Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

Welcome to week #4 of our Decibels series. In this series, we’re exploring how to crank up our faith volume. How to live our faith out loud so that everyone can hear.

So far in our series, we’ve explored how to shout with our friendships, with our priorities, and with our integrity.

Today God’s challenge to us is to shout with our ministry.

At this point, I’m sure you’re wondering where I am. Why is he not on stage? It’s probably making a lot of you uncomfortable because we’re so used to seeing people on stage. The stage is where the action is. The stage is where the focus is. The stage is what it’s all about.

Because we believe that’s true, a lot of us really like being on stage. We crave attention. We crave applause. We want to be noticed. We want the recognition that is due us. We want people to see just how great we really are. So shine the spotlight on us. Center stage is where we want to be.

But what we have to understand is that, although this type of selfish thinking is rewarded in our culture, but it is absolutely contrary to following Jesus.

I’m going to come up on stage now simply because I don’t want to detract from the message. God has a message for us today and I want to be sure it is heard loud and clear.

The message of Jesus is contrary to our culture. That was never more true than in what we’re going to talk about today. The world tells you to be a star. Jesus tells you to be a servant. Serve. Do ministry. It’s completely countercultural, and that is exactly what makes it so loud. The decibels of our faith are cranking when we serve because it’s completely different from what people normally experience in our world.

There’s a story in John 13 that is our model for this lifestyle of ministry that God has called us to live.

“It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God;

so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” (John 13:1-5, NIV)

This is a phenomenal scene with Jesus and his disciples. The countdown clock to the crucifixion is ticking. Jesus’ time is running out. He knows that his death is imminent.

What if you were in his shoes? The doctor has given you bad news. You’ve only got a few days left to live. Make the most of them. What would you do? Would your days be packed with adventure? Would you spend your last days skydiving or mountain climbing? Going to the extreme?

Would you go out and blow all your money on a spending spree? You can’t take it with you, right? So you live it up! Go the finest restaurants. Buy a Maserati. Party like it’s 1999.

What would you do if you knew that your life had reached the two minute warning? That’s exactly where we find Jesus in our story. He’s in the closing moments of his life, and, in true Jesus style, he does something that nobody expected. He washes his disciples’ feet.

To fully grasp the significance of this, we’ve got to understand the cultural context. In this time period, people wore sandals or, if they couldn’t afford sandals, they often went barefoot. In dry times, the roads they walked were incredibly dusty. In rainy seasons, that dust turned to mud. The manure from domesticated animals littered the streets. They didn’t have a sewer system, so human waste also found its way out into the streets. Walking was the usual method of transportation in this culture, so you can imagine how nasty your feet would be by the time evening rolled around.

Washing feet was a necessary part of life in this culture. But it was a job that was strictly reserved for a household servant or slave. It was only those with no social position who washed feet. It was a completely humiliating job that was reserved for the lowest of the low.

So in that context, you can almost see the shock that registered on the faces of the disciples when Jesus started washing their feet. For a while, no one could even speak. The only sound you heard was Jesus wringing water out of his cloth and then scrubbing the filth off of the feet of his followers.

But there is more to this story than just its shock value. This story lays out God’s expectations of us as Christ-followers. We’ve been saying for the last four weeks that God is calling us to have a loud faith. Through this story, he’s challenging us to shout through our ministry. As we unpack this story, we’re going to see three core truths about our service or ministry.

The first core truth is that, as Christ-followers, serving is who we are.

If you grew up in the ‘70s or ‘80s, then you probably grew up watching Scooby Doo. I’m talking about the original, old school Scooby Doo.

If you’ve seen the cartoon, then you know that at the end of almost every episode, Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby would always catch the bad guy. Of course the bad guys always wore masks, right? So as the suspense rose to a fever pitch, they would rip off the bad guy’s mask to reveal his true identity. After his identity was revealed, the gang would then explain his evil plan in great detail. To which he would say, “And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids.” That’s pretty much the ending of every Scooby Doo cartoon ever made.

