Well today we are, and I'll ask that you withhold applause please, but we are completing our series in the Jesus You Can Know today. It's our last installment. We didn't quite make it to 30. This is 29, installment number 29, so I don't know. It just worked out that way, so maybe someday in the future we'll add a 30. But today we want to consider a passage from John 15. I trust that this is a familiar passage to many of you, the passage about the vine and the branches. And we'll read verses 1 through 17 of John chapter 15. I'll ask you to stand in honor of the reading of God's word. and to listen carefully and intently with your minds and your hearts engaged, because this is not merely the word of man, but it is the word of God. I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, it is he that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. And the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish. and it will be done for you. By this, my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all that I have heard from my father, I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you so that you will love one another. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Please be seated. We talk a lot at Christ the King about union with Christ, Because we celebrate the Lord's Supper every week, this concept is put before us. We are experiencing and we are engaging in a sign and a seal of the fact that we are one with Christ and he is one with us every time that we celebrate the Lord's Supper. And although in many places and in many churches, the concept of union with Christ is neglected, We've heard it a lot. We know what that means, I hope. We're gonna see a little bit more of what it means today. But the gnawing question remains. This is a doctrine. We hear the doctrine. But the most important thing that we can ask about any doctrine is that question, so what? So what? What difference does it make that we are united to Christ? What does it mean to apply that truth to our lives? What are the implications of that? We're united to Christ, well yeah, and that's the basis we know, maybe some of us only in some vague sense, that that's related to our salvation. It's being united to Christ that makes all the blessings of God available to us, but what does that mean for how we live? And how we live every day, what we do, our experience of the Christian life, what difference does union with Christ make? So that's what I'd like for us to ask today as we look at this passage. What must we understand in order to apply our union with Christ, not just know about it, not just be able to say, yes, union with Christ, yes, I'm united to Christ, but what does that mean for my life? What must we know, what must we understand to apply this to ourselves? And I think that's what Jesus is talking about to his disciples here. He's talking about how they are to apply their union with Him. So I think there are three things, as usual, that we need to understand from this passage, three things that stick out to me that we need to point out and we need to discuss today. In the first place, we need to see this, that we must understand the two distinct senses of union with Christ. the two distinct senses of union with Christ. There are two senses, and they are distinct. They're related, but they're distinct. And in order to understand these, we have to understand something that's behind this passage, even though the word isn't used here, but it's behind virtually everything that we read in Scripture, and that is the concept of covenant. We have to understand that there is a formal union with Christ and there is a spiritual union with Christ. And Jesus speaks really of both here. He speaks of both in this passage and really how they're related. I think, when I think about this concept, I think sometimes about Democrats and Republicans. You know, you can be a registered Democrat. You can be a registered Republican. That doesn't mean that you necessarily vote the way that you're registered. Some people are registered as something, and that gives them a certain identity. You're registered. You're a registered Republican. But you might not vote that way in a given election. As a matter of fact, you might not even vote. There are lots of people who are registered in our political process, but they don't vote. What does that mean? It means that there is a status that you can have that is not effectually applied in what you're doing. You're not involved. We know people who are Democrats and Republicans. They're involved in convincing others to vote the way they vote or to think the way they think. They put up yard signs. There are people who are gung-ho. They're very, very involved. And then there are people who have the status who do absolutely nothing. It doesn't make any difference at all. They have the status. They're on the rolls. It's written down. It's official. But they're not really engaged, they're not really applying that, it's not real to them in that sense. Well the same is true with union with Christ. There is a formal union with Christ and there is a spiritual union with Christ. And perhaps the best way to understand this is in terms of what our confession talks