This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:00] "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me," you've heard those words if you've grown up going to church, maybe if you have even sung them to your own kids. It's a song that originally was written in 1860 and it appeared in a novel. And in the novel, it was a poem to a child who was dying to comfort that child that Jesus loved them. And then later it was turned into a song in 1862, and we're still singing it today about the love of Jesus Christ. And my concern when we talk about the love of Jesus is that it's become a kid's song.

[00:00:42] It's become a cliche if I say, hey, we're gonna talk this whole sermon this whole time this morning, we're going to talk about nothing but the fact that Jesus loves you. My concern is that some people in the room might act like I already know about this part.

[00:00:56] You heard about this as if, like, the love of Jesus could somehow be something that we as Christians would take for granted or get used to or just become familiar with, as if it almost isn't that big a deal or it's kind of old news. And it becomes a cliche. Turn me to John 13:1. And we're gonna look at this verse and hopefully it's going to stir up in our hearts a reminder of what it means for you and me to say as adults at church here this morning, Jesus loves me.

[00:01:28] This I know for the Bible tells me so.

[00:01:32] And for that to mean something to us, not something that we would know in our heads, but feel in our hearts, something that would describe a real experience of a relationship that you have with Jesus Christ. And you are convinced here this morning that he loves you. John, Chapter 13, page 900. If you got one of our books, we're kicking off a brand new series. It's going to take us all year to go through, John, 13 to 17. And we're just going to get into one verse this morning, verse one of John Thirteen now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that is our had come to depart out of this world to the father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

[00:02:17] So if the Bible tells us that Jesus loves us, you can know from this day forward, if you didn't already, John, 13, one would be one of the prime places where you could say, here's where it's telling me that he loves me.

[00:02:29] He loved his own who were in the world. He loved them to the end.

[00:02:36] So we're starting something that's very exciting to me. I hope you get excited about it, too. We're gonna study the Last Supper of Jesus Christ. This dinner that he had with his disciples is twelve disciples on the night before he died. And it goes from the supper to the Garden of guess 70 where he prays. Then he's betrayed by Judas. Then he's taken to trial after he's arrested and then he's taken over to this trial and that trial. And then eventually he's taken out and executed on the cross. And it all starts right here in John, Chapter 13. This is the introduction. And John, the first thing he says as he sets the stage here and he gives us one verse is all we're going to get into. And it's got four different phrases here in this verse. And these four different phrases are going to go with our four different points if you got a handout and you want to take notes. We got four different lines. We're going to fill it with the four different phrases. And here's the first one. Now, before the feast of the Passover. Before the feast of the Passover, so the Passover feast or the feast of unleavened bread is one of the feast that they would have celebrated in Jerusalem and all of Israel would have gathered together to celebrate this.

[00:03:48] And the feast of the Passover is a remembrance of what happens in the Book of Exodus. If you go back to the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, they are slaves in Egypt and God's going to deliver them out of Egypt. And whatever he delivers them is he is going to kill the first born of all the Egyptians. In fact, he's going to kill the first born of everybody, except for those who sacrifice a lamb and take the blood of the lamb. And they spread the blood of the lamb over the door of their house.

[00:04:19] And the angel of the Lord that's going to come through and kill all the firstborn. Well, if we've spread the pure blood of the lamb over the door, then the angel of the Lord will pass over that house.

[00:04:31] And so they celebrated that first Passover enclosed like they were ready to travel, that they had this special meal. And this became an ancient Jewish tradition that is still being practiced to day this Passover feast to remember God's deliverance of his people from Egypt and Jesus in his disciples.

[00:04:48] They're going to have this feast together and every single gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, all four of them described this last supper that Jesus has with his disciples. And he give you some cross references. You can write down in Matthew, it's chapter 26, starting in verse 17, Gay and Jesus sends out two disciples. We find out it's Peter and John and they go and they say to this guy, hey, the master needs a room. And there's this upper room that this guy has ready for them to meet in and to have this meal. And in the Gospel of markets, chapter 14, verse twelve and the Gospel of Mark says that they're doing this on the day that they slaughter the lambs to prepare for the Passover. And so we think this happened on Thursday night. And then Luke, 22, starting in verse seven. So in all of these synoptic gospels, we call them Matthew, Mark, Luke, three different accounts of the same story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They all tell us that on the night before Jesus died, there was a dinner with him and the 12 disciples, and they had a time of the first time of communion there. And then afterwards, Judas left during the dinner and then afterwards the rest of them went to pray in the garden of guest cemetery. Matthew, Mark, Luke, they all tell us the story. But here in John.

[00:06:10] He tells us much more than the others.

[00:06:12] I mean, it's not just a few verses in one chapter. I mean, if you're in, John 13, we're going to study all of Chapter 13, all of 14, 15.

[00:06:20] If you got one of our books. Turn the page and you'll see 16 and 17.

[00:06:24] These four pages in our Bible here, these five chapters, that is all this dinner. Never heard that question. Like in an icebreaker or in an interview. Hey, if you could have dinner with anyone dead or alive, who would you want to eat dinner with? Now, if you've ever heard that question and you listen to what people say, even people who aren't Christians, they sometimes throw out the answer. While Jesus is one of the most interesting people that ever lived. I'd love to have dinner with with Jesus. What John is going to take us to the ultimate dinner with Jesus.

[00:07:02] John is going to take us to the last dinner.

[00:07:05] Maybe, maybe you're familiar with the Last Supper, the painting by Leonardo da Vinci, maybe you've seen that that scene there. I mean, it does not get more epic than that to be with Jesus on his last night on planet Earth. And John is saying, I want to take you in, like to give you a firsthand account of what it was like for me to have dinner with Jesus. And I can still tell you what so-and-so said and then how Jesus responded and then how Judas left. I could tell you every detail because I will never forget this night that I shared.

[00:07:37] In the Last Supper with Jesus Christ.

[00:07:40] Now, John is the one, if you're looking at the painting, John is the one right to the left of Jesus Christ and John, he sets it up with the with the feast of the Passover. And really what I think he's doing is he's inviting the reader to come and share a meal with Jesus. So let's get that down for the setting if you're taking notes.

