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WEEKLY
Volume 1 Number 25
19 November 2006
Happy Are Ye If Ye
Do
(Message delivered by Pr Hien Nguyen at the
Sunday Worship Service, 2 pm, Nov 12, 06)
Text: John
13:12-17
Thank God that through the
past five months we have learned God’s Word about what He expects us to
be and to do. I wonder how much you and I still remember what God has
taught us through His Word. Our Lord expects us to be the salt of the
earth, the light of the world, to be His holy temple, His disciples, His
witnesses, His friends, His brethren, His epistle, to be partakers of
His divine nature and of His sufferings, to be thankful, to overcome
Satan, sins, and worldliness, and so forth. In brief, God wants you and
me to be like His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and to do as
He did. How much have we put all that we have learned and known into
practice?
Our Lord rebukes the Pharisees
for their hypocrisy, “for they say, and do not” (Matt 23:3). My
dear friends, shall we not hear God’s Word and do it seriously in order
to be blessed?
Be Like Christ and Do as He
Did
The Bible text for today is
John 13:12-17. It tells about our Lord Jesus humbly washing His
disciples’ feet. In Jesus’ days, in Palestine, people did not have
modern transport as we do today, except for the rich, who might travel
by horse-drawn cart or ride on their donkeys; most people wore sandals
and walked on dusty streets, and their feet became dirty and smelly
after a long-distance walk. It was a custom for them to remove their
sandals and wash their feet before entering their house. If they had a
servant, he would do this job for their feet and their guests’ feet. And
when they had their meals, they did not sit up at the table as we do
today but they reclined on mattresses to eat (The painting of Da
Vinci in the late 15th century on the Lord’s Supper was
surely not biblical at all!).
Here, our Lord Jesus Christ
and His disciples were nearly finishing their supper, their feet were
still dirty and smelly, which should have been washed before the meal or
else they must have been uncomfortable. However, who was willing to do
the job of a servant? Not any of His disciples! Then our Lord rose from
the supper, laid aside his garments, took a towel, girded Himself,
poured water into a basin, and began to wash His disciples’ feet and
wiped them with the towel. And then He said to them, “Know ye what I
have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I
am. If I then your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought
to wash one another’ feet, for I have given you an example, that
ye should do as I have done to you” (vv 12-15).
My dear friends, our Lord
Jesus never taught His disciples what He had not done or lived before
them. The Bible tells us that “Jesus began both to do and teach”
(Acts 1:1). Not like the Pharisees and many religious leaders who
had not done what they taught or preached! Our Lord Jesus is our God and
Maker, but He humbled Himself and said, “Even as the Son of man
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a
ransom for many” (Matt 20:28).
Our Lord has given us an
example that we should do as He has done as regards not only His humble
service but also every aspect of His life and ministry: His
faithfulness, obedience and submission to His Father’s will and Word,
His holy and righteous life, His meekness, gentleness and love, His
purpose of life and ministry to glorify His Father alone, and so forth.
Our Lord Jesus teaches, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye
love one another, as I have loved you” (John 13:34;
15:12), and “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my
love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in
his love” (John 15:10), and “Be ye therefore perfect,
even as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt 5:48), and
“Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is
merciful”(Luke 6:36), and “They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world” (John 17:16). God’s Word also teaches
us, “Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake
hath forgiven you” (Eph 4:32), and “But as he which
hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of
conversation” (1 Peter 1:15), and “He that saith he abideth in
him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked” (1
John 2:6).
It is a great privilege to be
like our Lord. We do thank God that He has not only delivered us and
saved us from Satan and sins but also “begun a good work” in us
until we are “conformed to the image of his Son” (Phil
1:6; Rom 8:29). “We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be
like him… And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth
himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3).
Are you and I transformed and
more like our Lord Jesus day by day? It is vital for us to look unto our
Lord Jesus, whom we are to follow. Many Christians are tempted to look
at men, even other Christian brethren and leaders and then compare
themselves with those men. They may think that it is all right for them
not to believe and do exactly what God’s Word says because many others
do not. My dear friends, do you and I truly and sincerely and seriously
desire to be like our Lord? Then it is wise to regard all things but
loss and to follow our Lord alone so that we may win Christ and be found
in Him and be like Him (Phil 3:8-10).
