Christopher: We live in a reality where, yes, sorrows break in, pain breaks in, difficulty breaks in, horrors break in. But under it all, under it all, there is a person. Not a fact, not a figure, not a law, not an equation, not a list that you can master. Under it all is a person who must be known. And this person is absolutely, unshakably, unchangeably true.
Caleb: The following message was recorded at Kingstree Church. May the spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.
Christopher: We'll be returning, for the final time to one John. So this is our thirty fifth and final sermon in the book of one John. We've been going through it for a little more than a year now, and we're looking today at the final verses of this letter. Of course, those who received this letter would have read it in one sitting. We've taken over a year to read it, but they would have read it all in one sitting.
So I would commend to you as a kind of a capstone on this series is to just read through one John this coming week. Just read through the whole letter. It's not very long, and that will be a good refresher to you, a good kind of seal on all we've looked at over this last year. But in these final verses, John is leaving his audience with truths that they can hold to as he's sending them out into the life. Life continues.
After you close the Bible, life continues. The sorrows are there. The joys are there. The ups and downs are still there, and John's sending his audience out with three final statements they can hold to. Two of those we looked at last week.
The third and foundational of these we're going to be looking at this week as we close out our series. So look with me at one John five. We'll start in verse 18 and then read all the way through to 21, but what we're gonna be focusing on today is verses twenty and twenty one. Here's how John concludes his letter. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one, and we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true, And we are in him who is true. In his son, Jesus Christ, he is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. So in these final verses, John is summing up, summing up not only his whole letter, but also in a real way summing up his entire theology, the way he thinks about God is summed up here in verse 20 specifically, but also his entire vision of reality is summed up in those words. The Son of God has come and given us understanding so that we may know him who is true.
He is the true God and eternal life. All of reality exists so that we might know, so that all of reality might know the God made known in Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal life. This is what existence is about, and this is not an overstatement. That's how the Bible presents reality, and it's important for us to remember that scripture is not about religious games when we open up the Bible. It's not about, well, who's doing this and who's doing that, or how do I become a better person, or how do I make myself clean and happy, or what's the list of not to do and what to do.
When we open up scripture, what we're finding is pure reality being communicated to us in such a way that our entire vision of existence is to be reformatted. Scripture is out not just to make nice people. Scripture is seeking to demolish and rebuild our vision of reality itself, and to make us a people who think, and feel, and desire, and hope, and plan, and live radically differently than the world around us. That's what the New Testament, that's what scripture and the gospel specifically is doing. It's the decimation of one world and the raising up of another, the revelation of what's true.
And today we're looking at really what is the very heart of that remaking of reality, and that is this statement that John makes, The Son of God has come so that we might know him who is true. The crucified and risen Jesus as the revealer of God, that's at the heart of the new reality that scripture calls us into and that John leaves us with at the end of his letter. So let me pray for us, and we will look at these things more closely this morning.
Christopher: Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is true, and here we are gathered not because this is what Christians do on Sundays,
Christopher: but because we are desperate for you, because you've called us together by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We're here on Sunday because Christ is risen, and we belong to him. Our only hope is in him. Our whole life is him. So father, I pray now feeling my
Christopher: own desperate weakness, my own absolute need. I pray for mercy to be able to speak in such a
Christopher: way that your people receive what is here. I pray for the anointing of your Holy Spirit so that the unfolding of these words would come with the light and the heat, not of human ingenuity, but of divine will and purpose, and that you would be at work, father, now. I submit myself and my efforts to you, and I lift to you also this congregation that their listening would be anointed to discern, to hear, and to apply what you have for them. Come, Father, now and grant the reading and the preaching of your word here from this pulpit and downstairs for the children. Grant it now to be effective, that the risen Jesus Christ would stand forth from his word and be given to his bride as her great good.
