“How do you know that God loves you?”
Communion Fellowship Church Podcast
John 3:16-21 (October 6, 2024)
Again, John chapter 3 verses 16 through 21, I'll be reading and preaching from those verses this morning. Here now, the Word of God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him, whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. Amen. And thus ends the reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word, may he write its eternal truth upon all our hearts. You may be seated. There is an old saying that you may have heard, and maybe you've even heard a song that says that love makes the world go round. That particular statement was coined in a musical or an actually an opera called "Iolante" by W.S. Gilbert. That is about a fairy who falls in love with a mortal man and is sacrificing their life and their place as a fairy to be able to act out on that love to a mortal man. When I was researching that phrase, I went and listened to some of the songs, and I think it's an English opera, and it's a very interesting opera, but it is intriguing that it is the beginning of where that statement came, and then I found out there are a lot of songs that utilize love makes the world go round. And in time, not only are there songs like that, but people have tweaked that a little bit. There is the adage response that was coined in 2016 by author Paul Van Dermier, who says it's money that makes the world go round. In fact, actually, I got that wrong. In 1972, there was a musical called Cabaret that in that particular musical that says that money makes the world go round. And then there was the adage by Paul Van Dermier, Dermier, who says money makes the world go round, however, happiness reases the axle. And it's interesting if you think about even that particular phrase that it introduces to us a mindset, even a somewhat a slogan of life that people do think in many ways that love is the most important thing, and it makes the world go round. And then, of course, there's a play on that one saying, "Well, no, it's money that makes the world go round. It's people's desires. It's people's happiness that makes the world go round." And then, even it's interesting, in that same year where the guy added the comment about how it is happiness that reases the axle, the phrase that is very popular today that love is love. And what you have when you put all of that together is a general understanding and commentary in the world that people do think, or at least they will say that love is the most important thing in the world, whether it be love with your family or love of a particular individual or just love for people in general, they will say that as even maybe a type of belief that love is the center of the whole world. But then, as you begin to try to understand how does the world define love, we get to the point now where we cause people's separation from any kind of concrete understanding of love that we have self-defined it just simply, "Well, love is love." We know it's the most important thing. We know that that's what should really be driving all activity in the whole world. But in many respects, the world does not even know what love is. Here in this particular passage today, this verse is indicating to us, this verse that I know that most of us would say is probably the most popular verse in the whole world, that for so God loved the world that he gave his only son, it begins with the provocation for God to send his son Jesus Christ to be because of his love for the world. You have Christians who are also there in the same mindset saying that the most important thing to us, this most important verse, this most hopeful verse for us, that the underlying calls of our greatest hope in the whole world is that God loved, that he loved the world that he sent his son, that we would join in the same chorus. We would say that yes, it is love that makes the world go round. It is love that is the most centric thing for us when we consider what is the most important things in all the world. But it's important and so very important for us to understand one what love is and what is the distinction of what we love. And I thought maybe a way today as we approach this very popular passage to just simply think about the question, how do you know that God loves you and in light of what the world does also acknowledge the question would be for you, how do you know that God loves you and how do you know that you love God? Well to quickly answer the question of what is love, we know that in the Bible it is simply that God is love, we get that from 1 John. And so as we think about that God is love and that God so loved the world that he would save us, let us try to answer the question of how we know that God loves us by looking deeply into this passage. First of all, it is important for us to see that in this passage that we can know that God loves you by knowing the person of Jesus Christ. But then secondly we can also know whether or not God loves us by knowing the person of Jesus Christ. And you might say well you just repeated yourself. I want us to focus in this particular passage today that it is the person of Jesus Christ that we want to dwell upon when we think about God's love. But then if we are wanting to know how we know he loves us, it is by knowing him, by truly knowing him. We have in this particular passage it says for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. We learn from this verse that the evidence of that love being received and being placed upon us has to do with our belief, our faith in him. And as we go deeper into that passage, we will see that it is not just a superficial surface belief that we know that Jesus exists. We've already dealt with that earlier in this particular chapter by looking at the life of Nicodemus and his narrative with Jesus. He obviously believes in Jesus, he's talking to Jesus, he knows that Jesus exists, he knows who