It should be noticed that when
our Lord Jesus taught His disciples, “If I then, your Lord and
Master, have washed your
feet; ye also ought to wash
one another’s
feet” (v 14), our Lord did not teach them to do that job
as a religious rite or ritual as some groups do today. In those days,
there was a practical need to wash the feet before entering a house, and
our Lord wanted to teach them to serve one another not only in washing
their feet but in other aspects of their lives and ministry. It is
meaningless and impractical to wash one another’s feet today when people
wear shoes and socks and travel by modern transport on asphalt roads and
streets! Instead, we may serve and help one another by praying for one
another, forgiving one another, bearing one another’s burden, serving
the Lord together, doing what we can for the Lord and for the brethren,
and so forth.
Be Doers of the Word, And
Not Hearers Only
We are expected not only to be
like Christ and to do as He did but also to be doers of God’s Word. The
Bible says, “But be ye doers of the word, and not
hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). I am
deceiving myself by thinking that I am all right or even better than
others when I do not wholeheartedly do what God expects me to do! King
Saul deceived himself by thinking that it was fine to obey the Lord
partly while actually he did not obey God carefully and wholeheartedly!
The Lord said to him through Samuel, “to obey is better than
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is
as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and
idolatry. Because thou has rejected the word of the LORD, he
hath also rejected thee from being king” (1 Sam 15:23). Before
God, partial obedience is not obedience at all but is rebellion,
witchcraft, iniquity, and idolatry!
Our Lord Jesus Christ says,
“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we
not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? And in
thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them,
I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt
7:21-23).
Then, may God help you and me
not to take His Word lightly but seriously, study it, remember it and do
it carefully, faithfully and wholeheartedly.
Blessings of the Faithful
Doers
Our Lord Jesus says, “If
ye (fully) know these things, happy are ye if ye do
(keep on doing) them.” The verb “know” in John
13 is translated from two Greek terms: one is ginosko (acquired
knowledge, experientially know) and the other is oida (intuitive
knowledge, fully know). Peter was surprised at our Lord’s humble
service. But our Lord said to him, “What I do thou knowest not
(fully) now, but thou shalt know (experientially) hereafter”
(v 7). After our Lord washed His disciples’ feet, He checked their
understanding, “Know ye (experientially) what I have done to
you?” (v 12). After experiencing the Lord’s lowly service and
hearing His explanation and instruction, the disciples must have
understood the lesson perfectly. Then our Lord concluded, “If ye
(fully) know these things, happy (blessed) are ye if ye do
(keep on doing) them” (v 17). The blessings are only for those
who faithfully do God’s will and God’s Word, and not only hear or know
God’s Word. “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of
liberty, and continueth
therein,
he being not
a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the
work, this man shall be blessed in his deed”
(James 1:25). Then, what are the blessings? Besides the many blessings
from God we will receive, we will also enjoy:
God’s Presence and Love.
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit will be with us and
love us, and that is all we need: “And I will pray the Father, and he
shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you
forever;… If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father
will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him”
and “the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him”
(John 14:16,23; Acts 5:32).
Jesus’ Friendship and
Revelation. The
more we do God’s Word, the more we know Him and have friendship with
Him. “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them…I will love
him and manifest myself to him” (John 14:21). “Ye are my
friends, if ye do (keep on doing) whatsoever I command you”
(John 15:14).
Firm Foundation and
Wisdom:
“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I
will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.
And the rain descended, and floods came, and the winds blew, and beat
upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock”
(Matt 7:25).
Conclusion
My dear friends, if you and I
do not surely and fully know the Lord and His Word due to any doubt or
question, how can we follow Him and obey Him with all our love, faith,
full convictions and submission? The blessings are only for those who
hear God’s Word, remember it and keep on doing it seriously, carefully
and faithfully. May the Lord Himself and His love constrain you and me
to follow Him and do His Word so that we may enjoy His presence,
guidance, fellowship, and blessing, “For it is God which worketh
in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil 2:13).
Amen.
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