The Passover Reminds Us of Our Calling to Humble Service

I have used the Life Application commentary as well as the Preachers Outline and Sermon Bible commentary for today's message. We will not be going through the Book of Daniel this month. We do want to prepare for the upcoming Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread. And, as I said, Wankie got us off to a very good start today. One of the things that I received when I was over in Chicago that I really enjoyed, a gentleman who's been listening to some of my sermons online, he came up to me and said, you know, Mr.

Bell Center, you may have mentioned when you were talking about Babylon falling on October 12, 539 B.C. He said, did you know that was right there in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles? I said, no, I didn't know that. He said, well, I've got a Bible program. All you've got to do is type in the year, and it will give you the date for all the holy days going back thousands of years in history and going forward several hundred years.

I said, well, I'd love to have that. So he sent that to me. And so I typed in 31 A.D. and I saw that the last Passover that Jesus Christ kept in the flesh with His disciples was on April 24, 31 A.D. I want to talk a little bit about that today as we prepare for the Passover. You know, Wayne was talking about it very much on my mind as well.

Brethren, think about Jesus Christ for a moment and His mindset going into that very last Passover. Jesus Christ knew that one of His disciples was going to betray Him for money. Jesus Christ knew that other disciples would deny Him, that one He loved tremendously. He loved them all tremendously, I guess, but not I guess I know. One would swear that He didn't know Jesus Christ.

All of them would desert Him. Some would display tremendous ignorance or laziness or lack of trust in Him. And so it was kind of a sorry lot that got together for that last Passover before Christ was crucified. But Jesus Christ Himself deliberately decided to show them the full extent of His love. I want us to think about this, brother, from the point of view that if anybody could have had people issues, it could have been Jesus Christ.

But Jesus Christ didn't have people issues. Jesus Christ loved the men with all their faults, with all their failings, all their warts and what have you. He loved each and every one of them. And He came to die for each and every one of them, as He came to die for you and I. Now, what I would like for us to think about for a moment, kind of getting back to what Wayne was saying, is Jesus Christ knows that you and I have had times in our life where we have denied Him, where we have sinned, where we have displayed ignorance or laziness or lack of trust or lack of faith.

And still, Jesus Christ loves each and every one of us. And Jesus Christ wants every one of us to be there on Passover evening, because, as Wayne said, He is there for each and every one of us. Jesus Christ continually displays His love for us. He reaches out to us. He wants us to be at Passover services.

But He also wants us to be there with a certain frame of mind. And that's what I'd like to discuss with you today. The frame of mind that Passover represents, if you're taking notes, you might want to jot this across the top of your paper, the Passover reminds us that we have been called to a life of humble service.

And certainly, it's not just humble service for our friends. It's not just humble service for those who we love and admire. It's humble service toward all mankind. Now, that's easy for me to say. It's harder for me to do than I'm sure it's hard for you to do. But that's what God has called us to be.

And we realize that the bar is very high for us as believers, for us as Christians. God wants us to, with God's help, with Christ's help, with the help of the Holy Spirit, He wants us to reach out to the example that Christ set, and to follow that example. Now, just prior to getting into the room for the Passover, the disciples were arguing, who's going to be the greatest? Who's going to be the greatest? Didn't start with Muhammad Ali.

Start with the disciples way back when. The disciples have been arguing about that. I'll just give you the citation here. Mark 10. I'm not going to turn there, but Mark 10, verses 35 through 45. They were caught up with a wrong vision for what God wanted them.

They were caught up with ambition. They were caught up with wanting position, wanting power, wanting authority. And I'm sure Jesus Christ, as He was thinking about the very last hours that He would spend in the flesh with these men, He was thinking, how can I get the message across to them as to where they need to be? What can I do? Of course, God the Father and Jesus Christ are outstanding teachers.

They know exactly what to do to allow things to kind of percolate down into our soul so we can understand things. We learn by doing in so many cases. And so there was something that Christ was going to have them do. He was in a certain example, but also show them what they need to be doing in the future. And we see that in John 13. We call it the foot washer.

