Well this morning John 17, so let's go back to John 17 verses 16 through 23. And this morning I'm going to return to this prayer and I realize we're taking a little more time going through this important prayer of Christ, and I think at least once in your lifetime you need to dig into the heart of Jesus and to know what Jesus believes and thinks and would convey to us in his word. And we get this through this very important prayer that's contained in John 17. This is the end of his inner inter-core discourse, or the upper room discourse. So this morning, let's stand and read John 17, 16 through 23. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world, and for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. and the glory which you gave me I have given them that they may be one just as we are one. I in them and you in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. Let's pray. Oh God, this morning we pray that your spirit would be here in these words that your spirit would communicate these to my heart and to the hearts of all my brothers and sisters gathered here this morning. And Father, we pray that this would be a transforming message for our church. It seems that we have languished. It seems that we have not quite understood this or captured it or incarnated this. But Father, we pray that your power would be known this morning by the Word and by the Spirit, your Holy Spirit, please communicate these to us. We plead with you in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. I love these words. I love the heart of Christ. So beautiful. It's the most beautiful thing in the world. It's nothing more beautiful than this. Nothing. These are the most important sermons that I've ever preached. These sermons I've preached from John 17. And in some ways, the most challenging and the most difficult ones. Because we need the Holy Spirit of God to open them up to us, to help us to see the reality of this. This is... this is otherworldly. This is not our world. That's why it's so foreign the first time you've read it. It's so different than what this world is all about. This is the vision of God This is His vision for His church. This is His vision for us. So this morning I'd like to return to these verses, verses 16 through 23, to one more time appeal to the Spirit of God to enable us to see what He wants to communicate to us in the heart of Jesus. Let's begin in verse 16. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world." We are the disciples of Jesus because we believe in Jesus. And He has us here, He says, for a reason. He's left us here for a reason. I get the sense that Jesus feel some pain in his separation from his disciples. Because it is hard to have some physical separation. Granted his deity is with us, but his physical nature is in heaven. His human nature is in heaven. So he is separated from us but he has sent us into the world as his father sent the son into the world. And he sent us here for a mission. We're here for a reason. Yes, it's not easy. The world is always impinging upon us. And yes, we're always in the spiritual conflicts. But he has us here for a reason. He has sent us into the world and given us a commission. John 20, verse 21, Jesus said to them again, peace to you, as the Father has sent me, so send I you. So Jesus is about to leave at this point and ascend into the heavens, and now he leaves his disciples here to carry on the mission, the commission. And then you remember Matthew 28, 18 through 20 as well, Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore, so again, the sending forth of his disciples into the world, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you. That's the fuller commission. But there is a difference between the commission you find in Matthew 28 and the commission you have here in John 17. In Matthew 28, the commission is to carry forth a word to the nations and to communicate the things that Jesus has commanded. and to teach them to obey and to observe these things. But here it's different. You see, this is not a testimony of word that Jesus is sending into the world. It is a testimony of life. Jesus wants the world to hear a message, loud and clear. And he's sending his disciples into the world for this reason, that the world would hear that the world would know, that the world would witness the testimony of the life of His people. It seems this is a very important part of the heart of God, the heart of Christ, that is now being sent into the world to be conveyed to all of the nations in the world. The specific testimony that the world needs to hear shows up in verses 21 and 23. Number one, that the world would believe that the Father sent the Son because they are one in us. And number two, verse 23, that the world may know that you sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. These are the things that the world needs to know. Now, sadly, There are elements of the church that haven't conveyed this to the world very well. I know because I grew up on the mission field. The mission field was a risky place because the Western Protestant religions would drag their divisiveness into other nations. And so the communication of verse 21 or verse 23 was not as clear to the nations as it should have been. The Protestants of the 1800s and 1900s have been hampered by the curse of doctrinal fragmentation and sectarianism. Now, there were some missionaries, like Kelly, the first Protestant missionary to Brazil, and Hudson Taylor, who I think avoided that to a great extent. But this is the mission that Jesus has us on. So what is the testimony? And why is this so important to the heart of God? I think you need to go into the Old Testament to see this. You remember in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel was not a very good testimony to the world around them. There had been so much disunification