he is as a person standing in front of him, but we see that Jesus tells him that for him to enter into the kingdom of heaven, he must be born again. Something has to go beyond just a knowledge of his existence. We know that in the scriptures that the demons know who Jesus is and shudder at it, but that is not enough for there to be any evidence of any salvific love of God. So first of all, we can know that God loves us by knowing the person of Jesus Christ, by dwelling on who Jesus is and why he was sent. And then secondly, we can know that God loves us by the fact that we know, that we know the person of Jesus Christ and that knowing being a salvific faith that goes beyond just a recognition of his existence, just a recognition of the great weight of power that he has. There's something here in the scriptures that we see from John and we will go a little deeper by John being a commentary of his own book by going into first John later on to see what that means. Because I believe that it is difficult for us to look at ourselves, number one, when it comes to knowing whether or not God loves us, that is usually the number one attack that Satan will give believers is to remind them of who they are and say surely this righteous and holy God could not love you. So it's very important for us when we are considering whether or not God loves us not to be hung up on dwelling upon ourselves. We should be dwelling upon the person of Jesus Christ. But then secondly, we should also know that Satan is going to tempt us or tempt maybe the lost even more so that you could have a superficial general recognition to admit that Jesus exists even the Muslims believe, even the demons believe, and many envangelicals will proclaim to believe that they believe that Jesus exists, but they don't truly believe in him in his name. Verse 17 says, "For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him, whomever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is already condemned already, but he has not believed in the name of the only son of God." We preface the sermon in some and what I was saying earlier about the power of the name of Jesus Christ, the power of the majestic name of Jesus Christ, that we must understand that is this name, this who he is that is centric to our salvific love of God. That we cannot just have the superficial knowing that he existed, but that we must believe in the name of the only son of God. I want to think about this in light of even though those are my two points are knowing the person of Jesus Christ and my second point is knowing the person of Jesus Christ, I want to break it down a little bit just so that it won't be as difficult to put our minds around this is that we must first see that Jesus is the light, that he is the light in the darkness. We know that John describes Jesus as being the light that came into the darkness. There is darkness of the sin of mankind and the corruption of sin on all of the earth, and when Jesus comes he is the light. We know that already in the book of John, we have covered so many descriptions of who Jesus is, but he is the light, he is the one that shines into the darkness so that we may see the reality because we are a people and as we were talking about in our prayer time this morning that are in a battle between what is true and what is false and because of sin and because of the first sin which was a temptation through deception, we have been in the dark and that we need the light of God, we need to be able to see Jesus Christ and he is the light that shines not only his glory and who he is, it shines the love of God and the power of God, but it also shines for us the condition of our own sin. God did not come sin his son, it says in verse 17, to condemn the world, he did not come in to turn out the lights, he did not come in to make it so that we would be in darkness, he did not sin Jesus to come so that he could just make that be the reality that we would be condemned, he is saying that we were already condemned because of sin when he sent Jesus, we were already in darkness without him and that he sent Jesus to bring salvation and light into the world. That tells us a variety of things about the person of Jesus that it is impossible for us to understand the name of Jesus, the power and the authority of Jesus unless we understand our state of darkness. If we think about this past week with the power outages all over the place it becomes very evident to us, if it was not for the sound of generators there would be this daunting quietness throughout the land whenever there is a power outage. That is all you can hear as generators, normally in a regular day it would be difficult to hear generators everywhere from a distance because there are other noises of activities going on, but when the power outage has happened everything shuts down, everything is quiet and you just kind of hear this hum of generators, but the other thing that you notice is not only the things that you can hear but the things that you cannot see and if it is not for having battery operated or generated or generated or generated electricity you will be in the dark. We can tell that from the absence of having power and light that it can get dark very very dark very quickly when I normally look outside even though we live in a countryside I do have neighbors that have outside lights or I can see the lights inside of their windows from a distance. When we have power outages for at least for a little while I don't see anything, it's nothing but darkness. When we are in the condition of sin we are in the dark so much in the dark we don't even know that we are in the dark, that we must have the light of Christ coming into our life to make that distinction and when we do have light it becomes very obvious for those who can see. The other thing about our darkness in sin that apart from God granting us the grace to the power of the Spirit we can't even