So let's go over to John 13. And if you've got something to put in there as a marker, we'll be going to other places, but we'll be coming back time and again to John 13. John 13. Let's take a look at verses 1 and 2.

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus Christ knew his hour had come, that he would depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And supper being ended, the devil over there having put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. So we'll pause there for a moment. When you combine the phrases here in verses 1 and 2, where it says, before the Feast and during supper, it shows that this foot washing took place just before the meal began.

Just before the meal began. We also see three very important things here in verses 1 and 2 that we want to highlight. It says here in verse 1, that Christ knew that his hour had come. His hour had come. He was there to die for all of mankind. Before the world was ever built, God the Father and Jesus Christ had a plan. I think sometimes we think that God the Father and Jesus Christ were, especially as God delegated the creation to Jesus, I think sometimes we think about them as being creators first.

But actually, redemption was first in their mind. Creation came after that. So before there was anything, there was the idea that we're going to have a plan, we're going to create mankind, but mankind is going to have to have a safety valve in case of something that goes wrong. So Christ realized that his hour had come, and that whatever he was about to teach his disciples, he better do it soon. Because there would be no more time in the flesh, there would be plenty of time later on, but in terms of actually physically being with them as a hands-on guide, he realized his time was short, his hour had come.

It also says the second thing in those two verses, that he loved his own. Christ loved his own, his followers upon the earth. And that's something I want us to consider, because there's going to come a time on April 21st, Thursday evening, where God wants us to get on our knees and to love our own, to be able to wash feet. If you're a woman, you wash another woman's feet. If you're a fella, you wash another fella's feet. We love our own. We need to love everybody. We'll talk more about that as the sermon goes along, but certainly God wants us to love our own.

Thirdly, we see in verse 2, Christ realized that the enemy was always about, and if there's anything the enemy wants to do, Satan. He wants to destroy the joy we have in Passover. He wants you to think you shouldn't be at Passover, because he does not want you to be there.

As Wayne pointed out, God wants you to be there. Christ wants you to be there. The holy righteous angels want you to be there. Satan doesn't. Satan doesn't want you to be there at the Passover service. So Satan wanted to do everything he could to derail this Passover. Christ realized that he was going to strike it again. Christ realized that he needed to make sure his men were well armed.

I want to pause for a moment. These same three things that Christ was thinking about that was on his mind that he was trying to instruct his disciples then are still true today. Still true today. Number one, we need to realize that our hour has come. Life is short. Life is very short. Last week over in Chicago, I was relating to the Brethren there.

The background to my life, the background to Mary's life. In our life, both Mary and mine, we have four auto accidents that were fatalities. Mary's dad died the day before her tenth birthday in a car wreck. Mary's brother, who is like her very best friend, Todd, who attended and gave sermonettes in the Chicago Church, everybody knew Todd. Todd died in a car wreck in 1999. She had an uncle who survived Vietnam just to come back home and get killed in a car wreck. I had a 20-year-old niece who was coming home from work, fell asleep, drifted across the line, and she was killed in a head-on car accident.

Two families, four, and a fatal crash. Life is fragile. Life is short. Our hour has come. None of us in this room have a guarantee for the next breath. That's up to God. Put a marker here in John 13. Let's go to Romans 13. Romans 13.

