In the sermon 'Blessed are You If You Do Them' by Scott Brown, the focus is on Jesus' act of washing his disciples' feet as depicted in John 13. This act serves as a profound lesson in humility, contrasting the pride and self-centeredness often present in human behavior. Jesus exemplifies that true greatness comes from serving others, and he challenges his disciples, and by extension all believers, to follow his example. The sermon highlights the concept of 'basin theology,' illustrating that one can either use their life and resources for self-gain, like Pilate, or for service and love, like Jesus. It underscores the idea that humility leads to happiness within the church, and that Jesus' love for his disciples is eternal and unwavering. The sermon calls for believers to engage in acts of service, free from pride and self-interest, to create a joyful, humble community where love is the guiding principle. It concludes with a call to action for the congregation to embody this example in their daily lives, emphasizing that knowing these principles is not enough—blessedness comes from doing them.

Hear the Lord shepherd his sheep John 13 verse 1 Now before the feast of the Passover when Jesus knew that his hour had come that he should depart from this world to the father having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And after supper being ended, the devil, having already put it 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 had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel and girded himself. After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. Then he came to Simon Peter, And Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet?

And Jesus answered and said to him, What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this. And Peter said to him, You shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not only, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean, and you are clean, But not all of you.

For he knew who would betray him. Therefore he said, You are not all clean. So when he had washed their feet, taken his garments and sat down again, he said to them, Do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you say, Well, for so I am. If I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. O Father, we pray that you would take these words, teach us, lead us, take us into the joys and the beauties of all of them. Amen.

Please be seated. Here we have a picture of the Lord Jesus shepherding His disciples. It's a great picture for anybody who thinks about how to shepherd. Some of you fathers are shepherds. You are all, if you're a father you're a shepherd.

If you're a mother, you're a shepherdess. And we have many roles to play in this world, but here we see Jesus shepherding his sheep. It's a very beautiful picture. The phrase that just keeps jumping out at me, it's the title of the sermon, You can see it. Blessed are you if you do them.

Blessed are you. Happy are you. And I pray this passage is a great encouragement to us, as well as kind of a recalibration for all of us in terms of what we are called to do for one another, to be for one another. You know, we really, we're called to be foot washers like Jesus, you know, not accusatory spear-chuckers like Saul and the devil is to his people. Now this passage of Scripture, Jesus is showing his disciples how to serve one another.

Now I'll just have to tell you, I love our church. I love the way people serve one another in this church. I love the way we play together. I love the way we practice hospitality together. I love the way we bear our burdens together in this church.

I love it when people can't help it. They've got to go to the whole folks' home and sing and pray and preach the gospel. I love it when families gather together and they go to the abortion clinic and they say, honey, please come and find life. That's what that's what is happening and I love it to see our people evangelize together and they go to homes with one another. We text one another, we call one another, we weep with one another, we laugh together, we eat together, we meet on Wednesday night and we pray.

You know what happens on Wednesday nights? It's amazing. When people start praying, you get the idea, hey, these people know each other. They know who's hurting. They know the opportunities.

They know the joys that are taking place in the church. It's a beautiful thing. And It's a picture of what Jesus is talking about here, where people care for one another. So I love this passage, I know you do too. It's one of the most famous, the foot washing passage.

And in this context, Jesus has closed his ministry with the crowds, he's totally focused on his disciples, He's shepherding his little flock. Notice how gently he does it. Well there are reasons why he shouldn't have been, he couldn't have been gentle. Maybe most of us wouldn't have been gentle. But he takes a towel to teach them.

You know, you think about that as a father and a mother, how you're shepherding your flock and how you lead them to love one another. You know, Our tendency is to sort of beat one another on the head, you know, to help us love one another. And Jesus does something totally different. He serves as an example of it. So now, John has just gone through five chapters of information that's not recorded in any of the other Gospels.

Totally different. Now he comes to a scene that all the gospel writers record And it's Thursday evening. The Garden of Gethsemane is going to be experienced next. And on Friday, Jesus will be crucified. And He'll be laid in a grave.

So that's the scene right here. And he's eating a meal with his disciples and he's celebrating the Passover. And it's such a remarkable scene. Jesus recognizes that the disciples have been arguing about who's the greatest and what he does is he takes a basin and he teaches them. You know, Solomon said, by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life.

Jesus really shows us that. Now this illustration that's here, this is an illustration, I want us to think very clearly about it. Jesus is giving a living illustration of doing one thing that shows us how to do a thousand other things. You know, he's not really, you know, the application is not go home and wash your wife's feet. Well, at least not maybe your physical feet, although maybe she might need it.

