The Heart of Servant Leadership (John 13)

Listen as we delve into the profound message of John chapter 13. Here, Jesus, in a humble act of washing his disciples’ feet, exemplifies servant leadership—a strategy crucial for their future success in his absence. This passage transcends mere hygiene; it teaches us to embody Jesus’s care and humility towards others. Come and be inspired to have the heart of a humble servant leader who mirrors Jesus’ compassion and concern for others.

Rockwell Church     July 28, 2024     Pastor Chris Teien
The Heart of Servant Leadership
John 13:1-20

1. A Servant Leader is aware of perfect TIMING (13:1-2)
2. A Servant Leader acts on their KNOWLEDGE (13:3-5)
3. A Servant Leader shares clarifying COMMUNICATION (13:6-11)
4. A Servant Leader MODELS Actions & Attitude (13:12-16)
5. A Servant Leader can expect REWARDS (13:17-20)

Jesus said, the greatest among you must be a servant." (Matt 23:11 NLT)

John Maxwell writes “I believe the bottom line in leadership isn’t how far we advance ourselves but how far we advance others. That is achieved by serving others and adding value to their lives.”  - The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

I really love leadership. I could listen to John Maxwell Leadership podcasts all day long, especially the old ones, young John Maxwell podcasts. I love leadership. So when I was getting a uh a master's degree and I had to buy credits. So for the semester, you could have of like a certain number of credits, and I found that I had extra credits that were available that I could get free classes. And so I strategized. I always try to strategize. And I found out that if I took three more classes, I could get another graduate degree in leadership. So I did, and I just love leadership. And I noticed that this time last year was also a message on leadership, servant leadership, finding joy serving Jesus. But that passage was in 1 Corinthians chapter 16. 1 Corinthians chapter 16, and this one is in John chapter 13, so it's different. But I said last time, be flexible when serving Jesus, expect opposition serving Jesus, show concern for others serving Jesus, be effective serving Jesus, and be submissive to those serving Jesus. So I ended up on the leadership topic, not because I was picking topics, but because we're going through the book of John, and we just happen to find ourselves into John chapter 13. Skipping over some things, maybe I've talked about in the past, but this servant leadership thing is huge. You know, people that see themselves as leaders think of themselves as authorities, think of themselves as leaders who delegate and often want to be served. So they find themselves in places where uh many times rightfully they are too busy to wash, figuratively, wash people's feet. And that's kind of what the message is on. Jesus washed the disciples' feet, their dirty, stinky feet. Now, my guess is that most of your feet are clean, and you probably wouldn't want me to wash your feet, but if I could figure out a way to clean or polish your shoes, I bet there'd be a line out there. You'd be like, oh yeah, fix my shoes up. My shoes are a little dirty, by the way. So for some reason, this iron ore just all this dirt makes things strange colors, reds and blacks. But nonetheless, being a servant leader and having the heart of a servant leader is being willing to do things, to show care for people, for the people so that they can enjoy the best. If you're a boss, if you're an employer, if you're a um a teacher, if you're someone in authority, you want to do your best to help other people, to be successful, to have what they need. So one thing that I found interesting in a discussion group in one of those leadership classes is that there were people that said, So if I'm going to be a servant leader, then that means that I shouldn't ask anybody around me to do anything that I'm not willing to do or do. So I see myself as being among them, doing the same work with them, never asking them to do more than I'm doing, and that's not really leadership. So take football, for example. Usually one guy is the kicker. If everybody wanted to be the kicker, it would be weird. Usually a guy on the field is designated to be the quarterback, and he is often calling the plays, and everybody rallies around, the lineman especially, to help protect the quarterback, to help the quarterback be successful, to give him space to throw the ball. Um, and it's a team effort. So I think servant leadership isn't necessarily about your role as much as it is as much as it is about your heart and your desire to serve and to care. So if you read the context of the passage, you'll find that Jesus is aware that his time is almost up. And we're gonna read that in the passage. But for some reason, the disciples are kind of arguing over who's gonna be the greatest, and he knows that Judas Iscarita is gonna betray him. And so Jesus knows he's running out of time, and so he's like trying to like give last minute instructions and get the team on the same page and try to get these guys who are gonna be the disciples that carry Jesus' message around the world to humble themselves and be servant leaders, and he modeled that, he modeled the heart servant leadership. So a servant leader is aware of perfect timing. So when you are a servant leader, you