John 13:31-35 (Saved and Assured)

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you

As we said last week, it is really easy to hate

Judas He's a man who was chosen for destruction He's a man who was set apart for the purpose of betraying the

Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible He's given all kinds of titles. He's called the devil in John 670

He's called a thief in John 12 6 the son of destruction John 17 12 a traitor in Luke 6 16 and he's the one who obviously betrayed

God in the flesh in Matthew 27 3 and His last week of his life was by far his worst

In fact, we know the most about Judas in the last week of his life. And that's where he is doing his absolute worst

Which is pretty crazy if you think about it, like how many of us would want to be judged by our worst week and Yet Judas here we are

He's the man who when Mary anointed Jesus's feet with about four or five days left in Jesus's life

Judas gets angry and he scoffs at her and he says couldn't this money even sold to get this perfume and sold in the money given

To the poor and the text tells us he was not concerned about the poor. He wanted to pad his own pockets and Then we learn from the synoptic

Gospels that he leaves the group. He sneaks secretly to Jerusalem Where he convenes with the

Pharisees while Jesus and the disciples are in Bethany He's selling Jesus out for 30 measly pieces of silver

And then he sneaks back to Bethany He joins the disciples and he goes along with the charade for the next couple of days

He walks into Jerusalem with Jesus knowing that he sold Jesus out he lets

Jesus wash his feet with the feet that was quick to shed innocent blood and in the height of the meal after Everything Jesus picks up the bread identifies him as the betrayer

Satan enters into Judas and Judas does his Worst so it's easy for us to hate

Judas It's easy for us to look at him as this sort of black sheep in the discipleship community

Like he was the one that no one liked and he was the loner. He was the Unabomber He was the Ted Yazinski of the disciples.

It's easy for us to think that But the Bible also talks about Judas is having great virtues

The Bible talks about Judas is having positive aspects of his of who he is.

It's astounding In fact Jesus himself when he identifies Judas, he goes back to Psalm 41 and He says this is the man who betrays me.

Look at what it says Jesus quoting Psalm 41 even my close friend in whom

I trusted who ate my bread has lifted up his heel Against me. Jesus is appealing to Psalm 41 saying

Judas is my close friend and Last week we asked ourself the question.

Have you ever thought about Judas in that way? That he was the close friend of Christ That when people looked at Judas, they would have said

I Wish I had the relationship with Judas or with Jesus that Judas did That's the way people would have thought of him

We also see in the way that the table was organized in the Last Supper that we see something pretty profound about Judas in Those days tables would have been surrounded by little couches and on those couches

Three people would have sat and it would have been organized according to rank So at the head of the table would have been the main couch and then flanking that would have been the lower

Couches which would have you would have been determined by your rank So if you're on the head table couch

Then you would have been of the highest rank in the discipleship community If you're on the left -hand side of that table

Then you would have been of a certain rank if you're on the right side You would have been of a certain rank and if you're on the far table on the other side

You would have been of the lowest rank That's the table in my mind and I probably would not be wrong to assume yours if we thought where is

Judas belong He belongs at the far table of the lowest rank But that is not in fact what we see

Now Jesus was on the middle of the main couch, which meant that he was the leader of the group

He was the the king as it were of the discipleship community And we know that John leans back against Jesus, which means that John was also on that couch which means that he was either on the left or the right, but who was the third guy

I Would have thought it would have been Peter Peter's always listed as the leader among the disciples

Peter's always listed and in With John as being the ones who are leading the community and yet it wasn't

Peter We see in the text that we saw last week that Peter is throwing up hand signals like Derrick thought

I was earlier To John he said John asked Jesus who is the one who's gonna betray him?

He didn't want to say that out loud because he didn't want to create a ruckus So he was gesturing the text tells us and John leans back against the

Lord Says Lord tell us who it is. Who's gonna betray you and Then Jesus says the one that I dip the bread and give it to is the one who will betray me

And do you know what Jesus does? He doesn't stand up from the table and walk to the other side of the table where the lowest table is

He doesn't stand up and go to where the left couch was or the right couch was

He turns from John. He dips the bread in the oil and he turns to the man sitting right beside of him

Judas and he hands him the bread which means that Judas was at the main couch that Jesus John and Judas were at the seat of prominence and authority in that moment

Which is an astounding thing to think that that the betrayal of Christ happened from the very upper echelon of the discipleship community