Romans 13, verses 11 and 12. And do this, knowing that the time that now is high time to wake out of sleep. So if you and I are sleeping, if you and I are not where we need to be spiritually, if we're spiritually drowsy, time to wake up, God says. For now, our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Of course it is. As I look out at you as a group, I can remember back in the 1970s, Wayne and Alan and George, we went to Spokesman's Club together. I remember Cathy, which is part of the old Detroit East Church. But that was many years ago. We're talking back in 1975 and on when we were together. And there's been a few years of come and gone. There have been a few hairs that have fallen out of our head. The hairs that are there are grave. But now salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast out the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. So that is true for us today. We need to make sure that we are taking the time and using it to our best advantage. Secondly, Christ said that he loved his own. And we need to be thinking about that along the same line. Do we have people issues with people in this room? Do we have people issues with maybe if you're going to go to Ann Arbor for the Passover? Do we have people issues? Of course, I've got to ask myself that. You know, I don't walk on water. You know, I get up in the morning, I'm like everybody else. I'm a flesh and blood human being. Does Randy Delisandre have people issues? Do I kind of hope that I don't have to kneel down in front of somebody? Oh, not their feet! Please! That could have been anybody but their feet! Not their feet!

Let's switch places with the guy next to me. I want to wash your feet, not that guy's feet.

You know, we quote John 3.16 a lot, but let's quote 1 John 3.16. 1 John 3.16. It is so interesting that John is the Apostle of love, and it's such a big element in all of his writings. 1 John 3.16. By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. We ought to lay down our lives. The very least we can do is lay down our lives, lay down our knees, and grab those feet and give those feet a good washing. Of course, Christ realized that the enemy was nearby, and we need to realize the same thing. 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5. Just a little bit back from where we were. 1 Peter 5.8-9. Be sober, be vigilant, be watchful, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, whom he may devour. He doesn't have to devour us. Are we going to give him an opening? Are we going to give him a crack in the door?

2 If we have unresolved anger, if we have issues with people, then we are leaving the door ajar, and Satan can bust right in and do all sorts of spiritual damage to us, spiritual violence to us. We need to be appreciative of that fact. So we have to be sober, we have to be vigilant, and realize that's the case. Verse 9. 1 Peter 5. Resist him steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brothers in the world. So we are in a resistance movement to resist them in the faith. We have to have faith that God will give us the power to properly resist, that God will give us the ability, that God will give us the insight to know where those attacks are coming from. Whenever you're talking to a military person and they're looking at strategy, they want to know as much about their enemy as possible. How is the enemy going to come at me? Are they going to come at me in the evening? Are they going to come at me in the morning? When are they going to come at me? How are they going to come at me? With what are they going to come at me? How strong are they that they're going to test my defenses first? Or it's going to be a full-out assault? How do they work? Well, that's why we need to study the Scriptures so we can steadfastly in the faith resist Satan. Now, it's not on my notes, but I do want to turn over to James 4. James 4.

James 4.7. Where it says, Therefore submit to God and resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Submit to God. Bring in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Resist the devil. Get out the leavening, and he will flee from you. So, as powerful as he is, Satan is not God. Satan is not all powerful. Satan is not all-knowing. He's not all-present. Sometimes I think we want to ascribe divine abilities to this being that should not be ascribed to him. He can be resisted, and he will flee because you've got the power of God available to you. Okay, we go back now to John 13.

Let's look at verses 3-5. John 13, verses 3-5. Jesus, verse 3, Knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, took a towel, and gritted himself. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with a towel, with which he was gritted. So, what Jesus Christ is exhibiting here is what he would call royal service.

This is what the King of the universe does. He stoops down, he sets the example of love, of service. Now, again, look at verse 3. John 13, verse 3. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God.

There's a lot of meat there. In terms of who Jesus Christ was, who he knew that he was, Jesus Christ knew of his glory. He remembered his glory. He remembered how great it was to be with the Father before he became a human being in the flesh. He knew about all the creation and all that he had done, all that the Father had given him to do. And think about it, brethren. You know, you enjoy accomplishment in your life. You enjoy, you know, some of us enjoy making a lemon pie.

Some of us enjoy other things. We enjoy cleaning a house. We enjoy whatever we know. Maybe you're skilled with woodworking. You like to build things. Or whatever you do, you enjoy doing that. Can you imagine the absolute joy that Christ had as he put all the animals on the drawing board and said, Well, we need something. We're going to call this thing a deer. And it's going to run like the wind. And we're going to do this and that. He's going to do all this design. You know, a blade of grass.

