For today, we're John chapter 13. So if you'll turn there in your Bibles to John chapter 13.

And let me just get a running start with us so we can get up to speed where we are. And this might

be helpful for those of you who are new here to our Bible study. But John chapter 13 through

17 are known as the upper room discourse.

These five chapters are almost entirely in red, if you have a red letter edition of the

Bible, because a red letter edition of the Bible records the words of Jesus in red.

And the reason that these chapters are almost entirely in red is

because these chapters are almost entirely the words of Jesus in a private setting with his

disciples where he shares some final words with them just before he is crucified. So we have to

have this understanding of these chapters. It's a very

solemn time. He is a loan. He is ministering exclusively with the 12, and it'll soon be just the 11 in the

room. And so what are some of the most important things that Jesus would want to impart to his

disciples just before he's crucified.

That's what we're reading here.

Now, last time we were together, the first part of chapter 13, one of the first things

that Jesus does is he demonstrates servitude and he washes the feet of his disciples.

And then he says back in verse 15, he says, now I want you to follow my example,

I want you to do as I've done to you. And when he said that, he didn't mean I want you to start

to include foot washing as a regular ordinance of the church like water baptism or communion.

And the reason we can say that is because there's no other example in the New Testament where the early church ever practiced foot washing as part of a worship service.

So then what did he mean when he said, I want you to follow my example.

What he meant was, I want you to be servants.

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