Father, we pray these things now in Jesus name, amen. So again, in concluding his letter, John gives these three things that he wants his audience to know. He wants them to know that everyone who's been born of God doesn't keep sinning, that the world is lying in the power of the evil one, and here's the final one, the foundation underneath these, that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding. Now before we look into that specifically, just something simple to note here, but significant, is that John, and therefore the Holy Spirit, wants the church to know what they've received. John intends that the church be aware that she has received something, because when he says, We know the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, the implication is, You need to know this.
We know this, right? We know this, and now you know it, because I just told you. He wants them to know. He wants them to be aware that they have received something from the coming of Jesus Christ. So think about it.
If someone has received $10,000,000 it's not just enough to know, or it's not
Christopher: just enough that they would have received it. They also have
Christopher: to know they received it. If somebody said, You've received $10,000,000 but you don't know that, it doesn't do anything for you. You just go on working the same way you have with the same budget you have, which you should probably do if you do get $10,000,000 Just keep doing the same stuff. But anyway, if you don't know that you've received it, it doesn't help you. You have to know that you've received this gift, and also it's important to know what you've received, dollars 10,000,000 rather than a new inflatable pool, or a gift card to Subway, or something like that.
You need to know that you have received it, and you need to know what you have received, and John wants his audience, and the Spirit wants us to know that we have received something in the coming of Christ, and wants us to know what it is we have received that matters for us today that we would know these things, because knowing that we have received something from Christ and knowing what it is influences for us how Christ is involved in our lives day to day, because the degree to which Jesus is central to me is going to be related to what I understand to have in him. If I understand Christ to be for me essentially fire insurance, so that, yeah, when I die someday I go to hell, or a ticket to heaven, which feels like a far off place where whatever that someday, sure, I've got that taken care of, Or if Jesus is to us just a nice addition to a suburban American life, have Jesus in their two car garage, and a fence, and Jesus. Or if he is to us just someone that we go to to help us with a guilty conscience every once in a while, If this is what we think we've received, then he's gonna be peripheral to us.
He's gonna be, yeah, a nice addition. But if we know that in Christ we have received all things, that he is the source, and the goal, and shape of all reality for us, if we understand that he himself is our life, then he's going to be central to our experience. He's not gonna be peripheral. He's gonna be increasingly central like light or breath or food. And so John says, I
Christopher: want you to know what you've received. We know this Christian, we know something. We know that we've received something in Christ. Okay, so with that said, what, what have we received? What does John say we've received?
Look at verse 20. We know that the Son
Christopher: of God has come and has given us, what? Understanding. Understanding. That might be surprising. You might think, Wow, given us forgiveness, given us salvation, given us eternal life, but he says here, Given us understanding.
And the word here for understanding is not focusing on the facts that you know. The word is really more focusing on how you know. It's as if he says, Jesus has come and has given us a new mind, or a new way of thinking, a new way of seeing reality itself, a new intellect. So he's not just saying the Son of God has come and has given us a bunch of information. He's saying the Son of
Christopher: God has come and has given us a new way of knowing, a new mind, and see how he gives that to us. Verse 20, We know that the Son of God has come and given us this new mind, this new understanding, this new way of thinking. How has
Christopher: that new way of thinking been given to us? By the coming of Jesus, and we're summing up one John here, so this is something we talked about before. Remember for John, the coming of Jesus doesn't just mean he entered into time and space. He was born. That's included, but for John, the coming of Jesus is the whole earthly sojourn of the savior, his whole life in our flesh, his birth, his living supremely, his dying, and his rising and ascending, this whole story is the coming of Christ.
And John says, It's by that coming that Jesus has given us a new way of knowing the world. It's by his birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, by the entire sojourn of the savior that a new mind has been given to the church. So by Jesus' entrance into our flesh, through his life of self giving love, having mercy, having mercy, having mercy on the broken around him, and ultimately through that climax of his love on the cross, and the vindication of that love by his resurrection, it's in this way, it's by doing this, by being this, that Jesus has given us as the church a new way of thinking, a new understanding, a new mind. Now often when we talk about what Jesus gives us, like
Christopher: I mentioned a moment ago, we'll say Jesus came
Christopher: to give us forgiveness. Jesus came to give us salvation from hell. Jesus came to give us the promise of heaven or righteousness before God. That's what we talk about often, and that's right. That's good.