[00:07:58] The setting that we're gonna be talking about all year is common. Share a meal with Jesus. Now, last year, we started going through the Gospel of John. We got through 12 chapters, 35 sermons. And our theme was come and see anybody. Remember how we were talking about that? Come and see Jesus.

[00:08:16] We said, let's go tell everybody, everybody, you know, they need to come and see who Jesus is. They need to see the signs. The miracles here, the teachings. And then they can decide as they see Jesus, as they read the gospel of John. As they hear the sermons, they can decide after they see him if they want to believe in Jesus or not. So the goal of seeing Jesus was to get people to believe in Jesus. That's was the whole theme last year. Endless sermons about here's who Jesus is. You need to believe in Jesus Christ. Well, now this is a little different.

[00:08:48] We're not just saying there's an offer on the table for you to believe in Jesus. We're saying come and sit down at the table and let's fellowship with Jesus. This is just him and his 12 disciples. This is him now not talking to the crowds, not arguing with the religious leaders.

[00:09:03] This is Jesus and his innermost circle. And he's going to tell them, hey, I'm leaving. And here's I want you to live on planet Earth while I'm gone. I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit. You better love one another. And if you love me, you'll obey my commandments. And the world is going to hate you, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. That's what he's gonna tell.

[00:09:24] And then he's gonna pray. The most epic prayer that you could ever read in John. Chapter 17, a prayer where Jesus prays not only for his disciples that we're at this dinner, but we're Jesus praise for you.

[00:09:35] And John saying common see this?

[00:09:39] Let me tell you about this time I had at the feast of the Passover. In fact, look at Chapter 13. Look at verse twenty three. Look at how John describes it once we get into it.

[00:09:49] One of his disciples whom Jesus loved, so this isn't John now referring to himself and he doesn't even mention his own name, he refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. And he says one of the disciples whom Jesus loved was reclining at table at Jesus side. And Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So that disciple. This is John now referring to himself. That disciple is leaning back against Jesus, said to him, Lord, who is it? Jesus says something startling there with the 12 disciples. One of you is gonna betray me. And they're like, What is he talking about?

[00:10:30] And Peter gives John the head nod across the table like, hey, you ask him because you're sitting right next to him because you're literally leaning back.

[00:10:39] That's a they ain't in a reclined manner or they were kind of laying around the table and he's literally leaning up against Jesus Christ. Oh, one of us is gonna betray you. Oh, who is it?

[00:10:52] So you cannot get a closer encounter with Jesus when he was a man on planet Earth than what John is going to describe for us that we're going to study every single detail of this dinner that John has with Jesus Christ. And the first thing he wants you to know, the way he thinks about himself as he relays the events of the dinner, he says, I'm the disciple whom Jesus loved. First thing I want you to know when I tell you about the dinner and then how he was betrayed and then the arrest and then the crucifixion and then the resurrection, as I tell you the whole story. I just want you to know it was all love.

[00:11:27] That's what he said.

[00:11:29] In fact, he cannot even refer to himself, he cannot even think of himself without talking about himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Go to John, Chapter 19. And here he is now at the foot of the cross. Everybody just turn a few pages over with me to John 19 after the dinner. When we get to Jesus now dying on the cross, John is there. He's a front row eyewitness. There's Jesus dying, John standing right down below the car cross. And in John, 19, verse 26, when Jesus saw his mother. So there's Mary, the mother of Jesus, watching her son died on the cross. And who's next to Mary, the disciple whom he loved. That's John referring to himself. And they're standing nearby when he's dying on the cross. He said to his mother, woman, behold your son. And he said to the disciple. Behold your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. So how close was this guy, John, with Jesus? How much should we listen to what he has to say about Jesus Christ when he died? Well, he's the guy standing at the foot of the cross right next to the mother of Jesus. And Jesus looks at his mom and he looks at John and he says, hey, mom, here's your son. Hey, here's your mom. Like, basically, I'm dying up here on the cross. You, John, are now going to take care of my mom. That's how tight these guys were. They weren't afraid of a little physical contact. When John's laying back on Jesus because these guys, they love each other. John cannot think of himself without saying to himself, Jesus loves me. I'm one of those that are loved by Jesus. Go to Chapter 20. Chapter 20. When we talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene goes down to the tomb and it's empty and she comes back. Look at verse two. She ran and she went to Simon, Peter and the other disciple. Who is this mysterious other disciple? Oh, he's the one whom Jesus loved. We know who that is. It's John. And she said to them, to Peter and John, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they've laid him. I saw the tomb and is not there. The tomb is empty.

[00:13:44] So Peter went out with the other disciples and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together. But the other disciple, this is John now talking about himself. So the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. That is how you do a humble brag right there, everybody. A little bit faster than Peter, apparently, and since its spirit inspired, it must be true. And stooping to look in. He saw the linen closet lying there. But he did not go in then Simon Peter following him because he was in second place following him, went into the tube. How typical. Simon, Peter Johns like, whoa, it's empty. Peter's like walks right in. Right. Typical Simon Peter there.

[00:14:29] And he saw the linen closet lying there in the face cloth, which had been on Jesus head, not lying with the linen closet folded up in a place by itself.

[00:14:37] And then the other disciple who had reached the tomb, first umble Bragge, also went in and he saw and look at this. Here's John seeing that Jesus is not in the tomb. And he believed for as yet, they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. Like, that's the moment he finally gets it when he sees the empty tomb. He finally gets that. Jesus has been saying this whole time he's going to rise from the dead.

[00:15:01] The disciple whom Jesus loved in Chapter 21, there's a fascinating conversation between Peter and Jesus. And at the end of that conversation, Peter will give his 20. This is John 21. Verse 20. Peter is over here talking to Jesus. And he turned and he saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them.

[00:15:23] OK. Is he making a point to anybody yet? Like, if he's going to talk about himself, there's one significant thing that the apostle John wants you to know about himself, and that is that he is loved by Jesus if he knows he's loved by Jesus. That defines his life.

[00:15:40] That's that's his identity. And so Peter says, hey, what's going to happen to this guy?

[00:15:45] A Jesus, you're over here correcting me because I denied you three times. Well, what's gonna happen to this guy, John?