of Israel. You remember the exile and the diaspora into Babylon, and some went to Egypt, and the ten tribes spread all over the world. We don't know where all the ten tribes ended up. But there is such a disunification of the nation of Israel, and the exile, and the explosion into all the nations in the world, and it seemed that the project that God had initiated in the Old Testament was something of a failure, at least that's the way it appeared to the nations of the world. And in Jeremiah 24 and other places throughout the Old Testament, you find that the Old Testament church was something of an embarrassment to the nations. And indeed, God intended this as well, because we read in Jeremiah 24, I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their harm, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all places where I shall drive them. So there you see that the church, the Old Testament church or the kingdom of God in the Old Testament was such an embarrassment. There had been such a failure on the part of the people of God. And then you come to Psalm 44 and you hear the cry that emerges from the heart of Jesus and from the cry of the remnant. Listen to Psalm 44, verse 13. You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to those all around us. You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples. Awake! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Arise, do not cast us off forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our afflictions and our oppressions? For our soul is bowed down to the dust, our body clings to the ground. Arise for our help and redeem us for your mercy's sake. Do you catch the heart of God, the heart of Jesus, who cries out to God for the abject rejection of God's people amongst the nations in the Old Testament? See, this is why in John 17 Jesus says, this is what I desire. This is what I want. This is the reflection of the glory of God in the body of the church of Jesus Christ that absolutely must be a testimony to the world. I don't believe it's just the remnant saying this in Psalm 44. It is the Son of God Himself who feels the shame, this nightmarish reproach of the dissolution, the breaking up, the disunifying, the exile of the people of God. So has the devil wanted this? Has the devil wanted it? And you say, impossible. And that's what the prophetic books do. That's where they go. Let me give you a couple of examples of this. And may these encourage your souls because this is what Christ came to do to fulfill Ezekiel 36 and Ezekiel 37 and Jeremiah 33. Don't just read the negative portions. Read where it goes. Read the prophetic word. Read what God is going to do. Listen to Ezekiel 37, 21, Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side, and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land on the mountain of Israel, and one king shall be king over them all. There will be no denominations, there will be no divisions, there will be no schisms. They shall be no longer two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. And why? Verse 28, the nations also will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore. See, God's gonna pull it off. God is going to do it. God is going to accomplish this thing that people, the nations of the world thought to be impossible in the Old Testament. God is going to do it. Back up to Ezekiel 36, 21, but I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel has profaned among the nations wherever they went. Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel. In other words, I'm not bringing this redemption. I'm not bringing my salvation. I'm not doing this for a man-centered reason. I'm not going to bring about a salvation because we need to be talking about man and we need to talk about how much God is doing this for man. No. He says, I'm not doing this for you. I'm not doing this for your sake, O house of Israel. I'm doing it for my name's sake. which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went, and I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst, and the nations shall know that I am the Lord." See, God is jealous for his own honor, for his own reputation. His reputation is at stake here. He's not going to fail with this redemptive plan. He will send His Son. He will accomplish the thing He has sent His Son to do. Verse 26, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them. Not for your sake do I this, says the Lord. Let it be known to you. Thus saith the Lord God. On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt. The desolate land shall be tilled instead. of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by. Speaking of the spiritual elements of Christ's redemption, so they will say, this land that was desolate has become like a garden of Eden. And the wasted, desolate, ruined cities are more fortified and inhabited than the nations which are left all around you. You shall know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken it. I will do it. And then they shall know that I am the Lord. Does this encourage your hearts this morning? Are you leaning into this? Are you seeing the vision of Jesus? Are you identifying the kingdom and the church of Christ as the great fulfillment of this plan that Jesus has laid out and accomplished in his own ministry? See, God is committed to this. Now what does that mean? If I told you I am committed to doing this, and some of you know that I'm sometimes a very committed person, I dedicate myself to a task. But when God says, when God says I will do this, and He says it 16 times, and He swears that He will accomplish, And he says, the nations will know, the nations will see it, the nations will witness it. Is God going to be true to his commitment? Hello? Hello? Everybody say yes. Yes. Okay, so the point is that This will be a testimony to the world that the world will know this. And we just read this earlier today on the screen, Jeremiah 33, 7 to 9, it will cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return and will rebuild those places as at the first. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against me. I will pardon their iniquities by which they have sinned, by which they have transgressed against me. And then verse 9, then it shall be to me a name for a joy and a praise and an honor where before the nations of the earth who shall hear all the good that I do to them and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I provide for it. That the world may know what God has done. This is the great testimony. It's not just the gospel. It's not just discipling the nations in what Jesus has commanded. God wants the nations to see the shining unity of God and His people The love of God within the people of God. This is the great demonstration of God's redemption on earth. It's beautiful. So, we are here. We are a church. We are a fellowship of brothers and sisters laying down our lives for each other. united in Jesus in order that the world may know that God did it. Well, there are two messages conveyed in this prayer, two messages that the world will receive through the body of the church, first of which is in verse 21, second of which is in 23. So let's look at this again. What is it that God wants the world to see? What is the glory of the church that is manifested to the world all around us? Number one, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. That's verse 21. in order to reconcile us to each other. In a world where Adam broke the covenant with God, Cain kills his brother, wanders east of Eden like a vagabond, there's a constant pulling away from each other in family life and yes, even in church life. Yes, we see disunity all around us, basic to human nature. It's just default position to human nature. Everybody knows what it's like wandering east of Eden, especially in the postmodern wasteland where everything is so isolated, so isolated. It's all about isolation. But Jesus comes to fix it. He becomes man, takes on human flesh. in order that he might reconcile us with God and then with each other, our brothers and sisters in himself. So the miracle came about through a radical work of God in which his son, his eternally only begotten son comes to earth in order that he might be man like us, that he might be able to connect us with God and reconcile all things to himself in himself as He was the propitiation on the cross for our sins. So He was the great reconciler. See, this is no minor thing. Divorce is no minor thing. The breakup of relationships, no minor thing. The walking away from each other and not wanting to have anything to do with each other anymore, no minor thing. This is what the world is all about. Because man is at enmity with God and therefore will be at enmity with each other. But Jesus comes through this. He breaks through this. He takes on the impossible in himself to reconcile us to God and then to reconcile us with each other. This is the great work of God. The Bible does present the reality of what we encounter in the world. So the Bible is not pie in the sky, and I don't want to be just pie in the sky this morning. I want you to see the heavenly eternal reality and the spiritual reality that does exhibit itself to the world. This is not something that's going to happen in heaven. You notice this is something that the world needs to see here and now. Absolutely. If we are a church, we are this. This is us. Absolutely. And yet, the world, yes, still has that which masquerades as the church. There is a false element. There is a fakey church. And yes, there's a lot of it. I understand. I get that. It isn't that the world may know that Christians can't get along with each other, or that the world may know that Christians divide over every little gnat, or that the world may know that the divisive, the schismatic, and the proud rule the church of Jesus Christ, or that the world may know that we are impatient, and unkind, and ungracious, and competitive with each other. No, see, that's the false element. There's a false element, and the Bible recognizes that. There is the occasional excommunication of the divisive person, 2 Thessalonians 3. There is the occasional diatrophies, who I believe is the seed of Jupiter. There is the occasional diatrophies in 3 John, who doesn't open his home in hospitality to brothers coming in from Antioch or Africa or China. He rather seeks the preeminence, but that's not the body. See, that's not the body. That's Deuteronomy. So there are these exceptions that the Bible brings out. And 1 Corinthians 11, 19 says, of course, there must be the factions. There must be the schismatics. There must be those that are divisive amongst you in order that those who are approved may be recognized among you. So when the dust clears, there's still people standing. There's still the glorious miracle of God represented in the people of God. It's still there. The body is still there. The church is still there. Because, you see, there's got to be the temptation, the scandals and divisions and schisms. There has to be these things that the real body of Jesus is still connecting, increasingly connecting and loving one another and laying down their lives for each other. The true church will always stand out in this world. And as I already mentioned, you know, brothers and sisters, there is such a coldness and lovelessness in the world around us. Y'all catch that? Maybe you're in an ungodly workplace and you sense some of this. It's all over. Just the fact that abortions and abortifacients are so much a part of modern life, as an indication of what the world is doing. The world is filled with race hatred and divorces and disintegration. But then there's the unity and the forgiveness and the love that just shines in the church. Such a beautiful thing. Such a contrast. And today we're gonna see more of a contrast than ever before. Especially in a post-Christian age like this one that the systems are so ruled by Cain and by Steinbeck and all his friends living east of Eden. The true church will stand out, and it will be amazing. It will be remarkable. Now again, I realize there is the unremarkable church, but there is the remarkable church. It's remarkable. It really is remarkable. And they are, of course, known by their love. That's what Jesus says in John 13, 35. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. Now, we preached on that, but that is the testimony that the world sees. And please note, it doesn't say that they will know you're my disciples. By the love that you show to the poor, By the love you show an evangelist. Or by the love that you show towards your enemies. Yes, there's all of that. But the most amazing thing about Christians is not their love for the enemies, and not their love for the poor, and not their love for the world. The most amazing thing about Christians is that they still love each other. And they're living in such close community with each other. They're forgiving each other 490 times a day. They come into relationship with each other and they're still in relationship with each other through the years. That's the most amazing thing about the true church, the remarkable church. The supernatural fellowship of believers that can only be a product of the work of God. Amen. Praise the Lord. So the thing that shouts to the world is our love for each other. That's why it truly is the testimony. It's where the testimony begins. It's why evangelism belongs, first and foremost, in the body of the church itself. There are no lone wolves in evangelism. There are brothers and sisters in Jesus. who eventually bring others in because they are the called out ones who wind up part of the fellowship again of the believers. But it is the love that we have for each other that hangs in there, that continues to be the testimony to the world around us. And granted, we must also testify with our mouths. But it's our lives that give us the authority. It's our lives that give us the basis for the evangelism we share with the world around us. because this is the product of the redemptive work of Jesus. This is it. This is what he's doing. If the unbeliever says, oh, you've told me all about this great gospel message, well, show me the product. What has it produced? Has it really produced any love, any unity? Has it produced a body? You say, well, come on down to my church. And you'll see when it's produced, look at the amazing fruit of the redemption of Jesus here, and the example of the body shouts to the world. Love for one another, forgiving one another is the most outstanding, obvious, distinguishing mark of the disciples of Jesus. How much does Jesus refer to forgiving one another? He says, if you can't forgive others, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you. They're concomitant, I don't say one is causal. Actually, the Bible does say one is causal. His love produces our love. But that text doesn't refer to cause, it refers to concomitance. So, you know what, if we can't be forgiving, we don't live in the fellowship of the forgiven. We are not forgiven. absolutely forgiving one another, restoring with one another, receiving one another, reconciling with one another, is the mark of a true Christian and a true church. How many times did Jesus refer to this? How many practical passages are there in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 and throughout the Gospels and on into the epistles? The love for one another, the forgiving of one another 490 times a day. That's the mark. That's it. That's what makes it so obvious to the world. The world says, this is unusual. This is impossible. This is something that doesn't happen. That's what the world says. But this is the thing that characterizes the true church. And of course, it must be a miraculous and a supernatural unity. It's a surprising unity. If the unity in the body doesn't surprise you, then we haven't achieved it. We haven't found it. It should be a shocking thing. It should take you back. And it does. It does in this assembly, it does. I'm shocked, I'm surprised, I'm taken back. Where did this come from? Where did all this forgiveness, where's all this unifying and renewing relationship with Egypt, where does all this come from? It comes from God, it's a miracle, it's a miraculous thing. You see, this is the society of those who have been raised from the dead. That's amazing. Walking in newness of life, forgiving 490 times a day, couldn't do it 20 years ago, now we are. Amazing. It's a society of those who are forgiving each other. And we must be realistic about our sin, about the need for forgiveness. And you know, sometimes people come together in a temporary support group, not really a church. They call it a church, but it's really a support group that lasts for about two years. We've seen these before. And they discover that the other person's a sinner. And it's like a big shock to their system. And so the relationship doesn't last. That's why one of the reasons we actually appreciate the fact that some of our guests are offended before they join the church. It's actually so much better if you're offended before you join the church than after, only because that's what we do here. We offend each other. Amen. And we forgive each other. Amen. Louder. Thank you. That's what we do, that's what the church is. And we must break through the pie-in-the-sky, dreamlike existence of those that think we're coming into a church where there aren't any sinners. No, we gotta break that balloon within about two weeks of us showing up together. No, no, we are here to offend each other and to forgive each other and to repent