What happens when people rip off our mask? Who are we when our true identity is revealed? Who are we in our core? The challenge that Jesus lays down in our story is this: the core identity of the Christ-follower is ministry. When you peel back the layers, rip off the masks, and get to our core, you’ll find a servant. It’s who we are.

Look at Jesus in the story. “[Jesus] got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” (John 13:4-5, NIV)

Jesus didn’t just rinse off their feet. He didn’t just run a Swiffer over their feet to pick up some of the dust. He decided to go for broke. He stripped down to his undergarment and wrapped a towel around his waist. This was the normal way a footwashing slave would dress. And then Jesus methodically scrubbed each of his disciples’ feet. Carefully washing off all the dirt and grime. You can see him washing between their toes. Getting the dirt under their toenails. And then drying them completely with the towel around his waist. This was a long, drawn-out scene. There were 12 disciples present, which meant that Jesus had 24 feet to scrub clean. But Jesus did it. He went all in because serving is who Jesus is. And if we want to follow him, then the same has to be true of us.

Mark Batterson tells the story of window shopping on a beach boardwalk with his family. They were checking out some of the T-shirts that were hanging in the window. One of the shirts he saw had this message printed on it:

I’m kind of a big deal.

Mark said, “It didn’t just make me chuckle. It made me think. I honestly believe that a lot of people spend a lot of energy trying to prove to other people that they are kind of a big deal.

But in stark contrast to a culture where a lot of people are spending a lot of energy trying to prove to other people that they are kind of a big deal, you have Jesus putting a towel around his waist and washing feet. The irony is that Jesus was kind of a big deal. He was the Son of God. He is the only one who could wear the shirt with any degree of integrity. But Jesus wasn’t about propping himself up.

In fact, he said, I “did not come to be served, but to serve.” (Matthew 20:28, NIV) Jesus is the God who washes dirty, stinky feet. And in doing so, he set an example for us to follow.”

Are you spending your life trying to convince others that you are kind of a big deal? All of us have spent our fair share of time and energy trying to do that. Trying to let other people know what a big deal we are, that we’re really something special. We may not wear it on a t-shirt, but it’s the goal of our lives to be on stage, to grab the spotlight. We want everyone to think, “Man, that guy is something. Man, that girl has got it together.”

A few years ago I was talking to a guy that is connected with a pretty big Christian conference. Every year, this conference would invite different people to come and speak. It’s considered a pretty big honor to be asked to speak at this thing.

One guy apparently thought he needed an invitation, so he wrote the convention director a letter asking to speak at next year’s conference. What the guy didn’t realize is that he was already on the list of speaking candidates for next year. The convention director was planning on contacting him, asking him to speak at the conference. But after the director received this fellow’s letter, he took the guy’s name off the list. He said, “The fact that he is trying to get himself on our stage disqualifies him from being on our stage.” The fact that this guy was seeking the spotlight told the conference director that he had the wrong motives. His goal was not to serve. His goal was to be seen.

Let’s go back to our story. “When he had finished washing their feet, [Jesus] put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.

Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” (John 13:12-15, NIV)

Jesus had every right to demand praise. He had every right to seek the spotlight. He deserved it. And yet he took the job of the lowest servant in his culture. And the scary part is that his call on us is to do the same. To take on the identity of a servant.

And here’s why. Because serving is how we love.

There is a sentence in our story that I have missed so many times in the past. But as I studied it this week, this little sentence blew my mind.

The Bible says, “Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.” (John 13:2, NIV)

This is a huge statement: Jesus is going to show his disciples the full extent of his love. If you didn't know what was going to happen next, there would be a little suspense. What is Jesus going to do? He’s going to show “the full extent of his love?” It must be a big deal. It’s kind of like a biblical drum roll. And once that drum roll comes to a crescendo, what does Jesus do?

“He got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” (John 13:4-5, NIV)

Seems a little anticlimactic, doesn’t it? The full extent of Jesus’ love was washing feet? I probably would have saved this statement for the cross. Isn't that the full extent of his love?