The one that he called friend The one that he said was his intimate companion the one who was the the guy in charge of the money

You tend to not put people who are untrustworthy over the money Unless you're

Enron or FTX a more modern example

Judas was a man that every single person in that room would have been shocked that betrayed

Christ When Jesus said that that this is the one who's gonna dip that I dip the bread into that's the one who's gonna betray me

It says the disciples were like is it me? The none of them knew none of them had a preconceived notion

Must be Judas Do we think of Judas in the same way that Christ thought of Judas as?

his friend as a close Trusted associate as a prominent man as a prince even among the disciples

Which just if you think about it, it makes the betrayal that much more stinging It wasn't the man who hated

Jesus That betrayed him. It was this closest friend who betrayed him. It wasn't the man at the low part of the table

It's the man at the high part of the table I think what the text is telling us is that it doesn't matter what our position and our rank is if we are not with Christ Then we are empty now

Jesus knew that this was gonna happen It says in the text that he predestined to this to happen doesn't say that word

But it says that he knew he was gonna be betrayed. He quotes a psalm. That's hundreds of years older than Judas So it was already determined that Judas was going to do this and if we remember that God is

Omniscient and he knows all things he knew before the foundation of the world that Judas was gonna do this so that Judas had no other

Recourse but to do the will of God which was to betray Christ and to be damned

And last week we talked about this That even though this is a hard doctrine that God not only knows

Who will be his people he knows and wills it to be so who are not and Our question we have to wrestle with is will we trust

God? We're either gonna trust us in our infinite knowledge

Or we will trust the one who actually has infinite knowledge. Who's good above all measure and who's sovereign

We quoted a verse today in our new members class Deuteronomy 29 29 the things that are revealed to us in Scripture are the things that we're responsible for The things that are not belong to God.

There's mystery in this. I Don't pretend to fully comprehend the mind of God and neither should you

What we know is that God is sovereign over salvation and God is sovereign over damnation

That's what we know that's what we're responsible for how that all works itself out is a mystery that we can say

I don't know But I know that God is good and I know that he's in control and that is where I place my trust now

You can imagine that the disciples after this happened would have been like if Judas Betrayed Christ.

What hope do I have? He was the best of us. He was the close friend of Jesus.

He was the he's the guy who held the money bag He's the one who sat on the right or on the left of Christ.

How? How do I have any hope that I won't do the same thing and We also know that Judas had sorrow over his sin

It says that after he realized what he had done He ran to the priest and he weeping he threw the money down and said

I don't want this I want to be done with this. I want to repent of this and they said brother see to the money yourself

He tried to repent he had sorrow over his sin. He tried to make restitution Which is what all

Christians Do when they sin we have sorrow over our sin we repent we try to make things, right?

There's a lot of positive aspects of who Judas is and yet He is the one who betrayed

Christ This tells us that You can't in your own strength and power be good enough

Because even Judas who was better than you Betrayed our Lord Sometimes we put our hope and funny things like perfect attendance at church.

And by the way, it's not a bad thing If you're here every single week for two and a half years straight

You will have read the whole Bible with us as we read one chapter a week. That's a good thing Don't put your hope in it.

It's a good thing We may put our hope in the fact that we serve or we have status

This passage should be really convicting to anyone who wants to go into ministry or anyone who's in church leadership.

Judas was in leadership And yet that wasn't enough We may read our

Bible. We may fast we may pray we may do everything and we may Stand beside of Judas in eternity and hear those fateful words

That Jesus said in Matthew 7 21 through 23, not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven

But the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven and on that day many will say to me

Lord Lord Didn't we prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works the word there's miracles

And then I would declare to them. I Never knew you depart from me you workers of lawlessness

Now with that standard with Judas as our guide, how can any of us have confidence in our salvation?

None of us have sat at the table with Christ. How can we be assured that we truly are his and we're not a

Judas in disguise When you go home today and you look at yourself in the mirror, how can you have confidence that you know

Christ? If repentance and sorrow is not the maximum Judas had repentance and sorrow.

