FOOTWASHING SERVICE INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE MASTER TEACHER

THE PROVISION FOR FULL FELLOWSHIP OF THE SAINTS

FOOTWASHING SERVICE INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE MASTER TEACHER

John 13:13

"Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am."

1.   Sharing in common is the very essence of this new Society of believers as experienced in the Lord's Supper. This grand gathering together of the Church at the Love Feast is the fore glimpse of that final gathering together at the time of the rapture. The love feast is the nearest approach to that blessed event in heaven when Christ comes for His bride the Church.

2.   But this fellowship cannot be experienced until sin is dealt with, for sin separates. Sin separates from God (Isa. 59:2) "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear". In the beginning when Adam fell into sin God had to shut him out from the garden of Eden where God manifested Himself to men in glory between the wings of the cherubim (Gen. 3:22-24).

3.   Moreover, sin separates men from one another. This is just as true for believers in Christ. Believers cannot en­ter into the fullness of fellowship at the love feast if sin fills their lives. For this reason the feetwashing service was inaugurated at the very outset of the Lord's Supper. All were seated at the table ready to begin the meal, but before they started Christ rose from the table, girded Him­self and washed the feet of the disciples. The early church followed this practice. Never in those early centuries was the feetwashing service ever practiced apart from the Love Feast.

4.   In the larger sense, that cleansing from sin which Christ is performing today with the Church is the thing that will prepare the church for rapture and the gathering of the en­tire church in that great gathering together at the second coming (Eph. 5:26-27). "That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might pre­sent it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or, wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish". This means that the feetwashing service is symbolic of the High Priestly ministry of Christ today, in which he washes away, the defilements of sin by the appli­cation of the word of God to our lives.

5.   To bring this to your attention, I want to present five leading lines of truth to your attention out of the 13th chapter of the Gospel of John.