Seven Meanings of the Foot-Washing

In thinking about what to speak on today, I actually had three different things that I was thinking about speaking on. Interestingly enough, I have three different sermons to give during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It kind of works out well that I would split them up, but it was a matter of choosing which one to give today. I finally ended up deciding that I would speak today on what I've been speaking on, because the next part of the message that I've been speaking on continues into the very theme of the Days of Unleavened Bread, as you'll see. It's quite directly applicable to the Days of Unleavened Bread. I've given two messages on this already, the seven meanings of foot washing. I'm just going to briefly rehearse the points that I've given so far, and then I'll get right back into it. As I get into it where we are, you'll see we will head right into the symbolism of these very days that we are now beginning that ties in.

Just going back through where we've covered so far, what does the foot washing ceremony picture?

It pictures, number one, humility and loving service to others. Of course, we have some points under that that I'll mention. That includes hospitality, which was a very important thing in the ancient times that you would do this. Lowliness of mind, servant leadership. We are leading, but we're also leading by serving, as Christ did in that example. Forgiving one another, breaking pride, breaking those barriers when we come and wash each other's feet.

Honoring all without partiality. You're not going to pick and choose, so you're going to wash the feet. I mean, you just wear to wash one another's feet. Following Christ's example of loving service, that all comes under that header of humility and loving service to others. Number two, we know that it wasn't only a matter of humility being humble.

Sometimes you'll hear that that's the main focus, and I'd say that's a focus of the foot washing. But one of the principal focuses is when we remember that Jesus said, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me. And he said, and he also made the statement of Peter, you're clean, but not all of you. And so clearly there was an issue of spiritual cleanliness there, and he was talking about Judas, who was not clean. And so there was a matter of being... So point number two that we've covered is being cleansed from our walk in this world.

Our feet get dirty, even though we've been baptized. He that is bathed, Christ said, needs only to wash his feet, because we have been bathed, we have been baptized, completely immersed, but we still get our feet dirty in this world, and we need to have them washed. So that's, you know, he who's bathed needs only wash his feet, comes under that. Another thing under that is God's way of life is described as a walk. Our walk in this world, walk before me and be blameless. Enoch walked with God. There's so many... You read all through there about our walk with God and a walk of righteousness, and that is what we all need to be engaged in.

A walk of righteousness and of not getting our feet dirty, but when they do get dirty, they need to be cleaned. C is a ritual cleansing, and of course, back then, people needed to go through various ritual cleansing. The priesthood did. We know that Moses washed the hands and feet of the priests before setting them into service. And how interesting is then Jesus, the meteor, the new covenant, washed the feet of his disciples before putting them into service as his spiritual followers.

And also, everybody, you know, at that time had to be purified, and they would go do the the mikvah bath. They would do basically an immersion of baptism before they would take of these offerings. You had to be cleaned, and sometimes when people were not clean, they were not allowed to take of the offerings. And actually, that was the reason for taking of the second Passover, because they couldn't take the first one if they were not ritually pure.

So ritual cleansing is another aspect of this. Another aspect of this is that we are to avoid uncleanness in our walk. I said this a minute ago. We don't just go on our way and not worry about what we pick up. We need to be focused on what we are contracting and picking up and not do that.

And then, of course, we still sin, but Christ cleanses us. That's another thing we see in this whole process is that even though we've been baptized, we still need to be cleansed by Christ. So it shows that we still sin in this Christian life and need to continually be purified. The third point that we covered was that foot washing symbolizes submitting to the need for Christ's sanctification. First, submitting to the need for Christ's sanctification.

Again, remember Christ said, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me. He sets us apart, and that's part of the doing it. And then sanctification then is the process of being made holy. That's what sanctification is. That's what God is doing through us. The one washing, same under this point as well, the one washing also represents Christ. You know, again, we think about when we stoop down to wash the feet of our brethren, Christ said, if you've done it to the least of these, you've done it to me.

So whenever we serve God's people, we're also serving Christ. If we wash the feet of our brethren, we're washing the feet of Christ. But the one washing also represents Christ, because Christ lives in all of the brethren. So when one of the members of the church washes your feet, Jesus Christ is actually washing your feet through that member. And we have to remember that, because Jesus said, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me.

And so if he washes us through our fellow members in the church, because we are part of the process of sanctifying, being sanctified. We are being prepared. The bride is, you know, making herself ready through the help of Christ living in us, the washes by the water, the Word, and the help of the fellowship of the church.

If Christ does not sanctify us under this same point, we have no part with him again. And that goes not just to think that it's me and you, God, me and you, Jesus Christ. No, Jesus Christ has a body of believers. He has a body. We're part of the body, and we all need to remember that to be part of that body, we all are to be serving and loving and helping one another.

And then another point we mentioned there is that we must submit to God even if it's strange or uncomfortable. It's kind of a bizarre thing that we would do this even today, especially when we don't get our feet very dirty. And I was just saying to somebody that, you know, when we come at the Passover, nobody really needs their feet washed physically because our feet are sparkling when we come to have our feet washed at the Passover.

It is, nobody wants to come in here with dirty feet and put those in front of somebody. And that's just how it is. It is a spiritual exercise, and it is a reminder of these things. So this is very good that we remember these aspects.