um know when a good time is to instruct, a good time to correct, a good time to train, a good time to push, and a good time to let people celebrate their victories. Um, all of those things. But in the passage, we read it was just before in John chapter 13, verse 1, it was just before the Passover festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end, and the evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. So here it says that Jesus loved these guys, and Jesus showed care for these guys. Jesus knew that one of the guys, Judas Iscariot, was going to betray him, but he still showed care anyway. So as we think about servant leadership and as we think about the way that we are to love one another and care for one another, it's interesting to remember that Jesus washed Judas Iscariot's feet too, that he treated people better than they deserve. Bill Hull wrote a bunch of books on discipleship, and one quote that I like from him is that you should always treat people better than they deserve. So sometimes they deserve so much less, but you treat them better than they deserve because that's a godly thing to do. And so can you imagine that Jesus has spent all this time with these guys and they're all arguing over who's going to be greatest as Jesus takes the reins as the Messiah, and maybe they're thinking of political aspirations, leadership aspirations, and they're arguing over who's going to be the greatest. Yet Jesus shows humility, Jesus shows care, and a servant leader acts on their knowledge. A servant leader acts on their knowledge. So we're heading up to the Lord's Supper here, though it doesn't show up in the book of John. So I mentioned before that parallel Bible, our Bible that lays everything out in chronological order, and a synopsis of the Gospels can be very helpful to figure out what goes where. And so we're heading, you know, up to the upper room. Jesus is going to do the Last Supper, but here John focuses on Jesus washing their feet, showing how much he cares and being the servant that he was. So he demonstrated that the way to royalty is service, that the way to greatness is ministry, that the way to power is humility, and the way to position is serving, and the way to rule is giving. So verse 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God, so he got up from the meal, took out his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. So Jesus dressed just like a slave servant. In those days, if people came over to your house and you were well to do, you were obligated to wash their feet. But you didn't do it. You had a servant who washed their feet. It was below you to do such a thing. And to have Jesus, the master teacher, washing their feet, must have seemed pretty strange. To have him dressed like a servant wrapped in a towel doing those things, they must have been very surprised, wondering, what in the world are you doing, Jesus? But Jesus knew, like I said, that he was running out of time. Now he wasn't a victim of time, he wasn't taken by surprise. He knew that he was headed towards the cross. He knew Judas Iscariot was going to betray him. He told the other disciples so that they would realize that after it happened and it would increase their faith. But here, Jesus, the master teacher, humbles himself and washes what would normally be their dirty, stinky sandal feet. And now maybe their feet were clean because if you were poor, you'd clean your feet before you walked into someone else's house. In some cultures, you don't wear shoes in the home. Maybe your home. I don't know. Sometimes when I go visit lots of people, I don't even bother to tie my shoes. So that way I can slip them off and slip them on, especially in the winter. Which is weird to have a last name tie-in and not tie your shoes. I know how, I just don't. But nonetheless, let me continue on. Hang on a second. Yes. So um in Matthew 2026, among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you will be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others and give his life a ransom for many. So Jesus came as a servant, and Jesus as someone who volunteered his service. Many times servants are forced to do things they don't want to do. But here Jesus volunteered to do that. And I don't know what types of things you've been willing to endure to volunteer to do things. Maybe you have helped people do things that were difficult or dirty or harsh. Sometimes when you do things and you think that you're getting ripped off or someone's taking advantage of you, you think to yourself, okay, the Lord knows my heart, and then I'm doing this act of service because I am worshiping Him. So if I'm getting taken advantage of, or if this doesn't work, or whatever, that the Lord knows my heart and He can still reward me, and I can still treat people better than they deserve. And so you go through life and you wonder does this person uh really have this need that I need to do, or could they do it themselves and they're just taking advantage of me? So I've done some interesting things to help people before. I helped some people that were hoarders clean out a garage full of garbage. They just decided it was cheaper to stack the garbage in the garage. So I took a truck and a trailer full of garbage to the dump on their behalf. The local gas station where I used to live with the