Well, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. We invite you to find a seat to silence your electronics so you don't have any distractions during our worship service. And let's take this opportunity to prepare our hearts for worship. so so so so so so We welcome all of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to Dayspring Fellowship. We are delighted to have you with us this morning for worship. We especially want to welcome our visitors among us, and we want to encourage you to stay afterwards. We're going to have a fellowship meal in the fellowship hall immediately after this service, and you are welcome to come and enjoy the feast. If you hear the hubbub going on in the fellowship hall or smell the delicious smells, it smells like a five-star restaurant out there. It's going to be a glorious time together in fellowship after the service. Also, if you are a visitor, we would love to have a record of your visit. There's a guest register on the hall table that you could sign just to let us know that you visited us, and also out there on the hall table are these booklets, Ultimate Questions. We like to give this as a free gift to all who join us for worship, and so be sure to take your free copy before you leave here. Today, I want to direct your attention to your bulletin. You should have got a bulletin on your way. And if you don't have a bulletin, raise your hand. One of our deacons will bring one to you. Great, everyone's got one. So if you look in there, you'll see that we are continuing in 2 Samuel for our adult Sunday school class. at 945 every Sunday morning. Not everyone's able to attend, and so I want to encourage you, if you were providentially hindered from joining us for our Sunday School lesson this morning, there's an excellent lesson from 2 Samuel chapter 12, The King's Sin Dealt With. I would encourage you to download, listen to that message this week, and really pair it with last week's message. I'd encourage you to listen to chapter 11 and 12 together. It really tells the story of our own need for a greater king than David. David's son actually dealt with David's sin, and a remarkable story in the life of King David. Also, you'll notice there that our sermon passage for next week is a bit of a long one. It starts in John 1, verse 1, and it goes to John 21, verse 25. So I don't expect to be reading that entire passage for you, because that's the entire Gospel of John. next Sunday. We're going to do an overview of the whole Gospel of John together. I like to do these at the end of a series. We've been in this series in John's Gospel for over two years now. We'll bring it to a close next week with an overview of all that we've seen during those two-plus years together. So I do encourage you to be reading through the Gospel of John, maybe looking at some of your favorite passages from John, reflecting on what you have learned together as a church as we gather next week and look at the whole thing. We'll be looking at the final passage together, verse by verse, later this morning. Also, you'll see that across the page there, we are in need of a volunteer to serve once a month in our very important gospel ministry of the A.V. Room. This is the room over here to your right, which all the magic happens to make the message that comes from this pulpit get live streamed out to the entire world and recorded and put on sermon audio. We reached, I think, 72 nations last year. with the Gospel from this pulpit through this ministry here. So a very important ministry. Full training will be provided. It's not too complicated, just a list of steps that you go through. And at one Sunday a month, you don't miss out on the sermon because you're there seeing everything that happens and hearing everything that happens in this room. just from in that little room there at the computer. And as a bonus, every week, you might not know this, but every week you get a little encouraging personal message from your pastor. I send you a message along with the electronic version of the bulletin that you get there. And so that is for you and for you only. And so a little extra blessing. to join the AV room ministry. If the Lord's leading you to do that, I want you to just let Rob Parchman know and he will plug you in. to the rotation and show you the ropes. We have in this year on our second Wednesdays, what we're doing is testimonies from members of this church. And so every second Wednesday evening, we gather in the fellowship hall for a brown bag supper at 545. We make our way into this room at 630, and we hear from one of you tell how the Lord brought you out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. and what he has been doing with you ever since. So these testimonies, they don't end with, you know, and then I trusted Jesus for salvation, the end. They go on to tell the story of God's miraculous work of continuing to work salvation in your life as you have followed Jesus as a Christian. These have been incredibly encouraging Wednesday nights. So not this Wednesday, but next Wednesday will be our second Wednesday, and April will gather to hear our sister Isabel's testimony of the Lord's work in her life, and we look forward to that together. Also, this Saturday, April the 5th, is the first Saturday of the month, and so the men of the church will be enjoying warm fellowship, delicious food, intercessory prayer together for our men's prayer breakfast, and we encourage all men are welcome to join us. We look forward to gathering with as many as are able to attend. Also, it is coming up on Good Friday and Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday, all of that is about to happen, important time, not only in the life of this church, but in the life of the church the world over for thousands of years. We have celebrated Easter and Palm Sunday, Good Friday together. What we do, we have a tradition at this church on Good Friday to meet up here in the evenings at 7 o'clock p.m. in the Fellowship Hall, and we take turns reading through 100 scripture passages which narrate for us the final days of our Lord Jesus's earthly ministry. It's always a very special time. I encourage you to just mark your calendars now and plan on attending that You know, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday. It's not like Christmas, where, you know, Christmas always falls on December the 25th. Our calendar's a little weird, the way the Christians calculate it. So if you remember, all of that happened last year in March. All of it happens this year in April. But I do want you to be aware and mark your calendars now, because that is coming up upon us. Two weeks from this Friday will be Good Friday. Also, today is our fifth Sunday fellowship meal, as I said, so please stay after our worship service today to enjoy fellowship together. Directly after our worship service, I will, before I even give the benediction, I'll pray over the food, and we'll head out there and begin to eat together and serve ourselves the delicious food that has been brought. If you forgot to bring food, like I know one of my good brothers did, don't worry. We still want you to stay and eat the food that was brought. If you're a visitor and you had no idea that we're having this meal today, feel