But the illustration is go do a thousand things like this. Now, Jesus is also, He's very gently exposing the self-centeredness of His disciples. Self-centeredness is just one of those manifestations of pride. Pride talks. Pride is always talking to you.

Pride is a little voice inside your head. And what does pride sound like inside your head? Your self-talk. It sounds like this. What about me?

That's the devil's voice of pride. Talk it in your head. The voice of pride talks all the time to us in our self-talk, what about me? What about me? Nobody's gonna pay attention to me.

And Jesus is showing his disciples really what kind of people he wants representing him. Verse 20 is the reason I say this. Please look at verse 20. Most assuredly I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. Jesus is giving this illustration to show his disciples how he wants to receive other believers in the world.

How do you treat your fellow believers? He says, I'm sending you out in the world And you're going to bump into God's people. How are you going to receive them? That's the whole idea here. So Jesus is saying he's sending them, that he desires that his disciples be received in a certain way.

It's this way right here, about how they treat one another. So, I mean, it's a pretty common scene. A person becomes a Christian, they love the Lord Jesus, they start coming into a church, and what does that person experience there and what kind of experience does that person give to others? So, now, one more thing. It's kind of, I'm trying to give an interpretive grid of what's happening here.

Jesus is showing them also the secret of happiness in the church. Absolutely. Look at verse 17. This verse is about the happiness of a church. Verse 17, if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Blessed means happy. You want a happy church? Do this. You want an unhappy church? Don't be like this.

It's pretty simple. Jesus wants humble disciples, a humble church. A humble church is always a happy church. A humble person is always a happy person. A proud person is always an unhappy person.

You unhappy, Guess what? You can point to some manifestation of pride and what about me in your thinking. It's always that way. We like to talk about, you know, we think, oh, My feelings are so hurt. No, you are so proud, you're just thinking about yourself.

I have many personal experiences like that in my life. Thankfully I have some people around me who say, what you talking about? That's nothing but pride, Scott. We won't name any names about who does things like that to me, but I'm trying to do it to all of us today. Jesus is doing it to all of us today.

So, let's look at the text. You can see the outline in front of you. I've got it divided into three sections. So the first section is really this scene of there's love and there's hate in this room. You know, they're gathered together, but there's a lot going on in the room.

And Jesus is making it clear that He is the sacrificial lamb. It is before the feast of Passover when Jesus knew that His hour had come, that He should be depart from this world to the Father. Now, Jesus is the sacrificial lamb of the Passover. He's fulfilling the Passover. Jesus Christ laid down His life to suffer for sin so that the guilt of sinners would be laid on Him.

So that your guilt from all the things that you've done, the punishment that you deserve would be laid on Jesus. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you will be saved and all of the guilt and shame you deserve will be laid upon him." That's the gospel. Believe in the gospel. You'll be set free, completely set free from all of your sins forever. Everything you've ever done, everything you did this morning, everything you'll do tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, Jesus Christ has laid down His life.

You're free if you believe in Jesus. He is the Passover lamb. He is the blood sacrifice. Now notice the relational environment that's taking place here. There's much to say about it, But in the midst of the conflict that's in the room, these words jump out, He loved them to the end.

He loved them to the end. I love that part. Maybe we'll just have the whole rest of the sermon on that. He loved them to the end. Oh, I'm so tempted to do it.

I could do it. I really could do it, but we won't do that I'll be really short and clear about it Having loved his own who were in the world. He's looking back. He's looking back to the present. Okay past Present he loved them in the present and then he looks forward.

He loved them to the end. How about that? He's the first and the last. He's the Alpha and the Omega, And he is who was and is and is to come and he loves you all the way through. How about that?

He loved them to the end. Chosen before the foundation of the world. You know, we've been saying this a few times around here. You know, you might wonder if God, you know, if Jesus could stop loving you. No, he can't, because he never started.

He loved you from before the foundation of the world. He never started, so he's not going to stop. He loved them to the end. Isn't that beautiful? Chosen before the foundation of the world.

And Jesus desires His love to be replicated in His disciples. And that's what he's talking about. You know, in 1 John, John is writing, he's 80 years old, maybe older, and he says, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love and he loves to the end." Now Jesus knew that his disciples were going to forsake him. Jesus knew that Peter was going to deny him three times in just a few hours.

And he loves them to the end. Their errors do not dampen His love for them. He's getting ready to bear all of their sorrows and absorb all of their punishment. He loved them to the end. He loves his children to the end.

I was reading J.C. Ryle's commentary and he had some very tender words. He said, don't let anybody be afraid of coming to Christ. If you desire to be saved, Run to him because he's never gonna let you go You know you may not want to run to him because you're so imperfect and you're so messed up run to him He'll never let you go. He'll love you to the end.

