The Work of God

Amen.

Well, good morning, Sacred Mission.

Hey, my name is Justin.

I'm one of the pastors here, and it's my joy and privilege to be able to bring God's word to you this morning.

We are uh trucking through the Gospel of John, right?

Not too fast, uh, but we're going through it verse by verse, and we're trying to discover um all that the apostle uh desired for his readers to know and understand as they would engage with this gospel account uh um uh that he was recording for the church.

And so uh last week Pastor Jared uh hit on the miracle of Jesus uh feeding the five thousand, right?

That's how the Bible records it, the feeding of the five thousand.

Uh but as he said, it was much more than five thousand.

You know, right?

We could think anywhere between 15 to 25,000 people uh were there that Jesus fed miraculously with just a kid's lunchable, right?

It was like five loaves of barley and two fish, the equivalent of six Ritz crackers and some watered down ham.

But um what we do is we look at this and we see that this miracle, according to the Apostle John, sets up this long discourse that Jesus has with the people who are following him, right?

And this discourse starts to escalate to where at the very end of the discourse we see that many of those whom were following after him cease to do that on that day.

And so we're starting to engage with kind of the meat of this text and what Jesus is teaching to those who are seeking after him because they had been a part of the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 just previously.

So so what we do though is as we're coming out of the story of the miracle, we start engaging with this story that John records of Jesus walking on water.

And we as we look at this section of the text, what I want us to see is this in verses 16 through 21, the story of Jesus walking on water, we want to see this that Jesus is our rescue.

Jesus is our rescue.

And here's what we look.

As we understand what's going on, that the miracle had happened, the the feet the people were fed, and then Jesus and his disciples retreat.

And as it came down to nighttime, right, the disciples got into a boat and they decided to cross the Sea of Galilee to go to a city called Capernaum.

And Jesus didn't go with them, he remained uh in the place where the miracle had happened.

And so as the disciples are rowing out, we have to understand that they're in this kind of mountainous region that surrounds the sea, and there are these valley areas that uh uh come between the mountains.

And so these huge gusts of wind and these storms would come onto the Sea of Galilee and create storms, much like you would see in in the middle of the ocean.

Huge waves, uh uh turbulent waters, right?

And so they're about three or four miles out from the shore, and all of a sudden they see Jesus walking on the water, coming near to them.

Now, if we really just are kind of reading this uh chapter of John, right, and we're maybe doing our devotional time in the morning, and you're a little groggy-eyed, you might have a temptation to just kind of read over this section of the story.

It's hard to understand how the miracle of the 5,000 is linked to what the discourse that Jesus has with his followers through this story of him walking on the water.

It seems to be almost out of place.

It seems foreign or improperly inserted into the account.

But we know something about John, right?

As we try to take a step back and ask ourselves, what why is this story here?

We know that John intentionally curated every single one of the stories in his gospel for an end, right?

There was an aim to this.

That us as the readers, as we engaged with this text, as this we engaged with this uh uh uh narrative, that what would come out as the fruit of that would that we would see Jesus as the only Son of God whom the Father has sent, right?

That's the endeavor of John writing this gospel out.

So every story has a purpose.

And what we have to do then is step back when we kind of engage with some of these stories that seem uh uh uh foreign or or or improperly inserted into the text.

We have to ask, what was the authorial intent?

Why was John writing this?

Why did he say or assume that this was going to benefit the end goal of having us as his readers believe in Jesus as the only Son of God?

There's a reason this was included in the gospel.

So let's look at the bigger context of the story.

Jesus had and his disciples had just participated in this miraculous feeding of the 5,000.

There was this miraculous supply of sustenance in the midst of an imperiled situation, right?

He feeds the crowd with this boy's packed lunch, five barley loaves, two fish.

But John records something at the end of this miracle.

He records that the apostles, the disciples who are following Jesus, were called to go out.

And at in chapter 6, verse 13, it says this that they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

So here's the end of the miraculous story of the feeding of the five thousand.

The disciples are sent out to collect all that was remaining of the barley loaves from those who had eaten of them, and they filled these twelve baskets full with the leftovers.

Rather quickly after this situation, the disciples have found themselves once again in imperil.

This time, though, it was not because of hunger, it was because of a storm that they were facing in the middle of the Sea of Galilee.

And we have to ask ourselves this question, one that they were probably uh concerned with and led to their panic and fear.