But John uses this phrase to frame this act of service. And I wonder if we don’t take it as seriously as we should. This is going to sound awfully simplistic, but in the context of this passage, loving is serving and serving is loving! You haven't really loved someone until you have served them.

The problem with most of us is that there are times when our pride drives us. Love and service take a back seat.

One of the blogs I read regularly is written by Tim Stevens. This week Tim shared a personal story that drilled my heart. So much so that it’s worth reading here.

Tim wrote, “On Saturday it was my goal to stay home all day, but just after lunch I had to run down to the corner nursery to pick up my fertilizer. I was on my way back when I noticed something very strange. At the gas station across the street, there was a car that was pointed at a 45-degree downward with its back wheels in the air. The driver had tried to jump a curb not realizing there was an 18-inch drop-off between the gas station parking lot and the lot next door. His car was perched on the curb and he was in deep trouble. My first thought, which I said aloud, "Oh my. Sucks to be you."

I watched for a few minutes as two guys circled the car considering their options. I was going to drive on home but needed gas anyway, so I pulled over to a pump where I could lurk from behind my car.

The two guys circling the car were punks. They had body piercings everywhere, tattoos all over. I'd guess them to be about 20-years old. I'm just staring, amazed, wondering what these idiots were thinking when they tried to jump the curb.

Then I noticed the car model. It was a newer model, luxury car. It was easily a $50k car. Then I got even more disgusted. These punks are driving around in daddy's car and just messed it up. I even said it to the guy pumping gas next to me who just returned from walking over closer to the crisis: "A couple punks messed up daddy's car, huh?"

That's when I started realizing how wrong I was. He replied, "Nope. There are three little kids still in the car and their dad was driving." I looked past the "punks" and saw a young Hispanic man and his wife, very shook-up, trying to figure out what to do.

These young white "punks" had stopped their car to help the Hispanic man in distress. I'm ashamed to say that stopping to help had never crossed my mind. It was my day-off. I was working in my yard. I was busy. Plus I was consumed by my judgmental thoughts toward the jerks who got themselves in that position. Besides, what could I do? They needed major help. Like a crane or a tow truck.

As I finished pumping, one of the "punks" called out at me. "Hey, can you give us a hand?" They had analyzed the situation and figured with 4 or 5 men they could lift the car off the curb and get this guy on his way. I would never have attempted that or even thought it was possible. But within about 10 minutes, 4 of us (through the very capable leadership of the "punks") got the Hispanic family on their way. The driver quickly grabbed his wallet and offered to pay the "punks" but they waved him off, got back in their car, and drove away. They didn't want money or recognition. They were just there to help.

I got back in my car, not feeling good about helping the helpless--but feeling guilty for my quick judgmentalism. I wasn't happy I could help--I was aware that I would have just watched from behind my car if the "punk" hadn't called out.

Pride is so subtle. It twists its way through our hearts and makes us less than Jesus-like. I'm just glad that I got to witness Jesus this weekend through the actions of a couple punks.

Do you see how pride calls us away from ministry? Pride isn’t about service, it’s about self. Pride pulls us away from loving others and replaces it with judgmentalism and selfishness.

But for those of us who wear the name Christian, love = serving. Jesus showed the full extent of his love to his disciples when he served them.

Let me say this again: You haven't really loved someone until you have served them. Guys, with this definition of love, when is the last time you really loved your wife? Ladies, are you loving your husbands by this definition?

A lot of times people will come up to me and say, “I just love our church.” Do you love our church by this definition? According to Jesus, if you don’t serve your church, then you don’t really love your church. Filling a seat each week is not loving your church. Loving your church means teaching in our children’s ministry. Loving your church means serving on one of our ministries. Loving our church means that, if you tell someone you’ll pray for them, you actually pray for them. Better yet, you take some time right then and pray with them. Loving our church means making a financial sacrifice by giving generously so our ministry can continue to grow.

