Message Notes

July 12, 2026
Teacher: Mike Laughrun

---

Big Truth:
Jesus Is The Exemplary Servant

John 13:14-15
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.

---

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.
John 13:1 

(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.
John 13:12-14

The Betrayer

After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
John 13:21

(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.
John 13:18-19

(22) The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. (23) One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side, (24) so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. (25) So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?” (26) Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.
John 13:22-26

Morsel – Offered by the host at a Jewish dinner to an honored guest

• Demonstration of love…
• Demonstration of Sovereignty…
• Demonstration of Grace rejected

(27) Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” (28) Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. (29) Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. (30) So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.
John 13:27-30 

Warnings regarding Unbelief:

• Unbelief grows increasingly frustrated when Jesus does not meet our self-centered expectations.
• Unbelief becomes increasingly hardened by the lavish grace of Christ.
• Unbelief often masks itself behind external religious activity.

The Denyer

(36) Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” (37) Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” (38) Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.
John 13:36-38 

Warning against fleshly overconfidence:

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 15:5 

He is deepening the belief of His disciples…
(31) “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, (32) but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:31-32 

The Cross

(31) When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. (32) If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. (33) Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’
John 13:31-33  

Big Idea:
Jesus sovereignly and providentially works all things together for His purpose and glory.

He will provide on the cross salvation for all who have ever believed through all of human history. He will fulfill all of the promises of God and validate the covenant of God. He will destroy the power of sin. He will destroy the power of death. He will destroy him who had the power of death. He will bear in His body all the sins of all the elect of God through all of human history. He will offer Himself as a sweet smelling savor to God, fairer than any sacrifice ever offered. He will satisfy offended divine justice and the broken law of God. He will fully satisfy all God requires. He will say, “It is finished,” and that deserves glory.   So there is, in all heaven and earth, no act so worthy of praise and honor and full glory as this act of Jesus Christ.  Indeed, now is the Son of Man glorified.
J. MacArthur

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13  

but God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8  

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
1 John 3:16  

(9) In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. (10) In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:9-10  

Jesus continues…

(33) Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ (34) A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. (35) By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:33-35  

Big Idea:
Jesus loves His own to the uttermost and commands His own to love one another just as He loves us.  

What makes this command new?

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
John 13:34

1.  Jesus provides the perfect example of love.

We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
1 John 3:16  

2.  Jesus provides the  capacity to love like He loves.

…and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:5

But the fruit of the Spirit is love…
Galatians 5:22  

3. Jesus is building a new community characterized by love.

(34) A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. (35) By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:34-35  

How do His own people love one another?

Big Idea:
We continually ponder on God’s love for us.

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.
John 13:1  

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
John 15:9  

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
1 John 3:1  

(4) But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, (5) even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved
Ephesians 2:4-5

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
Ephesians 5:25

(38) For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, (39) nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39

Big Idea:
We fervently pray for God’s Word to transform us.

But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
1 Timothy 1:5

(9) And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, (10) so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, (11) filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:9-11  

(14) For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, … (16) that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, … (18) may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, (19) and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:14, 16, 18-19

BIg Idea:
We strive to practice what God commands.

Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
1 Peter 4:8  

(3) Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; (4) do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. (5) Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, (6) who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, (7) but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
Philippians 2:3-7

(1) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (2) And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (3) If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3

(4) Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant (5) or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; (6) it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. (7) Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7    

---

this week: John 13

---

give

We respond in worship to God, our Creator and Sustainer, by giving sacrificially and generously. tcbchurch.org/give

respond to the gospel

If you want to know more about what it means to follow Jesus or how to respond to the gospel, visit the Hub in the upper atrium or tcbchurch.org/gospel.