about when it talks about the visible church and the invisible church. When we talk about the visible church, we're talking about the community of God's people that is gathered for worship visibly, that are identified with Christ in a formal way. They've adopted the name Christian, they've made a profession of faith, or they are part of, in terms of our theology, they are children of professing believers. professing believers and their children. That's the visible community of God's people that you can see. That's the visible church. And those are the people who are really united to Christ in this formal sense because they are in covenant relationship to God. Who are the covenant people of God? We've talked about this many times before. Who are the covenant people of God in Scripture? those who are professing believers and their children in both Old Testament and New Testament. That's who the people of God are. That's the Bible's answer. But we know that those people, that visible community is composed of a couple of different kinds of people. It's composed of true believers People who have applied the promises of the covenant in true faith and have trusted in those promises. True believers who are truly then delivered from sin through faith. They constitute the invisible church along with those in heaven. who have trusted God. Those throughout the ages, throughout time, the invisible churches, all those who have true faith in Jesus Christ, who is the one in whom all of the promises of God are summed up and become real and are realized by us. Christ is the one who brings all those promises to success and to fruition. And so we have a visible church and we have an invisible church. We have a formal union And we have a spiritual union. Now as we look at this passage, it talks about both. Let me show you how. The vine and the branches that Jesus refers to here has a history. There is a history in the scriptures of this concept. When Jesus talks about the vine, and especially those who were His hearers, His disciples, who were familiar with the Old Testament, they would have immediately thought of Isaiah chapter 5. In Isaiah chapter 5, God refers to Israel as a vineyard. and a vine and how the vine dresser, he constructed a vineyard for this vine and he hoped that it would yield grapes but it only yielded sour grapes. This was the nation of Israel as Isaiah is talking to them about the fruit that they were to produce that they did not produce. But Israel is the vine. Now, we know Israel was the church. It was the people of God in the Old Testament. That's who they were. The covenant people of God was Israel. And they were referred to as a vine. And so when Jesus uses this figure, He is speaking of the dynamics of the people of God. But do you notice what He says? He is the vine now. He says, I am the vine. How are we to reconcile this? Well, we know that when, for instance, Jesus encountered or confronted Paul on the Damascus road, he appeared to Paul in a blinding light, and this was the beginning of Paul's conversion. Do you remember what he said? He said, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Well, who was he persecuting? He was persecuting the church. He was taking God's people to be delivered to death. And so Jesus here is identifying Himself with His people. Why? Because He is one with them. He is united to them. To persecute them is to persecute Him because how do we refer to God's people? As the body of Christ. because of union with Him. And so He says, I'm the vine and you are the branches. But let me ask you a question. When He says this, is He talking about formal union or is He talking about spiritual union? Which is it? And we know that the formal union is real because there are implications for it. To be in covenant relationship to God means that you are now subject to the blessings and the curses of the covenant. depending upon what you do with the promises of the covenant. And that is serious to God and it's very serious to us. It has very serious implications for us. Israel knew about that because although they were the people of God, when they didn't bear the fruit that He required, there was awesome and very painful judgment Because, and a judgment that was greater than God's judgment upon the other nations. Why? Because they had great and special advantages. They were in the covenant. They were covenantally related to God. Even though for many of them that was not salvation because they did not believe. They responded in unbelief. Now, what is Jesus talking about here? It's very important that we understand the distinction here. And I want you to notice That at least part of what Jesus is talking about here is merely formal union. And that really generates what He's saying. Why? Because He talks about the branches that don't bear fruit. And what does He say is true of the branches that don't bear fruit? He says, they are cut off. And that language is common in Scripture, the language of being cut off. And then they are thrown in the fire eventually and burned. Now, it's hard to doubt that what he's talking about is eventual judgment and condemnation. He's talking about branches that don't bear fruit. And we're going to