So don't be afraid Don't be afraid to come. He won't reject you for your feeble service. He will love you to the end. That's why the apostle Paul said the love of Christ passes knowledge. It's bigger than any kind of love we could possibly have.

Okay, so now the next five chapters cover this night, but you'll see this, how often love is mentioned in the next five chapters. Over and over and over again the love of God is mentioned. There is undying love, there is sovereign love, there is humble love, there's gracious love, there's incomparable love, there's no greater love. There's a verse to point to for every one of those things I just said. But the devil hated him.

There was love in the world, but there was a lot of hatred. Look at verse 2. And after supper being ended, the devil, having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon sent to betray him. The devil hates everything that Jesus is doing. The devil hates it when you lay down your life for your friends and wash the feet of the saints.

The devil wants you to be so high and lifted up, so offended by everything that has ever happened to you, to be lifted up in your own mind toward your brethren and not bow down like Jesus. Jesus is gonna bow down. The devil hates it when you do that. He hates that. And so the devil prompts Judas.

It says that the devil put it into his heart. Now this is massively significant because now we're talking about the heart of a human being and Satan put it into his heart. We have two really massive problems in this world. One is we have hearts, we have sinful hearts and Satan puts things in our hearts. Sinful deeds come from sinful hearts.

You know, somebody said, you are not a sinner because you sin, you sin because you are a sinner. And there's this terrible corruption that is in our hearts. You know, Judas was chosen by Jesus, he served alongside of Jesus, he preached two by two in the name of Jesus, he walked with Jesus, he saw the miracles, and it just shows how involved a person can be and still be a hypocrite, how religious a person can be. He was very compassionate. He kept the money box for the poor.

That was his claim to fame. Nobody thought he was stealing from it, but he was. John tells us he was stealing from it after the fact. The devil works in the heart, and the devil had already prompted Judas' heart, and he loved money. So the devil makes suggestions to our already sinful hearts.

That's a real problem. We have sinful hearts and then the devil's making suggestions in our sinful hearts. And that's our great problem with being fallen creatures. So we resist the devil and we flee from him. So then after this, Jesus washes his disciples' feet.

That's point number two in your outline, verses three through nine. Now John is writing this. You notice this? John is writing about what happened. John is an old man now.

He remembers, he remembers what happened and he says, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and That he had come from God and was from God. So John is showing He's just telling us that Jesus is exalted He knows John knows it and he knows John knows that Jesus knows it that he is exalted He's the King of kings and Lord of lords. He governs absolutely everything. He's governing every timeline, every situation. Jesus is the most powerful and he becomes the lowest servant.

So you have these contrasts. Jesus, knowing that he was exalted, he takes the towel and the basin. He bows down. Jesus made himself of no reputation. Notice the timing of this.

It was around the time of the meal. He arose from supper. Oh my. Well, it was probably the last supper. There were two suppers during this time, I'm not perfectly sure which one this was, but this is the night of the Lord's Supper.

So he arises and he takes a towel, verse 4, he girds himself and then he pours water into a basin. So he rises from supper. You see that in verse 4? He rose from supper. Open your Bibles to Luke 22.

Because here's what was happening. John doesn't tell us everything. This is so remarkable. Luke gives us What else was happening in the room? Verse 17, Luke 22, 17.

Then he took the cup and gave thanks and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." So this is the Lord's Supper. And then in verse 21, he speaks of his betrayer. And then in verse 24, shockingly, there's a dispute among the disciples. They're fighting over who's the greatest.

Who's the greatest? Right there in the middle of the Lord's Supper, or at the end of the Lord's Supper, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. And he said to them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors, but not so among you. On the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table or he who serves?

Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as one who serves." So Jesus takes up the towel when the disciples are flexing their muscles trying to find out who should be considered the greatest among them. So he laid aside his garments. What does that mean? Very quickly.

It means he took off his formal garments. It's like it was as if I took off a coat. At the time of this writing, people wore two garments, an inner garment, their informal garments and their outer garments. Like for example, when the Bible says that David danced before the Lord, he took out his outer, he was not naked, he had his inner garments on. And then he took a basin.

Have you ever heard of basin theology? Anybody heard of basin theology? First encountered it a little while ago. I think Mike and I were at a conference together. But then I found out that when the preacher was talking about basin theology, I'd never heard of it before, but somewhere along the line some preacher coined this term and there are all kinds of sermons on the internet about basin theology.

I didn't know that. And here's basin theology. The way you use a basin tells all. So Jesus took a basin, but so did Pilate. Pilate took a basin and he washed his hands of the situation.

