The Gospel of John: Approval That Matters - Feb 23, 2025 (Myles Holmes)

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the Spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Truly a joy to be together this morning.

If you have your Bibles, you can open them up to John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

We'll be beginning our time in verse 30 this morning.

If you don't have a Bible, the ushers are making their way down the aisle and you can flag one down.

They'd love to get a copy into your hands.

You can keep this as our gift to you.

Wonder over the course of your life, how many values have changed?

How many things that you once prioritized and valued, maybe even 10, 15 years ago, to you now are completely meaningless, completely worthless.

In fact, maybe if we looked at our values now, there'd be a lot of things that we prioritize now that maybe even as short of a time ago as 10 years ago, they just were meaningless to us.

Maybe it was your social status in high school.

You remember that?

Remember how much you cared about what your fellow friends and students cared about you in high school?

And, you know, just recently I was on Facebook and found a high school reunion, which by the way I wasn't invited to, which shows you how well I did at that whole popularity thing.

And I was scrolling through, and I couldn't believe how many of these people that I once like, like their affection was everything for me.

And I completely even forgot that they existed.

Our values change.

Life events can change our values.

We have a number of people in our church family who are having a baby for the first time, and one of the things that I'm always excited about is to see how, you know, when that first baby comes, everything changes.

Like you've kind of lived your life up to that point, you know, looking out for yourself, and now you have this beady-eyed, football-shaped head thing looking at you, and it's completely, no offense to any of the babies in the room, looking at you, and it's completely dependent on you, and that changes your what you care about in life.

It changes your values.

Values are always shifting, but there is nothing in the history of mankind that has transformed our priorities more radically than encountering Jesus.

Any life change you've experienced, encountering Jesus is that change on steroids.

When you come to him, everything is changed.

That's why over the course of Jesus' ministry, there were so many that rejected Jesus.

In fact, when he died, he only there were only a handful of women who stayed committed to him.

Why was that?

Why was it that Jesus preached to so many that when he was performing miracles and signs and wonders, the crowds were flocking to him.

But on the very most important day of his life, there were few.

I think it's because they realized what many realize today that life with Jesus wasn't just about tweaking a few behaviors.

It wasn't just about adding a few religious activities to your schedule.

What Jesus came to accomplish was a complete transformation.

Jesus came to flip our world upside down on its head.

The world today, it offers us a superficial change, doesn't it?

You can go on YouTube right now and you can find videos with millions and millions and even billions of views of how you can change your life in five minutes or less.

Here's one hack, one sleeping hack that will revolutionize your life.

And let's be honest, we've all clicked those videos, haven't we?

Because we love that.

Change that's easy.

Change that I don't have to give up much to get.

Like five minutes is not a lot of time.

The world offers us something opposite of Jesus, a way to find significance and purpose without having to give up control.

Loved one, let me suggest this morning what Jesus has been teaching us throughout the Gospel of John is that we cannot find significance without surrendering control.

And really the daily battle of the Christian life is this battle to find significance, this belief that we can find significance without surrendering control.

We can be honest this morning and we can be honest with ourselves and say that each of us we want to matter in life.

We want to find value in life and we want to be valued in life.

We want to love and we want to be loved.

These are all good things that we want, these are good desires, but here's our problem.

Let me suggest that what the scriptures tell us is that our problem is that at the core of our human nature is that we want it on our own terms.

We want it our own way.

We want the comfort of security, of having the things that we want without the cost of surrender.

Understand, that's been the human struggle since the beginning.

You remember Adam and Eve, they were told by God that they could pursue fulfillment outside of God's created order.

But that that pursuit, that eating from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, would only lead to death.

And you and I, day by day, we experience that death, don't we?

So many of us, even this morning, are filled with the anxiety that comes when we try to pursue comfort, we try to pursue fulfillment, we try to find value in this world outside of the way that God has called us to do it.

It leaves us exhausted.

It leaves us anxious.

It leaves us always wanting more.

Well, Jesus comes to us with a simple message, and the message is this I have life.

I have life.

The message is simple.

He says it to the woman at the well that I am a source of living water.

If you drink from me, you will never thirst again.

And as simple as the message is, do you know why it's difficult?

