans 10:17. So, what quenches the fiery dart of Satan, the water of the word which is the shield of faith? Like the whole thing connects perfectly, but watch out. Don't be shocked when Satan starts throwing fiery darts at your heart. I think that's one of his devices that we're not supposed to be ignorant about. Satan wants to get to your heart. He wants to you know get it with a fiery dart. That's what he did with uh Judas and he was successful.

His fiery dart got into his heart and he got it bad enough to where he betrayed Jesus. That's so important. Well back to John 13 then. So Satan threw into Judas's heart to betray Jesus. Now, we see Jesus get up from the table and it seems sort of unnoticed. Like the guys maybe this is where they're all talking about which one of them is the greatest among them. But Jesus gets up and nobody notice and notice some things he does and and stuff that's on his mind. There in verse three it says Jesus knowing This is a huge thing.

Verse three is giant. I hope you can appropriate this for your life. Let's look at Jesus here for a second. He says in verse three, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God then he rose up from supper, stripped himself, girded himself with a towel like a slave and started wiping toe jam from between the disciples' feet. Now, the reason I say it so grossly like that is because what a shocker. Here's God sitting with these goofy disciples who were arguing which one of them is the greatest.

And the greatest of them who's That's even horrible to even say greatest compared to the disciples. But Jesus, he gets up and starts wiping their feet. What was it that was in him? Now Now first of all, you have to ask what would keep you from doing that? Could you imagine I mean it's hard to imagine in our culture because the our culture doesn't have the equivalent of getting up and washing someone feet, but you know um it might have an equivalent like, for example some of our children's workers who are changing poopy diapers. Why would you do that?

Why would you go into a nursery of a church and have people come and drop their snotty-nosed little brats at the counter and say good luck. And then they go off and enjoy an long tedious study by Pastor Brett. To you it's, Oh, I get to sit there and enjoy longer goes as long as you want, Pastor Brett. And then But Junior's back there blowing snot and pooping and they're they're that Who Who are these people that will go back there and do such a thing? Well, they're being very Christ-like. They're doing something. Why would you do that?

And if I could only tell you the caliber of the people that we have back there you know I always laugh because like there's certain people that just and I probably shouldn't say this again, but I it's just I love it cuz I I could We have people that volunteer here that are what I would call overachievers. We have amazing people that I I just I'm so amazed at. But some of the most impressive people that I would say are amazing to me are the busiest just serving. And a lot of you don't even know who they are.

This is very possible. You could drop your kid off to uh one of our you know preschool teachers who happens to be a Navy SEAL and also a medical doctor at the same time. Or we got we got one gal. She's an emergency room ER doctor. They're some of the most amazing people, but they don't go around saying, Yes, I'm a doctor. Drop your children off. Uh, we've We'll take good care of No, they don't do that stuff. And I could go on. People in our parking lot. We've got guys out in our parking lot that some of you could only wish to have jobs that they have cuz they're so talented and like high-level CEO, but they would never say it.

To me, that's where I start to see that's kind of a Christ-like thing. You're not there trying to puff yourself up or say look at me and who I am and what I've achieved, but actually stripping that and putting that all aside. We have thousands of people on our volunteer team, thousands, 2,500 people on our volunteer team. Um, I'm just always impressed at people that are watching kids and volunteering to park cars. Like it's just amazing that. It's a very Christ-like thing. And you know who are the ones in the story that didn't even notice that Jesus did that?

The disciples that were arguing about which one of them is the greatest. And I It makes me a little nervous. As a church goer uh how many times have I been to a church service and didn't give thought to who it is that's washing feet? It's kind of embarrassing when you think about it. But be that as it may, I just love that Christ-like kind of attitude. How do you get to that place? How can you get to that place? Because maybe some of you are in that place, I need to be appreciated. Brett, you don't know who I am.

I used to lead worship at the last church I was at. Well, why aren't you there anymore? They kicked me out. Or I couldn't sing or couldn't play or Yeah, it's funny when I was an elder at my previous church and that's great. That's great. But it's funny when people kind of come with that because that's not really Christ-like uh in a lot of ways. It really isn't. You know it's funny how uh how does Jesus think to get to the place where he does that? I I know that's almost weird to say, but I think verse three, this is the secret for you and me.