How will they escape this situation?

How will their supply of rescue and relief come to them?

Verse 19, it says this when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened.

Jesus would come near to the disciples in the midst of their fear and panic.

And what he does is something absolutely uh spectacular.

He presents himself as their only rescue and refuge.

You see, he's the one standing on this on the water in the midst of the storm.

Previously, when they were in peril and they were hungry and they didn't know what was going to happen.

Yes, they saw Jesus perform the miracle, but they were distracted by the fragments of the loaves that they went and picked up.

Their eyes were quickly adverted from the provider to the provision.

And in that distraction, they would be tempted to say, Well, this is how we were saved.

This is how we were rescued.

This was what came to us that we would not face such a detriment situation.

But this time there was no fragments to distract their gaze.

This time they could only look out upon the darkness of the waters and see the radiant, shining light of Jesus Himself.

Jesus would come near to them.

Jesus Himself would be their rescue and refuge.

And it's important in verse 20 what we see is that uh John says this, but he being Jesus said to them, his disciples, it is I.

Do not be afraid.

The Greek here is really important because Jesus is revealing himself to his disciples in a greater way than that they had previously understood him to be.

And so we don't want to get too nerdy in the Greek here, right?

Just so we look cool or we're, you know, I got a big collection of books.

Uh but but this is important because what Jesus says is this in the Greek.

He says, Eho Emi.

Now, this structure of introduction we see in the Old Testament.

And what it is, is it's God revealing himself to his people as I am who I am.

The literal translation of it is I is I am who I am.

He is revealing to his disciples that it's not just a miracle worker standing on the water before them, but it is Yahweh Himself.

The God of the old is present in the new, and he will rescue his people from the storm that is imperiling them.

This is what Jesus is revealing to them.

I am who I am.

In the midst of their imperiled situation, Jesus displays that they need only look to Yahweh.

But the beautiful hope of the gospel is that Yahweh has come near to them.

The disciples had been rescued once again, but this time there were no remaining fragments to distract them from their sole source of deliverance.

Only the fullness of Jesus, only Yahweh standing before them as the rescuer and redeemer.

What we see in verses 22 through 26 is full stomachs, empty souls.

Full stomachs, empty souls.

So the next morning comes, and what had happened was that the crowd had witnessed that there was only one boat on the shore.

And they witnessed that Jesus' disciples had left in that boat, but Jesus didn't go with them.

Now the morning comes, and the crowd is looking for Jesus on the bank of where he had remained previously, and they don't see him there.

So they decide to hop in some boats themselves, cross the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, and to try and seek after Jesus.

Right?

This is what's happening in the story here in 22 through 26.

And in verse 25, it says this when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here?

You see, the crowds were curious about how Jesus was able and when he did actually get to the other side of the sea, since they saw that there was only one boat, and they saw that his disciples had gone away without him in that said boat.

But I love the way that Jesus responds to their curiosity.

In verse 6, it says Jesus answered them, uh 26, truly, truly I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

Jesus doesn't give really any regard to their curiosity about how he got to the other side of the sea.

He rebukes them instead.

He tries to open their eyes to the reality of their motivation for why they are seeking after him.

You're seeking me not because you saw signs.

This is important for us to understand.

When we look at the ministry of Jesus, the signs of Jesus were always meant to point to the significance of Jesus.

The signs were to point to the significance, right?

We even see this in the way that the apostles would preach the gospel, and in preaching they would perform signs and miracles that would actually prove the evidence of the very message of which they proclaimed.

And so Jesus, while he was bringing the kingdom of heaven into earth, while it was being ushered in through his ministry, the signs of Jesus were always meant to point to the significance of Jesus.

This is what he says in the text.

He says that the Father has set his seal upon him, right?

So how do we understand that the Father's seal is set upon the Son?

Well, we see it in his miracles.

We see it in the things that he does.

We even see it in the way that he works to forgive the sins of others, right?

The religious leaders of the time would say, only God can forgive sins.

Who do you think you are?

Well, let me show you who I am.

I am who I am.

So you're not seeking me because you saw the signs, but you ate your fill.

That is why you're seeking me.

They were seeking the provision over the provider.

I think deep down they thought about what it would look like to have such a great king who could fill their stomach like that every day.

And man, they were thrilled to chase him down.

Right?