Do you know why so many rejected Jesus, and so many do today?

Because it is costly.

It requires that you give up everything.

Requires that your life be turned upside down on its head.

That you value what Jesus offers more than you value anything else.

It requires that you yield your life to Jesus in complete submission to him.

It is a costly call.

Well, in John 5, Jesus is on an informal trial with the Pharisees.

And in our text this morning, he points to the heart of the problem.

The heart of the problem is that rather than valuing what Jesus comes to offer, that is God's favor, they value human praise.

They value what their religious rituals can win them, the way that it can make them look.

And what Jesus is doing this morning is he's putting his finger, by putting his finger on the problem of the Pharisees, by pressing it into their heart, he is pressing his finger this morning into our heart.

And highlighting three values that we must surrender if we want to experience significance and purpose and identity.

If you're a note taker, let me give them all up to you up front.

I want you to see in this text, in John chapter 5, verse 30 to 47, that if we want the life that Jesus offers, if we want the favor of God, we must choose God's will over our wants.

John 5:30–47

Must trust God's word over our wisdom.

We must seek God's glory over our reputation.

This is why so many were turned away from Jesus.

They couldn't bear the thought of giving this up.

Now let's see this in the text together.

And you have your Bibles open to John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

Why don't you stand with me as we read from God's Word?

John chapter 5, verse 30.

John 5:30

I can do nothing on my own.

As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.

There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.

You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.

Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.

He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John.

For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.

And the Father who sent me himself b has himself borne witness about me.

His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.

You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have eternal life.

I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you.

I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me.

If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.

How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father.

There is one who accuses you, Moses on whom you have set your hope.

For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me.

But if you do not believe his writings, how you believe my words.

Let's pray together.

Father, you care about our life, and it is your desire that we would have eternal life.

And we know that because you sent your son, and as we read of his words, he is so concerned with who we believe.

God, he is so concerned even to prove by many witnesses that he is the Son of God, that his words are true and worthy to be believed in.

God, we read these words, and the purpose of John the Gospel writer is to inspire in us belief that leads to eternal life.

And so we pray this morning, God, that by the power of your Holy Spirit, that you would do that, Lord.

Strengthen our belief.

Lord, give us faith.

Or give us hope.

Help us to trust in your word, Lord, that there truly is one place that we can find life, that it is in Jesus Christ and Him alone, and that every one of the words of your book, the Bible, they point to Jesus to prove this fact, God.

We bow before you, Lord, and we pray that you would continue to do this work in us.

Lord, help us to believe.

I pray this in the name of your son.

Amen.

Amen.

You can grab a seat.

Through values we must accept by placing our faith in Jesus.

The first is that we choose God's will over our wants.

Now, notice here in verse, in chapter 5, that Jesus begins by declaring his complete dependence on the Father.

You see that with your eyes on verse 30, where he says, I can do nothing on my own.

Now, this is fascinating because if there was anyone who could do anything on their own, it was Jesus.

Jesus was the Son of God, God Himself.

And yet we are told in Philippians chapter 2 that Jesus in coming, he set aside his divinity, not in a way that he ceased to be God, but while being fully God, he submitted himself to the plan of the Father, submitting himself, we are told by Paul in Philippians chapter 2, even to the point of death.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention Philippians 2 · chapter mention

And it was through this submission, it was through this obedience to the Father's plan that Jesus was exalted above every other name in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

And Paul there in Philippians 2 is doing what Jesus is doing.

He is showing us the way to find exaltation in our own life.

Jesus is saying this: if you want to know greatness, if you want to know fulfillment, if you want to know satisfaction, you must do as I have done.

I do nothing according to my own will.

Jesus understood that his greatest gain was not in amassing power for himself, but in prioritizing obedience to the Father.

And if anyone could amass power for himself, it was Jesus.

In fact, when Jesus will multiply the bread, we'll read of this in a few short weeks.

There will be a crowd that gathers around him and wants to sort of cause a revolution and make Jesus king in that moment.

And the very thing that Jesus does is runs away.

He runs away from power because Jesus did not come to amass power for himself.

Jesus came to be obedient to the mission of the Father.

Now listen, what Satan has been doing from the very first day of creation, since man and woman were on this earth, has been whispering lies into the ears of God's children, telling them that there is a quicker way to find power.