But we're going to continue on now from that point. And I think that as we go, you will see how this ties directly into the meaning of these days. Because point number four is that foot washing symbolizes being freed from sin ruling over us. Being freed from sin ruling over us. That is a very important aspect of this. Point A, and remember, the way we'll do this is I'm giving you the big number point, and then I'll give you an A, B, C, and so forth under each of these points. And so A, under that header of point number four, is the fourth question about reclining. I mentioned this. The fourth question about reclining. Let me explain what I'm talking about.

The Jews today, when they have the Passover, they go through these four questions. Now these are not biblical, in a sense, but it comes out of the idea that when your kids are asking questions, you're supposed to have answers for them. And so they've come up with these kind of standard questions that they ask, these traditional questions, and I think they've changed over the centuries a little bit.

The way they are right now is, you know, on all other nights we leaven bread. Why do we only leavening on this night? Or the other way, we leaven bread. Why do you only have leaven bread? And then on all other nights we dip only once, which they don't really dip anymore when they eat, but that shows you how it's an ancient thing. They used to say, we dip only once, but tonight we dip twice because they would go through this process of dipping their vegetables and then dipping their other things anyway.

These questions end with question number four, which is on all other nights, you know, we just eat sitting normally, but on this night we recline. And today what the Jews do is, a lot of times they'll put a pillow under them and they kind of lean on that. And when they drink their wine, they do it leaning over like this, or lean to the left, actually, I guess it is. I can get this backwards. But it's trying to recall something that they used to do. Really, it comes, I believe, that the point of it is that it comes from banqueting in Greco-Roman times. If you look at a Greco-Roman banquet, they would basically have a table that would be a very low table.

Sometimes it was almost at the floor and they would be kind of laying on the floor up to this table. But then they also had ones that were a little bit higher and they had a raised bench around that table. And this is called a triclinium, a three-sided seating area around a table.

And they would basically lay with their legs would be sticking out in the back and their body would be kind of leaning forward. And by the way, this is probably how it was done in the time of Christ because it mentions, actually, in John 13, it mentions that, and you can look at this really quickly.

I'll just show you this here in John 13. This is something I wonder why was it like this? If it was the way we sit today, this would be a very odd posture, what I read here in John 13. It says John 13, 23.

Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom, one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. Now that word, leaning, is reclining. I mean, that's the word. There was reclining on Jesus' bosom.

What were they doing? I mean, was he sitting in a chair, like leaning way over like this? It just seems like a very strange thing, but that's not it at all. If you can imagine people at a table and they're kind of leaning down like this, then if you want to talk to the person behind you, you would lean your body back into where they were leaning in the same direction, and you'd end up leaning your body into their chest, and you'd look right back up at them, and you'd talk to them. That's exactly what is being described here. That very way of dining, which was common in the Greco-Roman world at that time, was being done among the Jews at that time. Now, it's interesting because we see a little bit of a contrast with the way the Passover was done in Egypt. Now, I'd like you to turn back to Exodus 12. Exodus 12. And if you look in Exodus 12, and we see here how they were supposed to do this, it says when they did the Passover in Egypt, it says that they were to... I didn't write the verse down. I should have done that, but I know it's right here, so my eye will fall on it in a second. It's that... here it is in verse 11. And thus you shall eat it with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hand, so you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. And so the idea is that they needed to get out and be ready to go. Now, a lot of people today will use this as an argument. The Jews today even will use this as an argument to say, see, the Passover was eaten on the 15th, and they had to be ready to go because they left right after that, right that night, the same night, they ate the Passover, they had to rush out of their houses and get out of Egypt that very same night. And so that's how they cram all the events into that one night. But that's not what's really going on here. What we should understand is that the Israelites were not allowed to leave their homes all night. They were not allowed to leave until the next morning. And if anything was left of the Lamb, then they would burn it.

And then that morning, as soon as it was light, they had to get all of their stuff and they had to go to Ramesses, which was in sort of the center of Goshen, the land where they lived. But they weren't all living right there in Goshen. They were scattered around, out around the Nile Delta. And for many of them, it would have taken them quite a long time to get to the gathering place where they left Egypt from. So that day, the Passover day, the night, the day after they took the Passover, they would have been all gathering with all their belongings. They would have left their homes and they would have all marched to Ramesses. And then at Ramesses, they would have organized into tribes and ranks and so forth. And as I said, they left by organized armies from Egypt by night at the beginning of the 15th. But you had to have that whole day of preparation before they left to even get there. That's why they had to be ready to go when they were eating in their homes the Passover night because they had to get out of there as soon as it was light, they had to go. So they did have to leave their homes, but they weren't yet leaving out of the land of Egypt. But it's interesting because now that is not the way the Passover is observed. And apparently it was not the way that Jesus and his disciples observed the Passover. Apparently they observed the Passover with this reclining. And the Jews take the reclining, they had to have a spiritual meaning for everything they did. I probably, I think it's pretty much was the way bankwitting was done at that time. But they would make a point of saying, we do this now because we are free. Because we have freedom. We are no longer enslaved in Egypt. We're not having to in haste rush out. We have freedom. And so that was part of the reclining. There is a freedom from Egypt that they had already that Egypt had been broken with the death of the firstborn, the power of Egypt, the grip, the hold, they were told they could leave. They had not left yet. That's an interesting key. They had not left yet, but they had permission to go. They were allowed to go and they were in that sense free and they were on their way out. So, point B under this is that the power of sin is broken at repentance and the acceptance of Christ. The power of sin is broken when we repent and accept Christ, at repentance and the acceptance of Christ. Turn over Romans 6.