If we could try to get to the heart of these people, could you imagine if there was someone in your midst that could satisfy your flesh in such a way that that could meet the temporal, finite, but pressing needs that you had in your life and he could do it like that?

Would you not want to make him king?

We can often be just like these people who followed after Jesus.

We look for what he can give us rather than looking to him who gave himself for us.

And I think that the issue is really seen in the illustration of a uh spoiled child, right?

So if you think about a spoiled child, here's what I here's here's here's what I want to present to us this morning.

I think the father whose hand gives the gift desires that the child sees the heart of the giver.

That's the desire.

When you as a father give your children good gifts, I don't believe you're trying to make them spoiled, entitled, whiny children.

I think what you're trying to do is hoping that in the extension of the gift, they would see the heart of a father who loves them.

But what tends to happen?

We keep looking at the hand rather than looking at the heart.

And we keep wanting more and more and more and more.

I think that the issue of a spoiled child is less to do with the parents, and it speaks more to the nature and character of the heart of man in us.

In our relationship with a good father, we continually look to the hand for a gift rather than look to the giver to see his heart.

Of the way that he loves us, of the way that he's trying to draw us into himself.

You see, the blessing of God that we experience and receive in our lives should draw us into his heart, not cause our hearts to continue to look toward his hand.

Perhaps this is why this discourse escalates in this story.

In John 6, 53, Jesus gets to such a point that he looks to those who are following and he says this, John chapter 6, verse 53.

John 6:53

Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat my flesh and you drink my blood, you have no life in you.

It's like he's trying to get them to wake up.

Do you see it yet?

It's not about what my hand can give to you.

It's about the heart that I'm giving my whole self to you, that every aspect of my being is broken and given to you, that you might have life, the life you're looking for, the life your soul longs for.

It's not gonna be found in these things.

It's gonna be found in me.

But we are spoiled children in our heart.

Father, give me something else.

You're not enough.

The crowd may have had full stomachs from the barley loaves, but they still had empty souls that found no true satisfaction.

But in his grace, kindness, and love for them, Jesus would continue to work to have their souls eternally satisfied in him.

In verses 27 through 29, we see the work of faith.

The work of faith.

He goes on to tell them, verse 27, do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.

After Jesus rebukes the crowd for the motive and reason of why they were seeking after him, he follows it up with a command to give to them.

And that first part of the command is given in a negative sense.

Do not, right?

Do not work for the food that perishes.

We have to ask ourselves, what does Jesus mean by this, right?

What I don't think he means is that we uh are expected, all these people who are following him, are expected to quit their jobs and just become full-time missionaries, like following him around like deadheads, following around grateful dead, right?

They don't, I don't know how they make it to these concerts.

They don't work uh or shower.

But things they make it there, right?

Um I don't think that's what Jesus is calling us to do uh or his followers to do, because we see what actually the Bible views as lazy men who do not work and provide for those families and provide for the ones who are under their care and responsibility, right?

Paul writes to young Pastor Timothy in the church of Ephesus, he says this but if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Men, listen to the sobriety of that command.

What Paul is saying is that if you are a lazy man and you do not work to provide and care for those who are under your responsibility, you are to be marked as a worse than an unbeliever.

Meaning, if you confess to love Jesus and be a Christian, there would be no one in your sphere of relationship that should ever affirm that confession to be true.

Prove your faith through your works.

Be a man, take responsibility, care for your family through work.

So Jesus isn't telling us to just quit our jobs and follow after him and not take on responsibility for caring for people, especially those of our own household.

We have to look at the broader context of the passage.

Jesus is working to show the people that this food, this bread that they're working for, it is going to perish.

And the sober truth is that their souls are going to perish with it.

There are people focusing on temporal deliverance, but experiencing eternal death.

And we do this so often, right?

I think that this is a big reason of why previously, when Jesus uh uh retreated, it was he retreated because the people were coming to take him by force and make him king.

You see, our hearts do this.

We think that we have something that we need delivered out of, right?

Some of us think that we need to come to God for deliverance from physical or mental health issues or from toxic relationships that we found ourselves in or financial woes that are oppressing us or difficult children or loneliness that we experience.

We we think that we need to come to God for the deliverance of these things.

The problem is this when we don't understand what we really need delivered from, when we see our deliverance under these temporal, finite things, our propensity is to take Jesus and make him the king he was never supposed to be, because he's the king that delivers us out of that, rather than the true king who delivers us out of our sin and bondage to death that we have because of our rebellion against him.

