Session 1: A Life of Humble Service
Question 1:
What characteristics do you think of when it comes to a hero?
THE POINT
We reflect Christ when we serve others with humility.
THE BIBLE MEETS LIFE
I read a lot of books about kings, swords, and medieval battles. I’ve discovered that these books of fantasy tend to highlight a fundamental flaw of humanity. In these fictional worlds, strong kings crush weak ones. The fastest blade wins. The frail ends up serving the fearsome.
Of course, we don’t live in a time of swords and kings, but ours is still a world in which those with strength often oppress instead of support. In the real world, many in positions of power abuse it, but the strongest Person in history set a different example. Jesus walked the earth with the power of God Himself, but He didn’t crush, kill, or overwhelm. He had power the world had never seen, but He used it to serve.
That is to be our way as well. Since being connected to Christ gives us opportunity for abundance, and since being like Jesus means becoming the person God wants us to be, then we should treasure humility. The God of heaven put on flesh and served the world. And we reflect Christ powerfully when we serve with humility.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
John 13:3-5
3 Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God. 4 So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself. 5 Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him.
God—THE God—wrapped a towel around His waist, poured some water, and washed feet. When the God of heaven inhabited a human body and lived a life with regular people, it surely was going to lead to a few remarkable interactions, but Jesus washing His disciples’ feet has to be one of the more surprising.
Verse 3 helps us embrace the significance of this moment. The apostle John reminds us of where Jesus came from and where He was going. Let’s not be so focused on what Jesus did on this occasion that we forget who He is. He certainly didn’t. “Jesus knew that … he had come from God, and that he was going back to God.”
Jesus knew the power He had. He knew, as His disciples did, the miracles He was capable of performing. Throughout John’s Gospel of Jesus’ life, we see evidence of the fact that “the Father had given everything into his hands.”
Jesus healed an official’s son (see 4:46-54).
Jesus fed over five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish (see 6:10-13).
Jesus walked on water (see 6:19-21).
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (see 11:41-44).
That’s what the power of God looks like. Everything had been given into Jesus’ hands; He knew it, and He demonstrated it—but He also demonstrated humility.
Verse 3 also shows us Jesus knew where He had come from and where He was returning. John’s Gospel began by pointing to the divine origin of Jesus (see 1:1-3). Jesus created and has authority over everything. He was about to die for the sins of the world, conquer death by being resurrected, and return to heaven to rule forever. Yet with all that power and authority, in this moment He chose to wash feet.
Don’t believe that this was simply a ceremonial act. Jesus’ example of service made a powerful point, but it was all the more powerful for the fact that it was lowly, filthy work. The One with the authority of everything in His hands knelt before the sandaled feet of working men who walked dirt roads. And He did the job until their feet were dry.
Question 2:
Where do you typically see someone serving others in our society today?
We are called to be like Jesus. And if Jesus can work, we can work. If Jesus can die to Himself, we can do likewise. When we see how He served through His miracles, through His selfless acts, and ultimately through His death on the cross, we are changed, and we are moved to be like Him.
John 13:6-10
6 He came to Simon Peter, who asked him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 “You will never wash my feet,” Peter said. Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” 10 “One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.”
If we struggle with the image of God washing feet, we aren’t alone. Peter strongly protested. “You will never wash my feet.”
Jesus’ response beautifully reveals that He offers more than clean feet. Jesus wanted Peter and the other disciples to understand that they needed to be washed and made completely pure by the cleansing He offers. Just as physical water washes away filth and dirt from our bodies, so Jesus seeks to wash away the filth of our sin.
This isn’t a reference to baptism—for baptism is only a symbol of the greater washing Jesus provides. “He saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Jesus came so that through His perfect life, sacrificial death, and miraculous resurrection, the unclean could be made clean and fully take their place with Him.
Peter’s foot-washing protest set Jesus up to share that He can forgive sinners and make them clean. Just as Jesus humbled Himself and took on the servant’s task of washing feet, He humbled Himself further by taking our sin as His own and dying on the cross.
The humility of Christ isn’t just the greatest example of power being used to serve others. It brings with it the most stunning and gracious outcome of serving others the world could ever know. Jesus’ humble act of dying on the cross for us was also singularly generous, for by it He offers us forgiveness, holiness, freedom, joy, and eternal life.
Peter wanted Jesus in his life, so he said, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head” (John 13:9). If it meant lining up with Jesus, Peter wanted the full bath! Isn’t that the heart of the true Christian? Those who want Jesus want all of Him. The gift of the gospel is a connection to Christ, friendship with Christ, and the ability to be “in” Christ.
Jesus corrected Peter, though, since such a bath wasn’t necessary. Jesus, the humble Servant, doesn’t leave us half dirty. He gives us the full measure of His forgiveness and makes us completely clean.
Question 3:
How would you explain Jesus making us completely clean to another person?
John 13:14-16
14 So if I, 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 for you. 16 “Truly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him.
We find great worth in serving as Jesus served. This is another reminder of just who was doing the dirty work of washing feet that day. It was Jesus, their Master and Lord. The One with the authority was also the one with the towel.