You know, we think, well, we're enslaved to sin still because we are in the flesh. Well, that is not exactly right. We can still put ourselves back under a sort of a bondage, but we are free because freedom has come. It's just that we are still on our way and pursued by bad things. I'll explain a little bit more as we go. But again, and this ties directly to the meaning of this feast. If you look here in Romans 6, it gives the whole parallel about baptism and what it symbolizes. Paul is making this point. He says, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound because God is glorified and forgiving, so we might as well just do whatever we want to do because we're forgiven. That's not the way we are to look at it. Certainly not.

How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us were baptized into Christ, Jesus were baptized into his death? We are supposed to have died with him. Our old person is supposed to have died with him. And of course, he died on the Passover.

And we are to die with him. At the Passover, when we recommit to him, we are saying again, our old man is buried with Christ. Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life. So not only are we buried with Christ, verse 5, for if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. And that looks forward to our future actual resurrection, of course, to be resurrected into glory with him. But even right now, it says, we are raised to walk in newness of life. Verse 6, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, and that again happened at the Passover, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. And verse 7, notice it, for he who has died has been freed from sin. And that is important to remember. And if you've died with Christ, then you are free with Christ. And verse 8, now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. That likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. But he still has to give this admonition, because that doesn't mean that sin is automatically gone from our lives. So what does he say?

Verse 12, therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in his lusts, because it's still possible for us to do that. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead in a new life, not your old one, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, under its penalty of death, but under grace.

You have been given new life. And then, of course, he goes on in verse 15. What shall we say then? Shall we sin because we're not under law, but under grace? Well, certainly not. You not know that to whom you present yourself slaves to obey, you are that one slave from whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or obedience leading to righteousness. You can put yourself back into slavery to sin. And if you keep doing that, it says it will lead to death.

You don't want that, obviously. But God be thanked, verse 17, that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered, and having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. And he says, I speak in human terms because the weakness of your flesh, this idea of becoming slaves is something for justice. You presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness. So now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. So be like a slave to what's right. And what's interesting about all of this is that, and verse 22, I'll skip down, but now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So what we see here, brethren, is that we have been freed. Christ died for our sins. We died with him. We are in a new life. And so we are free in that sense. But we're still pursued by the enemy, aren't we? We're still pursued by the enemy. We're still pursued by our old self, who's clawing to get back out of that grave. But it's dead, and we are still pursued by the ways of this world. We are still pursued by Egypt, just as the Israelites were. They left Egypt following the pillar of cloud and fire, following Jesus Christ, right out of Egypt.

But right behind them was the Pharaoh's army, coming on their heels and trying to overtake them.

And the people became discouraged, and they thought they were all going to die.

And we can become discouraged, but we're told not to. We're told to go forward. They came to the sea, and it blocked them. They were told... God said, you know, Moses said, you know, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And God actually said to Moses, why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to go forward. Don't stop. Keep going, and God will make a way. And that is what we need to remember, because we've been freed. We just need to remember that. That's what we have to remember, and sometimes it's hard to remember. But that's what this is all about. So when we have the foot washing in that sense, we're to remember that we were cleansed, and we've even been renewed, so that we can go forward again. Another aspect of this, I want to point out, is that foot washing was in conjunction with rest. I'd like you to turn to Deuteronomy 28, because when a guest would come and you would allow them to come, you know, normal practice was not that people wash their own feet. We've been through is that you would give somebody water... I mean, not that people would wash another's feet, but you'd give them water so that they would wash their own feet.

Because people walked far and wide. That's the way people got around back then. Yes, some people rode on horses, but horses get tired too. They had to be watered. The camels had to be watered. And people's feet need to be watered. They were walking these great distances here and there. They needed a foot bath because they needed some relaxation and rest and rejuvenation. And we can see that feet get tired in that sense. If we look at Deuteronomy 28, and verse 65, God says about when the Israelites would be sent into captivity, and among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the soul of your foot have a resting place. The word of that is very interesting. Nor shall the soul of your foot have a resting place, but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul when they were in this captivity and scattered about. Their feet would not have a resting place, and they would need that rest. And at some point they would receive it. If you turn over to Psalm 58, book of Psalms 58, and we can see here in verses 10 through 11 of Psalm 58, it is kind of a gruesome spectacle. I want to see this for just a moment.

But it says, The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. This is talking about God coming and taking care of enemies. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, so that men will say, Surely there is a reward for the righteous. Surely he is God who judges in the earth.