free to stay and to get to know our church better by joining us in a meal. And then I also want to mention that not today, but a week from today is my wife Sandra's birthday, and we have a card for her out on the hall table. So take some time today afterwards as you eat and fellowship with one another just to sign her birthday card. You'll have another opportunity for those who weren't here or missed out today to sign it again next Sunday and then I will bring that to her after our worship service together next week. A final announcement is that Providence Theological Institute of New Covenant Theology is holding their free John Bunyan conference this summer, June 22nd to 25th are the dates. It's going to take place in Franklin, Tennessee at Grace Church there in Franklin. They have hosted us for many years now. They're very hospitable. The ladies of the church just put on a great spread and cook and provide all these free meals for us. The conference itself is free. You just have to get there. And so I want to encourage you. It's going to be a great time. together. Speakers will include Dr. Joshua Griever, our own missionary to South Africa, Paul Karstens, is being brought in to speak this year. And so I think this is the first time we've had an African speak at the conference. I'm super excited about that. Pastor Gary George from up in Massachusetts, friend of this church, will be there. I'm going to be speaking. The conference theme and topic is going to be Israel, God's place in his redemptive plans for Israel, which is I know a topic of interest, we'll be looking at that from a New Covenant theology perspective. It'll be very enlightening and encouraging. So I want you to, as you're making your summer vacation plans, think about joining us at the Bunyan Conference. Well, as we begin worship this morning, there is a red hymnal in the rack in front of you. If you grab that red hymnal, turn with me in the red hymnal to page 164. Hymn number 164, and please stand together for our call to worship. Our call to worship this morning comes from the 11th chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans. Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. how unsearchable are His judgments, and how inscrutable His ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor, or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid? For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. Let us sing together. O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace. My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth above the honors of thy name. Jesus, the name that charms our fears, darkens and sorrows cease. Tis music in the sinner's ears, tis life and health and peace. He breaks the power of reigning sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the phallus clean. His blood availed for me. He speaks in listening to His voice, new life the dead receive. The mournful broken hearts rejoice, the humble poor believe. Hear Him, ye deaf, ears, praise ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ. Ye blind, behold your Savior come, let thee be lame for joy. Let us pray together. Our blessed Heavenly Father, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you, Lord, for your love for us, which you have shown to us in Christ Jesus, our King. And we thank you, Lord, that there is a man in heaven today who is our Savior and our God. We thank you that you have given to him all authority and power in heaven and on earth. that he is interceding for us. We thank you for reconciling us to you by him, through his blood. We pray, Father, that in his name you would draw near to us today. We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to praise your name. We thank you for these great hymns and psalms and spiritual songs that honor you and edify your people. We pray, Lord God, that you would meet with us at the Lord's Supper today and let us understand and remember again the great price of our salvation. We pray that your kingdom would come, that your will would be done in all that we do in this place, that it would be you who speaks to us through your word. We pray that your Holy Spirit would come among us and would accomplish your sovereign work in each and every heart today. And we pray, Lord God, for those who are burdened and heavy laden, that they would find true rest in you today. We pray that you would provide the encouragement, the strengthening, the conviction, the challenging that we all need from you, and we pray, Lord God, that your presence would be very real to us here, that you would see that we would joyfully and passionately worship you and render you all honor. May all that we do here be done under the power of your sovereign hand by your Holy Spirit and for your glory, and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Well, good morning, everyone. Good morning. You all are going to have to bear with me this morning. So I'm getting over from having a cold. So if I'm singing through my nose, if I'm coughing this morning, I got my cough drop. I got my water. So I should be good to go. But Lord willing, our next hymn this morning will be 662 and the Red. 662 and the Red. As the heart longs for flowing streams. As the heart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul does thirst for the living God. When shall I come to see thy face? My tears have fed me day and night. Men have said, Where is your God? But I recall As my spirits dry The days of praise Within thy house Why do I mourn And toil within When it is mine? to hope in God. I shall again sing praise to Him. He is my help. He is my God. Now please turn in your red again to 296. 296 in the rail, all hail the power of Jesus' name. All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth new glory. Crown Him, Lord of all. Crown Him, ye martyrs of your God, Who from His altar claw, Extol the stem of Jesse's rod. ♪ Crown Him Lord of all ♪ ♪ Extol the stem of Jesse's rod ♪ ♪ And crown Him Lord of all ♪ ♪ Ye seed of Israel's chosen race ♪ ♪ Ransomed of the fall ♪ ♪ Hail Him who saved you by His grace ♪ Tell Him who saves you by His grace, crown Him Lord of all. Sinners whose love can ne'er forget the wormwood and the gall, spread your trophies at His feet. Go spread your trophies at his feet, and crown him Lord of all. He kindred every tribe on this telestial ball. him all majesty ascribe. Crown him, O Lord of all, O that with yonder sacred throng we at his feet may fall. We'll join the everlasting song and crown him Lord of all. Amen. Now we have the reading of God's Word. Good morning. Good morning. I'm going to read from 2 Corinthians 11, 1 through 3. And Paul writes, I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me. I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband to Christ so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. One of the ways that we maintain our sincere devotion to Christ and avoid being distracted away from the gospel is by celebrating the Lord's Supper every single Lord's Day here at Dayspring after the pattern that we see in Acts chapter 2, that the early church would gather on the first day of the week, on the Lord's Day, and devote themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the prayers, and to the breaking of