On the night when Jesus was betrayed--literally, on the night “he was being betrayed”--even in the midst of being betrayed, Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper. And it calls our attention to what the Gospels say about that night. What else did Jesus do on that night...in that room...with his disciples? He took a towel and put it around his waist and then he got down on his knees with a basin of water and he washed his disciples' feet, each and every one of them.Click here to listen to this week's entire sermon as well as past sermons I've preached.
That is the example of our Lord; that is the kind of love he showed us. And it is the kind of love we are required to show one another. And after washing their feet he issued to them a command…“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35) This should always be the case; we should always have love for one another, but especially when we come to the Lord's table, it is necessary that we have love for one another.
- He washed the feet of Thomas, who would doubt his resurrection.
- He washed the feet of Peter, who would three times would deny him.
- He even washed the feet of Judas, who would betray him.
"We were built for work and the dignity it gives us as human beings, regardless of its status or pay. The practical implications of this principle are far-reaching. We have the freedom to seek work that suits our gifts and passions. We can be open to greater opportunities for work when the economy is weak and jobs are less plentiful. We no longer have any basis for condescension or superiority; nor is that any basis for envy or feelings of infidelity. And every Christian should be able to identify, with conviction and satisfaction, the ways in which his or her work participates with God in his creativity and cultivation." Let a man once persuade himself that importance attaches only to what he is pleased to call essentials, whatever their number, and he will, no doubt, shorten his creed and cut away the foundation of many controversies; but he will practically set aside all except a very small part of the Scriptures. If such a principle does not mutilate the Bible, it stigmatizes much of it as trivial. Revelation is all gold for preciousness and purity, but the very touch of such a principle would transmute the most of it into dross.Jason went on to write,
Click here to read the entire post.Let us unite around the Gospel. Let us be clear in emphasizing and proclaiming it. Let us underscore the importance of justification by faith alone. Let us continually point ourselves and others to the substitutionary atonement of Christ.
But as we do this, let us never say or act as though the other doctrines and teachings of the Scripture are unimportant. “All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). We can continue to uphold that which is at the heart of our faith and all the while not neglect or relegate the “secondary” doctrines to that of unimportance.