And he's given us a huge huge thing here. Please tune into this because I think this is important. Jesus verse three, knowing the Father have given all things into his hands and that he was come from God and he was going to God. You see Jesus knew where he came from, past. He knew where he was going and he knew that he was the inheritor of all things. And guess what? As a Christian who's a follower of Jesus, we get to kind of say the same thing. We know our past. You know Jesus stripped himself down and girds himself like a servant.

Jesus wasn't afraid to do that. Why? Because he knew where he was from. He came from heaven. Jesus, he was there at the beginning of creation. He wasn't insecure in one tiny little bit. He Whatever, I'm going to strip myself of my robes and look like a slave because of guess what? He wasn't insecure. Have you ever seen like a man's man, like a guy with a big old beard and logger big boots and kind of stinks a little bit, holding a pink coffee cup? You got to know that guy is very sure of himself.

No problem carrying a If you can carry a pink coffee cup and you're that You know he's not worried. In some ways, I would say that's kind of what Jesus is saying. I know where I came from. I also know where I 'm going and I also know that all things are in my hands. So, Jesus was going to humble himself, not in any way insecure. He knew that that's what the right move would be to be humble. And I guess the question I would ask you and me, what would be that which would stop us from doing the same thing?

Probably the single word pride. Pride is it. We're prideful, we're arrogant. You don't want to do something gross, dirty, smelly. Who wants to touch anybody's toe jam? That's gross. But Jesus knew who he was. He had no identity crisis. He was more interested in doing the will of the Father than he was worried about who he was or wasn't. Boy, if we could get to that place, that'd be great.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Mether with prophecy of the Savior's first coming fulfilled looks toward the triumphant return of the Lord on Today's Word. And there's much more to come. In fact, Pastor Brett will join me as we talk about our first ever event in less than two weeks. Brett Mether is the senior pastor of Athei Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon. Each day Pastor Brett will bring you a verse-by-verse study of God's word. If you've missed any portion of our time today, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. Okay, Pastor Brett is with me.

Brett, we've been talking for quite some time about an exciting event coming up August second and third. That's pretty soon. And that's your first ever evangelistic crusade in Portland, Oregon at the Moti Center where the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers play basketball. I know something surprising happened that you want to share uh even though this is a free event. One of the things the Moti Center requires is that everyone must have a ticket to get in.

Brett Meador: Yes.

Guest (Male): So, a few months back your team set up a time to release the tickets so people could reserve their seat for this two-day event. Can you tell us what happened?

Brett Meador: Yeah, it was a a bit of a shock. You know we wanted it to be a free event from the very beginning and the Lord miraculously provided the finances for this. You know after the Lord stirred our leadership to do this the next day someone donated money and they didn't know anything about a crusade or anything, but it was it was what we needed to do the whole thing, which is amazing. The Lord provided. So, from the beginning it was going to be free. Uh, the Moti Center doesn't do non-ticketed things uh even a free event.

So, we had to kind of work the details out. But what happened is we sold out the free tickets in 9 minutes, all those tickets. And what we were really encouraged by is how many unsaved people Each of those tickets There's a lot of people that are bringing their neighbors and their loved ones, their family members, their friends, their co-workers that don't know Christ. And so, we realize we're going to pack the Moti Center out three events uh in the in 2 days and uh the Lord has filled it. We had to add a third time because those two sold out in 9 minutes.

So, you know that's 45 to 50,000 people that are going to be going to this crusade that already ticketed.

Guest (Male): Wow, that really is incredible, Brett. And we are looking forward to this exciting weekend. And for more information about this PDX Crusade again at the Moti Center in Portland, Oregon on August second and third, that's the weekend after next. Just go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link PDX Crusade. Again todayswordradio.com and click the link PDX Crusade. Well, that's all the time we have. I hope you can be back as we'll look at what it means to be cleansed by the water of God's word. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Mether is an outreach of Athei Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.