church plant knew my number and knew that if people showed up and they didn't have money for gas that they could call me, and if I was available, sometimes I'd come down and put gas in their cars. And so often you didn't hear from those people again. But one lady sent a thank you note and returned some of the money that we put in her tank. Just many different things that sometimes you are moved from within. It's like the Holy Spirit moves you, and you just know that someone has a need, and you know that you're the one that's supposed to do something about it, that you're the one that's supposed to take care of it. And it's probably not literally washing somebody's feet. Though some churches think that we do the Lord's Supper, we do communion, and we do foot washing. And so I personally don't go to a church like that as far as I know, unless you guys are doing small group foot washing that I don't know about. But it's just thinking about those things that you don't really want to do, but you're willing to do it to build the kingdom of God or to help somebody out in need. And so when you find out that somebody has a need, sometimes you can tell other people and say, hey, I know this person has this need. I can't meet this need, I can't do this thing. But do you know anybody? And on the flip side of that, if you have a need, I might not be able to fix it, but I can pray for you if you like let me know what your need is. I can share that with others. So um there's a couple in Mountain Iron that need help moving their heavy furniture from their apartment to their house, and if you're interested in doing that, let me know. So um, but you hear about needs, you act on the knowledge you have. Jesus knew the disciples' hearts, Jesus knew what came next. Jesus knew that he wasn't gonna be there for very long. Jesus knew that Satan was at work with the big betrayal and that things were gonna change real soon. Real soon things were gonna change. But Jesus came to serve, he set aside his power as God to come down and to teach us how to live, die for our sin, rise again, so that we could be in a relationship with him for eternity, so that we could enjoy him, he could enjoy us for all eternity. He paid the price so that we could be made right with God. He paid for our ticket to heaven. We just need to receive that ticket to heaven. Servant leaders share clarifying communication. Servant leaders share clarifying communication. Feedback is very good and helpful. Listening and then giving good answers or giving good explanations is very helpful. Helping people to know your servant's heart so that maybe they too might take on the same thing. So I have a I used to work for a pastor who ended up being a multi-site church pastor, and he recently handed the baton of his multi-site church ministry off to one of the other pastors, so that now the younger guy is the lead pastor. And I was watching, and they're telling stories about how the church grew and how every time they wanted to change something, there were people in the church that pushed back, and so then um the younger pastor said. I remember that you'd walk into the multi-site campuses, and you're always like, These doors need to be unlocked and open, that music needs to be playing as they walk in in the background, and so he just kept saying it over and over again until the other volunteers and the other people around got it. They knew that his heart desire was to make it easy for new people to find their way and to be welcome. And so it wasn't just a list of things that they had to do, it was a list of things that they wanted to do because that lead past that senior pastor, that guy had John, had taught them the reason for what they were doing, and the reason why it was important, and the reason why it mattered, and we need to do that, we need to keep doing that, we need to share stories about even the history of the church and how things work and how we can because there's people coming and there's people going. Some of the people that know the most about this church have been dying over the last three years that I've been here. But a servant leader shares clarifying communication, and here in verse Jesus came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, are you gonna wash my feet? And Jesus replied, You do not realize now what I'm doing, but later you will understand. And Peter says, No, you shall never wash my feet. Never wash my feet. Why is that? Is that because Simon Peter is so humble and he's like, No, I should wash your feet. No, don't wash my feet, I wash your feet. Or was it pride that said, No, I can wash my own feet. I don't need you to do need you to do that for me. I got it covered, so you don't need to do that for me. So was it a lack of humility? But Jesus answered, unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Which Peter replied, Not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well. So I like Peter. He's pretty impulsive. So I told you that I took a biblical personality test, like a disc test that used Bible characters. It said I was a cross between Peter and Barnabas, which means I might encourage somebody to chop someone's ear off in a time of stress. I don't know. Jesus answered, those who have had a bath only need to wash their feet, their whole body is clean, and you are clean, though not