talk about this. What is bearing fruit? Well, it's the fruit of faith. Faith is what produces everything that's good and all the blessings of the covenant. But he's talking about those branches that don't bear fruit. They were united to him in some sense. They had a formal union. They were part of the visible church. But they don't bear fruit. What's the ultimate end of those branches? They're cut off and burned. And we know this cannot happen, this cannot happen to people who are truly united to Christ in faith. How do we know that? because we have the promises of God. For instance, in this very book in John chapter 10, my sheep don't hear my voice, and they follow me, and they will never follow a stranger. And then he says, they shall never perish. Now, there are many other proofs that true believers can't fall from true salvation in the scripture. We don't have time to rehearse all of that. But that's enough. That should be enough. those are truly Christ's sheep, shall never perish. And so they're not in this category of branches that are burned. But let me just point out, Jesus says there is a real union with Him that can be broken through apostasy, through a lack of faith, through not bearing fruit. He says that. And so this is the basis of that distinction. That there is a formal union. And let me just say in applying this today, you can be a member of the church. You can make a profession of faith. You can be baptized. And not be saved. And not have a real spiritual union with Christ. And so it's my responsibility to warn you about that. It's my responsibility to tell you that being a church member isn't enough. That being in covenant with God isn't enough. You must apply the promises of the covenant in faith. And that faith is quintessentially faith in Christ and what He has done. That is the access. to true union with Christ, to spiritual union with Christ. And so, we move to our second point, which is this, that we must understand the two distinct purposes of union with Christ. What are the purposes? Well, what does Jesus say? He says that He wants us to bear fruit. That's the first thing. He says that this is the Father's purpose, that you would bear much fruit. You're united. And He says, apart from Me, you can do nothing. This is the purpose. God has arranged this so that you might bear fruit. Well, let's think about it. What is fruit? What is fruit? Well, there are two senses of fruit that we need to be aware of. And one of them we think of in the very first chapter of Scripture. It has to do with something we talk about a lot, the Kingdom of God, that was established in Genesis chapter 1 when God said, I want to rule, but I'm going to rule through man, my image bearer. So he said, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. You remember we've said that's a chiasm, that's an A-B-B-A pattern. So he's really saying two things. Be fruitful, which corresponds to subduing the earth. and multiply and fill the earth. Those two go together. So, he's talking about ordering and filling, managing, stewarding all of God's creation, and filling the earth with God's image. And it's the image of God that qualifies us to do this. And that's how we rule. That's what it means to rule. That's the kingdom of God. This all should be old hat to most of you. But then, what else does fruit involve then? Because that management is tied to the image of God. God says, in order to do this, you must reflect Me and My ordering and My filling. Genesis 2 is meant to follow Genesis 1 in the record of what God did. He ordered and filled when He created. So we're to order and fill. That's how we rule. But we can't do it as we should because we can't reflect God anymore because of our sin which has marred the image of God. And so the fruit that God wants is that which enables us to be fruitful. It has to do not only with the task of the Kingdom of God, it has to do with the character of those who rule. And so we read in the New Testament, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. It's character qualities that image, that reflect the character of God. That's essential to carrying out the kingdom of God. And so when Jesus is talking about fruit, fruit is the productive part of the tree. Fruit tells us that God wants us to produce something. He wants us to be productive in His kingdom. He wants us to be good stewards of all that He's given us and to reflect His glory. And He wants us to do this in a way that reflects His character, that shows His holiness. Be holy. You shall be holy as I am holy. This is God's will for His people. And so Jesus is saying, look, God has ordained this system of union with Him so that we might do this, so that we might be good stewards of His creation, we might rule over His creation for His glory, and that in doing that we reflect His character. This is bearing fruit. This is bearing fruit. Now, there is another purpose that's there for union with Christ in this passage. And that is intimacy. We might call it intimacy. Because throughout this passage, what is he saying? Apart from me, you can do nothing. And then he begins to talk about abiding. And abiding in his love. Now, some translations say remain. Some translations say