Jesus showed mercy by not allowing the crowd to come and forcefully make him king, because they would have established him as the wrong king of a false kingdom.

You see, it isn't that coming to God for rescue in these things is inherently wrong in itself.

Yes, God cares about your physical and mental.

Health.

He cares about the relationships you're in.

He cares about your financial stewardship and the children that you are shepherding over.

But we have to come to him first to have our souls rescued through Jesus.

He then goes into the second part of the command, which comes in a positive.

But for the food that endures to eternal life, Jesus reveals that our work has an aim, right?

And it's fascinating.

We don't think about this a lot.

But our work is directional.

It's directional toward an end.

You might not have an intentional end in mind, but your work is directional toward some end.

I think many men go to the grave because they never thought about the end or the aim of their work, and they go to grave with such regret and grief.

But all of our work has direction to it.

It is toward an end.

And what the scriptures revealed to us is that that end is either death or life.

And what we will see is that this end is determined by two primary things.

Jesus has already talked about the first, the motive of our work.

He says, you're not seeking me for the right reasons.

You're seeking me because your stomachs were full.

You ate your fill, right?

And the scriptures show that those who honestly and sincerely seek after the Lord, they will find him.

That there is a guarantee and a promise in the sincerity of our work, the motive of our work, that on the other side of it, in its end, we will find the life giver himself.

But it's not just the motive of our work, it's also the very substance of our work.

How are we seeking him?

How are we finding this food that endures to eternal life?

And we see the crowd wrestle with this very question in verse 28.

Then they said to him, What must we do to be doing the works of God?

You see, since they had already had their motive challenged by Jesus, now they were going to inquire about the substance of the work that they're to be doing, that they might obtain this food that Jesus is speaking of.

But Jesus, he has this word play in his answer, and it's a conflicting answer.

He tells them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him who he has sent.

You see, the crowd did something.

They asked, What works, plural, ought we to do to earn this food?

They were looking for the ways of which they could practice religion and that their works would earn God's favor and blessing in their life.

That was the heart of their question.

But Jesus' answer flipped it on its head.

And this word play, works turn to work, and we turn to God.

It is not works that you do, but it is a work of God that He does in you.

It is the work singular of God in us that we might believe in him who he has sent.

And Jesus says earlier in the discourse that this food that endures to eternal life, it's a gift that's given to us.

He says, the Son of Man will give it to you.

Freely will I offer this food to you.

For him, God the Father has set his seal.

But Jesus also qualifies the means by which this gift is received.

And the means is through the work of God in us to believe.

It is faith.

These people wanted to discover what they could do to make God love them.

And Jesus said, God has to do something in you.

And he shows you that he loves you.

John 3.16, that he sent me.

You see, there's work to be done for us to receive this eternal life.

But it's not a work to be done by us, it's a work to be done in us.

Belief is the fruit of a work.

But it's a work that's been done in us that we might have this food that endures to eternal life.

Paul was uh uh um uh helping the church in Ephesus understand this more clearly as he was trying to open up the beauty of the gospel to them.

He says this in Ephesians 2, 8 through 10.

It is for by grace you have been saved through faith.

This is not your own doing.

What's he say?

This isn't your work, this isn't something that you have obtained or acquired through your own efforts, but it's the gift of God, not a result of works.

Why?

So that you can't boast in it.

For if we are his what?

Workmanship, if we are a work in us by him, created in Christ Jesus, what?

For good works, which God prepared before him, that we should walk in them.

You see, we work from faith.

We don't work for faith.

It is a work of God in us that we would believe.

And after believing, we are able to faithfully live according to the good works which he has prepared for us.

John tried to help us understand this at the very beginning of his gospel that this was not going to be a work done by us, but it was gonna be a work done in us.

John 1, 12 through 13, he says this but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

So what we see in this is that our faith is a gift given to us from the will and the work of God alone.

So as the crowd inquired about what they must do to have this food that Jesus speaks of, Jesus shows them that it's a work of God in them that produces everything that they need.

Faith in Jesus, whom God has sent for them.

He's trying to help them understand.

You have this propensity and you've grown up in this culture, in this religious uh uh uh atmosphere that has ingrained in you.