[00:15:52] The one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, Lord, who is it that's going to betray you? And when Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? And Jesus said to him, if it is my will that he remain until I come. What is that to you? You, Peter, you follow me. So the sayings spread abroad when among the brothers, among the Christians that this disciple John was not to die.

[00:16:20] Yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die. But if it is my will that he remained until I come. What is that to you? This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things and who has written these things. And we know that his testimony is true. I'm an eye witness, John, saying, hey, I was leaning against him at the Last Supper. I was standing at the foot of the cross. I saw the empty tomb and I'm writing now much later after the other disciples have died. And I'm telling you the true story of a night I will never forget when I shared a meal with Jesus Christ, his last meal on planet Earth.

[00:16:56] And John, he's gonna tell us the whole thing. But the first thing that he wants us to know is I'm the disciple whom Jesus loved. And if you're one of Jesus disciples, Jesus loves you everything.

[00:17:09] It was all love that night that seemed to go so wrong, where all of a sudden there was betrayal and arrest and trial and crucifixion. And what happened to Jesus? And then he rises from the dead.

[00:17:20] All of that, John says at the beginning, it was love. And let me tell you, I was leaning against him. I thought it was just another Passover meal and it was night. I will never forget. And I want to tell you about it. Go back to chapter 13, verse one. So that's the setting we're gonna be study in that.

[00:17:37] Hopefully that will encourage you to come back. Hopefully that will encourage you to invite your family members, your friends, your neighbors to come and have a firsthand encounter through the eyes of John at this dinner with Jesus.

[00:17:49] But then he says this when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the father. So that's our our second phrase there. One thing that John wants us to know is as we begin this dinner, which is going to be this crazy night that's going to turn into the day that Jesus dies. Here's what Jesus knew as it all got started.

[00:18:10] He knew that his time had come and he was going to leave the world.

[00:18:15] And he was going to go back to the father.

[00:18:18] His time had come. Now, Jesus has a very interesting relationship with time that you and I really need to think about a little bit. OK.

[00:18:28] Well, our life has been defined by time. In fact, when we talk about your life, we ask you what is the day that you were born? And we know that you're alive because of your your birthday. Like, ever since we've been born, we've lived inside the wallpaper of space and time.

[00:18:44] That's all we ever know. This life, this space that we can see, that we could feel, that we can touch the time that keeps on moving forward. That's how we think about life. Jesus has existed for all of eternity outside of time.

[00:19:01] OK, now we only know time and we're hoping someday to get outside of it into eternity, what Jesus he comes from a radically different place than we do Jesus existed for all of eternity past outside of space and time. In fact, Jesus is the one who created space and time.

[00:19:21] So when Jesus has a time that's very rare. That's that's different. When the Bible's talking about there's this hour, there's this time. Well, no Jesus exists in eternity. He's a spiritual being.

[00:19:33] He exists in perfect relationship with the father and the Holy Spirit. We refer to it as the Trinity. This mind blowing reality that God is three persons and yet he's one God. And the Bible describes clearly that they enjoyed perfect fellowship for all of eternity, past the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That's where Jesus is coming from.

[00:19:55] And when Jesus comes into space and time, when he when the creator becomes creation, when God becomes man. So we call that the incarnation.

[00:20:04] Maybe you've heard about reincarnation, that you're gonna come back and you better be good because otherwise you'll come back is like a frog or something. So you better be good because then you'll come back is like a stallion. I don't know exactly how it works. But there's no idea of reincarnation. But there is this idea of incarnation.

[00:20:20] We're one who existed before time entered into time, and he had a very specific he had an hour, he had a time, there was a reason that he entered into time.

[00:20:31] Now go back to Chapter two here in the Gospel of John. And let's just track how Jesus had been referring to his time or his hour throughout the whole gospel. Maybe you remember the first miracle that Jesus did at the wedding at Cana where he turned water into wine, and who was the one that encouraged him to do this miracle?

[00:20:50] It was his mother, Mary. And after she said, hey, they've got a problem, you should do something about it. Jesus says, Look at John. Chapter two, verse four. Jesus said to her woman, What does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. Hey, you're trying to get me to do a miracle. You're trying to get me to show off that I'm supernatural, that I'm from eternity past, that I don't belong here in time.

[00:21:15] I like you like human beings, that I'm God in flesh. Well, Mike, that's not much time for me to reveal that.

[00:21:21] It's not time for me to show that he ends up doing the miracle. He ends up going along with his mom. But he's clear to her that his hour had not yet come. Go over to Chapter seven and you'll see that he says the same thing to his brothers. His brothers did not believe in him. They were giving them a hard time. They were maybe a little bit jealous of Jesus. I don't know what their motive was, but they didn't believe him. If your God. If you're so awesome. If you're so great. Why don't you just go into Jerusalem during the feast of booths here in Chapter seven during one of these times that all Israel is gathered in the city of Jerusalem? And why don't you just show everybody who you are? If you're all that this is his brother's giving him a hard time. And he says, the reason I'm not going to go with you and make a big scene down there in Jerusalem and review myself publicly like that is look at what he says in John. Chapter seven, verse six. Jesus said to them. My time has not yet come. No, it's not it's not the time yet. But your time is in your time to believe in me. Your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. Hey, you go up to the feast. I'm not going up to this feast for my time. Has not yet fully come. So even when Jesus entered into time, he still had a time, an hour that he was going for, that he was waiting for.

[00:22:38] And he says here to his brothers, I'm not going to go out in public and let everybody see who I am so they can make me king or do something. Political victory. I'm not not that's not that's not my time yet to do that.

[00:22:50] And so he ended up going to the feast in a private way now like his brothers wanted him to. But the tone changes in verse twelve, every chapter twelve. Everybody look at chapter twelve, verse twenty three.

[00:23:01] Because after the teachings and the arguments with the religious leaders and after some of the miracles, especially the raising of Lazarus, finally there's a turn in the tone of Jesus here in John. Twelve verse twenty three and Jesus answer them. The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified. Now is the time, he says.

[00:23:24] And so moving in as we transition now into the last night of Jesus life, John, makes it very clear. I want you to know that the time is here. What time are we talking about? Ultimately, the hour. Ultimately, the time is his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. The gospel, the good news, that's ultimately what Jesus entered time for.