abide, there are other translations. The Greek word is a little bit elusive, because if we just translate remain, we might think that what Jesus is saying, his concern is that we stay, that we stay with him, that we persevere. And that's part of it. But really, here's the sense of the word. When Jesus says, you must abide in me, what he's really talking about is he's talking about this settled engagement in Christ. He's talking about as if we're marinating in Him. We're settled in Him. We remain in Him. We stay in Him. Yes, it's stay, but it's more than that. It's reveling in Him. It's living in Him. That's what He means by abiding in Him. Marinating in His presence. That's what He's talking about. Now, we can talk about, we're going to talk about this a little bit more, but I want to just give you this illustration. When I first went into the ministry, one of the things that people told me was, make sure, and really it was my RUF campus minister that told me this, when I had made a decision that I was going to go to seminary. He said, one thing, Mike, make sure that when you become a minister that your children don't end up hating the church because you're a minister. Because there are a lot of ministers who get so involved in their ministry that they're never home. And they don't spend enough time with their children. And you've heard the old cliche about preacher's kids, the PKs. Why is that? It's because of this dynamic. Their children end up hating the church because they're never home, they don't spend any time with them, and they neglect their family because they have this great calling with the church. And I thought about that, and one time when I was reading this passage, I was thinking, it said, abide in Christ. What does that really mean, abide in Christ? It means you're there. It means you're with Him. And He's with you. And you're experiencing that presence. You're experiencing that union. And you're settled in it. You're abiding in it. You're living in it. Just like a father who's really home and spending time with his children. There's no substitute for that. You can't say, well, you know, kids, I wrote you a letter. I bought you a Christmas present. I sent you a card. It's not the same thing. A father needs to abide with his children. Parents need to abide with their children. Because they need the experience of you. Of your presence. Of who you are. Of what you can say to them. Of what you can add to their lives. Of your interest in their lives. Of a mutual back and forth that is what relationship is all about. That's abiding. You see? And what we're really talking about is intimacy. Is intimacy. And so what Jesus is saying to His disciples is, look, if you're going to bear fruit, you have to abide. You have to have this intimacy. One goes with the other. Their intimacy is a purpose because God wants us to have union with Christ for the purpose of this intimacy. Now I want to draw that to a close with this point in just a second, but I want to just give you this illustration. You know, why is this important? We need to know the purpose of union with Christ. Why? Because, you know, we read all these things about the purpose-driven life, you know, everybody, Rick Warren, purpose-driven life. All it is is just management principles. You know, everything needs a purpose. If you don't know the purpose for which you're doing something, the purpose for which something is designed, then you don't really understand it, do you? And I think a flaw in the management of a lot of businesses. Certainly the flaw in the management of a lot of churches, and Rick Warren would agree with this, is that we have a bunch of activities, but we don't know why we're doing this or that. And not enough people are asking, what's the purpose of that? And really, if we ever asked ourselves, what's the purpose of this, we'd say, well, there really isn't much of a purpose for it. And we'd get rid of it, and we'd use our time much more efficiently and profitably. We need to understand why. What's the purpose? And what's the purpose? Let me remind you. What's the purpose of union with Christ? It is this, that union with Christ is essential to produce fruit. The fruit that God commands. And union with Christ accomplishes the greatest goal of God. And that is intimacy with Him. that we become one with Him. This is what He prays, not long after He utters these words, what He prays in the garden. I pray for those who will trust in Me, who will come to know You. I pray that they would become one. And He's praying to His Father. He says, even as we are one... Listen, folks, we've said it before, but I've got to drill it into your heads. The amazing thing that is the goal of God is that He wants us to be included in the divine life and love of the Trinity. Of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Not that we're going to become God. We can never become God. That's not what we're talking about. But we're talking about God wants to include a host of people in this oneness and fellowship and love and intimacy that brings joy. It's the basis of joy. It is life itself. It is a relationship of love with God Himself. He wants to include us in that. And the only way that