before each other, and that's the Christian life. That's the warp and the wolf of the church life. It is not an institutional unity. It's not a top-down imposed unity by a powerful pope, pastor, or cult leader. And yes, there have been moments in my life where I have cultic abilities. If I want to manipulate If I want a kind of a top-down manner, just kind of force the whole thing together, and then force the whole thing forward, you know, in terms of leadership, that's what leaders do. We just kind of keep the glue, and we just, by the sheer force of personality, we press it all forward. I know what that's like, but that's not the church. That's not the church. That's not it. It's not a once a year gathering with people you hardly know singing, we are in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. It's not that either. It isn't made up of small groups of narrow interests. Essentially. It's not a support group for Anglo-Saxons who like golf until they get mad at each other. It's not a homeschooling support group either for homeschoolers 30 to 38 years of age with 4.2 kids, .6 on the standard deviation. Where just this narrow little slot of human existence and you hang together for about five or six years until your kids graduate and then you go to the next support group. for retired homeschooling parents who are burned out and needing a little bit more emotional support in some area or other. That's not the church, amen. If we haven't figured that out by now, we're done for. When I was in Korea, we, this pastor and I walked into this building on this large engineering school campus. And it was completely surrounded by scaffolding because they were remodeling the entire building some 16 stories high. And as we walked in the building, I pointed out to the pastor, I said, this is what we do. And then we walked up to the building and I said, this is what God does. We build the scaffolding and God builds the building. And sometimes we confuse the scaffolding for the building, brothers and sisters. The scaffolding is the mere works of men. The scaffolding is just appearances, pseudo structures of professionals and programs. And you get this often in the eldership, where A family is not doing well. The marriage isn't doing well, whatever. Relationships aren't going well. And the elders offer their assistance. And they say, we'd rather go to a professional counselor who has a certificate on his wall and it costs us $200 an hour. We need the professionals and the programs And then before you know it, that's pretty much what they do. But God isn't raising the dead. God isn't building His buildings. Our world is all about professionals, and programs, and professional counselors, and counseling certificates. Listen, counseling is very simple. Ten minutes of a conversation with somebody to figure out what the real prayer request is. Now, let me give you a certificate for that. You have now passed the course. Take 20 minutes if you want to. The programs, the professionals, scaffolding, scaffolding, worthlessness. If man is focused on his works, on what man is doing, pseudo-structures, princes, horses, bodies, butts, buildings, spending 10 times more money on youth programs since the 1960s with one-tenth of the results. Woo-hoo. Wow. Look at what you've done. Look at what the church has done with all of the tens of millions of dollars in youth programs, youth camps, youth this, youth that. And the youth are involved in the church 80% less than they were in the 1980s. No, no, no, no, no. It's scaffolding. The scaffolding must come down, brothers and sisters. The scaffolding must come down in your mind. Take it down, rip it down, shred it. The scaffolding doesn't do anything. It always comes down anyway. Ted Haggard, Bill Hyblis, the church growth guru of the 1980s, Bill Hyblis, enough said. Mark Driscoll, the Harvest Bible Chapel meltdown out in Chicago, and 25 others over the last three years. All of this scaffolding collapsing all over the place. Do you think people are going to go back to it? I doubt it. Well, maybe. The worthlessness of it, the vanity of it is overwhelming. It's extraordinary in our minds to think of how much man has put into the scaffolding in just the last 50 years of religious activity and all this rushing around and doing this and that. Brothers and sisters, the scaffolding always comes down, but there's something that remains. And I trust even over at Harvest Bible Chapel, wherever else there are scaffolding, the scaffolding comes down and what you find is there's a little nugget of something that still remains. God's building. Beautiful, impressive. The living, breathing, The palpitating body of Jesus is still there. We don't need the next exciting show. We don't need professionals and programs. We just need the foolishness of preaching, the foolishness of parenting, and the work of the Holy Spirit of God. to do His work. This unity is a laying down of your life for your brother. This is the forgiving of your brother. These are the people whom the world would never forgive, but you forgive them. These are the people who walk together with the unity and reconciliation that's only supernatural. And may I say this, Settle for nothing less than that. Settle for nothing less. If I was to tell you God is gonna bring us redemption, God's bringing us salvation, would you say, well now let's rely more on humans to save us? Would you say that? No, God is saving us here. This should be a God-shaped salvation. This should be a God-sized salvation. Amen? It should be something big, something supernatural, something miraculous, something that would blow the minds of everybody in the whole world. That's the salvation of Christ. Our unity is also simple. It's in Christ. We don't get tied up in the minutia. So many of the conservatives get tied up in minutia, spending hours upon hours upon hours