A duck-billed platypus. You know, some goofy-looking thing that's going to confound the evolutionists. All these things Christ did. The human body. You know, some of our, like the Bible talks about, some of our more unsightly members, a human foot. You know, sometimes those things look pretty gnarled. We see that on Passover. Now, when people do their best, you know, the month prior to Passover, you know, they'll get a pity or something. Even the guys sometimes, well, let's go, let's take, you know, scrub as much as we can scrub on those old feet.

Do something with those doenails. But, you know, when you think about how the human foot has been constructed, that allows us to walk properly, to run, to do all the various things, the balance. It's a marvel of engineering.

Christ had all of that. And he said, you know, I'm going to empty myself of all these things, all the things I've accomplished. And I'm coming down for you. Put your name into black. I'm coming down, and I'm going to give my life for you. And if I'm not careful, Satan can trip me up. I could sin, and it will all be lost. Satan, Christ could have sinned. He couldn't have been tempted in all things, and not have been capable of sinning.

But he didn't sin. He didn't sin. He knew where he was coming from. He knew where he was going, and he was fulfilled his destiny. He knew he was a being of tremendous brilliance and glory. Yet he sacrificed all of that for you. He sacrificed all of that for me. And since you're in verse 4, John 13, verse 4, Christ rose from supper.

No one else was rising from supper, but he set the example, he initiated something. He rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and he girded himself. This shows us something about our Savior, that he was going to initiate something that was loving and kind and wonderful and beautiful. For people who had issues, he didn't say, well, these people have got issues.

They're swabbling. They're fighting. They're going to deny me. They're going to leave me by myself. They're going to flee. Now, as human beings, you and I have a tendency, well, they're going to be that way. I'm not going to be their friend. I'm going to freeze them up, but I'm not going to be there for them. Well, Christ didn't take that approach. He realized they all had their spiritual warts and their problems and their issues, but he took the initiative here of love.

After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, these dirty, filthy feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. So after he washed the feet, he probably put that towel back on. I don't know if he had other towels to go to or not, but it shows that he wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty in service for his fellow man.

So, brethren, this is a tremendous act, as I made mention. The Passover does remind us that we've been called to a life of humble service. And humble service means that times we have got to get our hands dirty. Let's turn to Luke 22 for a moment. Luke 22.

Now, again, this is taking place about the same time prior to the Passover taking place. We've got this conversation happening. Luke 22.

But there was also a dispute among them as to which of them should be considered the greatest. And he said to them, the kings of the Gentiles exercised lordship over them, and those who exercised authority over them are called benefactors. Luke 22. 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 Christ is showing what real service is all about. What real humility is all about. Not sitting at the table, but serving at the table. And Christ certainly did that. Philippians 2, verses 3-5.

Philippians 2, verse 3.

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. Don't just be thinking about your needs. But in lowliness of mind and humility, let each esteem others better than himself. This is a mindset. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests. And, you know, brother, there's nothing wrong with looking out for your own interests. He says, let each of you look out not only for his own interests. So there's nothing wrong with that. The Bible says to love your neighbor as yourself, so there's nothing wrong with loving yourself. But it's a matter of proportions, a matter of degree. You know, we don't want to love just ourselves. We don't want to be concerned about just ourselves. But let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. And let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus. And the Scripture goes on to show here in this chapter about how he emptied himself and so on and so forth. So if we want to be true believers, true Christians, in the sense that Christ would have us be, then we need to really focus in on this idea of humility and humble service. Okay, we go back now to John 13. John 13, verses 6 through 11.

John 13, verse 6. Then he came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet?

You know, all we have here is the wording in the original that's been translated into English. But I think that, you know, there probably was more to this verse than what we see here. I'm thinking that Peter probably had a look on his face. It might have been a look of disgust, like, what are you doing? And if we were Peter's mother, and we heard Peter say this, we'd probably say Peter, you've got an attitude.

Have you ever said it to one of your kids? I see an attitude here.