[00:23:45] But why let's just think about this for a minute.

[00:23:48] If this is not the way I would have written this script, think about how you would have written it. If you are God and you create the world right. You create human beings. Why would you then become one of them?

[00:24:03] If you are outside of space and time, you have perfect fellowship. The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit in glorious splendor. Just pure holiness. Never a problem. Never a worry. Just a 100 percent perfect, joyful environment that you're experiencing among the Godhead. Why does the Creator become one of the creation? Have you really considered this? I mean, have you really thought about what it's like to exist any ternary? Have you started to realize that the life that we know, the physical life, everything that we've seen and heard and felt here is not real life, but there is a spiritual life that exists outside of space and time that is actually what matters.

[00:24:47] Have you started to think about that?

[00:24:49] See, I think of space and time as wallpaper. And when I say wallpaper, I'm not talking about the background of your computer screen or you're on your mobile device. I'm talking about old fashion. Like we roll it on the walls. It's in the bathroom. It looks terrible wallpaper. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Like a repeated pattern over and over. Right.

[00:25:09] Like this pink flower that you're seeing endlessly there in the bathroom and you're there for a minute. So you're kind of looking at it. You know, at grandma's house. Right.

[00:25:18] And I don't know if anybody was out was like me, but you kind of got tired of this repeated pattern and you felt like if you could just kind of pick at the paper a little bit, you wanted to peel what was behind the wallpaper. Right. That's what you have to start thinking about. Let's get outside of what we see and experience and let's start thinking by faith about eternity outside of space and time.

[00:25:39] Were Jesus existed in perfect splendor with the father and the son. What compelled Jesus Christ to enter time? Why would the creator humble himself to become one of his creation? Not the way I would write the script. Go back to John, Chapter one. Go all the way back to the beginning of the book. And it gave us a glimpse of Jesus before he entered the world. It says, In the beginning was the word. This is John chapter one, verse one. This word is the expression of God to man, it's Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God. There he is enjoying his relationship with the father and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

[00:26:24] Have you thought about that much?

[00:26:28] Outside of time, before anything else, there was the father. There was the son. There was the Holy Spirit. A perfect all sufficient relationship that they had their.

[00:26:39] And then they said, let there be light. And they decided to create time and space and they created the world as we know it. I mean, can you imagine how awesome that must have been? I mean, it goes on to say that right here in verse three, all things were made through him. So Jesus everything that's been made was made through Jesus and without him was not anything made that was made. So Jesus himself was actually the agent of creation. I mean, can you imagine the father saying, let there be light? The Jesus is there doing it together and they're just marveling back and they're just saying, look at how awesome this creation is. Look how good it is. We're making light. We're turning it into a sun and the moon in a day and a night. And then we're separating the land and from the water and the skies from the land where we're starting to put animals in the skies and crawling things on the land. And we got all these things swimming down in the sea and we're making some kind of sea creature and we're like, hey, check that out. Look how awesome that is, Dad. You know, I mean, look at that one. Can you imagine the joy of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit as they create the world together? Why would Jesus leave that had approval to be in on a vacation the last couple of weeks? And I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, in my humble opinion, the best aquarium on planet Earth. Anybody ever been to that aquarium before? And there was a line of people waiting to take a picture of jellyfish. Have you ever experienced this phenomenon? They've got these jellyfish there that are just amazing. They're like translucent. It's like you can see straight through them. But they have these racing stripes. They have these, like, neon colors that go up and down them like every neon sign you've ever seen or like the lights that would flash in some kind of nightclub.

[00:28:32] Like they're inspired by these jellyfish because they've just got these neon lights just rotating around them in this endless display of glory. And there's people like elbowing each other to get pictures of jellyfish.

[00:28:44] And I'm just thinking, worship the Lord. Look at this. This is what God made. This is his creation.

[00:28:52] And here Jesus is with the father creating the world in perfect relationship, and then what happens, the man and the woman that we create. They get deceived by the deceiver and they they sin. And that ruins the relationship that God has with the man he created. In fact, it takes such a nosedive at such a train wreck. It gets so bad. And God is so angry at the sin of men that he wants to flood his creation with water. And he makes the rainbow as a symbol of his second chance that he's gonna give planet Earth through this guy, Noah. And when he gives planet Earth a second chance, he says, I'm gonna work through Abraham and I'm going to have a people and I'm going to have a nation of Israel. I'm going to deliver them and I'm going to be their God and they're gonna be my people and the nation of Israel. What do they do throughout history? They turn away from God and sin and sin insane and leave him behind. And what does he do?

[00:29:41] He keep on loving them over and over.

[00:29:45] And so, man, you have created this beautiful world that was good men turn into sin and they keep on sinning against you, and then you decide that you're going to become a man to save them. Is that how you would have written the story?

[00:30:01] I mean, why does Jesus, who spoke us into existence? Humble himself to become one of us.

[00:30:11] Look at what it says here in John, chapter one, verse 14. I mean, famous words and the word this expression of God to man Jesus Christ. He became flesh the spiritual put on physical.

[00:30:23] And he dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, John, saying, I'm an eyewitness to it. I was leaning up against it. I saw it at the cross. I saw it at the empty tomb.

[00:30:31] It's the glory as of the only son from the father full of grace and truth. See if we're gonna know the love of Jesus. We need to see where it started. It started when he in eternity, entered time. So this. I know no one.

[00:30:46] Jesus loved me to leave eternity for time is the first place that I can see the love of Jesus Christ to go and save his creation on a second and save mission. He enters time. He has an hour. And the whole purpose that he comes is to save us because we have gone astray.

[00:31:06] Go to Philippians, Chapter two. Everybody grab your Bible and turn to Philippians Chapter two, because you need to know about what it's like when Jesus goes from creator to creation when God becomes man. Now we call that the incarnation. That's kind of our theological word there in parentheses. And Philippians two six to eight is one of the classic passages that define the incarnation. And it's talking about Jesus.

[00:31:30] And it says in Philippians two verse six, who though he was in the form of God, here he is with the father, with the spirit and pure glory, just being worshiped for being holy. But he did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasp. Now he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, a slave, and being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. What an interesting phrase. Being found in human form is all we've ever known. That's the norm for us.