every one of you. For he knew who was going to betray him, and that's why he said not everyone was clean. So he's talking about Judas Iscariot here. Some churches take this to mean that this passage is about baptism, and I don't think that it is about baptism. I think what it's saying is that when you're saved, when you're right in Christ, you don't need to be saved again, again, again. So you're saved, your sins are forgiven, but those day-to-day sins get you dirty, and you need to clean that up. Sometimes you need 1 John 1.9, you need to ask for forgiveness. Keep clean before the Lord so that you can live a blessable life, so that he can use you, so that you can walk in fellowship with him and avoid the discipline that it talks about in Hebrews. But to know that he is right in Christ. How do we get dirty, by the way? Sometimes we get our feet dirty in the world because we're just careless and we're walking in places we should not be going. There's also times when we're trying to reach other people for Christ and we're walking in places that aren't the best. You know, it's easy to be tempted, it's easy to be enticed, it's easy to get your mind off of things and on things that you shouldn't have your mind on as you're walking among sinners. But we can't just hide away in our little fort and stay away from the world while we pursue perfect love and sanctification amongst one another inside the church building. Instead, we need to encourage each other, build each other up, and then go out of here into the world around us and try to influence people for Christ. We need to communicate our faith to other people. We need to not just model Christian living, but we need to tell people what Christ has done in our life. You know, some people are like, well, no, if you just live it out, they'll get it. No, they won't. They will just think you are a good moral person. I just love that. I love him or her. They're just so nice. So, but they don't know that you wouldn't be so nice if Christ hadn't got a hold of your heart. They would know that you had you were changed from within and that it's Christ's love that flows into you and then flows out, and that's what they're seeing. The leaders share clarifying communication, and Jesus clarified to Peter what was important, what he was doing. And as we share clarifying communication, it can encourage people around us. I was reading about Sam Walton, who founded Walmart stores. He said these were the rules that Sam Walton developed for Walmart. One, commit, believe in it more than anybody else. Two, share the blessings. Three, motivate your partners. Constantly, day by day, think of new and more interesting ways to motivate and challenge your partners. Five, communicate everything you possibly can to your partners. Five, appreciate everything your associates do for your business. And six, celebrate your success. Find some humor in your failures. Communicate. Share. We glorify God by the words that we say to other people. When we share our testimony, when we share our reasons, when we share our methods, when we show how we live, it can impact other people. People may not listen to what you say, but they might catch what you say. So there's been more than one time I've been in a difficult situation and I've thought about somebody that I really admire as a pastor leader. And sometimes it's not even a real person, it's somebody I read about in a uh in a biography or autobiography or whatever. Sometimes it's somebody from 300 years ago I was reading about. But to ask, so what would this person do in this situation? You know, sometimes uh, you know, it's almost like fake it until you make it, but uh, it's like, okay, if I could be like them in this situation, I think that I would find the success that I'm looking for. What would Jesus do in this situation? Jesus wasn't in every situation we're in. What would somebody that follows after Jesus do? So maybe that's why I like listening to John Maxwell is he's got so many helpful godly leadership stories. Many people don't know that he started. out as a pastor, a successful evangelizing pastor, before he wrote all those leadership books and did all that he did later in his life. Alright, servant leaders, model, actions, and attitudes. So I kind of covered some of that already, but modeling actions and attitudes. Verse 12. When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. Jesus says, Do you understand what I have done for you? He says, you call me teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you should also wash one another's feet. I have set you as an I have set you an example so that you should do as I have done for you. So treating other people better than they deserve, showing humility, being willing to serve everyone, even if you know they're about to betray you, showing care for the people around you is a good thing to do. So here there's a call to follow Jesus' method to follow Jesus' model to wash and again I'm saying figuratively wash people's feet. So you might need to wash someone's feet. It could happen. So it hasn't happened much or ever in my life. But I have an issue so I don't like feet. I'm not going to be a podiatrist I'm not I'm not a I have shy feet so I don't care about I don't care for feet so especially dirty stinky feet. So but for those of you who care for