bread. And this is the Lord's table. This is not Dayspring's table. And so I want to make it clear, because we have visitors among us, that this is not only for members of this church to partake in. This is for all who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. But it's not open to just everybody, so we want to make it very clear who this table and this sacred meal is for, because it's a dangerous sacred meal, as we will be hearing about in a moment. So the first thing I want to say is that this is, it's not a meal for the righteous, upstanding, good person who has good standing before God based on their own righteousness. It's not for that person at all. And it's also not for the sinner who has not been convicted of their sin and granted repentance from that sin and trusted in Jesus alone for their salvation. It is, first and foremost, for those who have believed on Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God who substituted for them in their place in His life, living the perfect life that you have failed to live on your behalf, rendering obedience to the Father that you have not rendered so that it might be credited to your account. substituting for you in death on the cross, taking upon himself the full wrath of God against all of your sins so that you've been forgiven and reconciled to God. And so the first and most important thing that we ask of you is that you are one who has been saved by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, for his glory alone. There's no boasting on our part. And then secondly, we ask that you be baptized believer, that you have publicly professed your faith to the whole world through baptism. But we do leave the details of your baptism up to your own individual conscience. And then finally, we ask that you not be under church discipline from your local congregation where your membership resides so that we might respect the work of our sovereign Lord as he builds his church in this world. As we now prepare our hearts to partake of the Lord's Supper together, I want you to take your red hymnals once again and turn with me to number 246 in the red, hymn number 246. drawn from Isaiah 53, just a remarkable name. We have many, many names given for our Lord Jesus, but one of those names is a man of sorrows. What a name. Let us sing together. Red of sorrows, what a name for the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Alleluia, what a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned he stood, Sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah! ♪ What a Savior ♪ Guilty, vile, and helpless we ♪ Spotless Lamb of God was He ♪ Full atonement can it be ♪ Hallelujah, what a Savior ♪ Lifted up was He to die It is finished was his cry, Now in heaven exalted high. Alleluia! What a Savior! When He comes, our glorious King, All His ransomed home to bring, Then anew this song we'll sing, Alleluia, what a Savior! When you read the Gospels all the way to the Book of Acts, you can't help but notice the centrality of the kingdom of God as the major theme, right? Jesus begins his public ministry. Mark tells us the first declaration he makes is this. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. It's the very first topic that Jesus brings up in ministry. And then at the very, very end of the Book of Acts, the last word that Luke records tells us that the Apostle Paul was, quote, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. It was the last thing that the Apostle Paul was talking about. So from the first words of Jesus to the last words of the Book of Acts, the kingdom of God, front, and center. But my guess is that for many of us, mention of the kingdom of God doesn't make us immediately think, right, I know exactly what that is, the kingdom of God. But I'm certain that you are more familiar, those of you who belong to the king, with the reality of God's kingdom than you might think. The idea of the kingdom of God is as old as creation itself, when God made the world and put King Adam over it. In that moment, the Lord was demonstrating his reign, his kingdom over his good world. And he'd put a human, his image bearer, as his representative ruler over the creation as he put all things in subjection under King Adam's feet. That snapshot in Genesis chapters one to two, it's a picture of the kingdom of God. And yet we know that all things didn't stay in that state of paradise and goodness, right? Adam sinned against his God. He subjected the creation. to futility. The kingdom was usurped by a snake. He was to rule the kingdom as the image bearer and as a representative of God, but that was all given to the dominion of Satan and sin and death. But the Lord didn't abandon his plan to establish his glorious kingdom. In fact, this was all just a part of his sovereign plan. In fact, immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, God made his great gospel promise that he would bring forth from the woman another one who would be his king and who would reign over His world. This one would come to bring God's saving reign into a world that had been cursed. Our God would one day make all things right again and even better. And when you go through the Old Testament from that point forward, the Lord describes what this will look like. He speaks of there being the full forgiveness of sins, Jeremiah 31, the end of death in Isaiah 25, a new heavens and a new earth in Isaiah 65, a new creation. In other words, as God would establish his reign, his kingdom, he would send his king into his creation and bring his saving blessings so that everything would be made new and glorious. And so the whole Old Testament really is looking for the arrival of God's kingdom and especially the arrival of God's promised King who would come and who would accomplish making all things right. Therefore, when Jesus, you know, bursts onto the scene in his public ministry after his father identifies him as his promised king at his baptism, right, declaring, this is my son. It should not be surprising to us that with the arrival of God's promised king comes the announcement from that king that God's kingdom has now arrived. That is, Jesus is bringing the saving blessings of God's kingdom into this present evil age. Now, of course, he doesn't bring full consummation of God's saving reign. That will not come until the resurrection and the fullness of the age to come. But with Jesus's arrival and his inauguration of the kingdom, he's giving us a taste already in this age now of what eternity under his rule will be like when he returns and we are raised. So the king brings a community of people into his kingdom, and he sets them free from the guilt and the reign of sin. So what does this supper then have to do with the kingdom? Well, it's a reminder of the past that our king has conquered through his blood. as was promised. It's also a participation right now, presently, in that victory today as we commune with Jesus as he reigns now in heaven as king, interceding for us, his people. And it's a foretaste of the future. It's a foretaste of the king's banquet that we will all share in with our king when he returns to consummate his kingdom. When Jesus instituted this supper, he ended with these words. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. And so I speak as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. This is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. Brothers and sisters, let's take a moment of silence in the presence of our Lord to examine ourselves. Our merciful and gracious Heavenly Father, how we thank you that your kingdom has been inaugurated through Jesus, our King. that he has conquered sin and death and Satan upon the cross, and that we share now in his victory today, and we'll eat and drink with our king at the king's table when he returns. So we thank you for our king. We thank you for his finished work in our place upon the cross, the body he gave for us, the blood he shed for all of our sins. And we ask you, therefore, to bless this bread and bless this cup set them apart for their holy use now, and bless us in partaking of them, to do so by faith alone, in Christ alone, to his glory alone, and so in a worthy manner. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat the bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. This is the body of our Lord crushed for our iniquities. Body of our Lord. This cup is the new covenant in Christ's blood shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. Blood of the lamb shed for our sins. The new covenant in Christ's blood. So we sing our final hymn this morning, hymn number 264. 264 in the red, Jesus, keep me near the cross. Jesus, keep me near the cross There a precious fountain Free to all a healing stream Flows from Calvary's mountain In the cross, in the cross Be my glory ever Till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river. Near the cross a trembling soul, love and mercy found me. There the bright and morning star shed its beams around me. In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river. Near the cross, O Lamb of God, Get scenes before me. Help me walk from day to day with its shadow o'er me. In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever. Till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river. Near the cross I'll watch and wait, hoping, trusting ever, till I reach the golden strand just beyond the river. In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river. Now with your Red Hymnal still in hand, if you would turn to page 804 in the back of your Red Hymnal, 804 in the Red Hymnal, we're gonna read responsibly together Psalm 51. Please stand together. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones you have crushed rejoice. I will be raised from my sins, and blood out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence, or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. Save me from blood guilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. O God, you will not despise. In your good pleasure, make Zion prosper. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you. Then bulls will be offered on your altar. Amen. Let us pray together. Our Father and our merciful God, we come before your throne today by the blood of the Lamb, by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, thanking you that you have sent your Son to die in our place so that our sins might be washed away, forgiven, and our broken lives healed and restored to you. We thank you, Heavenly Father, that we have the invitation to come before you with our requests, and so we lift up to you, Lord God, those who are in need of prayer. We particularly think of our sister Sarah, Lord. We pray that you would heal her from this pneumonia, heal her from this COVID, Lord. Take the fluid off of her lungs and heal her body. We pray, Lord, that you would be with our sister Marie and her pain and that you would be with our brother Chuck and his pain and that you would be with all who are unable to be here. Bless all who might stream this service from home. We lift up to you President Trump, Lord, and we pray that you would bless him with wisdom and deliver him from evil and give him the conviction of the truth. Be with all of our earthly leaders, Lord, and help us to honor them according to your word. We pray, Lord God, that you would send forth your word and your powerful, life-saving gospel, that you would send it forth in power right here in Austin and to the ends of all the earth by your spirit and through your witnesses. We pray that all Israel might be saved. We pray that you would make us all courageous witnesses to Jesus as you sovereignly bring in the full number of your elect and add to your church daily as many as are being saved. And Father, we pray that you would bring it about for the praise of your holy name, that the whole earth might be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. In Jesus' name and for his sake, we pray. Amen. Well, you may be seated. Our children may go out to Children's Church at this time if they'd like. And as they go out, please turn with me and your copy of God's living and active word to the very end of John's gospel. If you need a Bible this morning, there are a few Bibles in the center of the racks in front of you. we'll be at the very, very tail end of the Gospel of John. So we come this morning to the final passage of John's Gospel after having made our way, verse by verse by verse, through every single passage in John's Gospel, starting a little over two years ago. Today is actually our 79th sermon from John, and so our overview sermon next week we'll make it an even 80 sermon. So my hope and prayer is, for those of you who have been with us through this series in John, is that you not only now have a firmer grasp on John's gospel, but a firmer faith in the main character of John's gospel, the light of the world, Jesus Christ. We recently have noted that the main action of John's Gospel, it came to an end when the risen Jesus appeared to the disciple Thomas at the end of chapter 20, where Thomas there, remember he declared Jesus to be his Lord and his God. Just one of the greatest, if not the greatest confessions of who Jesus is in the entire Bible. That was the very end of chapter 20, and then chapter 21, we've been saying it serves as a sort of epilogue here. It's just tying up some loose ends. This epilogue, this whole thing, takes place on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. It starts with Jesus giving his disciples this miraculous catch of fish, that's verses 1 through 14, that's what's going on there, and then you get, starting in verse 15 and going all the way through 19, you get this exchange with Peter and Jesus about what's going to happen with Peter, where Jesus, he first reinstates Peter after his three denials of Jesus, and then he tells him what's going to happen to him in the future. He kind of recommissions Peter after his fall of chapter 18. Well now, today, starting in verse 20, the book turns to one more conversation that Jesus has with Peter. And this time, that conversation is not so much about Peter as it is about one of his fellow disciples, the Apostle John, so the guy who wrote this book. So let's read about that, let's read about this conversation, this final one that Jesus has with Peter, starting in verse 20. of chapter 21. You'll be helped to follow along. Chapter 21, verse 20. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, Lord, who is it that is going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? Jesus said to him, if it's my will that he remain until I come, what's that to you? You follow me. So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that the disciple was not to die. Yet Jesus didn't say to him that he was not to die, but if it's my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true. Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Well, an interesting final passage, isn't it? It's an interesting exchange that takes place between Jesus and Peter, especially, right? I mean, you kind of get just this one last rebuke that Peter takes on the chin before the book is over. But it's also interesting in another sense, too, because After all that he's written about, why does the Apostle John choose to end his book essentially with a story about himself? And besides that, this book, it's been so full, just chock full of Jesus doing incredible stuff. He does amazing signs. He does miracles. He makes incredible claims. about himself, right? Passage after passage, he's been showing and proving himself to be the Christ, the Son of the living God. And now this whole book just ends like this. There's nothing miraculous. There's nothing incredible about it. It's just an interesting little conversation and an interesting rebuke of Peter. But it's just a conversation where Peter asks, what's going to happen to John? And Jesus says, basically, it's none of your business. I mean, honestly, what's the point of this ending? Well, that's a good question, and I look forward to trying to convince you this morning that there's a reason the Apostle John ends his book with this particular story, and it makes a lot of sense that this story has a purpose that, again, turns our eyes to the future, to the next chapter of the story of Jesus's work in and through his people. We'll talk about that as we go through the sermon. But first, let's just look together at it structurally. This passage has several different parts to it. It kind of comes in rapid fire. You've got the story proper in verses 20 through 22, right? That's it, just three verses. That's the whole story. It's very short. And then in verse 23, you have what's really a kind of parenthetical statement that basically warns you to pay close attention to what Jesus actually said, because if you blur your eyes, if you just insert this or take this out or change the angle of it just a little bit, you can wind up with falsehood. And John wants to remind you, keep your eyes closely on what Jesus actually said, and don't import stuff of your own. And then you've got these two concluding statements in 24 and 25. One of them, verse 24, is about the trustworthiness of John himself as an eyewitness and as the author of this book. And then you've got another in verse 25 reflecting on the works of Jesus over time. And he says that if they were all to be written, I suppose that the whole world couldn't contain them. And that's true because the Son of God started in eternity past and goes all the way into eternity future with all of his works. But back to the question we asked a second ago, why is this passage here? Well, remember how John had said at the very end of chapter 20, all of these signs had been written down so that you might believe in Christ, and that by believing you might have life in his name. That's the purpose of chapters 1 through 20. But I think chapter 21, the purpose changes a little bit. It's not so much getting you to look at Jesus and understand who he is and believe and have life in his name. It's almost that by the end of chapter 20, that's supposed to have already happened to you. You're supposed to understand that Jesus is the Christ. You're supposed to already have life in his name. And then 21 is meant to launch you into the future, to launch you on the mission. Now that you know about Jesus, now that you've trusted him, now that you have eternal life in his name, resurrection life coursing through you, now that you know all of that and have become that, what are you supposed to now do? Well, chapter 21 turns and to what Jesus wants from his people now that they believe in him. We already saw this, right, in the miraculous catch of those fish, right, how that was really a picture of the gathering in of the elect from every nation. We saw it in Jesus' reinstating and commissioning of Peter last week, right, to feed his sheep, to teach them, to shepherd them. It's essentially the Great Commission. You are to evangelize and you are to teach all that Jesus commanded to make disciples of the nations. And now I think that what's going on in verse 20 is that these last few verses are just putting kind of one last shove on the Great Commission and saying, essentially, evangelize and teach, build the church, disciple believers, but make sure that you stay single-mindedly focused on that task. Don't get distracted. Follow Jesus. Just follow Jesus. That's what it's doing. So the main idea of our passage is this. If you're a Christian, if you're a Christian, you serve the incarnate Son of God. So press on single-mindedly to the end. If you're a Christian, you serve the incarnate Son of God. It's incredible. You don't just serve a boss. You don't just serve a God that's way off somewhere that nobody's ever gonna see and that nobody has seen. No, you serve the incarnate Son of God. Eyewitnesses have seen His glory. The Word made flesh. God made one of us. So stay single-mindedly focused in on Him today. to the end and the mission that he has sent you on. We're going to look at this final passage in two main parts. So first you've got the story and this little explanation, that's verses 20 to 23, that's what we're going to look at first. And the message in those verses, so 20 to 23, to Peter is essentially this. Peter Don't get distracted. That's what Jesus tells them. Don't get distracted. And then these closing verses, 24 to 25, which are really functioning to do a couple of things. They're establishing John, the author, they're establishing John as a reliable eyewitness to all of these things that he's written about. And then the very last verse is pointing your eyes back to Jesus himself. So just two points to the sermon this morning, two points which function to turn our eyes to the future mission of the church. Two points. Point number one, don't get distracted. Don't get distracted. Point number two, because you serve the incarnate Son of God. So number one, don't get distracted. Number two, because you serve the incarnate Son of God. So point number one, let's look at it. Don't get distracted. That's exactly what happens to Peter here in these verses. I mean, the Lord Jesus has just lovingly, compassionately reinstated Peter as a faithful apostle and said, you're gonna be a faithful pastor. Feed my sheep, tend my lambs. And three seconds later, Peter's already distracted. He's so much like us. This is not in my notes, but I just have to give a quick illustration from something that happened this morning. I'm dog-sitting Abigail's golden retriever, and that dog's name is Rebel. Sometimes that name is very, very fitting to this dog. Sometimes it's not fitting at all because she knows the commands to sit, stay, and shake. And she's very obedient, very proud of herself when she