That there is a quicker way outside of God's word to find fulfillment.

That if you truly want to be valued, God's way is the slow way, and there is a much quicker way to be followed.

And so he did this with Adam and Eve.

When Adam and Eve were promised joy and abundance and fulfillment in the garden, Satan comes along and he says, Did God really say?

Did God really say that if you don't, you know, if you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that you will die?

No, no, you're gonna be like God.

That's what Satan did with Jesus.

You remember in Matthew chapter 4 when Jesus is tempted by Satan himself, and and what is Jesus offered?

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

The whole kingdom of the earth if he will just listen to Satan.

Jesus comes to say there's only one path that leads to ultimate fulfillment.

It is the path of choosing God's will over what you want.

This is why he says his judgment, which he spoke about in these previous verses, is just.

This is why he is righteous.

Look at verse 30, the end there, because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

Loved one, do you want life?

Do you want fulfillment?

You want joy?

Do you want to feel love?

Do you want to find value?

Do you want to live in the identity that Christ has secured for you?

Then verse 30 needs to be the banner over your life.

I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

The Bible tells us this that we are in spiritual warfare, that Satan for thousands and thousands of years knows the heart of man like nobody else, and he will always tempt you with what you want.

Isn't that the interesting thing about sin?

Have you ever been tempted to something that you don't really want?

Answer is no, right?

Have you ever sinned in a way where you're like, no, I really don't want to do this, I really don't want to do this?

I mean, the answer is no.

The ways that we fall short, the ways that we disobey God, we often do so like diving in headfirst.

Because we believe that there is more joy in the path of disobedience than there is in the path of obedience.

How does this work?

Well, here's an example.

If you want to feel loved and appreciated, I mean, those are good things, right?

Can we agree those are good things that, you know, we should feel loved and appreciated.

And if that is something that you desire, that you want to feel loved and appreciated, you know what a temptation for you will be?

A temptation for you will be that you turn to those people closest to you and you demand that they satisfy that want for you.

And so you put an immense pressure, an immense responsibility on everyone around you to make sure that they make you feel the way that you want to feel.

And instead of turning to God, who says, if you put faith in my son Jesus Christ, all my love is pouring over you like the Niagara Falls it pours over you.

I lavish you in love through Jesus Christ.

Instead of turning to God, you will turn to your family and try to put on them a responsibility that they just cannot bear.

If you want to feel like you are something, you know what you'll do is you will start working really hard at your in your business, in your workplace, in your career, so that others notice you, so that you get promoted, so that you start to feel like you are something.

Because when you go to work, you feel like you're actually contributing something into the world.

And when God looks in the gospel and says this, listen, I've done it all for you.

You say, No, listen, I'm I'm gonna do this myself.

This is why Christian obedience will always be hard, because it requires the self-denial of your personal wants that you trade those for the God-glorifying decision of submissive obedience.

Loved one, obedience will always be hard.

You know, there are some areas of Christian obedience that for each of us are relatively easy, right?

There are some prayer warriors in this room who like prayer is not a difficult thing at all.

They love to pray.

They never miss a day, like every day they are praying, they are lifting things up to the Father.

It is so easy for them.

But but in their specific struggle, it's so incredibly hard.

Obedience will always be hard.

It requires that we listen to God's word even when it feels like it would go better if we went a different way.

I loved what we sang this morning.

We sang the words quiet the voice of doubt within.

Echo within every promise, something like that, right?

Because what's the battle?

What we need to do is quiet these voices of doubt that tell us that the path of fulfillment, that the path of joy, that the path of satisfaction is found on any other path than the path of obedience to God's word.

Listen, this is good.

It is good to set our expectations of what the battle with sin will be like until Jesus returns.

The battle with sin will be like a f a finger pressing into a wound deeper and deeper and deeper.

It is the wound of what you want.

And the battle will always be you standing up in faith and saying, even though the world offers me this, I'm looking to you, Jesus, believing that you are living water, that if I drink of you, I will never thirst again.

We give up our personal wants for a greater good.

We understand what this is like, right?

To give up what you want for something that you need.

I've been fascinated recently with a documentary on Netflix on the Tour de France.