How can we have hope in our salvation? if devotion to Jesus friendship with Jesus service to Jesus intimacy with Jesus a

Position in his church is not enough. How can we have hope? What about the fruits of the

Spirit? I've been around long enough to know that love can be insincere Joy can be faked

Peace can be a matter of personality. There's some people who are a little bit more wound up than others and there are some that are more docile

I Love those people and I wish I was one of them

Patience can be learned Kindness can be trained goodness can be pretended faithfulness can be self -serving gentleness can be our natural demeanor

Self -control is evenly distributed among the pagans and the Christians So if the fruits of the

Spirit can be not a perfect measure for our assurance, how can we have hope

What about the gifts of the Spirit? No this passage

Doesn't just talk about the small gifts of the Spirit like hospitality. It's not small. Don't don't hear me wrong here

I'm a cessationist. I believe that the miraculous gifts have passed away and the New Testament time and that they're no longer

Normative for today, but these people are coming to Jesus saying we did miracles in your name and they didn't make the cut

So, how can the gifts of the Spirit be a proper maxim? for us What about our testimony?

Nope again, it says in the Bible that you can honor Jesus with your lips

But your heart be far from him. How many pastors have we seen with excellent testimonies fall? Judas Has a better testimony than all of us

He actually high -fived Jesus He sat with Jesus ate with Jesus loved

Jesus. He was on the leadership team He would have been on the book tour had he not done what he did

Judas could look at us and say you don't have a better testimony than me. How can you hope in that? What about believing in God?

Is that a measure for our assurance? Nope Jude our James says that even the devils and hell believe and they have the good sense to shudder

What about public profession of faith Nope again Again, we can honor the

Lord with our lips and our hearts be far from him There are many men who stood up and said many great things and their hearts are far from God.

What about good works? Who put our hope in that? No Our faith is not by works lest no man may boast.

What about our baptism? What about communion? No, we cannot put our hope and our faith in that Because some who are baptized will walk away some who take communion would eat it and drink it to their destruction the only sure assurance

If you're a Christian is What we're going to be talking about today Today's message is going to be really important because the disciples are looking at each other and saying

If Judas betrayed Christ and what hope do I have and Jesus himself gives five things

That will establish our assurance Four of them are his work to us

Things that he does for us. So we're not hoping in us. We're hoping in his work. We're resting in his work

We're trusting him the final Is something that we will do if we know

Christ my prayer today is That these matters of assurance would be a balm for your weary soul they would be a comfort to you when you doubt they would be the thing that would buffet you and buttress you when the waves of the world and the waves of life attack you and accost you they would confirm and establish you if You are a

Christian. My prayer is that you would hear these assurances and that you would rejoice and If you're not in Christ Whether you came here hating

Jesus and you were tricked someone brought you here as a part of some elaborate manipulation

Maybe they offered you a hot pocket or if You've deceived yourself like Judas into believing that you were sincere and you're not

My prayer is that this message will be a terror to you and It will be like battery acid upon your soul and I say that in the most loving way because Godly sorrow leads to repentance

My prayer is that this message would afflict you and would accost you and would shake the hell out of you

So that you will turn to Christ So with that, let us pray.

Let us turn to the text this morning Lord Jesus our assurance can be found in nothing else, but you

You're perfect work your righteousness Lord today, let us not be confused

About our assurance Lord let us not root our assurance in the wrong things things that ultimately can't make us safe Let us not root our assurance of our salvation and our performance and our professions and Testimonies and our good works and our ability to play the

Christian game To look around and mimic and imitate what other people are doing so much so that we've deceived ourselves

Lord, I pray that you would allow our assurance to be rooted in the words that Christ shares in this text

Lord, I pray for this for the believer that they would be assured in this and that they would never doubt again and And Lord for the unbeliever who hears this message,

I pray that they would do nothing but doubt and Nothing, but tremble until they come to the Lord Jesus Christ Lord, it's this that we pray in your precious name.

Amen Let's read together John 13 verses 31 through 35

These are the words directly following the words that our Lord gave last week about Judas And these are words that are going to be really important for us as believers

John 13 31 through 35 Therefore when he that's

Judas had gone out Jesus said now is the Son of Man glorified and The God and and God is glorified in him if God is glorified in him

God will also glorify him and himself and Will glorify him immediately

Little children I am with you a little while longer You will seek me.