That's in scripture. Absolutely, all of that's true, but here John is highlighting something that is beneath all that, that's under all that. Before,
Christopher: beneath,
Christopher: as the foundation of all that is given to us in our salvation is this new way of seeing reality, a new mind, a new vision, eyes opened, as the Apostle Paul says. That our eyes are covered and blinded, but now they've been opened by the shining of the glory of God in Christ. So this is what Christ gives. He's come to cause us to see reality differently, to perceive and evaluate, to desire and to know, to love and to live and to die according to a completely different calculus than the world around us. That's Jesus has come to give.
Now, what do we come to know through this new understanding? He's given us new understanding. It's like
Christopher: we were blind and he's opened our eyes, but now what do we see? What does the new understanding Jesus gives cause us to know? Again, look at verse 20. We know that the Son of God has come and has given us this new way of knowing so that we may know him who is true. So you
Christopher: see this? Jesus born, lives, dies, rises again, and through this he's given us a new way of knowing so that through that new way of knowing we can come to know the one who is true. See that process? This is the gift that John wants us to know we've received. Through the new way of knowing Jesus gives, we are able to come to know, as
Christopher: we could not in any other way, him who is true. Him who is true. Now just take a moment to consider with me what this means. Scripture always rewards slowing down and looking at the words themselves. Just think about this, so that we can know him who is true.
That's an amazing statement. How much of our hardship in life, of our suffering in life comes from trying to know what is true? What is true? What is true? Is this bill true?
Is this real? Is this the right calculation here? Is this news story true, this thing I'm hearing? Is this thing that someone has told me about someone else true?
Christopher: Do I believe this? Do I live according
Christopher: to this? Is this diagnosis true that I've received? Is this true? Is this fear pressing in on me true, or am believing something false? Is this life defining loss that has struck me or struck those I know, is it true?
Is finally true? Is it really true? Is this agony in my soul, Is this burden on my mind? Is this cloud over my life? Is this interpretation of who I am that I keep preaching to myself?
Is that true? What's true? What's true? What do I hang my hands on? What do I hold to?
That's a big question, and this text says Jesus has come that we might know him who is true. So some of those questions I just laid out, some of them have answers. Some of them don't have answers in this life, but what this text tells us is that there is, there is one thing that is true. There's one thing that really is true. There is a ground.
There is a truth. It's not just all mist and the point of view that you're coming at. There is truth, and the awesome implication of this verse is that this truth is also a person. What is true is not finally something, but someone, someone who is true. So consider the wonder of that.
We live in a reality where yes,
Christopher: sorrows break in, pain breaks in, difficulty breaks in, horrors break in, but under it all, under it all, there is a person. Not a fact, not a figure, not a law, not an equation, not a list that you can master. Under it all is a person who must be known, and this person is absolutely, unshakably, unchangeably true, True.
Christopher: And it's in relation to him that everything will bow and be declared true or false. Everything will be filtered through, bow before and receive the judgment, true or false, from this person who is
Christopher: true. So deeper, deeper, deeper than all the swirling uncertainties of our mortal life, deeper than all the fluctuations of your feelings about yourself and about God and about the world around us, deeper than the loss and the pain and death itself, truer than death is this person who is true, this one who is true. What an anchor to our soul that is tossed back and forth, back and forth to know him who is true, not one who can change based on what's the fad right now, or where's popular opinion going right now, or how much information do you have. He true. What an anchor to our soul.
What a refuge in the storm to hide in him. What an assurance to our wavering mind to collapse into him. What a comfort in the face of an ever changing world to know him, to just lift up your whole life and body and those of those that you love. All of it's uncertain. You have control over none of it, but you just pour it all into the one who is true, and know that he's going to uphold me.