It's everything that you do that will make God love you, pour out his blessing on you, shine his favor upon you.

And then it's everything you don't do that continually creates this chasm between you and God.

In the religious mind, we close the gap between us and God.

The gospel shows us God closes the gap between us.

And so what the Jesus is trying to get his followers to understand is this that faith alone gives us eternal life.

Faith alone gives us eternal life.

It is God's work in us to cause us and enable us to have belief that Jesus was the one whom the Father sent to rescue and redeem us.

Without God's work in us, we are like the crowd that follows Jesus.

Not for him, but for what he can provide for us.

Our hearts need desperately a divine intervention to stop us from chasing down the provision and instead chase after the provider.

Again, we're like these spoiled children.

We keep looking at the Father's hand for another gift rather than allowing that gift to draw our eyes into the Father's heart, to have our eyes open to both our true need for rescue and the very rescuer given to us in Jesus.

You see, the crowd couldn't comprehend their true need.

And in that, they could neither comprehend the means by which their need would be met.

You see, they were chasing after this imperish this uh perishable bread, but Jesus was offering up his very body.

They asked how they might work to earn it, but Jesus said that he would freely give it to them.

They wanted to know what works they could do, but Jesus was showing them that it would be a work from God in them.

They were operating in blindness, unable to see the truth of Jesus and the reality of his kingdom.

Ultimately, it was a life of dead religion, not a life of living faith.

A religion that taught you you work.

You work to earn this imperishable bread of eternal life.

You work to earn God's affection and favor.

You work to close the gap.

But they've been woefully misled.

Their works could not save them.

Only faith could.

What we have to strive to understand is this that our work perishes.

Our work perishes.

Every religion is the same outside of the gospel.

All irreligion, all secularism is the same.

Each, whatever you name it, whatever label you put on it, teaches this thing.

Our works will save us.

You can name it Buddhism, you can name it Islam, you can name it Judaism, you can name it secular humanism.

It doesn't matter what you name it, because the wellspring of it is from the heart of man who is dead in his sin.

And what we do is say this we don't really need a savior.

We don't really need Jesus.

All we have to do is just try hard enough, and we can make things right.

You see, we're born with this reality that there is something off in our relationship with God.

We understand to some measure that there's this distance created between the maker and the thing being made, right?

And us.

And we think that our work will actually create for us right standing with our Creator.

It'll justify us.

What we ultimately believe is that there's this cosmic scale, and that in one side of it is all of our sin and all of our rebellion and all of our shortcomings.

And what our lives are spent doing is trying to pop these good works in this side of the scale, so that the point of death that's tipped into our favor, that we would actually have right standing with God because we were good enough, ultimately because we worked hard enough to earn his favor in our life.

You see this at every funeral.

If they weren't a believer, if they didn't understand the gospel, if they what you hear chattered throughout the room is, oh, they were a good person, man.

They were good enough.

You know, and what what there's they're hoping that a God would not punish this person for their sin because they lived a life that is good enough to earn his blessing.

That's what they're hoping.

But what they're ultimately saying is we don't need a savior.

We can save ourselves.

And so their own life becomes idolatrous, their own life becomes a false God of their own work and effort, of a work that perishes with them.

Because it cannot save.

Paul belabors this point in his letter to the church at Galatia.

He says this that if righteousness, if our right standing before God was earned through the law or understood, earned through our own works, then Christ died for nothing.

Do we understand the vanity of the cross?

If we can earn that through our own work, what a shame.

What a shame that that would be that Christ would give his very life for what?

For nothing.

Because, hey, God, we got this.

We can do this ourselves.

We can pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, we can strive hard enough, we can have enough discipline, we can do what it takes.

Ultimately, religion says we don't need Jesus.

But there's something more intimate to this too.

When we talk about our own selves, you and I continually fall in the trap that believes our work somehow closes the gap between us and God.

That it actually causes us to draw near to Him.

And ultimately, we don't understand grace.

We don't understand the gospel.

Because the gospel of grace is that God came near to us.

And let me tell you how this worked out for me just yesterday.

Um, somebody told me, like a lot of dudes have told me, teenage girls will be hard.

And I was like, ah, yeah, not mine.

I'm cool.

Teenage girls, uh, teenage girls are challenging.

I love them.

Yesterday, one of my daughters was being a teenage girl, and I absolutely lost it on her.

I've never screamed at my daughter that way.