obeys. Well, I took her out on our morning jog through the park this morning, got an important text partway, felt my phone vibrate, looked at it, knew I had to respond. So I stopped and I said, Rebel, sit, stay. Very obediently, she sat, she stood. She looked very noble, very proud of herself and her obedience. I am trying to type with a thumb on that virtual keyboard that's so hard to do with my phone in my right hand. I'm holding the leash in my left hand, and before I know it, this hand goes this. I spin around. I hurt my back. I'm still holding on to the leash. What happened? Squirrel. And that's just like us, right? We're so proud in our obedience, standing firm, and then squirrel. Three seconds after getting reinstated by the Lord, Peter is like that. Peter's already distracted. He turns back and his mind starts to wander to, wait, what's going to happen to some other disciple? And it's understandable, right, in a certain way. Peter's just been told by Jesus that following him is ultimately going to end in Peter's crucifixion in his old age, right? And now as they're walking together along the seashore, Peter turns back to see that they're being followed by this one that's called there, he's called the one whom Jesus loved, right? The disciple whom Jesus loved is following right behind. And then he goes on to further identify this one whom Jesus loved. If you look at verse 20, he's called there the one who also had leaned back against him, against the Lord, during the supper, and who had said, Lord, who is it that's going to betray you? That happened all the way back in chapter 13. Now there are a few things to say here about this, just a few kind of questions to untangle. First of all, we've noticed several times as we've studied through the book of John that there is one particular disciple, one of the 12, who is identified like this, and it happens four or five different times throughout the story. He is the disciple whom Jesus loved. And what we've concluded, as we've kind of gone through the book, is that that is John himself. The disciple whom Jesus loved is the one who wrote this book. Now, up until right now, we've kind of cheated because that hasn't been completely beyond a shadow of a doubt. But here, this is the passage where John finally reveals that it's me, it's himself. It's actually down in verse 24, he finally says it. This is the disciple who is right now bearing witness about these things and who has written this book, these things. And we know that his testimony is true. So that seals it, right? That puts a lock on it. The disciple whom Jesus loved, the disciple who leaned back against Jesus, and asked who was going to betray him, that disciple is John the Apostle who wrote down this gospel. Okay, so that mystery is solved, and it seems pretty watertight to me. It's John. But here's another one. Why does John spend all this space to identify himself not just as the disciple Jesus loved, but with this very particular thing that had happened, that he had laid his head on Jesus' chest at the Last Supper and said to him, Lord, who is it who is going to betray you? Why is that there? I mean, the beloved disciple, the disciple whom Jesus loved, he did a whole lot of stuff in this book. He could have identified himself by saying, you know, this is the disciple whom Jesus loved, the one who stayed in the boat to bring the fish in when Peter jumped out and dived into the water to go see Jesus, right? He could have said a lot of things about himself, but he chooses this one. Why? Well, I think it's probably doing a couple of things. It's reminding us that John had a close, close, intimate friendship with Jesus. Likely, at least it looks this way, closer than any of the other 12 disciples, except maybe Peter himself. So John was present for everything. He saw everything. He saw the anguish. in the Garden of Gethsemane. He saw the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain. He was at the foot of the cross watching his Lord pay for his own sins. You remember all the other disciples scattered, but there was John at the foot of the cross so that Jesus could give care of his mother Mary to him. He was there for everything. He saw everything. And that becomes really, really important for what he's doing in verse 24. We'll talk about that later. It's also reminding us not only that John was very intimately close to Jesus, that he had this intimate friendship with Jesus and saw everything as an eyewitness. It also reminds us that he had a very close relationship with Peter. I mean, do you remember back to chapter 13 and why John had laid his head on Jesus's breast? It's because, right, Jesus had just dropped the bomb in the middle of the dinner party that somebody, one of the twelve, was going to betray him. And that starts this conversation, Lord, is it me? Lord, is it me? Is it me? And then Peter, from across the table, he somehow signals to John, motions to John, and he makes some kind of gesture to John to say, ask him who it is. Come on, right? And John lays back his head and says, Lord, who is going to betray you? So Peter and John, they were in cahoots in that whole deal. They were working together. And what that tells us is that they had that kind of a relationship, right, where Peter could just like make some sort of a hand signal, you know, and John knew exactly what he was talking about, right? It's like they were finishing each other's sentences. They were close, close. companions and friends, and part of what that's doing is reminding you in this very subtle way, which seems to mark this whole chapter, it's reminding you that there is no rift between John and Peter. Even after this conversation, even after everything that happened in chapter 21, there's no rift between them. They are the closest of friends, and they are locked arm in arm in this one singular mission that Jesus has given to them. It's not clear, if you look at verse 20, it's not clear why John is following in the first place, but I think maybe he just saw Peter and Jesus walking down the beach together, and he thought, I'm gonna go with them. It was a natural thing for him to do. Peter and John and James were together with Jesus most of the time. That was the inner circle of his disciples. But when Peter turns around and he sees John, he says this in verse 21. Look at it. He says to Jesus, When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? What about this man? Why does he do that? Why does he ask that question? What's he trying to get at with that question? Well, you remember from last week, just a few minutes earlier, Jesus, he had finished telling Peter that following Jesus was going to mean for Peter that his life was going to end with him stretching out his arms involuntarily, which meant to be crucified. In other words, Peter was going to spend his entire life fishing for men, calling in the elect, pastoring them, feeding the sheep. And then his life was going to end in the most violent of ways, with him, like his Lord Jesus, being nailed to a Roman cross until he asphyxiated and was dead. That was his path in life. And so now Peter's curious. He's wondering. OK, Jesus, if you've told me what my path is going to be in life, if you can tell me what's going to happen to me