we can ever be included in it is to be united to Christ, the One who is both God and man in one person. As we are united to Him, we are united to God and to His human nature. And so, we participate in this oneness, in this intimacy, Listen, you know, we talk about this is what marriage is. Marriage is a picture of this. Marriage is meant to be a picture of the union between, the relationship between God and His people, Christ and His people. Now listen, I know that there are a lot of problems. There are some problems in all marriages. No marriages are perfect. But you think about a really good marriage. Think about when it's really good. Think about what that means. And if you've never been married, probably it's something that you're hungering for unless God's given you the gift of singleness. Why? Why do we hunger for that? Because what we want is commitment and love and intimacy. And listen, this is what union with Christ is all about. It's about that kind of love and commitment and life and relationship with God Himself. That's what it's about. There's nothing better than that. Nothing better than that. And it's what God offers us through union with Christ. That's the purpose of union with Christ. So that we might experience union with God Himself. and oneness with Him. And that's why He talks about love, abiding in His love. Abiding in His love. Now, that leads us to our last question and the last point. And it's this, that we must understand in order to apply the so what of union with Christ, we must understand the two complementary means to union with Christ. How do we get union? We get it through faith, we know that. And if we trust it in Christ, we are united spiritually to Christ. But how do we experience this? How do we grow in it? How do we abide in Christ? How do we do that? Well, there are two means that are given in this passage. He says we do it first through the communion of saints. What we call the communion of saints. What is that? It's the church. It's God's people. You see, you can't experience the invisible church except through the visible church. Do you realize that? Do you see the structure that Jesus sets up in this passage? He says, here's the fact. You are the vine. I'm the vine. You are the branches. Now he's talking about the visible church. But he says, look, you have to apply that. You have to bear fruit. You have to abide in my love. You have to abide in me. Now, what is abiding in Christ? What does it mean to be settled and to live in Christ? It means, let me just say, living in the church. You can't abide in Christ apart from His body. That's a big part of what this passage is saying. You know, in our independent age in America, we think Well, I can have my personal relationship with Christ and it's just me and I can go out, you know, I can have a retreat in a cabin in the woods and I'm perfectly fine, that's all I need. No, it's not. Because the vine is Christ, but Christ includes His body. Remember Isaiah 5? The vine is Christ, but it's also the church, and Christ's body is the church. You cannot bear fruit, you can't abide in Christ if you separate yourself from His body. You can't abide in Christ if you separate yourself from His body. And this is why people say, well, I'm a spiritual person, and yeah, I'm even a Christian, but I just don't believe in organized religion. It's totally unscriptural. It's totally unbiblical. It's totally wrong. You can't have what you need to experience Jesus Christ apart from your union with everyone else in whom His Spirit dwells. We are the temple. Christ's Spirit is here. Christ's Spirit lives in all of us. And what passages like Ephesians 4 say is that to grow up into the fullness of the stature of Christ, we grow together. We don't grow apart from one another, we grow together as a body. And I can't do that apart from you, and you can't do that apart from me. Yes, there is no perfect church. And it is true that when we look around at each other, and when we turn that steady gaze at ourselves, we see we are a motley crew indeed. Yes. And we're not perfect. And sometimes we become dissatisfied or irritated at personalities in the church with whom we don't mesh or with things that people do. Or, yes, when people in the church sin against us, yes, because that happens. But even though all of these things are true, what Jesus says is this is my church for whom I died. These are my people. And I've chosen them. You hear what Jesus said? You did not choose me, but I chose you. Jesus chose who's in the church. And Jesus chose them precisely because those are the people, these are the people. If you're in this church, God is in control. If you're in this church, it's because God Himself, it's because Jesus Himself chose you and brought you here. And these are the people that you need. And these are the people who have the gifts that can meet your need. And it's through your involvement in the church What does He say, if you abide in Me, you can ask whatever you will, and it will be done for you? He says elsewhere, if two or more of you agree on anything, it will be done for them by My Father in Heaven. Because corporate prayer is part of how this works. You're exposed to the Word in a