And it sounds very dark. Obviously, this kind of ties in with treading out the grapes. You see that later as the whole thing of the winepress of the wrath of God. But the symbolism here is this washing in the blood of the wicked when the enemies are destroyed. But that is part of the process that gives them this resting place for their feet when they are finally given that. But it's going to require a lot of gruesome and dark things. But isn't it true that that's how it is for us today? If we think about our enemies, when we think about what pursues us, our worst enemy is our own old self that pursues us. And what is the command in Scripture? That we are to put to death these things. They are to be mortified. They are to be put to death. We should be washed in the blood of the wicked, of our old selves, in that sense. And we find the rest that God intends for us to have. Now, another aspect of this is that we find, this is point D under this, is that we find relief and security in God's forgiveness through Christ. We find relief and security in God's forgiveness through Christ. If you look over at 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul wrote something very interesting here, 2 Thessalonians, verses 16 and 17 we'll read. Paul says, Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. So, what I want us to notice here is the word consolation and comfort. This is a big aspect of what God does for us. And when we are forgiven, we have this consolation. But there's more to come in this whole process of giving us rest, of giving us comfort, of giving us peace. You know, the Jewish greeting, Shalom, peace. It means a lot more than just absence of war. It means you live in a way that all is well. And that's what God is giving us. And that can't even commence until we have this relief and security that we have in God's forgiveness through Christ. If you'll look over at John 14, the night that Jesus took that last Passover meal, John 14, he said in, and this is in verses 25 through 27, very familiar passage, of course, to us.

He says, These things I have spoken to you while being present with you, but the Helper, the Helper, the Holy Spirit. You see this word Helper a lot of times here in the New King James version, but other versions will have the Comforter or the Advocate or the consoler even. This is God sending comfort and help. The Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in my name, it will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. And notice the next word, peace, Shalom, I leave with you. My peace, my Shalom, I give to you, not as the world gives you I give to you, that not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. So it removes fear. It removes the concerns that we have. We have security and safety. We have comfort. We have peace. We have all of these wonderful things that come through God's blessing. And of course, it begins, it comes through Christ. It comes through what He did for us. It is sacrificing. It comes through His continuing through the Holy Spirit to live in us and help us to experience that peace until ultimately we experience it in full in the kingdom of God. But Philippians 4, if you'll also turn over to Philippians 4. In Philippians chapter 4 and verses 6, we'll start in here while I'm in the wrong book. Philippians 4 verse 6, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, this Shalom, this wonderful wellness and total comfort of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. So we have this tremendous gift from God of security and safety and peace and a feeling of just awesome comfort that we receive. The rest for the soles of our feet, basically, as we're in this struggle and this walk, we have that. But now point E under this is our feet are rejuvenated to walk in God's way. Our feet are rejuvenated to walk in God's way. You know, when we have the foot washing, I mean, that's part of what we're to understand here. Yes, we are given a rest. We are given all of this wonderful gift that we just mentioned.

We're given a security in the cleansing that we received, but it doesn't mean that we're to just sit there. You know, we don't just rest on our laurels or actually we don't just rest on Christ's laurels. He did this work. We get up to walk. You know, the Israelites kept the Passover in their homes in Egypt. They were still in Egypt when they observed the Passover, but they weren't supposed to stay there. They were supposed to get up. When it was time right then, they were to get up and walk. They had somewhere to go. They had things to do. They had to leave Egypt. They had to get out of there. They had to get out of sin as we do, brethren. We experience this. We take, we renew our covenant, the Passover. We have our feet washed. We have a cleansing. We have the rest. We have the comfort that comes in Christ, but it is to do our work, to do our job, to get up and to walk and to move forward. That is what these days of Unleavened Bread, pictured, that's what we're here commemorating at this time. Turn over to John 13. John 13, that very night. And I think it's interesting, you know, we it was mentioned to us at the Passover service here by Mr. Dobson that in this whole talk that Jesus was giving to the disciples, they were given, he said, he was giving marching orders. And that's true. These were their marching orders. These are what they were to go forth and do. And they were to follow him, of course, as he said, you are to love one another as I've loved you. That was very important. And notice that it says in, you know, where Simon Peter said in verse 36, well, Lord, where are you going? And Jesus said, where I'm going, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me after. Now, of course, he's in this discussion with Peter and Peter actually literally had ended up crucified in his life. That did happen to him. And he went into death that way. But this statement that Jesus made applies to all of us, brethren, that he was, as he told his disciples, you can't follow me now, but you would follow me after, after he did this work, all of his followers would follow him to the cross and into the grave and into resurrection. All of us follow him in that process. You know, the Israelites followed the cloud and fire out of Egypt. They went into the sea and out of the sea, which is a type of baptism. And as I say, we follow Christ into death and resurrection to new life. And what's very fascinating is, if you think about the time frame of when Jesus died and was resurrected, Jesus was killed at the Passover and he was put into the grave right before sunset, which means that he was dead for three days and nights, the first three days and nights of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For the first three days and nights of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Jesus was dead in the grave, but he came out of the grave in the middle of that feast.

And then he ascended to heaven to be received and accepted by his father in that, during that feast of Unleavened Bread. Because the Feast of Unleavened Bread pictures all of this, brethren, it pictures putting out the old leaven, it pictures putting out sin, it pictures the death of the old man and being dead and having the old self buried with Christ during this time, but also not just that, but also being raised with Christ in the newness of life to have the Unleavened Bread of sincerity and truth in our lives. This feast symbolizes all of that, and we follow Christ in all of that. We follow him into death and into resurrection and into the very Holy of Holies.

We're able to go with our prayers because of what he did for us, as Dr. Houslopin mentioned just a few weeks ago when the veil was rent. So it is an amazing process that we're led in.