Did I say that right?

France?

Did I put that on some sure a French person will send me an email and let me know, and that's okay.

But it's it's fascinating to watch these cyclists, you know, you know, they they devote their entire life to the sport, everything.

Like every morsel of food they they eat, or really they don't eat because they're like 70 pounds and four foot seven.

They they devote everything to this race.

They wake up early and they hop on the bike for hours and hours and hours.

They push through the pain of cycling as hard as they can, and then they push even farther, all so that they can win.

They are giving up everything that they want, all the food that they want to eat, all the sleep that they want to have, all the comfort that they want.

So that they can gain the prize of winning, sometimes not even winning, of even winning a portion of the Tour de France.

Why?

Because this momentary discomfort, it leads to something greater.

And so let me ask you, is obedience the same?

And the answer is yes, obedience will always be costly.

Obedience will always be costly.

Now, now there's such a word for us here, there's such a word for us here.

Because we we love comfort, don't we?

We love comfort.

And men, can I speak to you for a minute specifically?

Because you and I have been sold this message that manliness is about amassing for yourself as much comfort as you possibly can.

You get the man cave, you get the garage, you get the cottage, you get as many promotions as you can so that you can live the life you want and drive the kind of car that you want.

And I want you to know that you have been lied to, that true biblical manliness is about this.

It is about obedience to God's word.

You want to you want to do the hard thing?

Listen, the hard thing is not climbing the corporate ladder.

The hard thing is being the husband that God has called you to be.

It's pathetic.

It is pathetic that we promote this sort of idea of success that says you can be a success by climbing the corporate ladder, by having a great career, while at home your role as a husband is in complete shambles and your wife feels alone.

Your parents are growing up without, your kids are growing up without a father.

It's embarrassing.

The Bible comes to say that true manliness, that true manhood is found in doing the hard thing of obedience.

It's always the hard thing.

Well, here's what we've seen.

We must choose God's will over our wants.

Here's the second thing I want you to see.

We must try trust God's word over my wisdom.

Remember the context of this trial that Jesus is on, an informal trial, is that Jesus is claiming to be the Son of God.

The Pharisees were upset because Jesus had healed the man on the Sabbath, and Jesus sort of waved it in their face, saying, Well, only God works on the Sabbath, and I'm working.

Jesus was declaring that he was God.

And what Jesus does here in verse 31 to 39 is he tells us this that there's overwhelming testimony that affirms his identity as the Son of God.

And what Jesus is telling us this morning is this that the reason we should be willing to sacrifice our personal wants and endure the pain of complete submissive obedience is because he's given undeniable evidence to his identity.

This is the wonder of the Christian worldview that is that when Jesus came, he did not come without evidence.

Jesus was very aware how many skeptics were around in his day.

In fact, the Jewish people were of, among maybe of any worldview in human history, most skeptical of Jesus.

We think we're skeptical today.

And so Jesus came and he came with this undeniable testimony to his divine identity.

This is what Jesus is saying in verse 31.

If I alone bear witness but myself, my testimony is not true.

But in verse 32, he says this there is another who bears witness about me.

In fact, he'll point to three witnesses that sort of bear witness, that give testimony to the truthfulness that he is the Son of God.

And we hit the pause button to say here that if Jesus can prove that he is who he says he is, you and I, no matter what our worldview, should stop and listen.

In fact, I've had many conversations with unbelievers where I will ask them that question listen, if God were speaking, if God were the third person in this conversation and were speaking to us, and undeniably he could prove that he were God, what would you and I do?

And almost every person I have spoken to about that has said this.

Well, I guess we just listen.

And that's what Jesus is claiming here.

Jesus is claiming that he has evidence that he is the Son of God.

The first evidence is this.

He points to John the Baptist.

Notice this in verse 33.

Look at your Bible with me.

He says, You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.

See, the Pharisees, they had a respect for John the Baptist.

And they must admit that John the Baptist looked at Jesus and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

John believed what Jesus said about himself.

But Jesus wants to make an even greater appeal, and in verse 36, he will say this, but the testimony that I have is even greater than that of John.

Why?

Because the second person that gives testimony to Jesus' work is the Father.

You know what the creator of this world has done?