Lord, are you washing my feet? And Jesus said to him, what I'm doing, you do not understand now, but you will know after this. A very good indication about how God's Spirit was working with Peter, but not in Peter. The need for the Pentecost, the Pentecost to come, and God's Spirit to do what God's Spirit does for us, and to give us all the enhanced understanding. Peter didn't have it at this point. In this verse here, in this section, verses 6 through 11, this is the key verse. Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet. And Jesus asked him, if I do not wash you, and this is the key part, if I do not wash you, you have no part with me. If I don't wash you, you have no part with me.

Now, was Christ saying to Peter, you've got filthy feet, and filthy feet won't make it into the kingdom? Is that what he's saying? He says, oh, let's have a foot check. No, no, no, no, no. Your feet are too big, too narrow, too dirty. You can't be in the kingdom. No, there's spiritual emphasis here. There's an emphasis on being washed.

And the emphasis is washing away spiritual dirt. If the spiritual dirt isn't washed away, then you can't be a part of Jesus Christ. So there's a much deeper meaning here, a spiritual meaning. Before we can become a part of Jesus, we've got to be washed. Before we can serve Jesus and mankind properly, we've got to be washed.

But Peter's thoughts were, you know, no, you're not going to do that to me. So he was trying to tell God his business. Have you ever tried to tell God his business? I think probably too many of us have tried to tell God his business. Now, God, now, here's what you need to do, God.

Now, in balance, there's certainly nothing wrong, you know. Zachariah and others, Moses, Moses, you know, had a discussion with God. Abraham had a discussion with God. God, you're really going to kill all these people. How about if there's 50? How about if there's 40? How about if there's 30? We can have discussions with God, but we want to make sure that we're doing it with a proper attitude. Not, you know, kind of telling God, well, you've got to do what I want, because obviously, God, I know best.

You know, me, with all of my vast wisdom and intelligence, I know what's best.

Washing and cleansing have a much deeper meaning here. Again, put a marker here in chapter 13. Let's go to Titus chapter 3. Titus chapter 3 verses 3 through 5.

Titus 3 verses 3 through 5. For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. In other words, we were people. We were carnal. We were doing things that carnal people do. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, when Jesus Christ did what He was called to do, notice, the kindness and the love of God our Savior, God our Savior is talking about Jesus Christ.

Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration.

Notice very carefully, brethren, God has called us to good works. God wants us to do good works, but those good works do not wipe away sin. The only thing that wipes away sin is the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We've got the Passover, which shows that we have to have the shed blood of Jesus Christ. And then we do have the days of Unleavened Bread. Once our sins have forgiven, God has called us to live a better life. He doesn't want us to go back to the pig trough, to the pig pen, spiritually speaking. He wants us to be people of righteousness. So, yes, we must do the works of righteousness, but they were designed to wash away sin. The thing that was designed to wash away sin is the shed blood of Jesus Christ. But notice, according to His mercy, according to His grace, now let's add these thoughts to what we see over in Hebrews. Go to Hebrews 9.

Hebrews 9, I'll be reading this for you on the Passover. As I read all the other Passovers I've done with you. And you know, brethren, I would just say on a personal level, I'm looking forward to the Passover with you. I started with you as a group. I'm going to end with you as a group. And I think that's the way it should be. By the way, while I'm on that subject, I'm going to try very hard for my last sermon, not to talk about it being my last sermon.

Because I get weepy and cry. So don't think I don't love you. I love you all very much. But when I said goodbye to the last place I pastored in West Virginia, I had to sit down three times, because I was crying like a baby. When I cry, I just shut down. I can't talk. You'll see me a few times do that, when my son was having issues with his little boy that was about to be born. So three times I sat down in West Virginia, because I couldn't continue. The third time I got up to the folks, you know I love you. Let's move on. So I'm not going to do that to you this time. I'm just going to give a sermon. I'm going to try not to think that it's my last sermon. So just clear the air on that point. But here in Hebrews 9, verse 14, It says, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience? We're talking about washing. Here we see where our conscience needs to be cleansed. Cleansed from dead works to serve the living God. That's kind of what we were just reading about. Yes, we are cleansed by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and then we go on to live righteously, to do the things God wants us to do. He doesn't want us to be sinful people. One of the great gifts that God has given to his people is the gift of his law.