Now another aspect of this, under this point about being rejuvenated to walk in God's way, is that we are cleansed to keep clean. You know, we're not just cleansed to go jump back into mud puddle. That's not what we're supposed to do. When we are filthy, by the way, if we are just walking around filthy, if our feet are all filthy, and all of a sudden you got a little bit more dirt on there, you never would see that. But if your feet are sparkling clean, if you have your feet washed and they're very clean, then you get a speck of dirt on there, you'll notice it. And when we are very clean, it's much easier to see when we collect dirt. So when we are cleansed, you know, added filth or sin is easier to spot. And it can be dealt with, and it needs to be done on a regular basis. We need to be washed anew. And, brethren, we do need to be washed anew. Not only at Passover, we continually go back to God all the time. This piece is about that, too. This piece is not just about meaning that we can sort of maintain this perfection on our own. We are to continually go back to God for the redemptive work that He's doing in us. We are to continually repent, and we are to continually be cleansed over and over again in this life, in this process of sanctification being made holy. Okay, the next aspect that I want to cover here is number five about what is symbolized in the foot washing. Number five is that we are being cleansed for service as Christ's messengers. We're being cleansed for service as Christ's messengers. Now, point A under this, we've already mentioned, is that the church is a spiritual priesthood. The church is a spiritual priesthood, and I'll just reference for you because we've already mentioned it earlier a little bit, but Exodus 40 is where Moses was told to wash the new priesthood and to put them into service. They were supposed to wash their hands and feet, and so Christ did as well with His disciples when He put them into service as His priesthood. And a priesthood are those who represent God, communicating His messages to the people and also acting as God's representatives.

I'll just mention for you also 1 Peter 2.9. 1 Peter 2.9 is a verse where we're told that the church is a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and that we are to be that priesthood. Israel of old in Exodus 19 was told that they were to be a kingdom of priests unto God, but we are now to be that kingdom of priests unto God. We are to be His representatives, and we are a royal priesthood.

And I want you to turn to Isaiah 52.

And this all ties together. Isaiah 52.

The priests had certain responsibilities. In fact, the whole Levitical priesthood had various responsibilities on who would carry out what in dealing with the tabernacle responsibilities.

Isaiah 52, verse 11.

God is an interesting statement, and I want you to think about this.

I want you to think about this in context of the Days of Unleavened Bread. Again, what we're in now. Depart, God says. Depart. Go out from there. Isn't that exactly? Go out. Come out, my people. Come out of Babylon. Come out of the wrong ways of the earth. Get out of what's wrong. Depart, depart. Go out from there. Touch no unclean thing. Go out from the midst of her. Be clean, God says. Be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord.

Be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord. Because this is a priesthood of God who is commissioned with the vessels of God. Today we're commissioned with bearing God's message, His gospel message. And to be vehicles, to be actually vessels of His grace and of His message. And we are to go forth and to not be smurched and be smeared with with grime, but to be clean. Point B under this is beautiful feet, beautiful feet of those bringing good news.

Beautiful feet of those bringing good news. Right here in Isaiah 52, if you look back up a few verses to verse 7, it says, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaim salvation, who says to Zion, Your God reigns. Those who bring this message, which is the gospel message, the gospel of God's kingdom, the gospel of peace, the good news of peace. The feet are beautiful because that's how they, you say, you know, this person made it there to tell you this. And that person's feet, which got them there, the thing that carried them, is a beautiful thing.

And, you know, I'll just refer that verse is mentioned by the apostle Paul. In Romans 10, verse 15, he says that in Romans 10 verse 15, he quotes that very verse in saying that, you know, how shall we preach unless we're sent? And if we're sent with the message from God, then we have beautiful feet because these feet get us around to say that. In Paul's day, he walked all over the Roman world, and so did the other apostles of God. Later, they walked all over the place proclaiming this message. And they had beautiful feet, at least in a figurative sense because it was so wonderful that they were able to come and give that message. And we're also told, by the way, in Ephesians 6, I'll just reference for you, that's where it talks about the armor of God, the various facets, the helmet of salvation, the blessed breastplate of righteousness. But one of the things that's mentioned as part of the armor of God is the shoes. It says, in your feet, shod with the gospel of peace.

That you are to... it helps us. It guards our walk, is this message of God's peace, this message of good news that we are preaching and proclaiming as God's people, bearing His message, we go on and it protects our feet and it keeps our feet beautiful in that sense if we are going and bearing that message. And you know, our feet are not supposed to be grimy and ugly in that sense. So we need to keep it pure and clean through this living out this message that we are to be bearing and showing forth to the world. There's a lot of metaphors here, but it's sort of an amazing picture. You put all these things together. But if you look at Colossians 3, if you would, Colossians 3, and in Colossians 3 and verses 8 through 10, Paul is telling us that we're to put off all the bad things, all the grime, all the filth. And he says in Colossians 3 verse 8, but now you yourselves are to put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you put off the old man with his deeds. These are the bad things of the old man that are supposed to be cast away there, to be cast off there, to be put off. And then we are to put on, of course, Christ and his message and bear what he tells us to us, his representatives. And verse 16 tells us, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. That brings us to my next sub point here, which is that the message is in both word and action. The message is in both word and action as we carry the message. Yes, we're to let the word of Christ dwell in us. And we're told in places that we're to support the message of the church. I'll just reference for you here in the same book as Colossians 4.3, which is where Paul says to pray for a door to be open, that they can preach the message. So we're to be praying for the gospel message to go out by the church. Collectively, we pray for that. And individually, we may have a responsibility to communicate the truth, the gospel message to people as we go. We're told, I'll just know the reference for you, 1 Peter 3.15, be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you a reason for the hope that's in you. We need to be able to communicate that. We need to be able to say what is the reason. And actually, Paul admonished the Hebrews in the book of Hebrews where he said, you know, by this time you ought to be teachers, and we ought to be able to be able to say to people why we believe what we do and what this is all about. But it is not only in what we say, brethren, it is also in what we do and the lives that we live in, the example that we set, and we can bring dishonor on God. We can profane God's name among the Gentiles by what we do.

