Pause V Day 11 Preparation


Pause V, Day 11
Servant.
That’s not the role the Israelites expected their long-awaited Messiah to play.
Conqueror, sure, but definitely not a servant.
Yet this was the role and purpose of Jesus.
Jesus showed us how to serve when He washed the feet of His disciples. This was usually a task for the household servants. Imagine Jesus kneeling before you, washing and drying your feet. If anything, this is the posture the disciples should have had to Him.
The heartbeat of His intention was to gently show us how to humbly serve others. He was preparing His disciples, and us, for the same servanthood He exhibited.
We may not wash physical feet, but there are plenty of opportunities to serve.
“For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you.” (John 13:15)
Not surprisingly, Jesus was also preparing us for something that would help us live out the role of servant. There is no way we could do it on our own.
In John 14:6, Jesus spoke one of my favorite verses, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” This is important because it sets the stage for identifying the coming “Helper”.
For the disciples, after Jesus fulfilled His earthly ministry, He would return to the Father, Who would then send the Counselor, or Holy Spirit, to indwell His people. The Spirit, co-equal with God the Father and God the Son, would teach them what to do in everyday life and remind them of Jesus’ instructions.
For us, when we accept Jesus as Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us. He then teaches us of God, reminds us of truth, and transforms us into the people God intends us to be as we mirror His love. He is the gift Who empowers us to live as servants of the Most High God.
Today's Invitation
1) Read John 13 and 14, then circle back and re-read verses John 14:15-31 a few times through.
Answer these 3 questions in your journal from verses 15-31:
- a) What do these verses tell me about God and His character?
- b) What do these verses tell me about others and the world around me?
- c) What do these verses tell me about me and my heart?
2) Close your time by praying for these truths to take root in your heart and for the Holy Spirit to remind you and teach you more about these things today. Be sure to write out any questions you have as you read! If you’d like to send your questions to us, we’d love to study with you!
3) Memorize John 17:23
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John 13
Before the Passover Festival, Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
2 Now when it was time for supper, the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, to betray him. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God. 4 So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself. 5 Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who asked Him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.”
8 “You will never wash my feet,” Peter said.
Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.”
9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”
10 “One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For he knew who would betray him. This is why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 When Jesus had washed their feet and put on his outer clothing, he reclined again and said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you?
13 You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are speaking rightly, since that is what I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you.
16 “Truly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
18 “I’m not speaking about all of you; I know those I have chosen. But the Scripture must be fulfilled: The one who eats my bread has raised his heel against me. 19 I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am he. 20 Truly I tell you, whoever receives anyone I send receives me, and the one who receives me receives him who sent me.”
21 When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in his spirit and testified, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.”
22 The disciples started looking at one another—uncertain which one he was speaking about. 23 One of his disciples, the one Jesus loved, was reclining close beside Jesus. 24 Simon Peter motioned to him to find out who it was he was talking about. 25 So he leaned back against Jesus and asked him, “Lord, who is it?”
26 Jesus replied, “He’s the one I give the piece of bread to after I have dipped it.” When he had dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son. 27 After Judas ate the piece of bread, Satan entered him. So Jesus told him, “What you’re doing, do quickly.”
28 None of those reclining at the table knew why He said this to him. 29 Since Judas kept the money-bag, some thought that Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the festival,” or that he should give something to the poor. 30 After receiving the piece of bread, he immediately left. And it was night.
31 When he had left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so now I tell you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’
34 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
36 “Lord,” Simon Peter said to him, “where are you going?”
Jesus answered, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later.”
37 “Lord,” Peter asked, “why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
38 Jesus replied, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly I tell you, a rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times.
John 14
Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. 4 You know the way to where I am going.”
5 “Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?”
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 “Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip?
The one who has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who lives in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.
12 “Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. 17 He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.
19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me.
Because I live, you will live too.
20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you.
21 The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.
And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father.
I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it you’re going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”
23 Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.
My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
24 The one who doesn’t love me will not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.
25 “I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.
27 “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.
28 You have heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I am coming to you.’
If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father,
because the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens so that when it does happen you may believe. 30 I will not talk with you much longer, because the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me. 31 On the contrary, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do as the Father commanded me.
“Get up; let’s leave this place.

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