I was thinking about using this as a sermon, but one of the reasons why Christ said he so desires to keep the Passover with us is because he wants to share the level of life that he shares with the Father, of beings who love the truth and who live the truth, and who are beings of integrity and honesty and all the good things that we see in the Scriptures that we should be.

People in the world make it out to, well, if you're trying to live righteously, there's something wrong with us. No, no, we can't live righteously. Yes, we can. God doesn't ask us to do something we can't do. Now, we're not going to be perfect. We're not going to be sinless. But God certainly wants us to reach for that high bar. And so that's what he's talking about here. Now, let's go to 1 John 1.

1 John 1.

Verse 7, 1 John 1.7. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, in other words, we're walking after the example of Jesus Christ, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Notice again this idea of cleansing. We're talking about washing, we're talking about purging, we're talking about cleansing.

And in terms of what God is looking for, it all has to be cleansed. Every last bit has to be cleansed. There's no such thing as a partial cleansing, and we get into the kingdom of God. Every sin has got to be atoned for, not just some of the sins. Psalm 51.

Psalm 51 speaks to this point.

You know the background of Psalm 51, David and his horrendous sin, but also David with his tremendous repentance.

Psalm 51, verse 1.

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving-kindness, according to the multitude, the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

Christ is not stingy with his tender mercies. Verse 2.

Here's this idea of washing again. Notice, That's done through the shed blood, the Passover blood of Jesus Christ.

We go over to verse 7.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Hyssop was a shrub. It was kind of a prickly shrub, and people used to use that, like you might use a Brillo pad. You would use it to scrub and scrape things, and then kind of get at the dirt that's kind of dug in. And so, purge me with this hyssop, kind of scrape and scour me. And I shall be clean. Wash me, and there's this idea of being washed, and I shall be whiter than snow. We drop down to verse 9. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. All of them. Of course, that's the beautiful thing we have with Jesus Christ as our Savior.

When we are repentance, when we go to God and say, Father, please forgive me of all of my sins. That's exactly what takes place. Doesn't matter how many times, doesn't matter how bad, how awful, how repugnant. If we are repentant, and we go before God and ask for this forgiveness, this is what happens. He blouts out all our iniquities. Verse 10, Create me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

So, these are the sorts of things that we long for. This is why we should long to be at the Passover. We want to be with Christ. We want to be with God. We want to be at one with them.

Now, this type of washing, this type of cleansing, brethren, is not automatic. And it doesn't come through association. Just because you come to church doesn't mean your sins are forgiven. Just because you write a tithe check out, or because you go to the feast, means your sins are forgiven. You and I, all of us, have to have an individual relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ. I think it was Len Martin who said many years ago, he said, just because you're sitting in church doesn't make you a Christian. No more than sitting at McDonald's makes you a hamburger. So, just because you're sitting here doesn't mean that you're a Christian, or I'm a Christian. You know, there is going to be a lake of fire. And our God, who's all-loving, is going to march people into it.

It's going to be distasteful for God, but God's not wanting people to live like saints. Satan lives. People who want to be rebellious, and people who don't want to follow God's way. People have their right. But an all-loving God will say, well, because I'm all-loving, I'm not going to inflict the rest of us with you. We have one Satan, we've got a bunch of demons, enough's enough. So that's up to us. But just take a look along these lines over at the book of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 14.

So this Passover of season, brethren, you ask yourself, as I need to ask myself, what is my personal relationship with God like? As we are focused on examining ourselves, we don't examine ourselves to miss the Passover. We examine ourselves to see what work needs to be done.

