He came to Simon Peter. Peter said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?" Jesus answered, "What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter." Peter said to Him, "Never shall You wash my feet!"
Scripture Focus: John 13:6-10; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
"Peter said to Him, 'Never shall You wash my feet!' Jesus answered him, 'If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me (John 13:6-10).'"
Peter's saying, "Never shall You ever, ever wash my feet." As if Peter is saying, "Not in a million years."
And Jesus says, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."
And Peter immediately responds, "Lord, then wash not only my feet but also my hands and my head!"
I want you to look at the symbol. There's much more at play here than a model of moral humility. Jesus says, "If I don't wash your feet, unless I wash you, you have no part with Me." What's He talking about?
The foot washing we see here is a symbol of the cleansing that is about to take place when He dies on the cross.
He says, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me." That word for "part" is the same word used for fellowship and inheritance. You're not going to be joined to Me unless I wash you.
Let's talk about sin for a moment. Sin is contaminating. It is polluting. It is eroding. It is corrupting. We are born sinners. That's the reason we sin.
Malachi 3:16 says that God has a judicial book in which He records every wrongdoing ever recorded. Every sin is in the book of the grand Judge of the universe. And sin makes us dirty. It's corrupting and polluting.
What do we need? We need to be washed.
In Isaiah 1:18, it says, "Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD. Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool."
Ezekiel 36:25: "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness."
Let me just ask you—do you feel that way this morning? Do you feel dirty with sin? It's just an acid deteriorating your soul and you feel dirty?
Listen to the words of God: "I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all of your filthiness."
Maybe if you had to write your own biography, it would just be "I feel filthy."
God says, "I will cleanse you."
First Corinthians 6:9-11 lists fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, thieves, the covetous, drunkards. And then it says: "Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ."
God's in the business of saving sinners. Can I get a witness?
You are washed. That's what you need—to be washed.
Do you feel the weight of your sin—that you're dirty and need to be washed?
Have you let Jesus wash you, or are you like Peter saying, "Never shall You wash my feet"?
Do you understand that unless Jesus washes you, you have no part with Him?
Stay dialed in