Or we can bring light and truth by the way that we live. And I'll just reference for you Matthew 5, verses 14 through 16. Matthew 5, verses 14 through 16, which is where we are told that we are to be the light of the world. We are to be the light shining in a dark place. And of course, there are other places where God's truth is referred to as the light. His word is the light. Well, his word is the light, and Jesus was the light. But that light needs to shine out through us so that we illuminate the darkness by the way that we live. And we communicate something from God. We are then the message of God. You know, Christ was the Word. He was communicating God's message. But we are to be a message too. Paul actually wrote to one of the churches and said, you are our epistle written in our hearts. You are our epistle because you, by the way that you live, are communicating a message from us. And we are all, brethren, communicating a message from God. And we who bear the vessels of the Lord are to be clean in this walk. And turn back to John 13, again that night that he observed the Passover and before he when he was sending his disciples out with that responsibility. We just mentioned this a minute ago, but we'll look at it very briefly. John 13. In John 13 verses 34 to 35, Jesus said, a new commandment I give you that you love one another. You say, well, that wasn't really new, but this was new, as I have loved you. As I have loved you, he set the example of how to obey God's commandments to the very point of giving his life. And they had never seen anything like what he did in obeying God and keeping the commandments. Love one another as I have loved you. That is the tallest order possible, that you also love one another. But here's what I really wanted to get to in this verse 35. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

There is a very big message in that, because that's how God said, by this they're going to know.

And if you're not doing this, then they're not going to know by that. But God's going to communicate his message somehow. We just pray that we are part of communicating that. And we need to be involved in that. The Israelites were following the cloud out of Egypt. There was a vast number of people following that cloud. They went right into the sea and they came out. There was a big message in all of that. There was a big message that was sent to the nations through this group of people.

Following God and the great miracles and the wonderful things that he did for them as they followed him. And we need to let that be us as well. Another aspect I want to bring out here under this point about being cleansed for service as Christ messengers is D, which is that rejection of God is to be shaken off. Rejection of God is to be shaken off. Turn to Mark 6.

We are not to be corrupted by this world, brethren.

And where we find things that would be corrupting, we need to have nothing to do with it.

Mark 6, and this is verses 10 through 12, Jesus sent his disciples out to preach, and he said to them, in whatever place you enter a house, stay there till you depart from that place. And that was just talking about who would receive them and they could use that place as a base to preach from.

And whoever will not receive you nor hear you when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. So again, this has to do with shaking or beating dust off of your feet. There's something in that that goes with what we've been talking about, about keeping our feet clean. Shake off the dust from under your feet as a testimony against them. I surely say it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Well, that's a sad thing. I mean, that meant that they rejected God, and their dust was shaken off. God's people are not going to have anything to do with that, but we have to be cleansed from that. Because all of that is going to be destroyed. This world around us is going to be destroyed. But we need to be part of what God's doing, the work that will not be destroyed. Don't be contaminated, I guess, is part of that idea there. We are not to be contaminated with this world and its ways. We don't want our feet dirty with that, and we want to leave that and shake off any residual effects from that. Point number six about the foot washing is that it represents being welcomed and welcoming others into the household of God.

Being welcomed and welcoming others into the household of God.

You know, this makes a lot of sense when we think about washing a feet as something that would happen when somebody who'd been traveling around on the dirty roads would come into a house and they'd be given water. This was something that you do for people as a hospitality, as an act. You give them the water to wash their feet. That's a welcoming thing to the guests. You're welcome.

You're welcoming them by giving them the water for washing their feet. You're welcoming them into the home. If we are offering to wash someone's feet, we're welcoming them.

But in having our feet, we are being welcomed. This is all part of that picture.

Point A under this is that Passover pictures the communion of the church. Passover pictures the communion of the church. I'd like you to turn to 1 Corinthians 10.

The communion is sharing, but also the sense of a fellowship and togetherness. 1 Corinthians 10.

And by the way, the Days of Unleavened Bread picture this too. We'll see this as part of this as well. But 1 Corinthians 10 tells us, and Paul's in this discussion about eating meat sacrificed to idols when he says this, in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 16, he says, The cup of blessing, which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ, the sharing together of the blood of Christ, the bread which we break, is it not the communion, the sharing together of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body.

For we all partake of that one bread. This is a pretty remarkable thing if we think about it.

And he says in verse 18, observe Israel after the flesh, are not those who eat of the sacrifices, partakers of the altar. And he was trying to encourage them not to participate in idolatrous worship in any way, not to partake of the pagan altars around them, because then they were part of that. Just like when we as the church come together and partake of these symbols that remind us of what Christ did, the blood and the body we partake of that, we become one bread to partaking of that one bread. And we are to be in oneness and unity and a togetherness through taking of that work of Christ together. We become his body.