And as I've said to the Jews now, I also say to you where I'm going. You cannot come a New commandment

I give you That you love one another even as I have loved you that you also love one another

By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another

There's four things in this passage that Jesus has done for us There's one thing that we respond in faith and do back to him

The first of those four things is we find assurance in what

Christ has done on the cross Jesus says now is my moment of glory

Which is his way of saying now is the hour for which I came that phrase is really important in the gospel of John Now is the moment that I will be glorified now is the moment that I will be lifted up that our has been

Hanging over Jesus's head throughout the narrative of John and it has come in this passage

Now if we remember in John chapter 2 It's the first time we hear the phrase our

It's when Mary looks at him and says Jesus we're out of wine. We need you to do something. We need you to help us here

And he says woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come and then in John 4 in Samaria the woman at the well is he's talking to her and he's teaching her and he says woman

Believe me an hour is coming in the future when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem You will worship the

Father but an hour is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship the

Father and Spirit and in truth For such people the Father seeks to be his worshipers

In John chapter 5 the hour shows up again He heals this man who had been sick for 38 years the

Pharisees get angry because he did it on the Sabbath and he responds to them by saying truly truly

I say to you an hour is coming in the future and now is

When the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear it will live Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice

John 7 when he goes to Jerusalem, he says that his hour is not yet come That's why they couldn't seize him and arrest him because his hour had not yet come

John 8 20 at the same festival They again now they're incensed over him. They try to arrest him

He says they can't my hours not yet come the first time that Jesus uses the phrase hour as It has come is in John chapter 12 verses 23 through 28

Jesus is teaching them what his purpose was for his coming and he says now the hour has come look at listen to what he says and Jesus answers them saying the hour has come first time.

He said it that way for the Son of Man to be glorified Truly truly

I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and it dies it remains alone But if it dies it bears much fruit

He who loves his life loses it he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life

If anyone serves me, he must follow me and where I am there. My servant will be also if Anyone serves me the father will honor him now.

My soul has become troubled and what shall I say father saved me from this hour? It's for this purpose.

I came to this hour father glorify your name. Do you see? Jesus is saying now that Judas has betrayed me.

Now's the moment of glory. Now's the hour where the father's gonna glorify Jesus Say now in John 13

That that hour has come verse 1 of chapter 13 now before the feast of Passover Jesus knowing that his hour had come

All of this is pointing to the fact that Christ is preparing himself to die so the assurance that he's giving to his disciples and They knew that he had said all of these things as Judas might have left

But now brothers the hour has come put your faith in the hour put your faith in what

I'm gonna do in the hour Put your faith in what I'm gonna do on the cross That's the hour for which I came

He's saying to them do not Be fearful Do not be upset if I you see me hanging on the cross do not lose your

Confidence because this death is for the glory of God. This death is for triumph and victory

He's saying that my death the hour that has come is not for defeat It is for triumph.

It is for resurrection in an empty tomb. It is for collapsed Roman guards. It's for quivering

Pharisees It's for a culture that is getting ready to be turned entirely upside down an empire

That's going to fall at the knees and and bow to the knee of Jesus and it's a world That's gonna be thrown upside down by the gospel going to every tribe tongue and nation up based off what

Jesus has done Jesus is saying root your hope men Not in what you can do because that'll get you in right at a place right beside of Judas Root your hope in what

I've come to do and in this hour that I'm going to do when I go to the cross for you

Put your hope in that Find your hope and your comfort in his death

Find your comfort in his crucifixion find your elation in his empty tomb find your rest in the resurrection find your anticipation

And his ascension and find your place in his kingdom You are not supposed to find your assurance in you

That's the point The hour came and Christ showed them find your assurance in me and what

I've done. It's the only assurance you can have If your assurance is in you then that's no assurance at all.

How many of you have sinned today? How many of you sin just now saying man, he reads a lot of Bible verses in his sermons

It keeps going don't put your hope in you

Find your hope in what Christ has done in his death burial resurrection ascension and his ruling in his kingdom and in his coming back

Put your hope in that For that is the very gospel. That's the first thing find your assurance in Christ and his finished work

The second thing he tells his disciples to do is find their assurance in the fact that God shares his glory

Which is a fascinating point that we see in the text it says if God is glorified in him

God will also glorify Jesus in himself and will glorify him immediately

The text is not saying that Jesus alone gets glory It says that the father gets glory and the father gets

Jesus's glory in him and they're sharing glory The triune Godhead is becoming infinitely glorified by what

Jesus is doing and they're sharing the glory with each other When his love is displayed when his righteousness is made clear on the cross when all of these things are done

The father is getting glory from Christ giving glory to Christ and what we will see in The scriptures is that they give that glory also and share it with us

Paul says in Romans 8 28 And we know that God calls us all things to work together for good

To those who love God to those who are called according to his purpose For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to come be conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren and These whom he predestined he also called in those whom he called he also justified

And those whom he justified he also glorified Christ for the glory of God died

God for the glory of Christ Resurrected him from the dead and that glory was shared with us in our justification so that we're brought into the glory

What an astounding thing that God has done for us Don't hope in yourself

Hope in him Also, hope in the fact that everything Christ walked through is now true of you

For the glory of God he was crucified For the glory of God. He was buried for the glory of God He was he was raised for the glory of God.