[00:32:05] Now here's God putting on flesh.

[00:32:10] And when it says it here in verse seven, it says that he emptied himself. You see that he made himself nothing. If you want to write down under point number one, kenosis Kaixi A. A.I.s kenosis is the idea here in the original language is the idea of he's he's God, he deserves our worship. He is the center of the universe. He upholds the word. And yet he just acts like he is nothing.

[00:32:33] He empties himself and he becomes one of us. And the creator is born into the creation. And it says that he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. That was the hour.

[00:32:49] That was the time. This was the whole mission. I mean, to enter time out of love on a seek and safe mission. I'm going to die. I'm going to rise again. And then I'm gonna go back into eternity to be with the father. And so Jesus knew his time had come. Now go back to John, Chapter 13. And let's look at our next phrase here. We're at this feast. Read this dinner. But before we even get into the dinner, I gotta let you know it was the time Jesus knew. It was the hour he was going to accomplish his mission to die and rise again. He was going to go back into eternity to be with the father. But here's what Jesus did. Having loved his own who were in the world.

[00:33:28] That's our next phrase.

[00:33:30] So when he knows his time is calm. Here's what he's doing. He's loving his own who were in the world. Now, John is going to make a distinction here that starts here and it goes throughout these next chapters between the world and Jesus his own. So we're now going to start talking about two different groups of people. The people of Jesus are going to be in the world, but not of the world. And so there's going to be the world. And then there's going to be his own. And we we see. Let me ask you this question. Does Jesus love the world?

[00:34:05] You guys tell me.

[00:34:07] Yeah, I mean, that was one of the verses that is maybe the most famous of all, John, 316 for God, so loved the world. So we we can say that Jesus loves the world. His love is are offered to all of his creation to all human beings. In fact, you could write down if you want to. First, John, to two, which makes it very clear that Jesus died not only for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world. And so that's what we've been talking about all last year from the first part of the Gospel of John, as we've been saying, that there is an offer of love on the table to every single individual that is alive on planet Earth right now, that Jesus loves you by dying for your sin and rising again. That offer is extended. It is available to all people.

[00:35:00] But see, now we're starting to talk about his own people, the people who don't just know about the offer on the table. They've believed in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They've received his love. They're now sitting at the table with Jesus, enjoying a relationship of love with Jesus Christ. Now we're talking about the people who are the believers. And we're gonna make it see the world. Has it offered to them, the believers. They experience the love of Jesus. They know the love of Jesus, not just they know about the love of Jesus. They are loved by Jesus right now. And it's a relationship that they experience with him all of the time. Those are Jesus his own. And so the atonement that Jesus did, when Jesus gives his life for you on the cross, he takes your sin in, what he offers to you is his perfect righteousness. So the life of Jesus in perfection and then the death of Jesus to pay for your sin.

[00:36:04] We call that the atonement. And it goes all the way back to the picture of the lamb in the Old Testament to a sacrifice of a pure and spotless lamb where we shed the blood. And when we shed the blood of the lamb that atones, that makes it right for your sins. Let's get this down for this. I know. Number two, Jesus loved me to give his life for mine.

[00:36:26] Jesus loved me to give his life for mine. And we're gonna call that the atonement in a way you can think about. The atonement is even in the word there. It says, at one Jesus made me one with God, one in relationship with him through his atonement, through this work that he did in the hour and the time when he died for me and he rose again. So that's what Jesus is doing on the cross. I go to John Chapter 10, verse 14, and you'll see where he talks about his own people. John, chapter 10, verse 14. And when you've heard about the word atonement, if you've had theological conversations, if you've studied theology much, you're going to know that sometimes there's some words that we put in front of atonement.

[00:37:14] One of these things that has a bad reputation that sometimes we talk about is limited atonement. Anybody ever heard of limited atonement before? Right. It's not really the best way to say it, in my humble opinion, because there's nothing about the atonement that is limited.

[00:37:29] The offer is available to all people. But what it is saying is that when Jesus died on the cross, there was a particular group of people that he had in mind when he was dying. There were his own people that he knew his blood was not just going to be offered to for righteousness, but that his blood was actually going to cleanse them from their sins and give them righteousness. And so when we talk about the substitutionary, that's another word we put in front of atonement when we talk about Jesus giving his life in our place. He is thinking of you personally when he's up there dying on the cross. He has specific people, his own people that he knows and people that will know him. And he is personally dying for them on the cross. It's not just an offer for everybody.

[00:38:21] Now he's got you in mind when he's paying, when he's given his last breath. When he's paying for saying he's paying for your sin, specifically, look at how he says it here, how personal it is in John, Chapter 10, verse eleven, he uses the analogy. He says, I am the Good Shepherd. And the Good Shepherd lays down his life. And who does he lays down his life for specifically? Who does it say for the who? Okay, so we got a specific group of people in mind, a particular unique the love of Jesus is offered to all, but it's experienced by his sheep, his people. We are not universalists here at CompassHB Bible Church. Do you know what it means to be a universalist? It means that because Jesus died because he was pure and he sacrificed his pure blood. You believe that therefore everyone is safe. Do you believe that everyone is saved? Do you believe that everyone is going to heaven? We don't believe that. That's not what the Bible clearly teaches.

[00:39:22] The Bible says that there are people who are saved and then there are people who are not saved. And when Jesus died on the cross, he was specifically dying for the people that are going to be saved. He knew them. He loved them and he was paying for them.

[00:39:38] It's personal. Jesus was up there dying for you. That's what we're saying, thinking of you by name as he's dying on the cross. Look how he says it. You're in verse 14. He continues the Good Shepherd analogy and he says, I'm the Good Shepherd. I know my own already here. He knows his own and my own know me. And this is amazing. Just as the father knows me and I know the father. And I lay down my life for who? Specifically my sheep. The ones that I know. This is amazing.

[00:40:15] Jesus is saying before eternity, I had a perfect relationship with the father. We knew each other in the most intimate way possible, having the most sincere and enjoyable fellowship that you can have. Hey, you and I, we're gonna have that same fellowship, the fellowship that I had with the father. The perfect fellowship. Eternity past. You and I, we're gonna have that same fellowship. In fact, I'm going to take you to went to the father and we're all gonna enjoy that fellowship together. So he's coming into time to die for you because he wants you to be one of his people and he wants to bring you into that relationship that he has with God for all of eternity, future.

