DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES

(The Life and Ministry of Jesus #44)

A Servant of Servants (See Luke 22:7-18, John 13:1-17)

In the upper chamber of a dwelling at Jerusalem, Christ was sitting at a table with His disciples. They had gathered to celebrate the Passover. The Savior desired to keep this feast alone with the twelve. He knew that His hour had come.

Jesus Himself was the true paschal lamb, and on the day the Passover was eaten He was to be sacrificed. He was about to drink the cup of wrath. He must soon receive the final baptism of suffering. But a few quiet hours yet remained to Him, and these were to be spent for the benefit of His beloved disciples.

THE WHOLE LIFE OF CHRIST HAD BEEN A LIFE OF UNSELFISH SERVICE!

Jesus was now in the shadow of the cross, and the pain was torturing His heart. He knew that He would be deserted in the hour of His betrayal. He knew that by the most humiliating process to which criminals were subjected He would be put to death. He knew that ingratitude and cruelty He had come to save. He knew how great the sacrifice that He must make, and for how many it would be in vain.

Knowing all that was before Him, He might naturally have been overwhelmed with the thought of His own humiliation and suffering. He looked upon the twelve, who had been with Him as His own, and who, after His shame and sorrow and painful usage were over, would be left to struggle in the world.

Christ’s thoughts of what He Himself must suffer were ever connected with His disciples. He did not think of Himself. His care for them were uppermost in His mind.

The sympathy and tenderness awakened by Christ’s grief seemed to have passed away. His sorrowful words, pointing to His own suffering, had made little impression. The glances they cast upon each other told of jealousy and contention.

How was Christ to bring these poor souls where Satan would not gain over them a decided victory? How could He show that a mere profession of discipleship did not make them disciples, or ensure them a place in His kingdom? How could He show that it is loving service, true humility, which constitutes real greatness? How was He to kindle love in their hearts, and enable them to comprehend what He longed to tell them?

One of the last acts of Jesus’s life on earth was to gird Himself as a servant, and perform a servant’s part.

The disciples knew nothing of the purpose of Judas. Jesus alone could read his secret. Yet He did not expose him. Jesus hungered for his soul. He felt for him such a burden as for Jerusalem when He wept over the doomed city. His heart was crying, how can I give thee up?

The constraining power of that love was felt by Judas. When the Savior’s hands were bathing those soiled feet, the heart of Judas thrilled through and through with the impulse then and there to confess his sins. But he would not humble himself.

When Jesus girded Himself with a towel to wash the dust from their feet, He desired by that very act to wash the alienation, jealousy, and pride from their hearts.

Like the disciples, we too have been washed in the blood of Christ, yet often through contact with evil, the heart’s purity is soiled. We must come to Christ for His cleansing grace.

Peter shrank from bringing his soiled feet in contact with the hands of his Lord and Master, but often we bring our sinful, polluted hearts in contact with the heart of Christ! How grievous to Him is our evil temper, lust, our vanity, and pride! Yet all our infirmity and defilement we must bring to Him. He alone can wash our souls clean.

NO ONE WAS SO EXALTED AS CHRIST, AND YET HE STOOPED TO THE HUMBLEST DUTY!

HE EVEN WASHED THE FEET OF HIS BETRAYER!

In Christ’s kingdom the principle of preference and supremacy has no place. The only greatness is the greatness of humility. The only distinction is found in devotion to the service of others.

While pride, variance, and strife for supremacy are cherished, the heart cannot enter into fellowship with Christ.

Christ in the fullness of His grace is there to change the current of the thoughts that have been running in selfish channels. The Holy Spirit quickens the sensibilities of those who follow the example of their Lord.

In Remembrance of Me (See Matthew 26:20-29, Mark 14:17-25, Luke 22:14-23, John 13:18-30)

Christ was standing at the point of transition between two economies, and their two great festivals. He, the spotless Lamb of God, was about to present Himself as a sin offering, that He would thus bring to an end the systems of types and ceremonies that for four thousand years had pointed to His death.

At the feet washing, Christ had given convincing proof that He understood the character of Judas. “You are not all clean.” (John 13:11) He said. These words convinced the false disciple that Christ read his secret purpose. Now Christ spoke out more plainly. “I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, he that eats bread with Me, has lifted up his heel against Me.”

As the disciples realized the import of these words, and remembered how true His sayings were, fear and self-distrust seized them. They began to search their own hearts to see if one thought against their Master were harbored there. With the most painful emotion, one after another inquired, “Lord, is it I?”

Wonderful had been the long-suffering of Jesus in dealing with this tempted soul. Nothing that could be done to save Judas had been left undone. By reading the secret purpose in the traitor’s heart, Christ gave to Judas the final, convincing evidence of His divinity.

When we suppose one to be in error and sin, we are not to divorce ourselves from them. By no careless separation are we to leave them a prey to temptation, or drive them upon Satan’s battleground. This is not Christ’s method. It was because the disciples were erring and faulty that He washed their feet, and all but one of the twelve were thus brought to repentance.

As the Lord’s disciples gather about His table, they are not to remember and lament their shortcomings. They are not to stand in the shadow of the cross, but in its saving light. With hearts cleansed by Christ’s most precious blood, in full consciousness of His presence, although unseen, they are to hear His words, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.”

It is only because of His death that we can look with joy to His second coming. His sacrifice is the center of our hope. Upon this we must fix our faith.

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so has the Son of man been lifted up, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:14, 15) To the cross of Calvary, bearing a dying Savior, we must look. Our eternal interests demand that we show faith in Christ.

Looking upon the crucified Redeemer, we more fully comprehend the magnitude, and meaning of the sacrifice made by the Majesty of heaven. The plan of salvation is glorified before us, and the thoughts of Calvary awakens living and sacred emotions in our hearts. Praise to God and the Lamb will be in our hearts, and on our lips. For pride and self-worship cannot flourish in the soul that keeps fresh in memory the scenes of Calvary.

He who beholds the Savior’s matchless love will be elevated in thoughts, purified in heart, transformed in character. He will go forth to be a light to the world, to reflect in some degree this mysterious love.

The more we contemplate the cross of Christ, the more fully shall we adopt the language of the apostle when he said, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” (Galatians 6:14)

As faith contemplates our Lord’s great sacrifice, the soul assimilates the spiritual life of Christ!