He's going to bring me through. He's going to see me to the other end because Christ is risen. He's going to do that. And the understanding that Jesus gives is so that we can know him. Christian, that's what's being offered to us.
Not have a better life, not clean up your act, not don't go to hell. That's all in there, but what's being offered to you is know God. Know the one who is true and live in him. Live in him. Live in him.
So Jesus gives us understanding so that we can know him who is true, know the only true God. Now let's press into this a little bit more and ask what does it mean if this is what we've received, a new mind so that we can know God. That's what he's saying. A new mind, a new way of understanding so that we can pierce through all the veils of uncertainty and all the mists of falsity and distraction and lay hold of the immovable center of truth. That's what we have Christian.
And now I want to ask, what does it mean to know God like this? What does it mean to come to know God in this way? And let's ask the question first, what is the understanding that Jesus gives us? Because we've said Jesus comes to give us understanding, to give us a new way of knowing so that we can know him who is true. And now I wanna ask, what is that new way of knowing that Jesus gives?
What is this new way of understanding that Jesus gives to his church? Well John doesn't say it here. He just says Jesus has come and has given us understanding. But let me read you a few passages from his gospel because remember the same John who wrote this also wrote the gospel, we can go there to get a clearer picture of his thought. Let me read these and see if you can begin to piece together an answer.
What is the way of knowing that Jesus has come to give us? John one eighteen says this, No one has ever seen God. The only begotten God who at the Father's side or in the Father's bosom, he has made him known. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is in the side of the Father, he has made him known to us.
Or again, John eight twenty eight where Jesus says, When you have lifted me up, when you
Christopher: have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am. Then you will know that I am. When you have lifted up
Christopher: the Son of Man, then you will know that I am, or he's using the language there of God's name in
Christopher: the Old Testament. Then you will know who Yahweh is, is essentially what John's saying there, what Jesus is saying there. Or again, John twelve forty four and forty five, Whoever believes in me, says Jesus, believes not in me, but in him who sent me, and whoever sees me sees him who sent me. Okay? Whoever sees me sees God is what he's saying.
Whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. Or lastly, in John 14 verse nine, Jesus says this, Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. So taken together, these passages suggest to us that the understanding Jesus has come to give us is this, the recognition that to see him is to see God.
That's
Christopher: the new understanding Jesus gives. That everything You think, well, is that really? That's a big deal. Everything turns on this new way of seeing. To see me is to see God.
I, Jesus says, am the revelation of God, the revelation of the Father. That is the gift Jesus gives to his bride. That's the new absolutely universe transforming way of seeing that Jesus gives to us. If you've seen me, you've seen God. That's the transformation.
Just run that through your mind. What's that do? That is like a seed dropped into a fertile soil, or a stone dropped into a still pool. Everything is changed if this is true. If you've seen me, you've seen God.
The new way of knowing, the new mind, the new understanding that Jesus imparts to his people
Christopher: is to open their eyes by the spirit to realize this man, this man walking on this dust carrying my sorrow, bearing on his head my thorns, the crown of my curse. This man hanging, hanging,
Christopher: stripped and beaten on the cross. This man lying in my grave, buried under my condemnation. And this man rising up again from that place. This man shows me who God is. This is who God is.
This is who God is. That obliterates our natural understanding of, well, he's gotta be this glorious, all powerful, all brilliant, almighty. He is. He is. And as that one, he reveals himself in Christ in this way, in the way of Christ.
And that is the new understanding that Jesus has come to give. Now, if you've been here for a while, if you've been here perhaps for one sermon, you've heard me say this before, but take a moment to consider it. It is worth considering. The angels around the throne are continually overwhelmed such that all they can do is scream, Holy, holy, holy is this God. They are continually overwhelmed to look at the throne and see the slain and risen lamb.