He ascended for the glory of God He rules for the glory of God. He lives forever in his new creation flesh.

What has happened to you is The very picture of what happened to him Bible says that we were crucified with Christ He brought us into his glory.

It says that we were buried with Christ Romans 6 4. He buried us in his glory We were raised with Christ Colossians 3 1 we were raised up into his glory

We were called we will be called to ascend with him when he calls us from heaven with a shout and he brings us up To ascend into his glory

We will be given new fleshly bodies new creation bodies. Jesus was the first fruit of that We will be given that 1st

Corinthians 15 Given that glorious body so that why we can live with him in glory forever Romans 8 28 through 30

The hope that we have is not that we would somehow attain glory That we would do enough for Jesus to make

Jesus happy with us That we would become leaders or book writers or podcasters or whatever else and that we would somehow

Attain some sort of glory for God our hopes not in that Our hope is that all the glory was attained by Christ shared with God shared with us

Because of what Christ has done the question we need to ask ourself we want to have assurance

So are these things true of us? Have you been crucified with Christ? That's a good question to ask.

Is your flesh alive? Is your flesh dead now your flesh? tricky beast

John Owen says it's like a sleeping soldier you turn your back and he stands up and don't shoot you again

But it's the power of your flesh Has it been crucified is That is the desires of your heart now different than they used to be

Has it been buried in the tomb with Christ have you been raised as a new creation

Are you are you still the old man or the old woman that you used to be just with a few small upgrades

Like the different iOS iterations which and now don't pay attention to anymore 2nd

Corinthians 5 17 says therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature The old things are passed away behold.

All things are becoming new How could you stay the same if you've been invited into his glory?

Now you're not perfect obviously Romans 7 you struggle with sin

You struggle to do things that God has called you to do you struggle not to do things that God has told you not to do

But what's the direction of your life is the direction of your life? Heading towards a

Godward direction, or is it same old you with a few upgrades?

What's the power of your life Ask yourself that question

Because if it's if it's God then trust him If it's God trust in his finished work and trust in the fact that he's done these things for you and shared his glory with You you won't be a better you that's not assurance

I'm hoping that every person on earth. I know this is a really really generous.

Hope But I'm hoping that every person on earth as they get older they grow up again.

I know that's generous But we should all be maturing in the natural we should be improving ourselves learning new skills developing new habits

Just driving in New England has made me a more patient person and a more angry person

I Had no problems until traffic in New England Just kidding if you are just a better you

Then you'll have no assurance because the day that you're not a better you and you fall off the wagon or You do something that you haven't done in years or you yell at your kids or you whatever?

Your assurance will be shot to pieces because you've rooted it in you Not in the glory of God If your assurance is in him, it's not your strength.

It's not your power. It's not your might. It's not your will It's not your ingenuity. It's not your Creativity, it's

God at work in you because you are a new creation If you can look at your life and say that at some point there was a funeral and I was in that casket and Christ Raised me.

So now that it's Christ who lives in me Galatians 2 20. I've been called to the cross Crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me if you can say that Have the greatest assurance that you could ever possibly have the old is dead

The new is being powered by him Ask yourself. What is the power in your life?

What's the power that's at work? Is it for your glory or is it the glory of God a?

Few evidences that this is happening in you Is that you'll begin to hate sin? You'll begin to despise the old man

You'll repent more fiercely And you'll begin to love righteousness

In a way that you've never loved it before look at Judas the Judas Although he had all the externals he had a veneer

In the end, he did not love righteousness and he did not hate his sin and it propelled him into eternal death

Depths of hell What's the power of your life? What's causing you to mortify your flesh?

Paul says in Romans 8 13 if you are living according to the flesh you must die But if by the

Spirit you're putting to death the misdeeds of the body, then you will live If you are in Christ You can't live in your sin very long before it's a stench to you and before you have to repent and kill it again

Where you're weeping once again over your sin, what's the power in your life? Is it you?