[00:40:55] That's how intentional his love is.

[00:40:57] Having loved his own. John says now he's got specific people in mind and I'm one of them. John is proud to announce he would be wearing the Jesus Loves Me T-shirt. I'm the disciple whom Jesus love. Let me tell you something about me. In fact, the most important thing about me, when Jesus died on that cross, he did it for me.

[00:41:15] And it just do it for everybody. No, he did it intentionally for my sake.

[00:41:21] Do you know that Jesus did that for you? Do you believe in that, that level of atonement? If I go to Romans Chapter five? Maybe this is the most famous passage or one of them about how Jesus loves me. This I know. Romans Chapter five, verse six. Hopefully this is a passage you've read before you're familiar with about the love of Jesus Christ.

[00:41:41] When we talk about doctrines like limited atonement or a lot of people can trip out on these kind of doctrines because they start to ask questions, logical questions that start to get them into trouble. Well, if Jesus is dying for some, why didn't he just die at all? And we start to take it in a way that God didn't really intend. No. The reason that he's saying he loved his own is for you to consider. Why did he love me? I mean, first of all, I don't really understand why the creator would enter into and become one of his creation. But then when he dies for his creation, specifically, why did Jesus die for me? What is the reason that would compel Jesus Christ to pay for my sin and to give me his righteousness?

[00:42:29] I mean, all I brought to the table was the sin. If I look at how it describes you here in Romans, chapter five, verse six, it says, While we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. So let's let's write down a little self-description here. According to Romans, chapter five, verse six. First way we need to think about ourselves here is weak, doesn't it?

[00:42:52] Isn't this flattering? Doesn't it just boost your self-esteem here this morning? Hey, one thing I want you guys to know here at CompassHB HP, you are so weak, man. All right? Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me what little ones to him belong. They are. That's us. We're the weak ones. In fact, then it goes on to say we're ungodly. That's the second thing you could write down about yourself.

[00:43:15] You're weak and you're on God. Here's Jesus perfect holiness. Pure splendor with the father. See, that's not really where you belong. That's not really how you roll. No, you're over here. You're in a fallen world. You're involved in sin. You're ungodly. You're not like God.

[00:43:29] Now, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person. Maybe we would die for somebody who was righteous. Maybe for a good person. One would dare even to die. Maybe for the president, the Secret Service would die. Maybe for some famous person, a celebrity and important person. We would have bodyguards who are who are ready to die.

[00:43:48] But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

[00:43:54] So we got weak, we got ungodly, and then we got sinners.

[00:43:59] That's how we were. So.

[00:44:01] So what exactly makes you attractive to Jesus Christ? Why exactly does Jesus choose to love you and to pay for your week ungodly sins on that cross? You have to come to the conclusion that there's absolutely no reason in and of yourself why Jesus chose to love you. Jesus chose to love you because that's who he is, has nothing to do with you.

[00:44:24] I mean, it's all based on his love. You didn't do something to earn it.

[00:44:27] There's no work that you could do that would impress Jesus Christ to die for you. I hope we all if we were to look ourselves in the mirror. We should think long and hard. Why does Jesus love me? There is no logical reason that I can come up with why he would choose to love a sinner like Bobby Blake.

[00:44:47] But that's what he chose to do, and that's what demonstrates that it's all of his love. Verse nine, since therefore we have now been justified by his blood. That's what made us righteous. Was his death much more? Shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God for it while we were enemies? We were reconciled to God by the death of his son.

[00:45:07] So there's another great word for us to write down about ourselves. Weak, ungodly sinners. Here's another one. Enemies. Against God in our sin. But while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.

[00:45:22] He gave his life for us. Much more. Now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life? Jesus brings us one with God.

[00:45:32] Why?

[00:45:34] Why did he enter into the world and why, when he did enter in the world and he died to save people?

[00:45:40] Why did he choose me to be one of his sheep, that he would die for one of his own? It makes no sense. You think the love of Jesus is old news? We will never get to the end of the love of Jesus. It surpasses knowledge.

[00:45:55] It's beyond comprehension. That's why we have sung historically in the church. And can it be questionmark? Still not making sense after all these years. Why would my God die for me? I don't get it.

[00:46:10] But that's what he did.

[00:46:12] And the reason must be because of his amazing, overwhelming love that he has for me. And I just get to be one of those that he loves. He loves his own who were in the world. Go back to John 13, verse one, because there's a last phrase. And it says that as he loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the what's the word there? He loved them to the end. And you could write down Telos TDL. Oh, yes. That's how we would write out in English the Greek words. That's there. And it's a great Greek word.

[00:46:49] It's a Greek word, word known Telos.

[00:46:53] And it's often translated the end, but doesn't just mean like the end of the time or the end of the hour. It has kind of a meaning beyond that, in that it means the fullness, the completion. Like he loved them to to the uttermost, to the fulfillment of all of his love for that.

[00:47:10] So here he is in eternity, past perfect relationship with God, and yet he humbles himself to be born as a man, lives the perfect life that you didn't live, dies for the sin that you did. And and the reason that he did this is he did it to the end.

[00:47:31] Perfectly completing what he was there to do.

[00:47:35] And John, in the first verse here, he wants you to say, one night I was just leaning back on Jesus and it was the Passover and I just thought it was another dinner like any other Passover. And that is the night that it all spiraled out of control because I asked him who's going to betray you? And then Judas left and we didn't really understand what was going on. But after dinner, Jesus was having a hard time praying in this garden of guest, Simone. And he was really sorrow and kept rebuking us because we couldn't even pray for an hour. And then all of a sudden this crowd showed up and they had clubs and they had torches.

[00:48:07] And there's Judas leading this whole crowd and he kisses Jesus. And all of a sudden they come around him and they arrest him and all the disciples scattered in one night. I was just leaning back on Jesus and then everything unraveled. And I want to tell you before I tell you anything, it was all love to the end. It was love. They took him to the religious leaders and they started falsely accusing him. There was nothing that they could blame him for.