Is he has pointed to Jesus Christ, and he has said to you and me through his word, this is the one.

Follow him.

Listen, God, the creator of the world, like I think we gotta just, you know, sometimes reset our brain because we we just allow these things to sort of take on a Christianese sort of meaning and we can't fathom the miraculous nature of it.

The creator of this world has pointed his finger at Jesus Christ of Nazareth and said, This is the one to follow.

How?

Well, Jesus says this in verse 36.

The testimony that I have is greater than that of John, for the works the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works I am doing, we've read of them in the Gospel of John, the healing, the miraculous multiplication of wine at the wedding in Cana.

Says, these very works I am doing bear witness to me, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.

When Jesus came, he ushered in the kingdom of his father.

The works that he was doing were he was doing to glorify the father.

And so how do you know that Jesus is who he says he is?

Well, he does not do his own works.

Isn't that the interesting about many other people who started either religions or cults is that the thing that they glorified was themselves.

Well, Jesus didn't come to glorify himself, Jesus came to glorify the Father.

The way that you know that he is true is that he does not do his own works, he does the fathers.

In other words, Jesus works for the kingdom of heaven.

He does not work for the kingdom of earth.

So if you have a friend, you know, many bankers in this church, and I'm beginning to worry about all the various factions of bankers we have, you know, people from CIBC and people from RBC, and you know, I've never heard of the bank splitting the church, but it might in this case, and so we're we got our eyes on it.

But if you talk to someone in our church and they work at T D, which you'll hear all the people from C I B C boo, you know.

If they work at T D, one of the ways that you know they work at T D is when you walk into RBC, they're not behind the counter at RBC, right?

They're not doing the works of RBC, they're doing the works of T D.

And this is what Jesus is saying.

He's not doing the works of himself, he's doing the works of heaven.

He comes on behalf of the Father.

His works have miraculous credibility, and they are the works of the Father.

Lastly, and most importantly, he points to the third witness, and that is the witness of the Word.

Look at verse 39.

He says to the Pharisees, you search the scriptures.

Now, I think at this point in Jesus' speech, that it is hilarious what he just said.

You search the scriptures.

To say that to the Pharisees, like the only response we could give is this no duh.

That is all the Pharisees did.

All they did was read the Old Testament, all they did was study the Torah.

That was like their life.

Now Jesus looks at them in verse 39 and says, You search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life.

It is they that they that bear witness about me.

The Pharisees were engaged in the pursuit that we've been talking about.

The Pharisees wanted fulfillment.

The Pharisees wanted to find meaning in life, they wanted to be valued, and they found a system.

The system was religious adherence to the law.

They found all the laws in the Bible and they they made them into like its own separate book, and then they even added laws to that book.

And they said, if you look like this, then you're gonna be close with God, you're gonna be valuable, you're gonna be successful in life.

It's very different in many ways from how you and I live today.

We live in a secular culture that does not really value religious adherence.

If you tell your neighbors, I am going to church on a Sunday morning, what will they do with you?

They will look at you like you are the weirdest person in the world, right?

We don't live in a culture that elevates religious adherence to religious systems.

The Pharisees did.

You know, as much clout as you can get by saying that, you know, you are some bigwig and some corporate, you know, structure, you could get by saying that you were a religious adherent to the law.

And so what I want you to understand is this that what the Pharisees had done is they had attached themselves to a system that they had created themselves and believed that if they just adhered to the system, they would be valuable people, that they would find meaning in life.

And what you and I do is no different.

What you and I do, each in our own different way, each with our own different system, is we create sort of this system, sort of this life, and we say if we can live this life, then we will find meaning, we will find purpose, we'll find fulfillment, we'll find value.

So maybe your system is self-improvement.

Believe if you read the right books, if you have the right mindset, if you practice the right self-discipline, you read the right food, you look the right way, then you will really be valuable.

Maybe it's career success that you'll really find fulfillment once you reach a certain level, once you accomplish a certain task.

Maybe it's relationships.

That what you really need in life is for your relationships, maybe with your family to look a certain way, or with your significant other to look a certain way.

What I want you to understand is that you and I are like the Pharisees, but listen, here's the good news.

This is what God has done.

God has written a book, and this is what Jesus points to the Pharisees.