situation like this, in a context like this. You're given the Word so that you might grow. And Jesus says you're clean because of the Word that I've spoken to you. That Word is the agent of regeneration. You can't be regenerated. You can't be born again unless you hear God's truth. Jesus had spoken His Word to the disciples. That Word had generated life as the Holy Spirit applied it effectually to their hearts. And they were clean. But what did they need? They needed to abide in Him. They needed to grow. Fruit is something that grows. It's something that develops. And it develops through all of the means of grace that come through the church. I can read God's Word, but I can't come to a complete understanding of it apart from you, and you, and you, and the church at large. I need preaching. I need to discuss this. I need other people's insights, not necessarily even preachers. It's what small group Bible studies are all about. We look at these things together. And we teach each other and admonish one another. I need discipline. I need somebody that can hold my feet to the fire in an official way. This is why I need to be a member of a church. So that those who are charged with the responsibility of being shepherds in the church can have responsibility for me and hold my feet to the fire and tell me hard things when I need to hear them. That's a means of grace. It only comes through the church. Fellowship, people using their gifts. And administering, as Peter puts it, administering God's grace in its various forms. That comes through the church. We don't reach maturity apart from these things. The communion of saints. My oneness with Christ means I'm one with everyone else who is one with Christ. And that's how we bear fruit. But then the other means is what I'm going to call, using Paul's term, the obedience of faith. The obedience of faith. As I was looking at this passage, And as I've looked at it for years, one gnawing question that I've had was this seemingly conditional phrase that Jesus uses in verse 10. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. Now, especially if you translate it, You know, he's saying, okay, wait a minute, so if we're going to be saved, if we're going to be really part of the spiritual union with Christ, it's conditional on whether we obey God's law, so is salvation a matter of works? Is that what he's saying? If you don't obey, you're going to be cut off, and if you do obey, you won't be cut off, and it's salvation by works. Is that what he's saying? Is this conditional? You have to obey? That's not what he's saying. And it was only, it was only, I had a vague idea of what he was saying until recently I read something. And I'll recommend this book, The Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Culture by Rosaria Butterfield. If you haven't seen that book, you need to get a copy of it and read it. It's a wonderful book. And she tells it like it is. There's a statement in that book that was enlightening to me as I was reading it. She said, she said, to reject God's law is to reject God's love. Think about that. To reject God's law is to reject God's love. Why? We don't see that because that's not how we think of God's law. We think of God's law as something that's oppressive. We think, oh gosh, I've got to keep God's commands. Oh wow. It's so hard and so wearisome. I'm tired of it. I have to obey. You know what Jesus said about God's law? You know what He said about His commands? He said, my commands are not burdensome. Because He who has believed in me has overcome the world. And the world is what? A different set of values. What does John say the world is? Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, sinful pride of life. If you've overcome those things, God's law is not burdensome to you. It's your delight. In fact, you come to realize that the expression of God's love is that He's given us His law. Because to obey His commands puts us into blessedness. God blesses us through righteousness. And sometimes that's counterintuitive to sinful people, but it's true. God loves us, so He gives us His law. And so, to abide in His law, to abide in obedience, because I trust Him, what Paul calls the obedience of faith, is to abide in His love. Do you see that? The first time I saw one aspect of this was when I was going through Psalm 119. And I was thinking, boy, these verses, how do I understand this? It's parallelism. The first part relates to the second part. There's parallelism. And then I came to this verse, trying to understand each verse in that way. I seek you with all my heart. Do not let me stray from your commands. What does one of those have to do with the other? We talked about seeking God, seek the Lord. We saw that in our passage from the law today. But what does it really mean to seek the Lord? Many people think it's this, I'm seeking this mystical experience, this ecstatic, you know, I'm going to be on a mountaintop and I don't know, it's going to be like I'm on drugs or something, you know, that's what I'm seeking. No. What the Bible says is that to seek God is to seek to be like Him. And how do we become like Him? We obey His commands. Because His law is the expression of His character. If