Is it someone else's opinion of you? Or is it God's glory? That you've now stepped into because of Christ.

That's the second The third is beautiful to me Just two little words little children

The third assurance that Jesus gives us beyond what he has done on the cross and all of his manifold

Works and beyond the glory that has been shared with us through Christ. I Find great hope in that two little words little children.

It's the only time Jesus says it like that It's the only time Jesus uses this phrase little children because as Calvin said he cares about us so much that he shows us his affections most ardently in this phrase in the moment when

Judas Betrayed his disciples. He says the most tender and affectionate thing that he's ever said to his disciples then

Because he wants them to have hope Like a mother looking at her child or a newborn babe

Jesus has little children Now I find this beautiful and a lot of reasons because we know

Jesus came to make us his brothers and his sisters We know Jesus came to make us slave of Christ, right we see that in the scripture but here we are called little children of Christ and that phrase so deeply impacted the

Apostle John that it changed the trajectory of his life And it changed the trajectory of his ministry John uses this phrase little children all over the place

This moment was so impactful to John that he never forgot it and he never lost the assurance that Jesus meant by it so that when we see him talking about little children in his

Epistles, it's always connected to salvation every single time

Let me give you a few examples John first John 2 1 my little children I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin and if anyone does sin

We have an advocate with the father your little children, which means you belong to a family Which means you belong to Christ so that if you sin you have an advocate you are safe Even in your sin you are safe because you're a little child of Christ First John 2 12.

I'm writing to you little children because your sins have been forgiven for his name's sake You're you are not without hope because you're little children of Christ First John 2 28 now little children abide in him

So that when he appears you may have confidence and not shriek away From him and shame at his coming

Do you see how he's using little children to instill hope and confidence in us? We don't have confidence in us

We don't have confidence in our performance. We don't have confidence in our ability We're little children who cry out and who are comforted by an affectionate parent

That parent for us is Christ first John 4 4 You are from God little children.

You've overcome the world because greater. He was in you than he is of the world Don't lose your confidence because this world is crazy

You belong to him little children What a beautiful phrase third John 1 4.

I have no greater joy than this Nothing that John could think is greater. I've no greater joy than this little children that I'm hearing

Jesus's children are walking in the truth Every time he uses little children.

This is not the only examples. He is Communicating assurance of our salvation so that when

Jesus uses this phrase I think John is telling us giving us permission to have confidence in our salvation if we are the little children of Christ Then he will never abandon us never forsake us never leave us

There's a text. I can't remember. It's off the top of my head It says it's in the Old Testament if a mother even a mother could abandon her children

God himself will not abandon you We've heard stories.

It's shocking to us when a mother abandons her own child But Jesus is greater than any mother and greater than any father.

So when Jesus calls you little children His affections for you will not fail

You are safe in the humility of your childishness Because he loves you with an everlasting affection of a perfect parent

Rest in that You're not an orphan anymore even if you feel that way

How many times as children I've done it as a child. You're not my dad anymore

That was real effective I Remember one time this is the silliest thing

I went to I went to see a guitar concert and the man who was playing had no arms so he played the guitar with his feet and He said at the end of the service that look at what

God can do the power God can do and I went home and my dad yelled at me for something and I said,

I'm gonna go live with the man that has no arms He'll take me How silly is that?

If you're in Christ Don't trust your feelings Don't trust how you think the relationship is trust the fact that he's your dad.

He's your parent and that you're his child Your feelings will ebb and flow Christ does not the fourth assurance that we have in this text is

That there is real assurance for us while we wait We've been waiting 2 ,000 years for Christ to return

There's assurance while we wait He says little children. I am with you a little while longer

You will seek me and as I have said to the Jews now I also say to you where I'm going you cannot come

Jesus is not saying that you may never come Jesus is not saying that I'm never gonna allow you to leave the pains and the misery of this world and never be joined to Me in eternity.

That's not what he's saying. He's saying That for a little while I'm gone

John 14 chapter chapter 14 verse 1 and 3 He clarifies the statement now.