I love how practical this is for you and I.

Jesus points to the Pharisees and says, This, listen, that book that you say you are searching, you have completely misunderstood its meaning.

Every single line in that book, you could trace a scarlet thread to me.

I mean, it's a st if Jesus isn't the Son of God, that is the most astoundingly prideful thing he could ever say.

This whole book that has been written over thousands and thousands of years, it all points to me.

But if he is the son of God, it is the most helpful thing he could say.

Gives us a hermeneutic of how to understand God's word.

God has spoken, and every word has revealed his son.

There is not a line in this book that does not point to the sun.

That is why every week that you come to this church, we sing about Jesus, we preach about Jesus, and then we go home and reach the world for Jesus.

Because that's all we have.

Sometimes I'm preaching and I'm preparing sermons and I start to think like, man, they're probably gonna expect something else other than Jesus this week.

They're gonna start to realize that I'm a one-trick pony, but then I realize that if I if I go to any other pony, so to speak, I've lost everything.

We only have one thing to preach about because the Bible is only about one thing.

It is about Jesus.

And so if you're sick about hearing Jesus, I can tell you where to go.

The door is at the back.

Because it's all we have.

And if you search in the scriptures for something else, some of us do this.

We want something from the scriptures, some sort of life hack, some sort of faith hack.

The answer is always Jesus.

It is always Jesus.

This is the problem with the Pharisees.

Look at verse 40 with me.

Get your eyes on the text.

Look at verse 40 with me.

Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

The application is so clear.

We must get into God's word.

The word of God is the window.

You look through it, and every time you look through it, you see life.

We got to get into God's word.

This is why so much of what we do here at redemption in our discipleship is a work to get ourselves into the word of God.

This is why every ministry we have at redemption is centered around God's word.

This is why the first mark, you guys learned about this in step two, and many of us have forgotten about it, but we really the core of our discipleship plan is three marks of a maturing disciple.

That a maturing disciple abides in Christ, connects in the church, and reaches the community.

And this is why the first of those marks is abiding in Christ.

You must abide in Christ.

There is no growth apart from abiding in Christ.

And the primary way you do that is through reading the word.

You must constantly look out the window of God's word to see that life is in Jesus.

Listen, if you're not doing that, if you are not regularly engaged in God's word, yes, I mean personally, but I also mean corporately.

I also mean with other believers.

Whether it's on a Sunday morning or in a smaller group of people where you're like really getting into the nitty gritty, let me tell you this: you will be tempted by lesser glories.

You just will be.

You know, one of the fascinating things about me, and I'm sure that many of us are the same, I know some of you aren't, but when I am hungry, I don't do well at all.

I really crum, I mean, you can probably believe that about me.

I really crumble.

I talk about food so much, you're like, yeah, uh no duh.

I crumble quickly.

Like I don't get hangry, but I get like ravenously hungry.

And I gotta make sure that I'm constantly kind of like topped up.

Otherwise, if I'm hungry and I'm driving, I will stop at any grocery store and I will eat like a pack of double stuffed Oreos.

And I'm not talking about like, you know, this the individual size, I'm talking about the family size.

I get so hungry, at that moment, I will reach for anything that I can.

I'm ravisously hungry.

I don't care about nutrition, I don't care about what it is, like I just want to feel full.

You know when I can make the right decision with food, the nutritious decision?

That's when I'm not ravenously hungry.

Then I have the mind to say, okay, what's actually gonna satisfy?

What's actually gonna fill me up?

What's actually gonna satisfy my hunger in a lasting way?

And you know, your relationship with the Lord is like that.

The reason why obedience is so difficult for some is because you are so starved of getting into God's word that you are just willing to reach for anything.

But once you train yourself and you're regularly getting into God's word, you know what begins to happen?

The things that once seemed glorious to you are less and less glorious, and the things that you read of in God's word become your desire.

Fill yourself up on God's word.

You know what you'll crave more of?

God's word.

There's a word here for some who maybe you're in a season where you just feel far from the Lord, and you need to know what you need to do is to press in even deeper into God's word.

Like when you're not feeling it, what you need to do is press in even deeper with greatest, greater uh dependency and desp in a desperate way into God's word.

Fill yourself up on Him, and you'll crave more of Him.