So we have not yet seen the fullness of what it means that God is revealed in Jesus Christ. So I'm never going to get tired of saying this, and by grace may you never get tired of hearing it and seeing what is here. The true God, the maker of the universe,
Christopher: the one who made your soul and for whom you and all things exist, he declares, this God declares to all the cosmos, If you would know me, look at my son. That's incredible. If you would know me, look at my son. Look at his life. Look at him living in your mortal flesh.
Not as a king, not as an emperor, but as an itinerant healer, as a servant who walked around, as a
Christopher: man who worked with his hands, carpentry. Look at my son, look at him exhausting himself in mercy, spending himself in compassion, taking onto his own life the sorrows of those who didn't even know him. The sin of the whole world, the sickness of his people, not withholding himself even from the lowest and ugliest and dirtiest among us. Look at him, says God. That's who I am.
Look at his death. Look, behold, it says in John 19, behold the pierced one hanging on the cross, carrying in himself your sin, my sin. Look at this man who's carrying my sin, who's carrying my failure, who's carrying our shame, our perversions, not just our acceptable sins, Oh, sometimes I lie. Oh, sometimes I get upset. The perversions, the dark wickedness of his people born in his body.
Our madness and our loss, our sorrow and our agony, he's carrying it. Look at him swallowed in the mystery of his passion and swallowing up hell and death and condemnation for his people. Look at this man becoming you damned for your
Christopher: sin. Me damned for my sin.
Christopher: And God says, that's who I am. That's not just something I did. He says, That's who I am. I'm like that. Right now I'm like that.
Always I'm like that. And then look at his resurrection. Look at that same broken body raised up beyond all hope. No one saw this coming. Raised up again.
Look at the wounds torn by our sin in the flesh of God raised up now as witnesses of his love. He takes the horror of this world, the hell of our sin into his hand, and it pierces through his hand. And when he opens his hand, blessing pours out, mercy pours out, love pours out. That's what he's like. What is born in the hands of God is turned to blessing, and
Christopher: he bears everything for you. He bears everything for us.
Christopher: Look, feel with Mary Magdalene, feel the weeping wonder. You're looking into the tomb. Death is all you can see. Your world is death. And then you hear your name spoken by the one you thought was silenced forever, and you turn and you see him alive, and the whole world of death turns to weeping wonder.
Feel that and know God says, That's who I am. That's who I am. Have you ever felt it? Have you ever felt tears bursting into your eyes because the sorrow is right here, but it's okay? The sadness is right here, but he's healed it?
This thing that was broken and dead, I'm now able to look at it and somehow rejoice? This too good to be true where your mind reflexes and says, I can't believe it because it can't be that good, God says, No, that's who I am. Look at the risen Christ. That's who I am. And this one revealed in the life and the death and the resurrection of the God man, that's who's true.
He's the truth. He's the truth. Easter morning is the truth. Easter morning is the truth. The crucified one who is risen is the truth.
So in the face of a world of horror outside of us and inside of us cling to this. The one made known in the crucified, risen, and reigning Jesus Christ is true.
Christopher: Come what may. No matter
Christopher: what my mind tells me, no matter what my life tells me, no matter what my experiences tell me, he's true, and I'll go to my grave holding to him, and I'll be raised from my grave to see his face.
Christopher: That's what the gospel gives us. And so, so hold fast to it Christian. Hold fast to this Christian, because the flesh of God raised up in Christ declares to us every loss is a sowing whose harvest is joy. That's true. Now this leads then to the second thing I
Christopher: want us to see as we're moving toward a close, which is this. This knowledge of God, this knowing of God in this way, this knowing of God in the slain and risen Jesus Christ as the truth, this is the supreme gift that God gives to his bride. This is the supreme gift of our salvation, to know God in and as the slain and risen Jesus. That's the supreme gift. We know the Son of God has come and given us understanding so that we may know him who is true, and
Christopher: we are in him. This knowing of him, it's not a knowing that stays at arm's length. It's not a knowing of facts merely. It's not a knowing of theology merely. It's a knowing that brings us into the one we know.