Two weeks ago, I asked the realtor who's going to sell our home to come over and take a look. And I said, now, I want you to go through our house with a careful eye, with a professional eye. What do we need to change? And so she walked through the house, do this over here, do that over there, do this over here. And so we've been doing all those things.

You know, Monday we've got carpeting coming in for the main floor. Tuesday I've got a handyman coming and doing some of the things that I could do, but I would do very badly. So they're going to do it right. Then Thursday the realtor's going to come in again and take a last look-see, because I want the house up on the market, not this coming Monday, but the Monday after.

And then Friday, if she gives it the okay, then the photographer comes in, does all the pictures of the home. Now they've got a nice little thing they do where they do the virtual tours where you can go to any room in our home, hit a button, and there's a camera that goes around the room 360 degrees. You see the whole room. You can do all that from your computer at home. If you want to take a look at somebody's home, do the virtual tour.

It'll sell a lot of homes. But you have to have, you know, when we go through these kinds of inspections, we can't say, Well, you know, my husband, wonderful soul that he is, because of my husband I'm going to be in the kingdom. Not because-or because my wife is such a dear soul. How could God possibly have me not in the kingdom but my wife is?

Or my kids, or my, you know, old granny, or whoever. No? Take a look at what it says here in Ezekiel 14, verse 12. The word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, when a land sins against me by persistent unfaithfulness. Let's put this into personal terms.

If we, as believers, go off the path and we sin with persistent unfaithfulness, most of what God says, I will stretch out my hand against it, I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast. In other words, God is going to act against sin, whether it be to a nation or an individual. Verse 14, Even to these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness, says the Lord God. Now, we're not talking about their sins being forgiven, we're talking about deliverance. There's a difference between the two. And here we see the three most righteous men who ever lived.

Jesus Christ was another story, he was God in the flesh. But in terms of the rest of us, these three, Noah, who escaped the flood, Daniel, who the Bible doesn't say one negative word about that man. Not that he was sinless.

And of course, we know what Job went through. The personal attacks from Satan. These were three righteous men, but they would only be able to be saved because of their relationship with God. Not their wives, not their kids, not their grandkids, them and their individual relationship with God.

Verse 15, If I caused the wild beasts to pass through the land, and they would empty it and make it so desolate that no man can pass through because of the beasts, even though these three men were in it, as they lived, said the Lord God, they would deliver it neither sons nor daughters, only they would be delivered and the land would be desolate.

Or if I bring a sword on the land, and brethren, this is very careful for us to watch this, because we may be living in the end of the age. And the end of the age talks about how a sword will go through our land. And the only salvation you have, don't rely on a place of safety, the only salvation you have spiritually and physically is our relationship with God. Verse 17, If I bring a sword on the land and say, sword, go through the land, and I'll cut off man and beast from it, even though these three men were in it, as they lived, said the Lord God, they would deliver it neither sons nor daughters, but only they themselves would be delivered.

Or if I send a pestilence on the land and pour out my fury into blood, and cut off it from man and beast, even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as they lived, said the Lord God, they would deliver neither son nor daughter, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness.

So again, brethren, a word to the wise, we need to have, and as we're going through our Passover examination, we need to ask ourselves just how much of a relationship we've got with God the Father and Jesus Christ. Okay, let's go back over to John 13. We need to finish up here at John 13, verses 12 and on.

So we need to wash their feet, just at John 13, 12. Taking his garment, sat down again, he said to them, Do you know what I've done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you say, Well, for so I am. And since he's our teacher, and since he's our Lord, we must strive to serve Jesus Christ. He is the example, he is the pattern, none other.

We don't strive to follow, you know, we only follow men as they follow Christ. Verse 14, If by then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, so you also ought to wash one another's feet. So again, who do you have issues with? Am I saying, brethren, before this Passover, that you need to mend every fence and take care of every bridge? I don't know that that could be humanly possible for many of us. But what I am saying is this, that if we have issues with other people, we need to be working on those issues.