Third thing I want you to see really quickly is this that we must seek God's glory over our reputation.

Heart of the issue here, Jesus exposes in verse 43.

Says, I've come in my father's name, and this is what we've been talking about that Jesus is attested to, his testimony is true, and he has many witnesses.

I have come in my father's name, he says in verse 43, and you do not receive me.

If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.

In other words, what Jesus says is this the creator of the world has put his stamp of approval on Jesus.

You know, we love Google reviews, don't we?

My wife has a spiritual gift of reading Google reviews and finding the best restaurant, finding the best recipe.

We love when other people give their sort of stamp of approval, this is the place to go, this is the recipe to make.

And what God the Father has done is pointed to the Son and said, This is the pursuit to take up in your life if you want joy and fulfillment and happiness.

If you want validation, God the Father points to the Son and says, You will find it here.

If you want fulfillment, God the Father points to the Son and says, You will find it here.

The issue is, and this is why John the Gospel writer writes the issue is, do you believe it?

And this is exactly what he gets at in verse 44.

Look at what he says.

How can you believe when you receive glory from another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

The issue is belief.

They knew exactly what sacrifice Jesus was calling to them to.

The issue is that they believed that human praise would give them more than God's favor would.

They believed that they could squeeze more out of human praise than they could out of God's glory.

At this point in the message, maybe you're feeling like Christianity calls you to give up.

I remember feeling like that.

I remember after I came to Christ, for years I sort of lived with this mentality that like as a Christian you're missing out.

I remember a pastor preaching one time about how fun sin would be.

And kind of thinking there, sitting there, thinking, as, you know, I he preached what I think is a borderline heretical sermon, thinking, like it would be fun.

It would be, you know, as a teenager, it would be my greatest good if I could just live a life of reckless abandon following my own way.

That would be so good.

It wasn't until I read a book by John Piper, and I've talked about this before, but the book was called Desiring God, and there he laid out this picture that in Christianity you actually don't lose anything.

You only gain.

You are like the man who finds a treasure in the field with uh of great value, and what does he do?

With great joy, he goes and sells all that he has so that he can have a greater treasure.

Jim Elliott, a missionary, said this, it is no fool.

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Maybe you're here, you're wrestling with the faith.

And maybe what's kept you from Christianity is believing that Christianity asks you too much.

And I want you to understand this morning that it's exactly the opposite.

That when you come to Christ, you don't lose anything.

Though you give up everything, what you gain is greater.

What you lose for Christ in the cost of discipleship will not even be a thought.

When we find Christ, we find the treasure that makes everything else seem insignificant.

That's the call that Christ gives to you if you haven't placed your faith in him.

And there are a number of people in this room that would give testimony, just like John the Baptist did, just like the Father did, just like the Word did, to say this that it is true, that there is no happiness that is greater than the pursuit of God.

Here is the problem that we live in this world.

In the kingdom, the ruler of this world, the prince of the power of the air, Satan himself has done everything to cause you to believe that maybe that's not true, that maybe there's joy somewhere else.

And the question for you this morning is do you believe?

Do you believe?

Jesus has been clear.

He has committed himself to us.

He has come to this world.

He performs these signs and miracles, pointing to the ultimate sign and miracle that he will perform, his death and resurrection on the cross.

The question that he has for us this morning is: have we committed ourselves to him?

Have you given him your will over your want?

Have you committed to his word over your wisdom?

And do you seek his glory over your reputation?

We have a unique opportunity this morning to practically apply this message in three ways, very practically together as a community.

And the first way that we can celebrate this together and practically apply this to our lives together is through membership.

This morning is membership recognition Sunday, and we have an incredible privilege as a church to recognize 22 people all together who have made this commitment to this local church, but ultimately to God to say this that God, I want to serve your kingdom.

I want to do it through your church.

Church involvement is incredibly important.

It was Tim Keller who said this.

There is no way you'll be able to grow spiritually apart from a deep involvement in a community of other believers.

You can't live the Christian life without a band of Christian friends, without a family of believers in which you find a place.

Only, he says, if you are a part of a community of believers seeking to resemble, serve, and love Jesus, will you ever get to know him and grow in his likeness?

Membership is an important part of the life of this church.

