Last Words Group Study - Part 1 - Rock Point Church

Now, if you only had a week to live and money was no object, what would you do? Now, I'm sorry if that sounds a little morbid. Would you revisit some of the places that you love? Would you surround yourself with the people you cherish the most? How about participating in an outreach for the homeless?

Honestly, I'm pretty sure that option would even come to my mind. Yet, this is what Jesus did with the few precious moments he had left on this earth. The Bible tells us it was a night to celebrate the Passover meal. So let's set the scene. The great artist Leonardo da Vinci has forever immortalized

the setting of the Last Supper because of his famous painting. Now, he arranged all the participants on one side of a table sitting across upright in chairs as if they were posing for a photographer. Then da Vinci with a paintbrush and oil bathed both Jesus and disciples faces in an angelic light.

And that's how the greatest artists in history pictured it. Yet in reality, special occasions like Passover, Jewish men reclined on large pillows, which sat on these very short backless couches. And then they would lean back on their left elbows and eat with their right hand. Luke's gospel tells us that

before the meal, the 12 had been arguing over which one was the greatest. And when they arrived at the house, there was no servant to wash their feet and none of the disciples volunteered to do this demeaning job.

In Jesus' day, people wore sandals and walked on unpaved roads, which caused their feet to be constantly dirty. So when it came time for the meal, nobody wanted nasty, dirty feet in their faces. Traditionally, the task was given to the lowliest servant of the household.

Jesus must have just gotten tired of waiting for one of them to volunteer. Finally, he stripped down to his inner tunic and did the job himself.

Imagine this, the Creator of the universe stooped down to wash their vile, stinky feet. When Jesus finally got around to Peter, he protested. He just didn't get it. Peter got stuck on the physical and couldn't see the spiritual ramifications.

By washing the disciples' feet, Jesus set a precedence for anyone who would dare to call him their Lord, to be willing to serve the least of these in the most inopportune times. So if the master of the universe was willing to wash the protesting disciples' feet and the feet of Judas who was about to betray him,

shouldn't we be willing to serve the least of these in our community? That's what Jesus did with his few moments on earth. Isn't that strange? So Jesus performed one of the greatest acts of leadership in history. He was the only one who left that night with dirty feet.

Now his dirty feet, F E A T, I'm so clever, right? Should forever remind us that service doesn't demean our dignity, rather it defines it.

Throughout the entire Passover celebration, Judas was the perfect actor, the truest of all hypocrites that have ever played the role of betrayer. The upper room was charged with intrigue, but only between Jesus and Judas.

When Christ washed the disciples' feet, he watched Judas' feet as well. In that moment, you can imagine the Savior's piercing eyes looking directly into Judas' soul. That's when Jesus said, A person who is bathed all over does not need to wash except for the feet to be entirely clean.

And you, disciples, are clean, but not all of you. Yeah, he was referring to Judas and almost pleading with him to repent. Even the table arrangement demonstrated Jesus' love towards Judas. Now, they were sitting in the middle of the table and from left to the right, it was Judas, Jesus, and John.

Jesus gave the betrayer a place of honor. And he also quoted Psalm 40 one:nine, which referred to Ahithophel, who was King David's trusted advisor who betrayed him. So in essence, what Jesus was basically saying by quoting the Psalm was, Judas, old friend, I've got your number. Why don't you just turn around?

Jesus chased after him to the bitter end. And isn't that just like Jesus? Now, at this point, you might be thinking, how could anybody be in the presence of Jesus and betray him like that? The Bible tells us that Satan entered Judas. But what does that actually mean? Did the enemy take over Judas against his will?

It's unclear if Satan inhabited Judas' body and possessed him physically like so many other people that Jesus cleansed during his public ministry. In fact, the word Satan in Hebrew actually means accuser. It's a legal term for someone who brings a prosecution or charge against someone else.

One thing's for sure, Judas becomes a willing partner with the forces of darkness And he understood the ramifications of his betrayal, which would result in the death of Jesus.

John, the master storyteller, through the power of the Spirit, reveals this final confrontation between light and darkness, which is battle for control since the beginning of John's gospel. You remember what it said, in the beginning, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it. And this battle was about to quickly come to a climax.

It's at this point when Jesus reveals his betrayer, but only to Peter and John, and he tells him to do quickly what he's already decided to do. It seems that Judas, his will intact and listed with the forces of darkness, John catches the moment in the end of verse 30 as Judas leaves the Passover meal.

Now the Passover meal was a time of peace and friendship that was full of light and the betrayer opens the door into the darkness and disappears into it. Even then, the gentle foot washer is not outraged at his betrayal, but reveals to the leaven that he is troubled in spirit from wounds of a friend.

Yet the light will go on shining into the darkness and the darkness will not master it. John ends the chapter by focusing on his good friend Peter.

Now, before we're found guilty of judging him, I want to remind you that all four of the Gospels are full of Peter. No other disciple spoke as often as Peter. Jesus addressed him more than any of the disciples. None of the 12 was corrected as frequently or as strongly as Peter.

Yes, he was impulsive and he always seemed to act first and then think afterwards. Yet no other disciple so boldly confessed Christ and none other bothered Jesus more than he did. He even tried to correct Jesus a couple of times. But on the flip side,

Jesus spoke more words of approval and praise to Peter than any other person in the entire New Testament. Peter was a living, breathing, walking contradiction. I don't know about you, but I think most of us love Peter because deep down we're a lot like him.

It seemed almost every time he opened his mouth, he inserted his sandal. Yet Peter gives us hope. We're encouraged because Jesus always responded to his lack of self awareness with patience and kindness. And in a very short time, Peter was going to need Jesus' kindness more than any other period in his life.

Jesus begins to explain to the disciples that his glorification is now at hand and where he is going, the disciples couldn't follow. Once again, Peter was the first to pose the question that everyone else wanted to ask. Where are you going?

Evidently, Peter only heard Jesus' final sentence and totally flaked out and missed the part about Jesus' new commandment to love each other as he had loved them. And Peter's response revealed his inability to grasp any kind of an accurate self assessment.

He informed his master and all of his brothers that maybe these other 10 guys wouldn't be up to the task, but he was going to follow Jesus even if it cost him his life.

Obviously, Peter loved the taste of sandals. But there are times for the sake of those we love, we must deliver pure distilled truth. Jesus replied, Will you really, Peter? Is it you that's really going to lay down your life for me? Haven't you forgotten what I said about the shepherd and the sheep?

Actually, Peter, I hate to say it, but you're going to do something so radically different. I tell you the truth, the next time you hear a rooster crowing, it was so easy for Peter to measure everything from the perspective of his own natural strength. Peter's presumption came from his shallow understanding

of what it really took to follow Jesus. It's not through strength that we follow him. It's through our weakness. We depend on him to guide us like Shepherd guides the sheep. Now, at this point in the conversation,

Peter didn't really feel like Jesus' rod and staff were comforting him. Sometimes the Good Shepherd has to keep the wolves at bay with his rod while simultaneously wielding his staff to violently grab his sheep by the neck just to keep them from the path of self destruction.

Sadly, Peter had more wandering to do in his future, but in the end, Jesus brought him back, restored and commissioned the fishermen to take up a new profession, shepherding.