This is a whole chapter forward which for us that'll be next year when we talk about John 14 For Jesus it was probably 15 minutes later when he said these words

And a little while I'm leaving you but listen what he says in John 14. Do not let your hearts be troubled

Believe in God and believe also in me and my father's house are many dwelling places If it were not so I would have told you for I go to prepare a place for you

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again And I will receive you to myself and where I am there you will be also

Jesus is telling them that I love you enough to leave right now To go and to prepare a place for you

And I've got work for you to do while I'm gone so that you can be a part of seeing this kingdom built in this

Kingdom established now think about the hope that we have Christ has said I'm leaving you

But I'm coming back. I'm giving you the spirit while I'm gone That gives us the confidence that we can be faithful while we wait

That we can be faithful at our post faithful in our warfare faith Faithful in our evangelism and our discipleship faithful knowing that this

Christ who said he would come back will come back And when he does Every one of you here who is in Christ Whether you are dead at that point or whether you are living

Will hear the clarion call of christ in your body will be will leap out of the earth

You will be given new backs and new knees You will be able to sing in tune if you struggle with that You will be given a new

Imperishable perfect body because christ promised it Christ is not your next door neighbor who said that he would help you out with a project and he forgot

Christ is not your brother who said you could borrow a tool and then he went to the beach and left you hanging

And Christ when he promises things they will come true. And when he said he went to prepare a place for you.

He meant it Rest in that Find your hope in that your assurance in that As you serve christ here as we wait for him to return

Those are the four That christ has done for us He's given assurance in his finished work on the cross

That he has done for us and poured out onto us He's given assurance And the fact that he's brought us into his glory and will continue to bring us into his glory for eternity

He's given assurance that we are members of his family that we are not orphans and he's given us assurance that while we wait

That he's preparing a place for us And he will come And he will bring us home

Now we talk about the fifth point That will be true of all believers And if it's not true of you

Then maybe you're not truly in him your assurance

Is in his finished work in his shared glory in making us children in the way that he's preparing us for the future and in the fact

That we have love for one another He wants to give us complete assurance that runs deeper than jacob's well

And Oftentimes what god does in the bible is he gives us tangible things that we can taste and touch

To give us assurance that's close to us and near to us He doesn't just give us the things that he's done which

In our flesh and in our sin and in our weakness sometimes can feel far away. He gives baptism which touches us

To encourage us he gave us the lord's table which we can taste and we can see to encourage us.

He gave us this That if you really are in christ you will love one another it will be true of you

And if it is not true of you Then the love of god is not in you He says a new commandment

I give to you only god can give new commandments that's a Wonderful demonstration of the fact that he's claiming to be god

A new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as I have loved you And that you also love one another by this all men will know that you are my disciples

If you have love for another he is not saying That if you have the right balance of spiritual gifts, then people will know that you are a true disciple

He's not saying if you have the right fruits of the spirit or a perfect testimony. How many people Have felt ashamed that their testimony is not more egregious

You know god saved so and so from a life of drugs and and murder and mayhem and I grew up in sunday school

What's not your testimony brother and sister that saves you? It's not what denomination or what dogmatism that you have

After we've considered everything that christ has done for us The most natural response in our life is to love one another

Because he's loved us first now we've been given a model that now pours out of us

He says that all men will know that we are his disciples by our love. That means even you If all men will know that you are his disciples that includes you will know you are his disciples if this is true of you

The questions we have to ask ourselves is doing love jesus's people Now, of course

I have to say god has made us to love everybody Everybody has been made in the image of god in some way.

We are called to love all people Yes, but jesus is not talking about all people here. He's talking about god's people.

He's talking about the church Do you love people in the church or do you simply tolerate them?

Do you joyfully invest your life into your brothers and sisters in the community? Or do you mind your own affairs and hope that no one will notice you?

Now if you're an introvert, I get that's a struggle I get that's a struggle One sure evidence is not if you speak in tongues and not if you've written books and not if you have a successful podcast and not any of that One surefire evidence of whether you are in the faith is if you love god's people

Now let's be honest for a second here and let's take a deep look at ourselves The church has struggled with this mightily

This is the one thing jesus said you can have assurance if you do it Churches have been hotbeds for division

For gossip for looking down our nose Well, I don't like that person

Well, you don't know what they said about me Or gosh their child screams a lot.