[00:48:31] So they made things up and they accused him of blasphemy because he claimed to be God. And how could he be God? And so they said he must die. And they took him from one trial to the next night, took him to Herod, and they took him to pilot and all the time. It's just a lie and it's just crooked and evil.

[00:48:48] And then eventually he gets handed over to the soldiers who start work in his punishment. And these soldiers, these Roman soldiers go up to him and they punch him as hard as they can in the face. And then they say, prophesy, who hit you because he couldn't see them?

[00:49:05] And they start to mock him as the king of the Jews. And they get a crown for this king and they make it a crown out of thorns and they beat it into his skull. So the thorns are going into his head and blood is starting to come out of his skull.

[00:49:21] And then they whip in, they strip him down naked and they start whipping him and then they put a purple robe like a kingly robe. They put it on his ripped open flesh of his back and they put this robe on him and then they take the robe back off of him.

[00:49:39] When they're mocking him all the time, hail king of the Jews.

[00:49:43] By the time he's even having to carry his cross up the hill, he's so beaten down, he's so tortured and suffering already, he can't even carry his own cross to wear. And then that's where they're going to execute him.

[00:49:59] And you've probably heard how crucifixion works, where they have this cross and they nail you to it. They nail your hands. They nail your feet. And you're hanging there by the nails.

[00:50:11] OK. You're you're whipped up. Ripped open flesh on your back is rubbing up against this wood because you have to lift yourself up by the nails in your hands and buy the nails in your feet. You have to lift yourself up to get a breath.

[00:50:28] What pain, one agony. It was more torture than execution.

[00:50:34] And then there's people gathered around and you know, what the people are doing while they watch Jesus die in this most violent way. They're mocking him. They're scorning him.

[00:50:44] They're like havin a party.

[00:50:46] They're thinking they've won the creation is thinking that they have defeated the creator and they're saying things like he saved others. Too bad he couldn't save himself. What irony as he's saving the world. They're mocking him because he can't save himself.

[00:51:02] And John, standing there at the foot of the cross.

[00:51:05] And he saying, I saw it all. He never once answered them. He could have easily just blown them away. He could have easily gotten down. He could have done whatever he wanted to do. But he took it to the end. And he did it because of love.

[00:51:22] John tells you. Because he loved you to the end. I mean, think of some of your sins that you have done in your life.

[00:51:31] Think of some of the sins that you would not want me to announce publicly that you have participated in here at church.

[00:51:38] I mean, God is a righteous God. Those scenes have to be judged.

[00:51:45] Somebody has to pay for your sin. What would that be like to pay for sin? The Bible describes it as endless suffering in a place called hell, where we're sinners are going to have to be judged according to what they have done. I know that I deserve to go to a place called hell and to suffer for my sin. That's what I deserve.

[00:52:11] And Jesus got up on a cross.

[00:52:16] And he took the suffering that I would have experienced as everlasting conscious torment in hell. And he took that for me on the cross. Just start thinking about your sins and start thinking what would be the penalty for a sin like that. And Jesus paid for that sin.

[00:52:34] See, the physical agony was brutal with Jesus on the cross. But that wasn't the worst part of it. Not even close. The worst part of it is God, the father, judging Jesus for your sin, every single one of them that you have ever done, said or thought.

[00:52:54] Just try to even get a little glimpse into how staggering and amount of sin that is that I or you have done. Just think about Jesus dying for your sins alone. And then consider the sin of all of us, just even here in this room. And then consider the sin of all of his people throughout all of history on this planet.

[00:53:19] And this perfect relationship that he had with the father for all of eternity past.

[00:53:23] There's a moment on the cross where he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[00:53:30] Because the father turns away from the son. Their perfect fellowship is is broken apart as he pours out the wrath that he has for your sin on Jesus Christ.

[00:53:43] What must have been like to experience the wrath of God for our sins?

[00:53:52] For all of our sins. At one moment on the cross. That's what Jesus endured.

[00:54:00] For you.

[00:54:02] Because he loved you to the end, to the perfection, to the completion of his love, and what that means is he endured the wrath of God for your sin till there was no more wrath, till he had paid it in full.

[00:54:19] And he said it is finished. And he died. What did he refer to paying for your sin, the suffering of God's wrath.

[00:54:30] That's what Jesus endure this I know number three is Jesus loved me to suffer judgment divine and we call that propitiation.

[00:54:42] That's the propitiation. If you want to write something down next, that that's the satisfaction of God's wrath to the end. You could read that more about that. And first, John to two or Romans Chapter three.

[00:54:56] See, Jesus didn't just come down from heaven to earth out of love for you. He didn't just give his life on the cross. Out of love for, you know, he paid for every sin that you have ever done. He paid it in full. He paid it to the end. He satisfied all of God's wrath so that all the things that I deserved to be judged for. I now can stand here before you today and I can tell you I will never be judged for any of my sins.

[00:55:20] Because Jesus already paid for. Jesus paid it to the end. I mean, think about this sins that we haven't done yet. Paid for by Jesus on the cross.

[00:55:36] It's amazing when you start to think about this night that John's going to start describing for us this last night of Jesus on planet Earth before he dies.

[00:55:46] It's a tale of two cups. There's there's two cups, and everybody here is going to drink from one of the two cups. Go to Matthew. Twenty six, go to one of the other tellings of the Last Supper, because after this supper is done and he tells all his disciples about how he wants them to live because of his love for them. And we're gonna be diving into that more next week. But after it's all done, they go to a place called the Garden of Guess Semina. You can see here in Matthew, 26, verse 36, after they have this Passover feast, they go out and in between the city of Jerusalem and this big Mount of Olives, there's this little valley there. And in this valley there is a garden. And if we're going to Israel next summer, some of us are going to go there on a trip. And if you want to go, I'd love to go with you. And one of my favorite places, my favorite place, I think I can say in Israel is this little garden called the Garden of Yes. Samedi that they went to after the Last Supper. And it's this place when you go there today, there's all these all of trees all over the place in these all of trees, if you've seen what those trees look like, they just look ancient. They look old. And it's a place maybe more than any other place in Israel. That makes me think like, whoa. Jesus was here.