Jesus used a basin and he washed his disciples' feet. So there are two ways of using anything. There are two ways of using your basin. Your life. Your resources.

There are two ways. First you can use your basin for your own gain. That's the way Pilate used it, to avoid responsibility, to take the easy way out, to abdicate, to blame others, to see yourself as having clean hands and pass the buck. That's the way the pilot uses a basin. Jesus used a basin for a completely different way, reason.

He used the basin for good, to take personal responsibility, to put it into service, to teach something, to say something about love. So, you know, which basin are...how are you using your basins? To serve yourself or to serve others. Well this is why Jesus said if you know these things, blessed are you If you do them, this is really the key to happiness in the Church of Jesus. And then there's this exchange between Jesus and Peter in verses 6 through 11.

And Peter questions Jesus. He says, Lord, no, no. Can you imagine this? Peter is interrupting Jesus. He's stopping the illustration.

Jesus wants to illustrate something, and Jesus is just blowing it up and wrecking it. And, you know, And this is an embarrassing moment for Peter, right? Because right in front of God and everybody, Jesus rebukes him. You know, everybody says, If you're going to rebuke somebody, do it in private, never in public. If you're going to praise somebody, well, maybe the same.

You might be called a flatterer if you just do it in public all the time, but Jesus breaks the rule and he rebukes Peter in public right out there in front of everybody. Jesus is maturing him and it works. Peter repents and says, Lord, wash me all over. He sees how foolish he was. This is what you've got to love about Peter.

He does outlandish things, says ridiculous things, and he has a shepherd. He has a shepherd who's going to lead him to the end. He loves him to the end. People in the church are going to say outlandish things and do ridiculous things. I guarantee it.

So what are you going to do about it? Be like Jesus. Well, I don't know if you should rebuke everybody in public, but Jesus is a patient shepherd. Peter is trying to be a good disciple, but there's all this pride rolling around in his soul. Jesus says, if I do not wash you, you have no part of me.

That's because a disciple is a person who's washed, who's clean, to be set free from the law of sin and death, to not have the condemnation of the law hanging over your head. The law is your schoolmaster, but Jesus makes it so that it's not hanging over your head. It's a teacher, not a condemnation. And then Jesus explains the whole thing, verses 10 through 17. Jesus explains to Peter that all are not clean.

This is significant. Luke speaks of this more definitively. But Jesus said to him, He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not all of you. Eleven are clean, one is not clean.

Judas. Later in verse 18, Jesus further explains, he says, I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen, but that the scripture may be fulfilled. He who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me. Jesus is tipping the disciples off of what's going to happen soon.

And then Jesus explains to his disciples in verses 12 through 17, Jesus is very logical. He says, So when he had washed their feet, taken his garments and sat down again, he said, okay, he said, Do you know what I've done to you? And then He says, you call me teacher and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. He's saying, I am teacher, I am Lord, and I'm giving you an example that you would do the same thing to one another.

And Jesus is setting an example. Verse 15, For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you." This really was the whole theme of Jesus coming to the earth. He passed through the heavens, he came to earth, and he took upon himself humanity. Philippians 2, 6-8 explains this, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather he made himself nothing, taking the nature of a servant.

And he was found in appearance as a man, but he was God, and he humbled himself, that every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." And then there's verse 17. This is a promise. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. There are two things here. There's knowing things and then there's doing things.

Do you see that? If you know these things, and now by the way there's a difference between knowing something and doing something about it. That's what Jesus is saying. He's talking about the uselessness of all kinds of head knowledge if you don't do anything about it. You know, we read our Bibles, we hear sermons, and then We just walk away and we don't do anything about it.

We don't meditate on it. We don't really sink into it. When you read your Bible in the morning, if that's what you do, I hope you do, ponder it. What am I going to do about it? And we just read 17 verses of John 13.

What are you going to do about it? It's not just for you to debate the fine points of it, but by the way, you could probably find five things to try to debate here. Forget that. There's something really, really clear. Just go and do the same.

Do you understand that one? That's pretty easy. Take this example and go do a thousand things like it. Okay, applications. Oh, I have so many applications.

Number one, and I won't belabor them, I don't think too much. Number one, Jesus is gently exposing the pride and the self-centeredness of his disciples. Pride talks to you. Pride is that voice inside your head that says, what about me? You always know when the devil's talking to you, It's that voice.

You know, there's a total contrast to this. The apostle Paul speaks of widows. What widows should be put on the list? The widows who've watched the disciples' feet. Those widows.