I screamed at her so um horrifically, my other daughter ran to her room in fear and sobbed because of my sin.

And as horrific as that situation was, as I contemplated and meditated on my own behavior and sin, what came to be more horrific was that I was thinking and meditating and planning on how would I close the gap that I just created in my sin with Jesus, my Savior?

How would I work to get back into his presence?

And I asked my, I mean, I cried with my daughters, I asked for their forgiveness.

It was a beautiful opportunity to show the gospel, but my heart went toward works.

Jesus, what do I gotta do to close this gap?

You feel so distant from me, you feel so far from me in this moment.

I'll do whatever it takes to get back into your presence.

And man, it's I am who I am, stood on the waters of the storm that I was in in that moment because he came near to me.

That's grace.

That's the gospel.

That's what you and I don't get.

Man, I'm I'm almost 40 years old.

I'm like 20 some years into this thing called Christianity, and I still fall victim to the trap that somehow what I do is going to make God love me more.

And you do it too.

What does that tell me?

It tells me we don't get grace.

It tells me that we're we're the same people as the crowd.

Jesus, what do what are the works that we have to do to be able to have this food that you keep talking about?

What is it that we can do?

How can we try harder or strive with more power and strength?

How can we earn this?

And Jesus is saying, you don't get it.

It's not about your works.

And if it was about your works, then why want why am I even here?

I'm not here to give you something out of my hand.

I'm here to give you my very flesh and blood.

You're not gonna eat barley loaves, you're gonna taste of my body because this is what you need.

Because you can't do it.

Grace is Jesus coming near to us.

Grace is Jesus freely giving us his own flesh and blood.

Grace closes the gap.

And the beauty of the gospel for us church is that Jesus became the perishable bread that we could feast on the imperishable.

And if anybody's work was to earn the bread, the food that endured to eternal life, it's Jesus.

He perfectly lived according to God's law and command.

Not one dot of I or crossing of a T was lost in his fulfillment of the law.

And he did for us earn eternal life.

This is the beauty of the gospel, is that all of his righteousness is credited to us, not by what we do, but by grace through faith in him.

And so he has earned and merited eternal life on our behalf.

But the cross shows us that he died as one whose works perished with him.

Because all of our sin was transferred onto him.

But it wasn't just our sin of wrongdoing, it was our sin of trying to do the right things to earn God's love.

Because throughout Scripture, God shows us that it is our self-righteousness which reeks in his nostrils.

The very notion or thought that we could earn his love is disgusting to God.

So Jesus became sin, though he knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God.

And I think there's something fascinating about the cross.

This crowd looked at Jesus' hand extended, opened up at this miracle, and saw it filled with sustenance of barley loaves and fish that they might fill their bellies.

On the cross, they see it nailed, open and empty, dripping with blood.

The powerful imagery of this.

That they would no longer be able to look at his hand as providing something earthly for them, but they would have to very well look to his heart as the soldier pierced him through and blood and water flowed.

There was no opportunity to be distracted by physical, earthly, temporal things.

It was only to gaze upon that Christ was fully giving himself for them.

You see, we we tend to think that the gospel is something we start this Christian life with, and then we kind of move on from it, right?

On to deeper things, onto onto these profound mysteries of God.

The gospel is most glorious.

It is something that we could work to unpack and understand for the rest of our life.

In fact, I believe for the rest of eternity we will seek to know and understand the fullness of the gospel.

I believe that when an angel circles his throne and cries, holy, holy, holy, they see a new part of God.

They see a new part of his gospel, they see a new part of his grace, they see a new part of his majesty that they had never witnessed before.

And they can't help but for eternity to circle that throne and just cry, holy, holy, holy.

May the gospel be that to us, that as we engage with it, it's like a prism that turns and a new radiant light shines forth from it, and we see it in a much more beautiful way than we've ever seen it before.

That we behold it in such a way that it becomes the deep treasure of our heart, that we never stop engaging with the gospel.

Because hopefully you don't learn the hard ways that I do, but at 40 years old and father of four, and 20-some years into this thing called Christianity, I've got to learn the gospel again.

And daily I have to learn the gospel and try to understand grace.

And I'm just so thankful that it's not dependent upon my work to close the gap between me and God.

But he closed the gap for us that we might have the food of his body that gives us eternal life.

Amen.

Let's pray.