have our eyes open to the light. It's not just the darkness in which we are in, it's our inability of not being able to see the light. Next week I'll have a sermon that kind of does it ends with the rest of the passages but it will be a semi-recap and one of the things we're going to be talking about is the theology of Jesus Christ and then the soteriology of Jesus Christ and then the ecclesiology of Jesus Christ and those are big terms and I'm pleased to try to teach those terms but one it talks about the theology is the study of Jesus himself it's the person of Jesus that we see in John chapter 3 that is being highlighted but then we see very clearly the soteriology which is our process of salvation in Jesus Christ but then lastly the ecclesiology the formation of his church but when we think about light when we are thinking about dwelling upon Jesus Christ we must see in him that he is our salvation and proof of God's love. It's very clear in verse 16 it says for God so loved the world that he gave his only son. It is the person of Jesus Christ that is the greatest evidence of his love for us and that seems so simplistic it seems I mean people will fall asleep to that sermon thinking about well duh of course we know that that is the most popular verse of course he loves us by sending us his son but when you hear the testimonies of people talking about God saving them in modern and vangelical testimonies today they will talk more about themselves when they're talking about Jesus saving them. People will actually have very little thought about the person the theology the action the name the power and the authority of Jesus Christ they will often think about that God rescued them in their situation but they're not thinking about who he was and who he is to rescue us it is not easy to see the love of God if we think about just ourselves because we're not that level we have to see that there was this impetus of transition for our ability to be saved by God sacrificing his own son that is what highlights that God would pay for our redemption so that is the light of Jesus Christ that teaches us by dwelling upon him that he loves us but I do want to personalize it as a testimony is it is a personal testimony and so there isn't anything wrong about talking about ourselves in our testimony we'll learn in the story of the woman at the well that Jesus very specifically talks to the woman about her life and her sins and she goes and she tells people he told me everything about me he knows who I am but we must first start with Jesus so that we can understand how that love gets applied to us and so we have the light that shines to us who Jesus is but then secondly we see the life that God saves us on to you would turn to Ephesians chapter two verses one through ten we have in that very first verse a very sober reality of one of the core foundations of understanding soteriology which is that first of all we are dead we were dead to begin with this is paralleling what John is saying that we were in darkness is paralleling what John is basically recapping that Isaiah said that people were in darkness we were dead we were dead in our trespasses and sins in which all of us once walked Paul talking to the church at Ephesus following the course of this world following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body in the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind like the rest of mankind we were walking in the dark but then it says but God being rich in mercy because of the great love which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and the kindness toward us in Christ Jesus for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not a result of work so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them we know that God loves us because when we were dead in our trespasses he made us alive together with Christ we do have an understanding of God's love by looking at ourselves but it is in Christ that we have been made alive to we must first start with Christ that is what allows us to be made alive we have been made from death to life and it is the love of God that took us out of death and into life the life in Christ Jesus multiple times you will see there in that passage in Christ Jesus it is heavenly places in Christ Jesus it is kindness toward us in Christ Jesus we were created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand he loves us by sending us his son but he loves us by removing from us the condemnation of sin and death so that we may have life so one way we know that he loves us is that in the person of Jesus Christ he resurrects us from the dead secondly we see how that is not just from death to life but it is a identification transition also it's not just eternal life that he gives by sending us his son he transitions us from the ungodly to the reconcile in Romans chapter 5 verses 6 through 11 it says for while we were still weak at the right time Christ died for the ungodly Christ didn't just die for the dead he died for the ungodly for one was scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die but God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners Christ died for us while we were still sinners Christ died for us since therefore we have now been justified by his blood much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life more than that listen to that it says more than that we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we now received reconciliation what does that mean it's saying there that more than our life more than being resurrected from the dead we have been resurrected for the point of reconciliation many of us are so very excited that we have eternal life and that is a very major point there in verse 16 of chapter 3 that we have eternal life but that eternal life is a reconciled life that the reason why God sent his son was that he loved us but he loves to be with us we know that God