July 5, 2026
Teacher: mike laughrun
Big Truth:
Jesus is the Exemplary Servant
John 13:14-15 (ESV) If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
John 20:31
but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John 13:1
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
Chapter 13
(2) During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, (3) Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, (4) rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. (5) Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. (6) He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” (7) Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” (8) Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” (9) Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” (10) Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” (11) For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.” (12) When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? (13) You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. (14) If I then, 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 to you. (16) Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. (17) If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. (18) I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ (19) I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. (20) Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”
John 13:2-20 ESV
Big Truth:
Jesus is the Exemplary Servant
- What attitude should characterize my earthly representatives?
- What is the soul condition of my representatives?
What attitude should characterize my earthly representatives?
(24) A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. (25) And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. (26) But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. (27) For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.
Luke 22:24-27
(3) Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, (4) rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. (5) Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
John 13:3-5
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BIG Idea:
Jesus, the God-Man, humbles Himself taking on the role of a servant.
(12) When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? (13) You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. (14) If I then, 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 to you. John 13:12-15
BIg idea:
Jesus, the God-Man, empowers His followers to humbly serve others just as He did.
(4) Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. (5) I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:4-5
(3) Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. (4) Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. (5) Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, (6) who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, (7) but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Philippians 2:3-7
If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
John 13:17
What is the soul condition of my representatives?
(6) He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” (7) Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” (8) Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.”Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
(9) Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” (10) Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”
John 13:6-10
Big Idea:
Jesus cleanses those who believe completely from all our sin.
(3) Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. – John 15:3
(13) He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, (14) in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. – Colossians 1:13-14 ESV
(24) and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, – Romans 3:24
(7) In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
Ephesians 1:7
Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”
John 13:10
(8) If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (9) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (10) If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1 John 1:8-10
BIg Idea:
Jesus continues to cleanse those who believe from our sins through confession and repentance.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (2) He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 2:1-2
this week: John 13
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