debating over which version of the Bible to use in this church. I was so thankful. A couple of us got together at Subway. Remember that, Todd? Was it two minutes or three minutes? I think it was two minutes. We had a two-minute conversation, and we moved on. Amen. Now, there are some really bad translations, but we picked the three or four and said, I don't know, what do you guys think? And we decided, guys, we're not gonna be tied up in the minutia. We're not gonna be tied up in the forms. People get all wrapped around the form of worship, and they can't worship God. They can't magnify God because they're worshiping the forms, because they're focused on the forms. Their minds are so clouded with the minutia that it becomes another way to move away from Christ, the essence of it. Our unity is simple, it's in Christ, it's one hope, one love, one Lord. And it's not a mere verbal affirmation to 1,000 propositions, being all united against the same group of people out there, the enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of a thing. It's not that. Because by the way, you get 1,000 people to agree on 1,000 different issues. The next day, issue number 1,001 shows up and then we're all split again. It's a unity around Christ and the gospel. And as I say that, if you just cast that off going, well, that doesn't really mean much. Let me say it again to you. Our unity is in Christ. Our unity is around Christ and the gospel and the glory of God. Anything that marginalizes the person of Christ as God and man or the work of Christ is not part of this unity. And we don't want to tolerate the marginalization of sin because Jesus came to die for our sin. We don't want to tolerate the marginalization of sin, or the wrath of God, or the love of God, or the atonement, or the power of grace, or the nature of Christ. Why? Because the gospel is all wrapped up in all of that. We don't want to marginalize. We're not here to marginalize the things that Jesus came to save ourselves from. We're not going to marginalize Jesus. We're not going to marginalize the gospel of Jesus to save us from these sins. We're unified around our desire to love Christ, to serve Christ, to receive Christ's salvation for our sins. Well, that's the first one. That's the first message, our unity in Christ. Secondly, there's a second message that the life of the church manifests to the world. It's verse 23, that the world may know that you sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. Believers know one thing, and that is that they're loved. Loved by God. You know, to be loved is one thing. Have you ever met somebody who wasn't loved? Have you ever picked up an orphan in the garbage dumps in India somewhere, and they just weren't loved? They'd never been loved. On the other hand, We've seen children raised in godly Christian families and they've experienced the love of parents. Not the love of God, but the love of parents. And they've been so loved by their parents. You see it in their faces. You see it in how they treat their brothers and sisters. You see it in how they treat others in the body of the church. And you're amazed. And you look at that child and you say, there's a child who's been loved. But to be loved by a spouse is a beautiful thing. To be loved by a parent is a beautiful thing. But brothers and sisters, to be loved by God. It's overwhelming. To be engaged is overwhelming. To be loved by a spouse is overwhelming. It is, it just shakes you. It's life transforming. It happened to me 29 years ago. I still remember, it just, you walk around in a daze. To be loved by a spouse is extraordinary. Amen, two or three of you? Okay. but to be loved by God is overwhelming. You're in the grip of His love, you're in the grip of His love such that it cannot but produce in you a contentment and a love inside of you, a hope and a peace and a joy as well. It's such a radical reality. Think about to be loved by God. What a reality that is. It is a shift in reality to get engaged and to be married for the first time in your life. It's extraordinary, but it's a radical reality to be loved by God. It's an unusual, outstanding revelation that the world will recognize. The world will see this. The world sees people who are engaged. You know, they're dancing through the park and they're holding hands. Are you engaged? You just seem so happy, you know? The world recognizes this. The world knows. Those who've been loved by God. Those who know they've been so loved by God, He said His only begotten Son on the cross to die for them and to provide a salvation for them and to set them free from their sins and to enable them to love one another and all the rest. It's an amazing reality. And it's a powerful and a passionate allegiance that governs our lives, much as a marriage governs our lives. But our commitment to Christ trumps every other possible commitment a thousand times over. I was looking for a song to sing about the unity of the church, and found one written in the 60s. We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord, and they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. It's written by a Catholic priest in the 1960s, who I understand left the faith. It's not written quite right. And I want you to pay close attention to this. What is wrong with this hymn? Here's what's wrong with it. It should have been written this way. We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord, and they'll know we are Christians by God's love, by God's love. This man wrote it well for a humanist, but not for Christians. Is there a difference between our love and God's love. There is an infinite difference. And I hope, brothers and sisters, that you understand that the love we look for is not our love, but God's love. We need God's love in our hearts. Christians shine the love of God Far more, a thousand times more than all