In our story, Jesus has redefined love. Our culture believes love is an emotion. It’s a feeling. Jesus said, “No. Love isn’t a noun. It’s a verb. It’s an action. Loving means serving.”

He said that, as his followers, serving is what we do.

After Jesus had washed a bunch of nasty old feet, he put his clothes back on. Then he came out and he issued this call to action.

He said, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you…Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13:15, 17, NIV)

Catch that last line. “You will be blessed if you do them.” Not if you study them. Not if you think about them. Not even if you pray about them. Jesus said you will be blessed when you “do” ministry.

We’ve got to stop thinking of faith as passive and soft. Faith is a verb. The way we live with a loud faith is to do something. To get our hands dirty. To get a little sweaty. To do ministry.

You know the last thing that some Christians need is another Bible study? I know for some of us, the Bible is still very new territory. You’re still in the process of learning the basics of God’s truth, which is awesome!

But I’ve met people who have been Christians for most of their lives. They know the Bible. They can quote book, chapter, and verse. And yet they don’t do anything. They’ve been educated beyond their level of obedience.

Peter Marshall was the Chaplain of the U.S. Senate in the 1940s. He wrote, “I wonder what would happen if we all agreed to read one of the Gospels until we came to a place that told us to do something, then went out to do it, and only after we had done it, began reading again? There are aspects of the Gospel that are puzzling and difficult to understand. But our problems are not centered around the things that we don’t understand, but rather in the things we do understand, the things we could not possibly misunderstand. Our problem is not so much that we don’t know what we should do. We know perfectly well, but we don’t want to do it.”

Faith is a verb. Following Jesus means action. It means actively, intentionally serving. Not serving only when we feel like it. And not serving only those who we like and who like us.

Did you ever think that, in our story, Jesus washed the feet of Judas Iscariot? Judas, the one who would betray Jesus. The one who would sell out the Son of God for a fistful of cash. The one who would turn the sinless Lamb of God over to an angry mob, which would set the wheels in motion for a brutal beating and an agonizing death on a cross. Jesus knew what Judas was up to. He knew the hatred that was in his heart. And he washed his feet anyway.

This call to serve is not a call to serve only those we get along with. Those in our circle. Those that live up to our standards. The people that we deem worthy enough for our attention.

In fact, our faith is at its loudest point when we serve those who deserve it the least. Selfishness will ask, “What you have done for me? Why do you deserve this?” A servant will say, “I don’t care what you’ve done to me. What can I do for you?”

I honestly believe that our world would listen more if we talked less. Christians have a reputation for speaking out against every evil or perceived evil under the sun. But not so much of a reputation for following this command of Jesus to go do something. Talk is cheap. To crank up the decibels of God, maybe we should talk less and serve more.

How does that look in your situation? I don’t know exactly. Maybe it means serving your husband even though he’s a jerk. Maybe it means serving your co-worker even though, deep down, you think he’s an idiot. Maybe it means serving that neighbor who has been nothing but nasty to you. Maybe it means serving another person in this room even though your relationship has been damaged. I don’t know exactly what it looks like in your situation, but I do know that this call of Jesus applies, regardless of your situation.

Our world has an easily-understood measure of success. Success is how much you make and how many people serve you.

God’s definition of success is totally upside-down from the way our world operates. By God’s definition, the measure of success is how much you give away and how many people you serve. Are you a success by God’s standards?

There was a recent survey of high school students that asked this question. Do you think you’ll be famous one day? 39% of students responded that they are sure that they will be famous. Almost a full 40% of high school students in this survey are absolutely positive that they will be a star one day.

Most of us are probably more realistic about this. We know that we’ll never really be a star. But we’ve never stopped believing that we should be.

Remember, Jesus didn’t save you to be a star. He didn’t save you to be a sensation. He saved you to be a servant. And even though it seems backwards, we’re at our greatest point when we serve. Our faith is at its loudest when we follow Jesus’ call to go and do something.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: decibels, evangelism, footwashing, humility, John 13, ministry, pride, service, serving