in the future, tell me what's going to happen with John. Tell me his future, too. And Jesus' answer here is pretty sharp. Jesus says to him, verse 22, if it's my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. I mean, essentially, he just tells Peter straight up, no, it's none of your business what's going to happen to John. My plan for John is none of your concern. If I want him to keep on living until I come back the second time, what does that have to do with you, Peter? Your job is to follow me, to faithfully walk the road that I've set before you, to follow me all the way to your crucifixion. And what a critical lesson that is for us as Christians, because we get so interested in the path that God has set out for other people that we can lose our faithfulness on the road that he has set out for us. It's a critical lesson that we need to be reminded of again and again as we live our lives following Jesus, which is probably why John puts it in such a prominent place right here at the end of his book. So it's worth thinking about. The Bible teaches us. that God, our Creator God, is sovereign over every minute, every second, every nanosecond of our lives. Everything that happens to us is planned out by God in advance from before the foundation of the world, which means that God has different paths planned for each individual one of his people. And our jobs as individual Christians is to trust God as he works out his perfect plan. In other words, to fulfill the work that God has planned for each and every one of us to do and not to get distracted by worrying about others and God's plan for them and their path. Here's how it kind of all fits together. Every single Christian, everybody who names the name of Jesus, lives under the banner and the command of the Great Commission. Every single one of us. You are to go, all of you. You are to go into all the world and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them to obey everything that Jesus commanded, and baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We all live under the banner of the Great Commission. That's our mission. It's the only reason that God left us here after he saved us and didn't just bring us immediately into his presence. We are all, each one of us, called by the King to be about the work of the kingdom, proclaiming the gospel and making disciples. But within that and under that, even though the Great Commission may stand as a banner over the lives of all Christians, within and under that, there are different paths that God appoints to each of us in different areas of service with differing spiritual gifts, and those are sometimes winding paths, and they're different, they're diverse, right? Yours is not going to be the same as mine. Mine is not going to be the same as yours. It's all going to be different in God's sovereign providence. I mean, John seems to be at pains to compare and contrast himself and Peter, and his lesson seems to be that we, Peter and John, we are very different people. We have very different paths that the Lord has laid out in front of us, and yet both of us live under the banner of follow me. The path that God puts each of us on It's winding, and only God knows where it will lead. The challenge is to make sure that at whatever stage of life you're in, through every providential twist and turn, that you are following Him. that you're on mission, that you're doing everything that you do for his kingdom, for his glory. God calls and uses different people who have utterly different personalities, right? I mean, think about Peter and John. They were utterly different in their personalities. That's a point that's been made over and over again in the whole book of John. Well, Peter doesn't tend to think before he acts, right? It's just something happens and he reacts to it, right? Draws the sword, cuts off a guy's ear. I mean, even here, when he recognizes Jesus calling to him from the seashore, he's out on the boat with the other disciples, what does he do? He puts on his coat and he dives into the ocean. I mean, that's not somebody thinking about it very hard before he does it. He's a man of action. And John, well John is utterly different. John doesn't draw his sword. He had a sword as well. He didn't draw his sword. He doesn't blurt out the first thing that pops into his head. He thinks hard and then he speaks judiciously. He stays in the boat and helps bring in the fish because that's his duty as a fisherman. He's probably the one who you know, counted all 153 of those fish when they got back to the shore. These two guys are completely different, and yet God uses both of them And that's true of us, too, as Christians. It's true of us as a local church, right? There are introverts like me in this room, and there are plenty of outgoing extroverts here as well. There are thinkers, and there are doers. There are people who shoot first and aim later, and there are other people that You know, aim so long you think they're never gonna shoot. Every single one of us though, every single one of us has been made and fashioned exactly as God wants us to fulfill his purposes in and through us. Now does that mean that your personality is perfect? Does that mean that you can just say whatever you want to say, act however you want to act, and say, you know what? That's just the way God made me. God made me abrasive. I have no filter. God didn't make me with a filter. I tell it like it is. Just my personality. That's not what it means. Of course not. Your personality has been affected by the fall like everything else and needs sanctifying. And so you always have to do the work of molding your personality according to the fruits of the Spirit. But what it does mean is that you shouldn't look at somebody else who has different gifts than what you've been given and say, on the one hand, they should have my gifts. Oh, how effective they would be if only they were wired the way I'm wired, if they had the same passions as me, or, on the other hand, say, you know, I really want to have their gifts. I can really see how God uses them for the furtherance of the kingdom, but I just don't see how God's ever going to use me, because my personality is too whatever for God to use me. No, brothers and sisters, don't ever think that. This is the whole image of the body that the Apostle Paul uses, right? There's going to be mouths in the church, for better or for worse. There's going to be eyes in the church, for better or for worse. There's going to be fingers and toes and all the rest, and each part of the body has its place. They're all different, and yet God uses them all to work together as one body for his singular mission. God used Peter, right, the man of action. He used John, the man of thought. He used Paul with all of his academic degrees, and Moses with his speech impediment. He used tiny little David to bring about his purposes, and he used enormous Samson to bring about his purposes. There's no personality that God cannot and will not use. And part of the message of this passage is to say to you, if Jesus wants her to have that personality, if he wants him to have that kind of spiritual gifting, what is that to you? You follow me. Again, here's the point, it's so easy to get distracted