the Catholic charities in the world, all the Mormon charities in the world, and the $10 trillion redistributed by Karl Marx and his friends. The love we have for one another in the church is far greater. far more miraculous, far more supernatural than what you find in the world in their measly little charitable programs they share with the poor and all the rest. Again, I'm not dissing loving our poor and loving our enemies, but friends, the message this morning from Jesus, get it right, get it in your mind, it's God's love for one another in the body of Christ. That's the message that shines to the world. In 1 John 3, we read, verse 10, in this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. So John is very plain here. Somebody just doesn't love their brother, and somebody doesn't forgive their brother, is not of God, period. Black and white, it's the way it is. Then in verse 16, we read by this, we know love because he laid down his life for us and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whosoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, How does the love of God abide in him? Notice it says, the love of God abide in him. It doesn't say, how is his love for his brother? No, no, it doesn't say that. It says, if somebody sees his brother, he's poor, he needs something, and shuts up his own heart to his own brother for whom he should give his life, but doesn't even want to share his goods with his own brother in the body of the church, How does the love of God dwell in him? You see, we know love because he laid down his life for us. We know that he loved us. I know that he loved me because he laid down his life for me. We know that we are loved and that we are forgiven, and that we do not need to go to purgatory to pay off any of our sins, and we don't need penance. This is the love of God. This is an amazing love of God that may not be in a Catholic heart. It may be. I don't know. I don't know the hearts of the Catholics. But if he's still saying, I have to pay for my sins in purgatory, I have to accomplish X number of works and penance in order to be forgiven. No, a thousand no's. That dilutes the love of God, the grace of Christ, and the work of Christ, and we reject that. That's not our unity. Our unity is around those who don't marginalize Christ, but receive His forgiveness, His justification, and know that our sins are paid for, bought and paid for forever and ever at the cross of Jesus Christ. And so we know that we are loved, we know the love of God is powerful in our hearts, it's driving, it spreads into our hearts, and then we begin to love others. We know that we are loved when the burdens roll off our backs and we run and dance and realize our freedom from the guilt of sin, the power of sin in our lives. We hear the words of Christ on the cross, I'm here because I love you. I am the son of God and I am dying on this cross for your sins. And you hear that, and you know that you are loved. You know that you are loved with an eternal love, an everlasting love, an unfailing love. You know that because you can hear it. You can hear the words of Jesus. And the Holy Spirit reminds you again and again, you are the sons of God. You are precious to God. And you know that you are loved. And people all around you will say, now there is one who is loved. He must be loved. Oh, somebody must love him. He must be loved by God. To love his enemies, yes, but to forgive his brothers 490 times a day, to be at such peace and to feel so forgiven and so accepted every day, he must be loved. And that is the testimony that the powerful love of God displays to the world. The infinite, eternal love of God bears out the most powerful testimony possible to the world around us, a world where there is no forgiveness, no real reconciliation, no love, no peace, and no real joy. And God says, look at my people. I love these people. And you will see my love in them. You will see my unity, the unity of the Father and the Son expressed in the unity of this body in my son Jesus. And you will see the love of God shine forth in them and pour out in their hearts through the Lord Jesus Christ. And you will know that God has visited this world with his salvation. Hallelujah. Praise be to God. A Father in heaven, oh God, we are taken back. We're in the grip of love ourselves this morning. To think of the eternal and infinite love of God for us that was showed forth at the cross. Indeed, that was love that your Son became the propitiation for our sins. So Father, this morning, our hearts are filled with these visions and this knowledge of the love that you showed to us. Father, we pray for the miracle of unity in the body of Christ that we would see it here. In this body, we would see it in Emmanuel, OPC over in Castle Rock. We would see it in Harvest Bible Church, that the world would look and see these churches and they would say how these people love each other, how they don't church hop, how they are content with each other and they reach out to each other and they forgive each other. Father, show us the miracle of your love. that you brought to this world through Jesus Christ, your Son, who took our sins upon Himself and bore the wrath and the curse of God, in order that all of this would happen, and that you would be glorified in the church, even in the eyes of the world around us, in Jesus' name. Amen. Remember we're saying that Jesus our Joshua our Savior saves So when you sing Jesus saves remember all you're saying is the Savior saves That's a pretty big duh But a message we need to take to the nations including ourselves if you've ever doubted that Jesus can save you from anything and from your selfishness, your lack of love. I know the things that drag me down, discourage me. I don't love my brothers and sisters nearly enough. Josh, I don't love you enough, but Jesus saves me from that and enables