feet who give elderly people or even I guess younger people nice pedicures or whatever the things that you do that is awesome. So again very truly Jesus says very truly I tell you no servant is greater than his master nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him these disciples in this room are going 11 of them are going to be sent out to proclaim Jesus they're going to make some mistakes Peter is going to deny Jesus they're all going to run off in fear. It's going to take him a bit to regroup and try to figure out what just happened to Jesus but then Jesus will return and then they'll receive the Holy Spirit and they'll have this but in all of their methods and all of their ministry and all of the things that they do they will look back to this time where the God of the universe washed their feet humbled himself as a servant to show care for them to show care. So a homeletics class at a Baptist college had this list. It says are you a leader or a boss the boss drives his men the leader coaches them. The boss depends upon authority the leader on goodwill the boss inspires fear the leader inspires enthusiasm. The boss says I am the leader. The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown the leader fixes the breakdown oh the boss says I the leader says we the boss knows how it is done the leader shows how the boss says go the leader says let's go so as you have opportunity to invest into people's lives um pray about it and think about it because so many of you go I don't have anybody I don't know I don't know maybe I'll got anybody in mind? Well what if you're a maybe the Sunday school teachers or the children's church people will listen to this but maybe they're down there all the time they're teaching Sunday school they're doing children's church someone's leading a small group Bible study someone's leading a life group someone's out there doing stuff in ministry and they can invite someone to come alongside of them and say hey would you like to come and see what I do and then if they're interested then maybe would you like to learn what I do and how I do it. And then would you like to have an opportunity to try it and hopefully what will happen is that you will train up the next round of ministry leaders and workers that we need. Sometimes in business they say that you should do everything you can to invest in people and maybe train up your replacement which is always fun for me that a kid that was in the youth group that I encouraged to go to Bible college ended up becoming the pastor years later of the church that I planted. So that's kind of a cool thing. But think about who you are and how you serve and what you do and what you could do to do it better. So some old guys were the leaders of this corporation and they knew that the younger people might want to try to push them out or they wanted their company to grow and so they sat in their office they said if they replaced us what would the new people do? What would our replacements come into what would they change? What would they stop? What would they start? What would they do? And they came up with a list and they started to act on that list on their own and it was good for them and it was good for their organization. So it is a good thing when we think outside the box when we think that way when we change things to try to make things better I'm always praying and looking for things that I can do better or maybe that we can change to be more effective. I because we're a congregation and a family I don't run around and change everything that I would though I kiddingly tell people sometimes if I was king for a day I would do this this so but don't worry I don't plan on being king for a day so um unless you want to make me king for a day. No, not really. Alright so in Philippians 2 um in the book of Philippians Paul talks about these two ladies that can't get along and so he pleads with them come on girls get along they must have been influential. But here he writes is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ any comfort from his love any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other loving one another and working together with one mind and purpose. Don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others be humble thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interests but take an interest in others too I was listening to um I don't know if I was reading a book or listening to something from Greg Laurie out at Harvest in Riverside California but he was talking I think it was in a book but he was talking about this guy came into church and he said hey pastor it's great to be at this church I just want you to know I'm a teacher. I teach Greg said well we're putting up chairs right now would you like to help us put up chairs? And which the guy replied no you don't understand I'm a teacher I teach in which Greg said if you don't help us put up chairs and you don't have that type of attitude you're not going to teach here. And so to be a servant leader to show care and do everything you can as we go and we live this up we can expect rewards. We can expect rewards so let me just you know also say that you know washing feet is uh synonymous with being a full sold-out servant of Jesus and doing his will his way and also sharing your life with other people to