We know him. We are in him, in his son, Jesus Christ.
Christopher: He is the true God and eternal life. Christian, here's everything. Everything for us is here. This is the supreme gift. Knowing intimately, deeply, experientially, transformatively knowing God in Christ, I should add, communally, right?
Not just me going off to know him by myself, us knowing this Christ together. That's the supreme gift of salvation. Now you say, What about forgiveness? What about not going to hell? What about righteousness?
What about a changed life? What about everything we always talk about? Amen, absolutely, absolutely. But what John's emphasis here at the end of his letter shows us, all of that is good, necessary, true. It's a means to an end.
The end, the goal is knowing God. Intimate, life giving, ever deepening fellowship with God in Christ by the Spirit together with his people. This is where we're going, and forgiveness and justification and sanctification and all the other goods of our life, of the Christian life are aiming at that end, getting us to that end, and in fact flowing from that end. So let me give you an example. I've shared this before, but a bride on her wedding day, she has, if it's kind of a traditional wedding, she has a beautiful dress.
She has a catered meal. She has the perfect venue, the least one that she wants. She has the right songs, and all that matters. That's all
Christopher: meaningful, but none of that, we hope, is the reason she's there. None of
Christopher: that is what it's about. Why is she there? For the union to her husband to be united to him. This coming together, this new relationship, this one flesh, one spirit, one life union, that's why she has a wedding dress. That's why there's a wedding venue.
That's why everyone's here for this. So too forgiveness, justification, sanctification, redemption, all that we speak of is critical, but it's also the wedding dress, the venue in a way, in a way, because somebody could say, Well, you can get married with a justice of the peace. These things are still necessary, but my point in this particular analogy is they are unto the end
Christopher: of union. They're aiming at the goal of knowing God in Christ. So Christian,
Christopher: let us not look down and say, Woah, what nice clothes I have. What nice clothes of forgiveness I have. Sure, look
Christopher: at them. The bride enjoys her dress,
Christopher: but then say, And I'm forgiven to know him. I'm justified to know him. I'm saved from hell to know him. I'm going to heaven to know him. That's what it is.
That's what it's about. So this one, this one is all our hope, and that's where John ends. Look with me at the end of verse 20. We are in him who is true, in his son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
So this one, God, as he is known in the slain and risen Jesus, he is the true God and our eternal life. Like I said at the beginning, those words truly do sum up everything John said and all of reality. The God who is made known in the crucified and risen Jesus is the only true God and eternal life. Reality exists to communicate that. We exist to know that.
Everything exists to sing that. Crucified and risen Jesus as the revelation of God, which is the life of his people, which is the life of his people.
Christopher: So ask yourself this question as we close. If that's true, if God made known in Christ is the only true God and is himself eternal life, what good thing is to be found in opposition to him? What good thing is there outside of this Christ? I don't mean you have to constantly be thinking immediately about Jesus as you're eating your food or as you're doing something,
Christopher: but I'm saying if God If the one we know in Jesus is the only true God and our eternal life, what good thing can possibly be found by going outside of him, going away from him, turning away from him? And the answer is, if this is true, nothing. If he is the true God and eternal life,
Christopher: then there is no good, beautiful, needful, beneficial thing in opposition to him. So Christian,
Christopher: that little pleasure that is opposed to Christ, but I desire it, that little bending of the rules so that I don't have to spend as much money or pay as much money. That little place that is secluded and it's against him, but I enjoy it so much. I want it so much. It's so good. Right?
It can't be wrong. No, there is no life outside of him. If you are standing at the borders of Christ and looking beyond him and saying, But that's where my joy is. That's what I want. If I just had that, if I could just pluck that and have that, I'd be all right.
That's a lie. There is nothing good for you in opposition to him. There is nothing good for you in turning from him. That'll save your life. To say, This desire that is at my throat like a ravenous beast, I want it, but I know it's opposed to him, it is not good for you.
