We connect with Christ when we imitate Him. This daily devotional looks at how humbly serving others helps us imitate Jesus.
Nuggets
- We serve others humbly, regardless of the menial task and regardless of their station in life.
- Jesus humbly completed the job to the best of His ability.
- Jesus humbly came for our salvation.
Devotions in the Living Life Connected to Christ series
If you’ve been reading my devotions for a while, you know that I am a Marvel Cinematic Universe fan. I love almost all of them — the Captain America films, the Thor films, the Spider-Man film. I especially love the team-up films like Infinity War and Endgame.
There is a line in the first Avengers movie about needing heroes to step up to fight the battles that we can’t fight. That is what all these films are about — heroes stepping up to save the world.
The films are fun to watch. But they are make believe. We don’t have heroes like this.
There is only one hero that the world needs — Jesus. He is our Savior and Redeemer.
During this part of the quarter in our Sunday Morning Bible Study, we are going to be looking at the time right before Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. He and His disciples met in the Upper Room to observe the Passover.
This is a goldmine of powerful statements that show us how we can live a life that is connected to Christ. We begin our study by looking at how to live a life of service.
A big part of being a hero is serving others. Sometimes, though, the service is done with the wrong attitude.
We must serve God and others with humility. Let’s see what Jesus teaches us here.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Let's Put It into Context #2
Christian humility is our yielding our dependence to Christ to serve Him and others.
Son of God Doing the Servant’s Job
“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God” (Jn. 13: 3 ESV)
We serve others humbly, regardless of the menial task and regardless of their station in life.
Jesus surprised the disciples. Here He was, the Messiah — and He was washing their feet.
Witherspoon wrote, “Just when Jesus was at the zenith of spiritual exaltation (ver. 3), He bowed Himself to His lowly task.” He didn’t let His position — or theirs — stop Him.
Resource
Yep. Here was the superior washing the feet of the inferior. He was doing someone else’s job.
Not just that. See again what verse 3 says. “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God” (Jn. 13: 3 ESV).
Jesus was the ruler of all things. Remember right before Jesus gave the great commission, He stated this. “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’” (Mt. 28: 18 ESV).
But think about what the feet washing symbolized. That was what Jesus’ whole ministry was about. He valued each person He spoke to.
Jesus values us today.
Son of God Doing the Job
“rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” (Jn. 13: 5-5 ESV)
Jesus completed the job to the best of His ability.
Look at the seven distinct actions that Jesus accomplished in these verses.
1. rose from supper … (Jn. 13: 4 ESV)
2. … laid aside his outer garments … (Jn. 13: 4 ESV)
3. … taking a towel … (Jn. 13: 4 ESV)
4. …. tied it around his waist … (Jn. 13: 4 ESV)
5. … poured water into a basin … (Jn. 13: 5 ESV)
6. … wash the disciples’ feet … (Jn. 13: 5 ESV)
7. … wipe them with the towel …” (Jn. 13: 5 ESV)
This wasn’t a hey-this-will-only-take-a-second activity. This one had to be planned out. That is especially true since 6 and 7 were times 12. Every act is meaningful.
We can’t wait until the middle of a situation and decide, “Oh, I am going to be humble.” It usually doesn’t work that way.
We get in the middle of something, and our pride kicks into full gear. Why? Witherspoon reminded us that “pride is essentially selfish …”
Look at it this way. What if Jesus would have said, “I am so humble. I am so humble”?
But His actions didn’t jive with His words?
The words wouldn’t mean anything — neither would His actions. Our words and our actions have to mesh.
In reality, our words should be silent, as Jesus was. He just did what He had planned to do.
We shouldn’t toot our own horns about how humble we are. We turn into being proud that we are humble.
The Cleansing Effect of Humility
Jesus humbly came for our salvation.
Jesus had one mission on this earth. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Lk. 19: 10: ESV).
Because Jesus humbled Himself, left the splendor of Heaven, and came to save sinners from their sins, He accomplished the Plan of Salvation.
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
o Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
Personally, I don’t think we can lose our salvation. Once we are genuinely saved, we are God’s children.
Glossary
That being said, navigating the Sanctification Road shows us the sincerity of our salvation experience. We have to be renewed daily.
Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration, gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
Glossary
In my opinion, if we don’t surrender ourselves to submit to God, we are not saved. If we go along for the first years of our walk with God and follow the laws and commandments, and then try to rewrite them to fit today’s worldview, we are not saved.
We know that if we do not change our character to imitate God’s character, we are not saved. Our moral character is the most important aspect of our relationship with God.
Spurgeon provided us with a list of things these days that can work in this situation.
Making the Connections
Jesus had to go around to every single disciple and wash his feet. He couldn’t lump them all together.
Peter. Andrew. James. John. And on down the line. Jesus went to each one individually.
Jesus comes to each of us individually. We all undertake the same salvation process — but we all approach salvation differently.
Some need to be forgiven for murder. Some need to be forgiven of pride. Some need to be forgiven for lying.
We all need to be forgiven for being separated from God.
How Do We Apply This?
- Minister to those less fortunate than us.
- Don’t follow the worldview.
- Remove the chains that the worldview places on us.
- Keep pride in check.
Resource
Pulsford made an interesting observation. He wrote, “There is no such fact as a general relationship to Christ. We are either His personal followers, or personally estranged. There is no religion but personal religion.”
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Those thinking they will get lost in a megachurch so nothing hurts, nothing is expected of them, are that — lost.
Back row Baptists are the same. We can’t just slip in, mumble through a few hymns, maybe say an Amen or two, and think we’ve fulfilled our obligations.
We are called to a personal relationship with Jesus. In order to do that we have to ABCD.
Then Pulsford took that a step further. He wrote, “The lost are found one by one. All organization that amounts to anything is association in some form for hand-to-hand work.”
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If Jesus comes to us individually for salvation, witnessing is the same — an individualized experience for each of us.
Disciples need to imitate Jesus and be humble.
Father God. Thank you for giving us Jesus as an example. May our lives and character imitate Him, because He imitated You. Thank You most of all that You sent Him to be our Savior and Redeemer. Thank You for saving us from our sins. Amen.
What do you think?
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Great job! I enjoyed reading your lesson and thoughts as I prepare to teach our Sunday school class at church on this subject
Thank you so much. I taught the lesson on this today. Hope yours went well. Elaine