[00:56:58] And these trees, you know, I'm a tourist in Israel, my first time there, and I see somebody who works there at the garden of Guest Cemetery. And I'm like, these trees look so old to me. Could these trees have been here at the time that that Jesus died? I mean, could Jesus have been touching the same tree? Right. That's how old they look to me. Like, are these two thousand?

[00:57:16] You know, I'm expecting this person to say to me, that's a dumb question, you tourist. You know what I mean? Because. But they say, no, maybe. I mean, these all of trees live for thousands of years.

[00:57:25] But the Romans burned the city in 1870. So it's probably not these trees. But you have the feeling of like, wow, Jesus was here walking among these all of trees praying on the night before he died. And look what he prays in Matthew, 26, verse 36. Then Jesus went with them to a place called Guess Salmoni, and he said to his disciples, he sit here while I go over there and pray and taking with him. Now, he just takes three of them, Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. That's James and his brother, the disciple whom Jesus loved, John, who's writing the gospel we're studying. He took just three of them with him. And Jesus began to be sorrowful and troubled.

[00:58:06] And he said to them, My soul, here's Jesus feeling the burden. He knows the hour has come. He knows the time is now. And he knows that he is going to love his people to the end. And that means he must bear the wrath of God for our sin. And he is feeling very sorrowful even to death. Remain here and watch with me and going a little further.

[00:58:28] He falls on his face to the ground and prayed, saying, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you were. Here's Jesus God, the creator who became a man who lived a perfect life, who has done nothing wrong, and he is now looking at drinking the cup of God's wrath for our sin.

[00:58:56] And he's trembling at the idea of what it's going to be like to experience the wrath of God. You sorrowful about it? He's troubled about it. He's lying on the ground saying, Father, if there's another way, let me not experience.

[00:59:13] Let me not drink of the cup of your wrath for sin. But because he knows it is the way, not as I will, but as you will.

[00:59:24] So our lord and savior, our maker.

[00:59:31] Was overwhelmed with the idea of experiencing the wrath of God. And he did drink from that cup and he drank that wrath, that judgment for your sin all the way down till the very end. Now, if you don't know the love of Jesus, if you are not a believer in Jesus, if you are not one of his people, one of his disciples, you don't have that relationship with him that we are describing. I'm here to tell you this morning that that cup of wrath is still out there waiting to be drunk in your life. And I do not know why anybody here would want to experience that outside of the space and time that we're living in. And I would encourage you today, if you know that you don't know the love of Jesus to believe in him and to trust in him and to look at him on the cross. Dying for you, paying it for you, and to give your life to Jesus Christ here this morning, because I don't want anybody here to drink of the cup of the wrath of God that Jesus doesn't want to drink from.

[01:00:33] I mean, he's there in the garden with the olive trees all around him. He's lying down, praying to God. Sorrowful and troubled about what? The physical pain. No know about the cop.

[01:00:43] There's a cop that haunts him. The cult of the wrath of God.

[01:00:49] And it's like it's such a beautiful picture when you go to the garden and get Salmoni because you think about all of trees and you think about what we do with all of us, how we press them and how we squeeze them and we turn them into olive oil. And you can see your savior there in the garden being pressed and squeezed as he considers bearing the guilt of your sin and how he's going to be judged for you. And he's sweating like big drops of blood falling from his head. It says he's sweating as he's getting pressed. Considering how he's gonna love you to the end.

[01:01:21] And even though he knows what's coming, he goes through it for you.

[01:01:27] Now, there's another cup you can drink from because Jesus already drink from the cup of God's wrath. And that's this. This cup that was introduced back a few versus look at verse 26 at the Last Supper. We have the institution of the Lord's Supper. We refer to it as communion. And it says as they were eating this Passover feast, Jesus took bread. And after blessing it, he broke it and he gave it to the disciples and he said, take eat this.

[01:01:53] This bread represents my body. This is my body. And he took a cup. And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them. Pass the cup to all of them saying drink of it, all of you for this cup. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. There's a different cup that you can drink. You don't have to drink the cup of the wrath of the almighty God.

[01:02:18] No, you can drink the cup of the blood of Jesus Christ and you can trust that his blood cleanses you from all of your sin. It washes you as white as snow that he paid for all of your punishment that you deserve. To the very end.

[01:02:37] And some of us, we've taken up that cup.

[01:02:40] And we have believed in Jesus Christ and we have been forgiven and we know that we are the disciple whom Jesus loved, and so we do something that we're going to do here today. We take this little cup of communion and we drink this. And we remember that Jesus loves me when we drink this cup.

[01:02:57] He gave his life for me. He gave his pure blood for me that paid for my sin. Which cop are you going to drink from?

[01:03:05] Are you are you a Christian? Do you know that Jesus loves you? When we drink of this cup, is it meaningful for you to consider Jesus loving you to the end?

[01:03:16] Or do you kind of secretly know in your heart here today that there's a cup of wrath that might still be coming for you? So everyone who knows you're loved by Jesus, I want to encourage you. We're gonna participate in communion and the ushers are gonna start coming forward and they're gonna pass that to everyone. And this is for those who are disciples. Those who know who can say with confidence here this morning, Jesus does love me. And I know he did come down and die for my sin and pay for it in full. And I don't live in that scene. I've turned from that. And I have a relationship. I have I known by Jesus and I know Jesus. I've entered into the relationship of eternal life. And if you don't know that relationship, I would encourage you not to take the symbol and drink of the cup, but I would encourage you to spend some time praying right now, while Ryan sings in the ushers, pass the elements. We're gonna take the cup and the bread all together at the end. But while you're here in this song, I would encourage you if you know that you don't know the love of Jesus, please. Call out to him today, confess your sins to him and beg him to forgive you by his blood. The blood of the covenant that you can drink for the forgiveness of sins. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much. That Jesus loved us, that he loved us as his own and he loved us to the end. And God, I pray that this won't be a cliche for us, that no one will be like, oh, here we go about the love of Jesus again. God forgive us. For thinking this is a children's song. God help us to see this is the most profound reality, in fact, our tire and our entire identity is wrapped up, that we are the disciple whom Jesus loved. The thing that defines my life. It's the love of Jesus Christ. So, God, I pray that as we remember his death, we take this carbonemys, we eat this bread that you will stir up by way of reminder, the love of Jesus for us, and it will cause us to love him in return. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen, man.