Welcome to the daily disciple podcast where we seek daily to be with and to become like Jesus our teacher It is Wednesday morning and we are spending the week just meditating on John chapter 13 one of the most important one of the most Shocking and one of the most memorable and transformative stories in the entire gospel account So you can turn there and if you're new with us welcome good morning happy Wednesday morning I've got my Bible coffee my journal. I'm in my spot I'm so excited to read a few verses and talk a little bit and hopefully launch us into a time of just connecting with Jesus That then becomes a day of connecting with Jesus because as my dad would always say today is a day that the Lord is made Let's rejoice and be glad in it So today is a day that the Lord is made and let's rejoice and let's be glad in it and let's start it this way And so the title of the podcast this morning is the pattern And that's a specific word in the first century the pattern which we'll get to in just a bit I do not know very much about art and so I'm taking a little bit of risk here But the word that comes to my mind when I think about art is impressionistic and honestly I could not define that word I think that word means that the art leaves you with an impression Which probably means that it's not highly structured art or it's not exact art or it's more subjective Kind of art not could be totally wrong That's not my area of gifting and if it is your area of gifting I could have totally cringed that up and botched that analogy But if I'm right about impressionistic art that it's more of an impression It's subjective Then this word pattern or example that John's gonna use in a moment is a word that is the antithesis the opposite of impression I say not that what Jesus did in this chapter in this room in the upper room would not have made an impression I mean it clearly made an impression, but it was not to make an impression in a general sense, you know in a subjective sense It was to make an impression in do exactly what I do exactly what I do copy me literally copy me do in detail what I have done for you for other people Specifically right the pattern the example the mold the model do exactly what I am doing to you to other people And so I guess the question would be this morning Are you following the exact model example pattern that Jesus set out in this story? And that is a great question, and of course, there's the quick, you know the right answer, but let's ponder it Let's let's ponder it now. We can turn the question around and I've been doing this with myself And I don't like it, but you know I why not bring us all into it what other people say that you are patterning your life exactly Exactly after the example of Jesus specifically the towel and the basin lifestyle of Jesus and if not here's the good news for all of us God is so merciful He's so merciful concerning the things that we've left undone and he's so full of grace and remember grace is God's power at work within us to do what we could never do on our own grace is the fuel for saints that want to be exactly in Model in pattern in detail exactly like Jesus the word in the first century would be an apprentice Following your master in the detail of his or her life, you know apprentice is a word that we're not very familiar with but Joseph did This was Jesus.
This is how you hold the nail This is the angle that you would that you need to hold the chisel This is how you set this rod, you know, so that the table or whatever they were making, you know Could be strong. This is exactly how you do it son. This is a pattern. This is the example This is the model that's what apprenticeship is and so a good question is who is your teacher that is Apprenticesing you in the exact model pattern, you know that you're following who are you learning from who are you getting your wisdom from because all of us have a teacher role students of someone and That's a very very good question and it may be one of the central questions that the gospel asks So we're at verse six and Jesus comes to Peter and he tries to wash Peter's feet and Peter says in verse six Lord you're not going to wash my feet and Jesus replied you do not realize what I'm doing but later you will understand Verse eight knows that Peter you shall never wash my feet But Jesus answered unless I wash you you have no part in me and then Simon Peter replied not just my feet But my hands and my head as well Good on verse 12 when Jesus had finished washing their feet He put on his clothes and he returned to the place.
Do you understand what I've done for you? He asked them you call me teacher and Lord and rightly so if that's what I am now that I you're learning your teacher I've washed your feet you also should wash one another's feet I have set an example For you that you should do is I have done for you And then verse 17 now that you know these things you will be blessed if you do them. Oh, there's so much there Peter seemed to be picking up what Jesus was laying down. He seemed to understand exactly what was going on That's why he resisted He knew that Jesus was not dealing in again If I'm right about this word in the impressionistic sense the subject if he knew that Jesus was dealing in the objective He knew that Jesus was saying do exactly what I do and honestly Peter was hoping for a different kind of teaching a different kind of model A different kind of pattern a different kind of example But that's not what he got what he got was his Lord and teacher grabbing the talent grabbing the basin And so I would love to just begin to think about that today this morning in the presence of Jesus is we're meditating on this chapter Let's let's begin to think about the things that come up throughout the day the the daily menial tasks that present themselves to us And we we try to get out of them.
We try to ignore them. We try to turn to blind eye to them We tend to make up all kinds of excuses right in justifications. Well, that's not my role You know in the marriage at work, you know at church in society, you know, I'm working so hard already You know, we have to have a fair division of labor I'm I'm serving, you know in this way already whatever the enemy tends to whisper to us in our minds That keeps us from taking this pattern this example this model seriously And so what we want to do is we want to allow this story to just transform our relationships because that's exactly what Jesus intended Not in a general sense but in a specific sense in verse 17 Jesus says you're only gonna be blessed if you do it So let's do it. Let's take seriously today doing the small things the helpful things the dirty things the diapers the dishes, you know The chairs, you know, the the menial things Especially those that are closest to it and especially with those that are closest to us and sometimes those that are closest to us They can be the hardest people to do this for because if there's tension in the relationship We don't want to go low.
We don't want to take up a towel on the basin. We don't want to take the last seat We don't want to get small. We want to be big, but let's just do it Let's see Jesus is our apprentice. Let's do it.
Let's do it to strangers Today, let's find a menial task that we can do for a stranger Let's do it for co-workers and it might shock our co-workers because you know Maybe you or I are not the kind of people that are usually willing at work or at home to go low and to do the task of cleaning Or to open up a door to carry something for someone, you know, maybe you're perceived as a little bit self-focused Maybe we're perceived as a little self-focused, you know a bit above the menial tasks And if that's the case, this chapter is going to challenge us in so many deep ways and let's think about our kids What does it look like to watch their feet? Let's think about our family of origin Or dare I say our enemy. What does it look like to wash their feet? And that's honestly what we'll talk about tomorrow when we get to Judas But Jesus is getting us a pattern a model and before I land this plane in the first century There was a word that meant model or pattern, right?
And it was this word that's used in verse 15 example Right because there weren't machines or computers And so you literally had to have this exact model if you wanted to to make something that looked exactly like it and So pattern example model that means an exact representation of this is going to be made And that's exactly what Jesus is saying be exactly like me Do the lowest task imaginable in this word example is right where the story turns and so let's just think about every Relationship that we're in today and Peter is unquestionably picking up what Jesus is laying down And we're being called to pick up what Jesus is laying down and that looks like picking up the towel and laying down our pride and Our life so that we can truly truly serve other people because the greatest in the kingdom is the servant of all We'll talk tomorrow Thanks for listening to the daily disciple podcast We truly hope that you were encouraged by it today now if you would like to support or if you had any questions about the daily disciple podcast Feel free to contact us through our inland vineyard church app It will give you information on our ministries and our Sunday services and you can find us in the Apple and Google Play app stores And we also have our social media pages Which you can find with the tag at inland vineyard to see what's going on with our community our church events and our other ministries As well as our revival youth group and our children's ministry or you can just check us out on our website at inland vineyard