Sometimes it takes years to work on some of those issues. God is patient, God is long suffering. He realized maybe how deeply you've been hurt. There could be people in your life that you need to forgive who are now dead. And you can't reconcile to them because they're dead. But you need to, in your heart and mind, be able to forgive them. Now, again, that might be something that is very difficult to do, depending upon your hurt. Over the years, I've been in the ministry, I know a number of women have come to me and talked about a father or a brother or an uncle who sexually abused them.

And those people are either dead or could care less that they hurt this woman. And in some cases, I know the one case, a woman was dying from cancer. She was in her sixties. I think in the sixties. She said, Mr. D, I just got to get this off my chest. People would hurt her long bed. But she said, I need to just let go of the anger. I need to let go of the hurt. I need to be able to have a foot-washing attitude toward that person, even though they're not alive.

And for her, it was a process. And I believe in her life and her mind that she made that process before she died. God wants to make sure that we're working on it. I've never yet done so many times in the past. I've never yet done a funeral before anybody was perfect. But God wants to see us working on our issues.

So he said we should be able to wash one another's feet. Verse 15, For I've given you an example that you should do as I've done for you. Most assured, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent great with you to send him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you hear them. No. Blessed are you if you do them. On Passover, Jesus Christ literally took up a cross or a stake, whatever it was. People are scholars would debate whether it was a Roman cross or just a pole. People say, well, Christ couldn't have been crucified on something that was pagan. Well, either a cross or a pole were both pagan. Either one. So Christ made sense to me that Christ would be crucified on something like that because that was what they did back in that society anyway. Christ took up his cross, his literal cross and his figurative cross. Brethren, we need to do the same thing. A cross is an instrument of death. It's not whether we can't walk properly or see properly or hear properly. That's not the cross. The cross is where we allow the simple part of us to be crucified. That's what we mean when we talk about taking up our cross. It's an instrument of death. Our current nature needs to die. Our wrong habits need to die. Our wrong thinking needs to die. Our wrong actions need to die. So let's take up our cross and follow Christ. One last verse I want to read. It's over here in the book of John, Luke, chapter 2. Luke, chapter 2.

Luke, chapter 2, verse 41. This is the last thing we'll turn to today. Luke 2, 41. Christ's parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when they were 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the Feast. And when they had finished the days, they returned, and the boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. So obviously, the parents had enough respect for this 12-year-old boy. He was mature beyond his years. He had never given any indication that he was some wild hair. He could be trusted with the family, or the extended family or friends. And that's what, you know, Joseph and Mary weren't bad parents. God would not have entrusted the raising of little Jesus with bad parents. And Joseph and his mother did not know it, verse 44. But supposing him to have been in the company, and they went on a day's journey and sought him among their relatives and acquaintances. So they thought these other people were taking care of Jesus. They had every right to think that, knowing the people here. Verse 45, So when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him. So was after three days they found him in the temple. I would not want to have been missing for three days, and my dad comes looking for me. Dad was not in the church. And he was a powerfully built man. I wouldn't want to get him all ticked off at me. He was strong, and he had that gentile temper. So I don't want dad to get him mad at me. I'm sure that there was a lot of hand-wringing. I'm sure Mary did some crying. And Sir Joseph said, I'm going to lay hands on that boy. So Christ was sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all of them were astonished at his understanding and answers. So when they saw him, they were amazed. And his mother said to him, This is a mom. This is a mom here. Son, why have you done this to us? Poor mom! Look at me! I'm a wreck! Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously. Now see, dad's smoke is probably coming out of dad's ears. But mom is the one who's doing the talking. That's how it happens a lot of the time. But here's the point, verse 49. Then he said to them, Why do you seek me? Did you not know I must be about my father's business? Brother, in this Passover season, you and I have to appreciate the fact that our business is to be loving people. Our business is to be forgiving people. Our business is to have a foot-washing attitude. Our business is to be humble, like our example and our Savior, Jesus Christ. That is our business. That's you and I be about our father's business.