Those widows that just, they didn't get lost in their in the sorrows of their widowhood. They turned around and they served the church and they washed the disciples feet. I don't think the widows were just going around washing people's toes. They were doing all kinds of things to help people in their loss. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Number two, your outward behavior does not tell all. Now the devil would like for you to do one or two things. He would like you to wash feet. He would like you to wash people's feet but with having accusations in your hearts. The devil is really pleased for you to keep on serving, but you're still angry with people.

You're still disappointed, You're not content, you know, that person, these people, that church, and you're harboring ill will toward your brethren. The devil would love for you to just keep serving in that kind of condition. That's what Judas did. Well, and the devil also would like you to abdicate from washing feet. Like, the devil would like it if a husband didn't wash the feet of his wife.

Like he was just such a king. Such a hot patriarchal authority, you know, but never washed his wife's feet, figuratively. Wives helping their husbands, washing their feet. Mothers washing the feet of their children. Older brothers washing the feet of older brothers and sisters, younger brothers and sisters washing the feet of their siblings and their father and their mother.

Everybody washing feet a thousand different ways. I say, I mean the devil, the devil either wants you to abdicate from that or do it with bad heart. Either way, doesn't matter to him. It works. You know the devil, The devil would like you to keep washing people's feet with an accusing heart.

You know, the devil is the slanderer of the brethren. I heard somebody say this, he uses you to slander me, he uses me to slander you, he uses me to slander me, He uses a group of us to slander you. He uses you to slander a group of us. He uses outsiders to slander us. The devil is a slanderer And He would love for you to just keep on serving and slandering in your heart.

Love it. Jesus says, let me show you. I'll wash Judas' feet. That's amazing. He washes Judas' feet.

I'm not sure what to say about that. But if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. Next application. Pride works in so many different ways. And Jesus is addressing one way of pride, and that is trying to figure out who is considered the greatest.

When you're trying to figure out where you stand, you know, am I up there? Or am I just sort of a normal person or am I just like nothing? This triangulation. You talk to somebody and you're thinking, how are they treating me? What are they feeling about me?

That's what the disciples were doing. Who is considered, who in this place is considered the greatest, right? That's the sin of the disciples. And this always turns out the same way when you see it, you know, hey, I've been a pastor before Almost 40 35 years It's always the same. It's just totally generic It's a self-pity Pride shows itself in self-pity Pride shows itself in discouragement, in the fear of man, lack of thankfulness, boasting, acting like an expert, sarcasm, a critical spirit, withholding service, lack of compassion, defensiveness.

These are all manifestations of pride, A condescending attitude, a harsh spirit, being self-righteous, like the Pharisee and the publican, I'm glad I'm not like him. The disciples are saying, I hope I'm not like this other lower person that isn't really as significant as I am. Triangulating how people are thinking about you is a prideful disaster in a church. If anybody does that they're always headed for sorrow and it's no fun well that's why Jesus said blessed happy happy are you you want to be happy then you just do your part you take up the towel You take up the towel. God's church is a serving church.

Every joint supplies. You know, There's a lot of serving that's going on today right here in this church. You know, all kinds of servanthood has happened, tangible servanthood. I'm not talking about, do you have a job in this church? Do you have a ministry in this church?

One of the things that this passage does is it destroys all class distinctions in the church, all of them. Rich, poor, wise, foolish, black, white, red, green, whatever it is, you know, it destroys all class distinctions. And everybody's taken out the towel. Okay. Now how can you start serving in this church?

Like how can you personally start serving in this church? I'm looking at you. Okay, I'm looking at y'all. How can you do it? What can you do?

I'm not going to tell you. I'm not going to tell you at all. I'm not going to say anything. Because it's the movement of the Holy Spirit in your heart. It's the Spirit that gives life.

It's the spirit that activates people to love one another. So don't sign up for anything. Don't pray that God would use you to serve your brethren. Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Serve in the strength that God supplies.

That's what Paul said to the church. You know, in the day of the work of the Holy Spirit, God will bring out the volunteers. It happens by the Holy Spirit. Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And see the joy, see the joy.

You know, if you know these things, blessed are you who do them. Isn't that amazing? The simplicity of the gospel, the simplicity of life in the church is very beautiful. Be filled with the Spirit and wash one another's feet if you know what I mean. Would you pray with me?

Father, pray that you would give us this same heart. I thank you. I praise you for the many, many manifestations of this that happen in this church. I'm so delighted with it. I'm so delighted to be here in this church.

I've had my feet washed so many times. I'm so thankful for that. I pray that you would give the kind of delight that Jesus speaks of here, that we wouldn't just know things, but we would find all the joys in doing them. Amen. In.