loves us not just because he rescued us but that he wants to be with us he wants that life eternal to be a life together with him now I thought about that some in light of you know and this might be somewhat of a humorous and a very difficult time with all the floods we were talking to our prayer time this morning as we prayed for all of the victims all over western North Carolina and northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia from the storm we talked about and prayed about these stories of people sacrifice which is an amazing display and that should point any good Christian to be reminded of what Jesus did for us but it would be I wonder what it would be like that if it was known that if you rescued someone then you have to be with them forever I wonder what that would do to people now I know that's kind of a maybe a humorous spin on a very difficult circumstance but I wonder if that would shorten or reduce some of the numbers of rescues if it's like okay you save them you keep them we might go I don't know about that let's get him to safety you know God was telling a story about a man who pulled a woman out of the water he pulls her out of the water and then he goes and he collapses to rest and then she goes off to be with family and friends and and you know he's he's just he's like I've done my job I'm done but it says here in the scriptures that more so more than just being saved from death we have been saved unto reconciliation to God he loves us so much that he he wants to really be with us he delights in saving a people for himself that the greatest thing in our life is not just that there is sacrificial love being displayed it's not just that kind of love that makes the world around is that is that dwelling love that eternal love of being together forever and so that shows us in those two passages the light and life that comes from Christ salvation to us the light of who he is and then the transformation of our life in him but when I encourage you and the rest of the time that we have here which is not a whole lot and this is a little bit an orthodox for me to encourage us to do this but I really think that when you're preaching you often go to a commentary you find a good commentary or two if you're a good preacher you're supposed to try to figure out the passage from what you know and understand from just a general reading of the word and applying what God has already taught you and then you try to ascertain from your disciplines of reading the scripture what the passage is saying and then you go to the commentary and then that reinforces or refutes what you're thinking and then you hopefully can put together a sermon that is actually accurate by using the counsel of other people in light of what you think that the Lord is teaching you as you are reading through the word but the best commentary for the book of John is John and you can go to 1 John 3 and 1 John 4 and it is I believe the perfect extension passages for this specific passage in fact without the John 1 John 3 and 1 John 4 it could be that people could be with an excuse of misunderstanding what he is saying here in John chapter 3 so I want to encourage you real quickly I say quickly somewhat deceptively to go to 1 John chapter 3 here further back in your Bibles because as I thought about how to articulate what this passage in this essence especially the last verse there in verse 21 trying to understand what it means to be those who are living their life in truth it gives a contrast and we get the contrast that there are those who love the darkness because of their sin we see that in John chapter 3 that those who love the darkness because their deeds are dark because their deeds are wicked and they don't want to be exposed but when it says for those who believe for those who believe in the name of Jesus Christ that we will have this truth in our life that it's not just the light of Jesus Christ it's not just a saved life it is a love life a lot of people call these passages the love passages and if you think about the beginning of John or the beginning of this sermon today in John 3 16 that it's for love that God said his son we see that the evidence of God's love in us is God's love that we've been transformed into the person of Jesus Christ we're being transformed into the life of Jesus Christ but also we're being transformed into the love of Jesus Christ so let's read real quickly in 1 John chapter 3 it says see what kind of love the Father has given us that we should be called the children of God and so we are the reason why the world does not know us is that they do not know him now this is kind of showing these kind of parallels that one when we think about the love of the Father we're going to think about the son we're going to think about what the son has done but we see here that in verse 1 of chapter 3 of 1 John is that we are called children of God and our characteristics are being transformed to be like God that here we become like God that they're they says that they don't know who God is they don't know who we are they're not going to recognize that we are the children of God because they do not know God there should be a parallel there should be something in us that has transformed we're not just saved it's it's not just Jesus doing his work it's not that we're just saved from death for a future eternal eternal life there's something about us that should be parallel to who God is so much that they couldn't recognize us to be the children of God when they don't know who God is says in verse 2 says beloved we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared but we know that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness sin is lawlessness you know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in him there is no sin no one who abides in him keeps on sinning and no one who keeps on sinning has either who who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him