me and frees me to love my brothers and sisters. So praise the Lord for his salvation. Well, we come to the table now. And those of you visiting, take a look at the back of the bulletin. We explain a little bit about how we practice the Lord's Table at the church on the bulletin. But I want to capture this word that Jesus gives us when he instituted the supper at that last night, when he gave that message, including John 17. Jesus said this to his disciples, as often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me. So the question has come about, how often should we do communion? He says, as often as you do it, do it in remembrance of me. Now, would have been nice, I suppose, if he said, do this weekly. But he didn't, and so there are, guess what? Controversies in the church over this. Can you believe that? Controversies over the sacraments? I know that's hard to believe. I know that's hard to believe, but there is. There are also huge controversies among psychiatrists over how many times a man should kiss his wife in a given week. Huge controversies over this. And the plan among psychologists is that we establish a regimen on this. You see what I'm saying? We need to all agree that we are going to kiss our wives once a week, or three times a week. You see how ridiculous that is? Does anybody see how ridiculous that is? Why are people debating this? That's absurd. How often? Not should a man kiss his wife. How often should we have communion with Jesus? Well, let me ask you this, guys. How often do you kiss your wife? Well, forget it. Don't ask that question. I'm guessing it's not all the time. You're not now. It's just variable, isn't it? It's variable. It depends on what? It depends on your relationship, isn't it? It really depends on your relationship. So if we were to enforce a once a week communion for all the churches in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, the CPC, and everywhere else, is that appropriate? No, that's not what Jesus said. How often should you have communion? It depends on the hearts of the people involved. How often do you want to have communion? Let me just ask you that. How often do you want to have communion? By the way, the elders are open for feedback. And the elders make a decision based upon the body's needs and wants. And so that's, I think, my only answer is, I don't think there is an answer, but how often do we want to do this? That's it. Todd, I guess we're the session. How often do you want to? That's the answer. As often as you do it, Jesus says, do it in remembrance of me. Now, it's true that our hearts are sometimes not drawn very much to Jesus. And sadly, sometimes our hearts aren't drawn very much to our wives. And my wife and I are working on this, especially since her brother Bill is doing the marriage thing. She comes home, she shares the notes with me, and we have worked on it for the last couple of days. more often now. So I just use that as an illustration. I hope it helps you brothers and sisters. I think we get too busy with our worldly occupations to sit at the feet of Christ. We just get too busy. And there are other things too. We just get busy. We get into theological discussions on things. We forget that we should spend some time with Jesus. And that's where communion is. Communion is communion with the body and the blood of Jesus. That is the true physical body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ in his human nature. So we come into communion with Christ at the table and we hear the words, this is my body that I give for you. And when you hear that, that's like saying I love you this much. So if you enjoy hearing those words, there's a reason I read them carefully every time for my notes. I try not to say them by memory, I try to just read them because they are Jesus's words to you, I'm just reading them. So the question this morning is, do you want to hear these words from Jesus again, that I love you and I give you my body? And I give you my blood because I know that this is the only way that you're going to live. It's by me. It's by my body and by my blood. So you are living by my death and by my life. And you are dependent upon me for your very spiritual life. That's what Jesus is saying at the table when he says, this is my body I have given for you. This is my blood that I shed for you. This is how much I love you. This is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation or a blood covering for us. So as we come to the table again, I hope that the love of God, the amazing love of Jesus who became the blood covering to shelter us from the wrath of God, from the curse of God, from the judgment of God, I hope that this gives you a sense of the love of God in a fuller manner such that you magnify God even more. And so here is where we take the Hubble Space Telescope, and we take another measurement of the love of God for us, just like the Hubble Telescope takes another look at another 10,000 galaxies in the sky. We come to this table this morning, and we have the Hubble Telescope that is giving us another measurement of the breadth and the length of the love of God for us. and may that be your experience at this table. Father, we come to you again to receive the reminder of your love and the love that Jesus had for us when he said, this is my body, this is my blood for you. Father, we are in the grip of your love. We're shaken, we're overcome, we're overwhelmed. We are transformed by your love at this table. And we would think of nothing now, nothing but the height and the depth of the love of God that would give up His Son on the cross, and the love of the Son that would give up Himself willingly for us. Oh, Father, that you would shed abroad this love in our hearts now, that you would help by the Holy Spirit of God to whisper in our ears the very words of Christ, I love you this much. Amen.