There is no good in that. There is no life down that path. There is no life down the paths that veer off from Christ. Just settle that in your mind now. There's no life down those paths because he is the true God, and he is eternal life.
We cannot affirm Jesus as the only God and eternal life while also running after something else to satisfy our soul. To know him as God and life necessarily means to seek my soul's satisfaction in him. Now that doesn't mean if you don't have something right now and you want it, that's wrong. You can pray, you can ask, Lord, I desire this. That's okay.
What it means is there is no good for you in saying, Lord, I know this is your will, but I'm going this way because I want it so badly. There's no life in that. And that's why John ends his letter this way, Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Keep yourselves from idols. He's not introducing something new here.
This is what his whole letter has been aiming at from the very beginning, because from the very beginning John's been saying, Life is Christ. Jesus Christ is our life, and he is the one in whom we know God. To have him is to have God. To not have him is to not have God. To have him is to have life.
To not have him is to not have life. This is what John's been saying from the beginning. And now to say, Keep yourself from idols is just the flip side of that. Christ is life. Hold to him, and don't be drawn off after anything else.
That's how he ends it. Little children, keep yourself from idols. Our culture, like John's, is filled, filled with idols. Don't you feel them? Don't you hear them?
If you don't, you're probably listening to them. They're everywhere. Hands offering us life. Here, take this for life. Take this for life.
Take success for life. Take fame for life. Take more money for life. Take this spouse for life. Take a bigger family for life.
Take recognition for life. Take a new experience, or a new pleasure, or a new high, and find life. And whenever we reach out to those hands, they snap on us as steel traps. They're faults, they're death. Only the one true God is where our life is to be found.
He alone is the banquet. Everything else is sugar coated arsenic. Hold fast to him. The world is holding out bread and a cup, but it's wax bread, and it's a cup of ash. Let us come to the true God, to the true Christ.
Be satisfied in him. Be satisfied in him, and just as the savor of a delicious banquet keeps you from eating food out of the gutter, so too holding fast to Christ keeps his people from idols. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. May it be so, and we enact that by coming to the table. We enact that trust in him by coming together to the Lord's Supper, because right now we can act on what we've heard by coming to this table in faith and saying in faith, the one who's given his body to be broken on the cross, the one who's poured out his blood to cover and wash and cleanse my sin, this one is the true food who satisfies me.
And pray it even if you don't feel it. Lord, may you be the true food. I want to be satisfied in you. I'm not there, but I want to be satisfied in you. That's a prayer that we can pray.
Or you can say, I don't even want to be satisfied in him, but I want to want to be satisfied. Any flicker of desire, he will blow into flame. Come and be satisfied in him. The Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we might know the one who is true. And here is what that coming looks like.
His coming in love from the cross. His coming to be raised up from the dead so that he now is the very one who gave his life for us can stand here by the spirit and offer to us now afresh the reminder of his body and of his blood. The one revealed here, Christian, in this broken bread and this poured out cup, in this offered feast, in this love, this one is the true God and eternal life. Let us keep ourselves from idols. Let me pray for us.
Christopher: Father, may it be so, May it be so. As we come to the table, we pray for grace to come by faith and to receive these elements as the present and living witness to us of Christ, of his love from the cross, of his resurrection from the dead, of his witness to us that this is who you are, and as we taste the bread and taste the cup,
Christopher: may these be to our bodies a witness that you have taken all that we bear, all the brokenness of your people, and turned them to something beautiful in Christ. Lord, we praise you for this meal. We praise you for these words. We praise you supremely for Jesus Christ, our Lord and our savior in whom we know you. Help us, help us, Father, to know you who are true and hold fast to you and be kept from idols.
We pray in Jesus name, amen.
Caleb: Thank you for listening to this message from Kingstree Church in Sabina, Ohio. To see more of the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10AM or visit our website at kingstreechurch.org.