I just can't stand that family We laugh

But our mind is a dark place Where all kinds of things have been said that we would never say out loud

If you don't love god's people the world will not see the legitimacy of your salvation

And if you do not love god's people And if you don't care for god's people the way that jesus cares for god's people not perfectly

But that's the direction of your life Jesus is calling into question whether or not you are really his and this gets even more clear when the apostle

Who heard jesus say this tells us these things look at first john 2 9 through 11 the one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is still in darkness

The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going

First john 3 16 through 18 We know love by this that he laid down his life for us that we ought to also lay down our lives for the brethren

Whoever has the world's good and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him How does the love of god abide in him?

Little children, let us not love with word or tongue, but indeed First john 4 17 beloved let us love one another for love is from god

Everyone who loves is born of god and knows god the one who does not love does not know god

For god is love By this the love of god was manifested in us that god has sent his only begotten son into the world

So that we might live through him and in this love not that we loved god don't Get it confused

But that he loved us And sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins beloved if god has so loved us we ought also to love one another

First john 4 16 through 21. We have come to know and have believed the love which god has for us god is love

And the one who abides in this love abides in god and god abides in him by this love is perfected with us

So that we may have confidence in the day of judgment because as he confidence in the day of judgment Did you hear that assurance?

so also we In this world, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear

Because fear involves punishment The one who fears is not perfected in love. We love because he first loved us

Someone says I love god and hates his brother. He is a liar for the one who

Does not love his brother whom he has seen Cannot love god whom he has not seen and this commandment

John is quoting jesus here this commandment we have from him When jesus said

I give you a new commandment. John is saying this is what jesus is talking about This is the commandment that he gave us.

He uses the same word. He's pointing back to john 13 He's saying this is what jesus taught us

This is what it means if you don't love your brother and sister who you've seen you don't love god It's an astounding statement and as we close

I want to very briefly just describe what this means There's a way to try to love people that's all rooted in you

And your power and your strength wear your instagram nice You put your filter on when you walk in the room

You smile and you make everybody believe like judas that you're true and you're not That's not what we're talking about here

We're talking about the very gospel itself That jesus christ out of his great love for you

He came And he wrapped himself with flesh And out of his astounding and perfect affections for you and the joy set before him by god.

He marched up the hill of calvary And he took upon himself That awful and agonizing death for you

And he went down into the grave for you one who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of god

And he was raised in victory First fruit of a new creation and he ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of god where he sends forth his spirit

Into the believers and his spirit is sent to ensure that we Look like him if you do not love this is why the bible can say

That you do not love god Because he's done all these things for you

Giving you his spirit and his spirit is there to make you look like him and think like him and walk like him

Brothers and sisters the the thing that I just want to ask right now Is do we love?

Do we love look to your right and your left are those people that you love Are those people that you have affections for people you're willing to die for Or if you look around and see that now there's a person in this room that i'm alienated from There's a person in this room that i've currently gossiped about there's a person in this room that i've slandered

There's a person in this room that i've bore false witness against there's a person in this room that I have wished

That they would get sick so I don't see them at shepherd's church on sunday Our mind's a dark place

If that's true repent

One of the surest evidences that you are in christ is that you have love for your brother and sister in christ

If you're alienated from your brother or sister repent Turn to christ and ask him for forgiveness ask him to help you love the people that he loves

I we're difficult people We're hard to love The more you get to know me the harder it will be for you to like me

And that's true for all of us Ask the holy spirit to help you

If we love We will be known by how we love the world will know that we are truly christ

If we love and as john said we love him because he first Loved us that is assurance

Let's pray Lord our assurance is not in us When we go to sleep at night we go to sleep

In the confidence of what you have done and not what we have done We're not confident in our behavior.

We're not confident in our performance. We're not confident in our And the way that we appear before men we are confident in what you did on the cross and how you have made us your

People and your family and how you have done all these things for us even sharing your spirit with us so that we can now

Grow to be like you Lord for all of us who are in christ here today

Would you help our hearts to be tender Would you help us to repent when we fall short of this?

Would you help us lord to grow Into being the kind of people

That love each other like you have loved us first Lord would you help us to be the kind of people that the town of Chelmsford in the midst of their raging

Would have to pause and say god must be in that place Because they love each other

Lord you All throughout the centuries. You've had the pagans acknowledge the truthfulness of the gospel by the love that the disciples had for one another

As they were feeding them to lions those bloodthirsty people in the coliseum were saying Look at how they love each other

It's been a defining mark of christianity from the very beginning lord. Would you make it true in this church?

Instead of divisions instead of Disunity instead of a lack of joy lord

Would you make the defining characteristic of us as people that we love you and that we love each other?