He calls us to do the same. “Do just as I have done.” When the Creator speaks, the created should obey. Period. But Jesus wasn’t just ordering others to do something because He said so. He was calling us to be like Him. Do as I have done. His example motivates us.
Question 4:
What would be equivalent to washing other people’s feet for a Christ-follower today?
Jesus went on to perform the greatest act of service: He sacrificed Himself. His death in our place melts us. But even still, He isn’t just the Creator and the Servant and the Sacrifice. In verse 17, He reminds us He is the Blesser. “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
Shortly before Jesus went to the cross to pay the price for our sins, He promised to bless us for our humble obedience. This reality is all over God’s Word.
“If you follow my statutes and faithfully observe my commands, I will give you rain at the right time, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit” (Leviticus 26:3-4).
“Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that you may prosper and so that you may enter and possess the good land the Lord your God swore to give your ancestors” (Deuteronomy 6:18).
“If only you had paid attention to my commands. Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea” (Isaiah 48:18).
“Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:28).
Christ has called us to reflect Him by how we serve others with humility. He modeled this service for us beautifully and clearly. He has motivated us by making us the beneficiaries of His gracious service. And He has promised to bless us as we obey.
Question 5:
What opportunities do you have this week to humbly serve someone?
Engage
MEANT TO SERVE
“You also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14). Choose two of the items pictured below and in your notes, make a list of specific ways you could use them to serve others.
LIVE IT OUT
When we see how Jesus served through His selfless acts, we are changed, and we are moved to be like Him. Consider these options for how you can reflect Christ by serving others this week.
Start small. Embrace the small opportunities to put others first in your daily interactions this week. Let someone into traffic. Allow another person to go first in line. Pay for a cup of coffee for the individual in the car behind you. Keep your eyes open for these opportunities.
Ask for specifics. Ask family and friends how you can better serve them. You might have conversations that surprise you! Be prepared to make yourself available to help with any need that comes up.
Go big. Ask the Lord to guide you to a specific opportunity to show radical humility in service. This may include a sacrifice of time, opportunities, position, or money. Consider inviting a friend to join you and trust the Holy Spirit to empower you to serve humbly.
Since being connected to Christ gives us opportunity for abundance, and since being like Jesus means becoming the person God wants us to be, then we should treasure humility. The God of heaven put on flesh and served the world. We reflect Christ powerfully when we serve with humility. [Lifeway Adults (2021). (p. 13). Bible Studies for Life: Young Adult Personal Study Guide - CSB - Spring 2022. Lifeway Press. Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]
Question 1:
What characteristics do you think of when it comes to a hero?
THE POINT
We reflect Christ when we serve others with humility.
THE BIBLE MEETS LIFE
I read a lot of books about kings, swords, and medieval battles. I’ve discovered that these books of fantasy tend to highlight a fundamental flaw of humanity. In these fictional worlds, strong kings crush weak ones. The fastest blade wins. The frail ends up serving the fearsome.
Of course, we don’t live in a time of swords and kings, but ours is still a world in which those with strength often oppress instead of support. In the real world, many in positions of power abuse it, but the strongest Person in history set a different example. Jesus walked the earth with the power of God Himself, but He didn’t crush, kill, or overwhelm. He had power the world had never seen, but He used it to serve.
That is to be our way as well. Since being connected to Christ gives us opportunity for abundance, and since being like Jesus means becoming the person God wants us to be, then we should treasure humility. The God of heaven put on flesh and served the world. And we reflect Christ powerfully when we serve with humility.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
John 13:3-5
3 Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God. 4 So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself. 5 Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him.
God—THE God—wrapped a towel around His waist, poured some water, and washed feet. When the God of heaven inhabited a human body and lived a life with regular people, it surely was going to lead to a few remarkable interactions, but Jesus washing His disciples’ feet has to be one of the more surprising.
Verse 3 helps us embrace the significance of this moment. The apostle John reminds us of where Jesus came from and where He was going. Let’s not be so focused on what Jesus did on this occasion that we forget who He is. He certainly didn’t. “Jesus knew that … he had come from God, and that he was going back to God.”
Jesus knew the power He had. He knew, as His disciples did, the miracles He was capable of performing. Throughout John’s Gospel of Jesus’ life, we see evidence of the fact that “the Father had given everything into his hands.”
Jesus healed an official’s son (see 4:46-54).
Jesus fed over five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish (see 6:10-13).
Jesus walked on water (see 6:19-21).
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (see 11:41-44).
That’s what the power of God looks like. Everything had been given into Jesus’ hands; He knew it, and He demonstrated it—but He also demonstrated humility.
Verse 3 also shows us Jesus knew where He had come from and where He was returning. John’s Gospel began by pointing to the divine origin of Jesus (see 1:1-3). Jesus created and has authority over everything. He was about to die for the sins of the world, conquer death by being resurrected, and return to heaven to rule forever. Yet with all that power and authority, in this moment He chose to wash feet.