show you care to communicate things that maybe um maybe even you share some of your struggles so people can know you're a real person but you help encourage each other but rewards rewards are huge. So here are some rewards greatness in God's kingdom Jesus teaches that true greatness comes from serving others. So Matthew again 2026 whoever wants to become great must be your servant. Proverbs 1125 says that you will receive blessings and favor. A generous person will prosper whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. Serving others often leads to blessings and favor from God as he honors those who care for others. Eternal rewards so having Jesus Matthew 2521 well done good and faithful servant you've been faithful with a few things I'll put you in charge of many things come share in your master's happiness inner fulfillment and joy Acts 2035 quotes Jesus as saying it is more blessed to give than to receive serving others whether through acts of kindness ministry or other forms of service often brings unique and profound joy and being an imitator of Christ. Those are rewards so verse 17 Jesus says Now that you know these things you will be blessed if you do them. Now that you know these things you'll be blessed if you do them. And then he continues on I'm not referring to all of you I know those I have chosen but this is to fulfill the passage of Scripture he who shared my bread has turned against me. I am telling you now before it happens so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am very truly I tell you whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me. Again the greatest among you will be your servants so we're not going to sing a last song I have a one minute video in the end we'll get the lights for that in just a second but I just wanted to you know if I had time I guess I do have time just real quick help you to remember that you shouldn't get so caught up serving Jesus that you don't spend any time with Jesus. It's really easy in church ministry it's really easy in your Christian life to get so busy doing works of service because there's so many needs and so many things to do that you don't spend any time with Jesus. And if you remember Mary and Martha don't be a Martha Luke 1038 as Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister Mary sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said Lord doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me. But the Lord said to her, my dear Martha you are worried and upset over all of these details there's only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it and it will not be taken away from her so here the culture dictated Mary and Martha would wash the disciples' feet make them something to eat make them comfortable serve them and so Martha is like it's Jesus and I am going to put on the best dinner ever you know I'm gonna all homemade none of these powdered mashed potatoes I'm gonna do it all and maybe what she should have done is thrown some pizzas in the oven and spent more time with Jesus or maybe he could have just asked or she could have just asked hey how would you like me to do this? I would like to give you the best but I don't want to miss out on being with you either in which Jesus would have said Martha Martha if you would have built an open concept home you would have been able to make the meal while hearing me no I don't know where I got that. All right John Maxwell says I believe the bottom line in leadership isn't how far we advance ourselves but how far we advance others that is achieved by serving others and adding value to their lives. John Wesley talks about being a true servant he said do all the good you can by all the means you can in all the ways you can in all the places you can at all the times you can to all the people you can as long as you can and that seems like a good way to live life so um so I'm gonna pray next week who's trusting in the way the truth and the life from John chapter 14 in communion but Lord Jesus I thank you so much for your modeling for your word uh for your principles to live by and I pray you'd give us a heart of servant leadership show us what those things are that we don't really want to do but we are willing to do them because we love you and love other people so whatever that footwashing means to us if it's your will impress upon our heart that we're supposed to do something about it and help us to have the heart of a servant yet still lead yet still make a difference with great courage and compassion making a difference in the world so there's a book in a principle called Servant Evangelism and what it focuses on is that you do something to help people and then while you do that you share your faith with them.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

If you're more if you're interested in hearing about that sometime I can give you stuff but we're gonna watch a video clip lights are going to come back on and then you'll be dismissed sometimes it feels like you're getting buried when really you're just getting planted like imagine from the perspective of the seed you're just getting dirt thrown in your face but from the perspective of the gardener you're getting the soil you need to grow. So sometimes it feels like you're getting buried when actually you're getting planted by God for your calling