let's stop there for just a second because those are some very daunting words there because we think okay then wait a minute I thought I was a Christian when I came in here this morning but that particular passage just said that anyone who keeps on sinning has never seen him or known him and we know that if we're going to be saved if we're going to be the recipients of God's love we need to have seen him the light had had to go off and so that we may see him and know him are you saying that if I have sin still active sin in my life that I do not know who Jesus is now that's a difficult thing to answer just with a yes or no answer we must understand that what John is talking about here is that we make a practice of continuing to send meaning that it is something that we are still generally captive to when we are captive to sin unreaped repentantly and continuing to be in the dark if we are living in sin in such a way that there is no repentance then that is keeping on the practice of lawlessness that we're not being bound by any wall that we're living in a way that we're not being restrained in our sin so what that saying is is that if you sin but you are struggling with sin in such a way that you are being restrained through struggle knowing that God is convicting you of sin but you are seeing God's word proclaiming sin to be sin and you are fighting with it and you are repenting of it that you are seeking the refuge of Christ that you are pleading out to God God help me with this weakness help me with this temptation forgive me but also help me it's one of the things that I prayed with Jackson whenever he there's an infraction and he seeks forgiveness is that he's praying and he knows that his prayer has got two parts to it it's one forgive me of my sin and help me to stop sinning help me to stop doing this help me to stop hitting people and hurting people right Jackson that's right it's a two part prayer he knows and I know that that's not the last time we're going to pray that prayer but we're pleading out to God our practice is repentance our practice is struggling seeking God to sanctify us and to redeem us that's not the same thing of practicing lawlessness the wall of God the conviction of God is causing restraint so much that yesterday sorry Jackson when he used you just for a little bit longer in our sermon that he did an infraction that he's not supposed to do and he was like please forgive me he immediately realized that as soon as he did it there needed to be a change that it was wrong he wasn't like this is just something that I do and I can do it and I can do whatever I want to do there's not the fruit of lawlessness there there's a fruit of repentance now again I am not going to be able to say that everyone he feels remorse there's an earthly and worldly remorse for people sin that is not salvific sin but what we're talking about specifically here is that those who continue to practice lawlessness not acknowledging that there is sin or not acknowledging that there needs to be a change from sin but to continue to live lawlessly and practice that sin there is no hope of salvation for no one who actually sees Jesus and knows him will live like that they will they will only be showing a fruit of hard hearts now that might come incrementally sometimes I know that it would in my own life that I can be a season where I don't even realize that an attitude that I have toward a circumstance or an individual is a sinful attitude and then something happens and I realize wow that's bitterness and I need to repent of that it doesn't mean that we have a constant continual recognition of everything that we're doing to be sin or faithful but there should be fruit it says number seven there in first John chapter three little children let no one deceive you whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil for the devil has been sinning from the beginning the reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil no one born of God makes a practice of sinning for God's seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God by this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God nor is the one who does not love his brother here we begin to understand it's not just a matter of doing right and wrong it's whether or not our life has the fruit of love that one of the ways that we can know that God loves us is that we begin to love God and to love others that our life will be a life of love it's not meaning that we won't ever make a mistake and that we won't ever sin in this life it's meaning that our relationships will be defined by a different kind of love because we see there in John three it says that the people love darkness they love their wicked deeds and the reason why they love their darkness and love their wicked deeds is because they loved only themselves but in the end the competition of the great wonder of all things is whether or not we're going to love ourselves or if we're going to love God and to love others that's really what makes the world go around it does indicate very clearly they're in the very beginning an accurate thing it is love that makes the world go around it makes us act it is the love that motivates us it's what we live for but it's a matter of what we love and where does that love come from when love is just love when it's self-defined love 100% of the time self-defined love means a love of self that I'm I'm going to define what love is because this is what I won't love to be but if it is defined in God it's going to be characteristic and from God because God is love and verse 11 of 1 John 3 it says for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another you should not be like Cain who was the evil one and murdered his brother and why did he murder him because his own deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous do not be surprised brother when the world hates you we know that