We are what we eat in that sense. We take in the work of Christ and we become that.

And this is an amazing picture that we're given here.

The fact that we take it together, that's important on this picture, and that through it, we are one. That through it, we are one body. We are one in togetherness. We are the family of God. We are the household of God. We become this through this act that we do. And so it's interesting that they were on the night that they were picturing that in the Passover that they needed to have their feet washed because becoming part of that family of God and becoming part of that household of God, they need their feet washed. Well, I want to mention something else about this, and that is that the Church of God, the very word church, not the word church itself, but the word ecclesia, from which church is translated, that word we often say it means the called out ones, those who are called out, and it does, but it was the word that was used in that society for an assembly of people because you're not just called out to do your own thing. They're called out as a group together. They were called out to an assembly. They were the called out group to come together, called out to be together. And Israel was called out of Egypt. They were told to leave. They were told to get out, but they weren't told to get out so they could scatter and disperse. They were told to get out to be together as God's holy nation, as his people, as his assembled people, his assembly, as they called the nation, the congregation or the assembly of Israel, which was also, by the way, called the house of Israel, the house of Israel, the house of God. And that today, brethren, is us.

We are to be that house of God, God's holy nation. That is point B, the church is the household of God. The church is the household of God. Turn to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2.

And we look here at verse 19. We're going to look at verse 19. Now therefore, actually, we're going to look up at verse 11, where he said to the Gentiles, Remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcised by what is called the circumcision. Verse 12, At that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

So together we're brought near. Verse 14, For he himself is our peace, who has made both one. He has broken down the middle wall of separation. And I'm going to skip down to verse 19 now. Now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members. Members, by the way, does not just what we think of members today is, well, you're members of a club. Members really meant like an arm or a leg or a foot.

These are members of a body. Body parts is what we're really talking about, of the household of God. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself, being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building fit together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. We are the household of God.

God makes his home with us, and we are to be his home and family. So point C under this is that we, as the church, must display God's hospitality. We, as the church, must display God's hospitality. You know, God has given an invitation. He has sent out the call. He has called people. He has invited people to this house. He has invited them to his home. He's invited us. And Christ washes our feet. He washes our feet when we come into his household.

He says, here, let me wash your feet. And you have to let him wash your feet. And you have to also wash the feet of others as his representative. And he prayed for us, too, brethren. You remember when he gave that prayer, as was mentioned at the Passover, John 17, the real Lord's Prayer, where he prayed that prayer, he said, I don't pray for these only, but for those who will become my followers through them, and for those who would later hear.

We've all been invited, and we are not to be excluding others who God has invited. We are his family, and we are his household, and we are to display this hospitality in this thing that we do of the foot washing. But that is only a representative of how we should just treat each other, period. It is not about a literal act as much as it is about the whole life that we live and what we do for others. And turn to 2 Corinthians 1.

2 Corinthians 1. And we'll read here verses 3 and 4, remembering about the comfort and security that we have in what God has done for us through Christ. We'll read here verses 3 and 4, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. That is an awesome statement, and I want to read the last part of it again, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

You see, God does this work of comforting us. Part of it is symbolizing the foot washing. He gives us that rest and security. He gives us that place for our feet. He gives that to us in this consoling comfort that He gives us. We all receive that from God, but we are to also give it out to one another. And what does He say? We're actually giving. We're giving that very comfort that God gives to us to be able to give to others.

This is really what we are all about. That's what it has to do with that we are to love one another as Christ loved us. We are to wash one another's feet as He washed ours. He said, as I've done to you, so you ought to do to one another. And it's an amazing picture when these things all converge and tie together. And finally, point number seven. Point number seven, keeping sin out of God's house. What is the seventh of these meanings of foot washing that I've covered here? Keeping sin out of God's house.

You might remember the thing I told you earlier on an earlier message, which was that in Christ's day, the Jews would all go do the mikvah bath. They would do the sort of a baptism, a full immersion, before they would go into the temple complex. But then once you came into the temple complex, into the inner courts, there were also foot baths there for the people to wash their feet before they went right in there to the worship area, because the fear was that they might have walked in the footsteps of someone else who had an uncleanness.

They might have walked in the footsteps of a Gentile, or they might have walked in the footsteps of somebody who had contracted uncleanness some other way. And so they, even though they had immersed, they had bathed, they still needed only to wash their feet. Like Christ said, that was something that was really going on at the temple at that time, where people would make sure their feet were clean before they would go into the inner courts of the temple as part of the worship of God.

So number A, under this, this, I have A, B, C under this, A, number A, point A under keeping sin out of God's house, is don't track it into the fellowship of the church.

Don't track it into the fellowship. Don't track sin, is what we're talking about, into the fellowship of the church. You know, we're not, you think about Moses at the burning bush, and what happened there when he came near? God said, take off, you know, your shoes from off your feet, for the place where you're standing is holy ground. And he was not allowed to soil that soil. He was not allowed to, with the dirt that had been tracked from elsewhere, was not allowed to pollute that ground, which was holy because of the presence of God. Where he was, that was not to be tarnished, and so he had to take off his shoes. Well, brethren, the church of God is the temple of God. It is a dwelling place of God in the Spirit, and we, it is holy ground. And I don't mean that this building is, or where we are, I mean the people of God, where we are together, is in that sense holy ground, because God is here with us, and he dwells in each of us, and we are not to pollute that. They, you know, we're not to bring that in to the fellowship, and ultimately into the kingdom of God, the whole family of God, there is not to be this tracked into it. We see that here in a moment as well.