from following Jesus on whatever path he puts you on with whatever tools he has given you. It's so easy to get distracted from that by looking at the life stage or the personality or the role or the calling of somebody else around you. What Jesus is saying to Peter here is that's a complete waste of time. You only have so much time in your life. Peter, you're going to stretch out your arms. Don't waste your life concerning yourself with the different paths of others. He puts you where you are for a purpose. Let God handle the other people. Your job is to follow him in the mission, on whatever path he puts you on. Follow Jesus. With all your unique qualities and brokenness and giftings and circumstances of life and personality, all that you do should be done in service of what King Jesus has ultimately called all of us to do, and that is to glorify him by bringing the nations to bow their knee to him as Lord and Savior. So don't get distracted from the mission. That's the first thing. Here's the second thing. Second point, don't get distracted because you serve the incarnate Son of God. Don't get distracted because you serve the incarnate Son of God. Before we go on to the last two verses, 24 and 25, it's worth pausing to note verse 23 there. So apparently what happened is that these words of Jesus, they got around and a rumor started that because Jesus said, if it's my will for him to remain until I come back, that John was gonna live forever, he wasn't gonna die. So here he takes a second to remind his readers to be very careful, to focus on what Jesus actually said. He's saying, look at his words, right? He didn't say that this disciple was never going to die. He didn't say that. You're reading that into it. You're importing that. You're assuming it and presuming it from other things. All he said was, if it is my will, And it's not, it isn't necessarily that he remain until I come. What is that to you, Peter? You see what he's doing there? It's really, really an important lesson, actually, especially about how we read our Bibles, the Word of God. There's so much bad doctrine, right? False teaching that comes from reading the Bible uncarefully. And John's lesson here is stop doing that. Read the Bible very carefully. Read it with clear eyes. Look at its context. Look at the actual words. Don't get pulled away by your presuppositions or the things that you wanted to say or the things you want to believe. Pay attention to what God has actually said. Well, the book then ends with these two verses here, 24 and 25. Let's look at them. First, John, he's identifying himself as the author, and he's swearing that what he has said in this book is the full and complete truth. He's not making it up. It's critically important what he says there in verse 24. And it's fascinating to me that he knew it was gonna be very important. So he says two things there, and he's very emphatic about them. He says that he was an eyewitness to all these things. This is the disciple who is currently, right now, bearing witness about these things. In other words, he's saying, I was an eyewitness to this stuff. I was there. I didn't just hear about this secondhand. It's not just some oral tradition. I saw it with my own eyes. I'm not getting the info from somebody else. The second thing he says is, not only was I an eyewitness to these things, but I wrote them down. I wrote them down. So this book is not the result of stories from John circulating around the Johannine community for a couple of hundred years, and then somebody finally sort of collates them and writes them down. That's not what happened. John is saying, I saw it, and I wrote it down. I saw it, and I wrote it. And that's so critically important for the Christian faith in a way that it is not critically important for any other faith or religion in the history of the world. Because the entire Christian faith rests 100% on events that actually happened in history. If those events, these events, if they didn't happen, then the Christian faith is false. It's no good. It's worthless. It's off the table. Our whole faith, more than any other religion in the world, is totally dependent on certain things having actually happened in history. Other religions of the world, they can stand on an ethical system, on a body of teaching, on a philosophy of life, not Christianity. Christianity cannot stand on its ethical system alone or its philosophy of life. Those things don't even make sense without the historical events. The whole worldview rises or falls on whether or not these things actually happened. And John is telling us, in the most certain terms, that they did indeed happen. That there are eyewitnesses who saw these things happen and wrote them down. And those witnesses are reliable. And John, the apostle, is one of them. And then there's verse 25 here, which wraps up the whole book. It's really a beautiful verse, right? Verse 24 presses us on the veracity of these things, and then 25 really casts our mind back over the things themselves. Now, there are also many other things that Jesus did, and were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. It's a fitting end. to the whole book of John, isn't it? It just works, because what John is doing there is just turning your eyes one last time to Jesus. That's been his purpose for the whole book, to invite you to look in and to see Jesus. And now here at the end, he invites you to just cast your eyes back over that whole golden-lit mountain range of the things that Jesus did, to remember what he's shown you and taught you about Jesus. We're going to look at many of those things as we survey them next week. That's where he wants your mind to be. and your heart to be at the very end of this book. He wants you to look full into the face of Jesus Christ and to fall down upon your knees like Thomas and to say, you are my Lord and you are my God. And then he wants you to stand up and to follow him until the whole world is indeed filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Let us pray. Until that day, Father, we pray that you would help us to be faithful to your Son, that we would follow him by the power of the Holy Spirit on whatever pathway he sets us on, whatever role that you have us in, we pray that until that day that we come to be safely home with you for all eternity, when your glory will fill all heaven and earth as the waters cover the sea, Lord, we pray that our lives might speak of our Savior Jesus, in whose name we pray and for whose honor and glory we pray. Amen. Well, please stand together. As I mentioned at the beginning of the service, we're having a feast in the fellowship hall immediately after the benediction. And so I'm going to pray real quickly over the meal and then release you with the benediction. Let us pray. Our great God and Heavenly Father, we thank you for your great provision of a Savior and for how all good gifts come from you. And we thank you for even the provision of this food and pray, Lord, that you would bless the food that was prepared, that it would nourish our bodies and give us energy today and strength to glorify you and to worship you and to follow Jesus and to stay on mission. In Jesus' name, amen. And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.