we have passed out from death into life because we love the brothers whoever does not love abides and death how do you know that God loves you God loves you because your character is being transformed into a character of love says everyone who hates his brother there in 15 is a murderer that matches our catechism question for this morning you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him no person who has murder in his heart no person who has unrepentant bitterness in their heart we even see also in John that we cannot continue to have a place of holding forgiveness of others and expect mercy to be granted to us just by this we know love that he laid down his life for us and we all to lay down our lives for the brothers think about that in verse first John chapter 3 16 there is a commentary clarity of John chapter 3 verse 16 it's saying that by this we know love that he laid down his life for us that life that Jesus gave us when the father sent his son because he loved us and then we all to lay down our lives for the brothers it transforms us it transforms us because we're born again it transforms us into the love of Jesus Christ so when it says that whoever believes in him has eternal life it's whoever has been transformed into the love of God verse 17 says but if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him how does God's love abide in him little children let us not love in word or talk but indeed and in truth remember there again the end of the passage I read today about how those who are in truth I mean the truth is that we are sinners and that we are in righteous but we are made righteous in him we are acknowledging that we are acknowledging day by day our weakness of being able to produce perfect love in of ourselves we are acknowledging in truth that we must have transformation and sanctification from Jesus Christ says by this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him for whenever our heart condemns us God is greater than our heart and he knows everything beloved if our heart does not condemn us we have confidence before God and whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him and this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another just as he has commanded us. So when we think about John 3 16 and it says that for so God so loved the world that he sent his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life we know with certainty that John here again in his letter here it says that if we believe in the name of the son Jesus Christ and love one another just as he commanded us whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him and by this we know he abides in us by the spirit in whom he has given us that is the answer to our question that is how we know that he loves us we know that Jesus that God loves us because we know the person the work the power the salvation the redemption the reign of Jesus Christ and we know that he loves us because we know this and we're being transformed by it if we know him we will live like him will we live like him perfectly not in this world we see plenty of passages showing that he is the one sanctifying us he's continuing to wash us with his word he's transitioning us into holiness he's transitioning to us to our now new identity which is righteous before him by this we understand now when it says that he loves the righteous we go how can he love the righteous and say he loves us no the reason why he can love the righteous and say he still loves us is because the name of Jesus Christ covers us he loves the name of the righteousness of Jesus Christ that is now been placed identifiably upon us so that means that if we are not those who we do not have love if we do not seek to live the lives and faithfulness if we do not seek to be washed by his word we cannot have any hope that Christ love reigns in our hearts one of the few people that we have in scripture that has been given that clear definition that he was saved by Jesus was the thief on the cross and he acknowledged two things one that he was condemned and that he also knew that Jesus was going to live eternally in his kingdom that he was going to reign in his kingdom remember what he said to Jesus remember me when you enter into your kingdom he knew that Jesus was going somewhere that he knew that Jesus was going to die he knew very clearly how bad off Jesus's body was at that time but he knew that Jesus was going to live eternally and that he was true to what he said he was because he was going to enter into his kingdom of reigning if we believe that we have a king that reigns we are going to do what he tells us to do one of the things he tells us to do is to come here and to worship him to hear his word when we come here it's like think about again using maybe not the best analogies of things that we can think about but when we had no power we had no shower and we long for being showered we can when you go for a season with just cold showers you just don't feel right it doesn't it doesn't lather up and get the dirt off and so but if you don't get any showers at all you really don't feel right and don't smell right when we come here we're not coming here if we're already a Christian you don't come here so that your work of coming to church is going to save you from the cause of your own righteous works that's not why we go to church we don't go to church so that our work saves us we go to church so we are obedient to the king but when we come here we're being washed by his word we're getting that shower and slowly day after day week after week we're being washed of those stinky sins in our life when we come to his table we're being filled we're being reminded we're being renewed we're being refreshed this is a practice of obedience this table this worship ultimately is for those who have received the love of Jesus Christ and so that's why we come together and when we come together now let us pray or have