They were not allowed to have leaven with the Passover service. When they took the Passover in ancient Egypt, and subsequently you're not allowed to have leaven with the Passover service. And of course, that's physical leavening. You should not have physical leavening with the Passover, but spiritual leavening should not be there either. Now, they didn't have the way to deal with that back then, but we do now. We know the more important leavening, and it needs to all go. We have all come out of sin, and we need to continue in that way, and we're not to place a stumbling block before others. We're not to track sin in and create situations which would be a problem for someone else. It's not to say we never do. Of course we do, but we need to stop, and we need God's help to do that, and we need to continually go back to Him. Point B, under this aspect of keeping sin out of God's house, is that it looks forward. It looks forward to the days that follow, and I'm talking about the Feast of Unleavened Bread and our whole Christian lives.

When we have that commitment to put out sin there at the Passover, and our recommitment to God, we recoven it with Him, we are committing to walk out of sin, to not be where we're going. Our walk out of Egypt and out of sin toward the promised land of God's Kingdom is to be with that focus of leaving that old way of life behind and looking onward to God's Kingdom. Remember the point I said earlier about we are cleansed to keep clean. We are not cleansed so that we can just get dirty and be cleaned again, although we will. I'm not saying we won't, but we should try not to do that, and it's easier not to do it if we are committed to not doing it, and if we are cleansed and when it happens we are prepared for that. And finally, see the last point here, looking forward to God's Kingdom. I'd like you to flip over to Isaiah 35 while I reference a couple of things. First, I want to mention in John 14, verse 2, remember what Jesus said on the night of the Passover. He said, I go to prepare a place where I am, there you may be also. He was looking forward to what he was going to do, to the positions that he was going to have for his followers in the Kingdom. And he said at that service, you know, he said, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine again with you until I do it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God. He was looking forward to that future time when he did that. And of course, then he died, and he was dead in the grave during those days of unleavened bread, and then he rose. And then he ascended to heaven, and he acts now as our helper, living within us, and as our High Priest to continue to intercede for us in this whole process of living our lives before him. All of that is pictured in these days that we are now in, until we finally get to God's Kingdom, when it is all ultimately fulfilled, and there is no more sin. And we look at Isaiah 35. Here it says in Isaiah 35 and verse 8.

A highway shall be there, that is the way of God, and a road, and it shall be called the highway of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, if your feet are dirty, you're not allowed on that road. You have to be clean, but it shall be for others, what others? Those who are clean. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, because, and there's a little few different ways to maybe translate this, but the idea is that you would be able to find your way on this road if you are of this kind of person. Shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it. It shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads, they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sign, shall flee away. That is the day we look for.

That day when the unclean will not be allowed. And that's what this is all a forerunner to, is all looking forward to that future time. There will be no dirty shoes to trample over holy ground, or dirty feet. We'll all be clean. That is the day, brethren, that we look forward to. So finally, before closing here, I know I gave many, many points. So let me just say them very quickly, so that again, we can recapture where we've been. What does the foot washing ceremony picture?

Number one, humility and loving service to others, including hospitality, loliness of mind, servant leadership, forgiving one another, honoring all without partiality, following Christ's example of loving service. Foot washing also symbolizes being cleansed from our walk in this world, including the idea of being bathed and needing only to wash our feet, that God's way of life is described as a walk, that we are participating in a sort of ritual cleansing reminding us of those that came before, that we are to avoid uncleanness in our walk, and that we still sin, the idea that we still sin, but Christ cleanses us. Number three, foot washing, pictures submitting to the need for Christ's sanctification. Sanctification being the process of being made holy, understanding that the one washing also represents Christ, and that if Christ does not sanctify us, we have no part with him, and that we must submit to God even if it's strange or uncomfortable.

Foot washing number four symbolizes being freed from sin ruling over us, including the idea about reclining and resting, that the power of sin is broken at repentance and the acceptance of Christ, that foot washing was in conjunction with rest. It was a rest that was provided to people, and that we find relief and security in God's forgiveness through Christ, and that our feet are rejuvenated to walk in God's way. And number five, that the foot washing symbolizes being cleansed for service as Christ's messengers, that includes the point that A, the Church is a spiritual priesthood, that there is to be beautiful feet of those bringing the gospel, the good news, that the message is both in word and in action, and that rejection of God is to be shaken off, and we're not to be contaminated with that. Number six, the foot washing picture is being welcomed and welcoming others into the household of God. The idea that Passover pictures the very communion of the Church, that the Church is the household of God, and that we as the Church must display God's hospitality. And finally, the foot washing picture is number seven, keeping sin out of God's house. We're not to track it into the fellowship of the Church. It looks forward to the days that follow of coming out of sin as we're in now, and it looks ultimately forward to God's kingdom when there will be no sin. That is the day we look forward to, most of all. Well, brethren, I hope you have a very enjoyable feast of unleavened bread, and that it's very profitable for you spiritually, and that you don't find any leavening. Not talking about finding a sandwich under the under the couch. I hope you don't find any spiritual leavening, but if you do, you know that you have the help to put it out. So with that, I'll close now and look forward to seeing everybody in a few days.