Don’t believe that this was simply a ceremonial act. Jesus’ example of service made a powerful point, but it was all the more powerful for the fact that it was lowly, filthy work. The One with the authority of everything in His hands knelt before the sandaled feet of working men who walked dirt roads. And He did the job until their feet were dry.
Question 2:
Where do you typically see someone serving others in our society today?
We are called to be like Jesus. And if Jesus can work, we can work. If Jesus can die to Himself, we can do likewise. When we see how He served through His miracles, through His selfless acts, and ultimately through His death on the cross, we are changed, and we are moved to be like Him.
John 13:6-10
6 He came to Simon Peter, who asked him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 “You will never wash my feet,” Peter said. Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” 10 “One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.”
If we struggle with the image of God washing feet, we aren’t alone. Peter strongly protested. “You will never wash my feet.”
Jesus’ response beautifully reveals that He offers more than clean feet. Jesus wanted Peter and the other disciples to understand that they needed to be washed and made completely pure by the cleansing He offers. Just as physical water washes away filth and dirt from our bodies, so Jesus seeks to wash away the filth of our sin.
This isn’t a reference to baptism—for baptism is only a symbol of the greater washing Jesus provides. “He saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Jesus came so that through His perfect life, sacrificial death, and miraculous resurrection, the unclean could be made clean and fully take their place with Him.
Peter’s foot-washing protest set Jesus up to share that He can forgive sinners and make them clean. Just as Jesus humbled Himself and took on the servant’s task of washing feet, He humbled Himself further by taking our sin as His own and dying on the cross.
The humility of Christ isn’t just the greatest example of power being used to serve others. It brings with it the most stunning and gracious outcome of serving others the world could ever know. Jesus’ humble act of dying on the cross for us was also singularly generous, for by it He offers us forgiveness, holiness, freedom, joy, and eternal life.
Peter wanted Jesus in his life, so he said, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head” (John 13:9). If it meant lining up with Jesus, Peter wanted the full bath! Isn’t that the heart of the true Christian? Those who want Jesus want all of Him. The gift of the gospel is a connection to Christ, friendship with Christ, and the ability to be “in” Christ.
Jesus corrected Peter, though, since such a bath wasn’t necessary. Jesus, the humble Servant, doesn’t leave us half dirty. He gives us the full measure of His forgiveness and makes us completely clean.
Question 3:
How would you explain Jesus making us completely clean to another person?
John 13:14-16
14 So if I, 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 for you. 16 “Truly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him.
We find great worth in serving as Jesus served. This is another reminder of just who was doing the dirty work of washing feet that day. It was Jesus, their Master and Lord. The One with the authority was also the one with the towel.
He calls us to do the same. “Do just as I have done.” When the Creator speaks, the created should obey. Period. But Jesus wasn’t just ordering others to do something because He said so. He was calling us to be like Him. Do as I have done. His example motivates us.
Question 4:
What would be equivalent to washing other people’s feet for a Christ-follower today?
Jesus went on to perform the greatest act of service: He sacrificed Himself. His death in our place melts us. But even still, He isn’t just the Creator and the Servant and the Sacrifice. In verse 17, He reminds us He is the Blesser. “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
Shortly before Jesus went to the cross to pay the price for our sins, He promised to bless us for our humble obedience. This reality is all over God’s Word.
“If you follow my statutes and faithfully observe my commands, I will give you rain at the right time, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit” (Leviticus 26:3-4).
“Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that you may prosper and so that you may enter and possess the good land the Lord your God swore to give your ancestors” (Deuteronomy 6:18).
“If only you had paid attention to my commands. Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea” (Isaiah 48:18).
“Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:28).
Christ has called us to reflect Him by how we serve others with humility. He modeled this service for us beautifully and clearly. He has motivated us by making us the beneficiaries of His gracious service. And He has promised to bless us as we obey.
Question 5:
What opportunities do you have this week to humbly serve someone?
Engage
MEANT TO SERVE
“You also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14). Choose two of the items pictured below and in your notes, make a list of specific ways you could use them to serve others.
LIVE IT OUT
When we see how Jesus served through His selfless acts, we are changed, and we are moved to be like Him. Consider these options for how you can reflect Christ by serving others this week.
Start small. Embrace the small opportunities to put others first in your daily interactions this week. Let someone into traffic. Allow another person to go first in line. Pay for a cup of coffee for the individual in the car behind you. Keep your eyes open for these opportunities.
Ask for specifics. Ask family and friends how you can better serve them. You might have conversations that surprise you! Be prepared to make yourself available to help with any need that comes up.
Go big. Ask the Lord to guide you to a specific opportunity to show radical humility in service. This may include a sacrifice of time, opportunities, position, or money. Consider inviting a friend to join you and trust the Holy Spirit to empower you to serve humbly.
Since being connected to Christ gives us opportunity for abundance, and since being like Jesus means becoming the person God wants us to be, then we should treasure humility. The God of heaven put on flesh and served the world. We reflect Christ powerfully when we serve with humility. [Lifeway Adults (2021). (p. 13). Bible Studies for Life: Young Adult Personal Study Guide - CSB - Spring 2022. Lifeway Press. Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]