you want to seek God, if you want intimacy with God, if you want to be close to God, then become like God. Obey His commands. I seek You with all my heart. Do not let me stray from Your commands. See, this is different from how a lot of people think about the law today, even in Christianity. It's what the Bible says about the law. To obey Christ's commands is to abide in His love. And as we abide in His love, we bear fruit. We bear fruit in the kingdom, and we bear the fruit that makes us like Him. It makes us like Him, and we're blessed. And in a very real sense, whether we know it or not, that's the gospel. It's not just my fire insurance out of hell. It's experiencing the full blessing of God, whom we know and love, and we experience His love for us. That's how we do it. So let's remember all that now as we come to the table. I'll ask those who are serving at the table to come forward now. Well, you know, everything that I would say at this table, I've said in the sermon. What is this about? It's about our experiencing our union with Christ. And all that we've just heard about today, it's about our experiencing our union with Christ in an intense way. And sometimes we experience the presence of God when we're in prayer, when we're on our knees. I'm sure most, if not all of you, have experienced that. If you know Christ, you've experienced times of prayer where you're close to God, and you've even felt Him speaking to you while you were praying, and reminding you of His Word, or helping you with the decision that you need to make. You know what it means to be close to God in that way. Well, let me say, This time is meant to be one of those times. This time uses physical means, physical elements, our eating and drinking, literally eating and drinking, to experience in a tangible way the reality that I'm united to Christ and you're united to Christ. And when I say I and you, I mean, look, part of what we're to get out of this is not looking down while we're eating and drinking, but looking up and looking at everyone else. Because part of what we're to experience is the communion of the saints. It is to rejoice that I'm not alone in this thing. It's not just me and Jesus. It's I and you and she and he and an innumerable host that no man can number, of which we're a part, more numerous than the stars in the sky, more numerous than the sand in the seashore. That's what we're a part of, a family that is innumerable, a family of love, a motley crew that loves us and whom we are called to love. This is communion. Communion with Christ. And communion with each other. And so I'll call you. When you come, I'll charge you. When you come, think about it that way. And revel, revel, settle, marinate. in Christ as you feed on Him and are nourished by Him in this supper. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for this meal, a covenant meal. We thank You for Jesus Christ who's offered Himself to us. He could give us nothing greater. To know Him, to see His face, to see His smile, to hear Him say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. to experience His love which is better than life. Father, we thank You for these things and we thank You for this sacrament that in some ways that are really beyond our understanding by Your Spirit is impressed upon us. The truths are impressed by Your Spirit. We pray that You would do that today as we eat and drink in faith. Oh God, would You bless us with the confidence and the sense and yes, the feeling that we are Christ's and He is ours. That we are one with Him. That we are bound to Him in a relationship of love that can never end. Because it's rooted in you and your purpose. Oh God, give us this blessing. Set apart these elements from a common use, ordinary bread and wine, and do something truly supernatural and extraordinary for us as we enjoy this covenant meal. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Yes, it is faith that takes hold of the covenant promises of God, the covenant blessings of God. And so if you are not a person of faith, if you haven't trusted Jesus Christ, if He's not your Lord and your Savior, then I warn you, do not come and eat here or you will partake of the curses of the covenant. If you're not a believer, Christ is not your Lord, as well as your Savior, then I warn you, don't eat and drink. But if you believe, if you are a person of faith, if you have taken hold of Christ by faith, there's a content to that faith. And so I'll ask you, what is it that you believe? I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. On the night when Jesus was betrayed, he took bread. When he had given thanks, as we have in his name, he broke it and he said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. After supper, he took the cup. He said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins. Do this in remembrance of me. And he said, all of you, drink of it. All of you. Because this is meant to be an expression of the communion of the saints. And of all of our union with Christ and with each other. And so let me say, I hope you're excited. This is reality. This is communion. This is who we are as the people of God. Revel in it. Marinate in it. Abide in Christ. And come.