Sacrificial Living 4
A Short Series on Sacrificial Living for Life Church, part of our SERVE ethos.

Last time we looked at Peter's problems with having Jesus wash his feet.  The example of sacrifice that Jesus was displaying had escaped Peter until that point.  We saw how he wanted to honour Jesus as Lord and could not understand the humiliation that Jesus was facing at the cross.

Today we're going to look at bit at Peter's Acceptance of what is being done here and how this transforms him and us.

3. Peter's Acceptance

Peter tends to go from one extreme to another.  Wash all of me!

John 13:9-10:“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.”

He still has not got it.  Give it all to me Lord.  But what Jesus is demonstrating is not that we'd get all of God, but that God would get all of us.

Jesus had to show the disciples and us that the way up is actually down.  Promotion in the Kingdom comes from sacrifice and service. 

Quote: "There is no success without sacrifice.  If you succeed without sacrifice it is because someone has suffered before you.  If you sacrifice without success it is because someone will succeed after." (Adoniram Judson – missionary)

The greater the task the greater the servant that is required to bring it about.

Love sacrifices all things to bless the thing it loves.

Living sacrificially does not sit well with our natural tendency of ‘entitlement.’  This is no more prevalent than in a culture today that says that we are entitled to things that generations before us never even dreamt of. 

The demand for ‘respect’ is put before the desire to earn it.

We see this entitlement attitude in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-31), although the main point of the parable is the Father’s love, we see something in the transformation of the son that we need in our lives too.

Luke 15:12: The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’

Later we read:

Luke 15: 17-20: When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!  I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.

Did you notice the difference?  He went from ‘give me,’ to ‘make me.’

He has gone from the language of entitlement to the vocabulary of sacrifice.  We should do the same.

Quote: “Joy in Christ requires a commitment to working at the Christian lifestyle.  Salvation comes as a gift, but the joy of salvation demands disciplined action.  Most Christians I know have just enough of the Gospel to make them miserable, but not enough to make them joyful.  They know enough about the biblical message to keep them from doing the things which the world tempts them to do; but they do not have enough of a commitment to God to do those things through which they might experience the fullness of his joy.” (Tony Campolo, Seven Deadly Sins. p. 21)

Quote: "Self-preservation is the first law of physical life, but self-sacrifice is the first law of spiritual life." (Warren Wiersbe)

Wrapping It Up:

We need to allow Jesus to cleanse us from everything that would hinder us. 

He demonstrates His complete Lordship and complete humility by washing the disciples’ feet – it is a picture for us that only He can wash and cleanse those inaccessible places in our lives. 

If we feel no shame over our sins then we’re in trouble.  We should be shocked that He wants to cleanse us!

My friend, Sacrificially Living is demonstrated through those who have been cleansed by Christ because they know that they cannot earn that cleansing!

Allow Him to cleanse you, to transform you, to make you.  He was humiliated for you.