It demonstrates a commitment to Christ.

It demonstrates a commitment to his work, but it also demonstrates a commitment to the living organism that he is building here.

That is his church.

It's a commitment to live out our discipleship and our devotion to Christ.

And we talked about what that looks like already, what a maturing disciple looks like.

It is a disciple who abides in Christ, who connects in the church and reaches the community.

And membership is a commitment to that.

With that being said, I'm going to invite their names are going to come up on the screen.

A lot of names to read, and so I'm going to invite them to come up and join us here on the stage.

These are the uh people who are being recognized this morning as members.

Why don't we just give them a hand of a round of applause?

Break up some of the silence here this morning.

And we'll just keep going.

Yeah, we'll just keep it going.

That's great.

That's great.

And there are a number who are not up here, maybe serving in kids' ministry or or away this morning, and we'll get them again another Sunday.

As we recognize you guys as members, I want to ask you a few questions.

The first is this: will you commit to abiding in Christ through a life of faithful worship, living in obedience to his word, pursuing him through spirit personal spiritual disciplines, striving toward holiness in all areas of your life?

The answer is we will.

Will you commit to connecting in the church by prioritizing our times of fellowship together, engaging in discipleship with others, and faithfully serving your church family and maintaining unity within the body of Christ?

Will you commit to reaching the community with the good news of Jesus Christ, proclaiming the life-gaving message of forgiveness for sins, and longing to see others become followers of Jesus as well?

Church family, this question is then for you.

Church, will you strive to help them by praying for them, encouraging them in these commitments, building them up as disciples of Christ as we continue to grow in love and unity together?

We will.

Let me pray and thank God for what he's done this morning.

God, we bow in your presence.

And Lord, we thank you for the commitment that these brothers and sisters in Christ have made to you.

God, you are the one who created your church.

It was Jesus in Matthew 16 who said that on the rock of Peter's confession, he would build his church.

And God, this morning we see the extension of that, Lord, that you are building your church.

God, that you are calling men and women to yourself, calling them to commit to the mission of the church to see lost people saved and saved people matured and mature people multiplied.

And so, Lord, we thank you for this commitment, and we pray for each of these brothers and sisters in Christ, Lord.

We pray that you would bless them in this commitment.

Lord, that in every way in their pursuit of making disciples, God, that you would bless them richly.

God, thank you so much for this.

We pray this all in the name of your son.

Amen.

Amen.

You guys can grab a seat.

Another, I was really excited about this, about this opportunity to take communion.

Because there is an incredible corporate element of communion that we often miss out on.

You remember that when communion was instituted at the First Supper, it really was a meal of fellowship that Jesus held with his disciples.

It was a corporate thing.

And as we take the cup, the blood and the body of Jesus in its symbolism and representation, we're reminded that on that day that we drink of that cup in heaven, we will look beside ourselves and see none other than our brothers and sisters in Christ.

And I just imagine on that day, you know, our church will lock eyes and we'll lift up our hands with this sort of cheer of like we made it.

This is what every communion we took together pointed towards, towards the day that we would share it together in heaven.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 16 to 17, Paul says this the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not anticipation, or is it not participation in the blood of Christ?

1 Corinthians 10:16–17

The bread that we break, notice the corporate language, is it not participation in the body of Christ?

Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body.

For we all partake of the one bread.

This is a family meal.

What a joy it is corporately to begin to be able to celebrate this alongside 22 other brothers and sisters in Christ who have just formally committed themselves to this family to say this: this is my church, this is my family, this is our meal.

Communion is a symbol given to us by Jesus Himself.

And there's two reasons why you would pass on it this morning.

One is if you've never actually placed your faith in Jesus Christ, and so you actually aren't a part of the family that he is creating through salvation.

If you're not a believer, we'd ask that you just let this pass by you.

The other is that you are a believer, but you are living in a season of unrepentant sin.

That doesn't mean that you have sin, but it means that you are unwilling to deal with that sin, and God has pressed his finger of conviction into your life, but you have said no.

And Paul says that it's better to drink a cup of judgment than to take communion under that.

And so we just ask that you repent and enjoy communion with us, or that you pass on communion this time.

Jesus instituted communion, and as you take your cup, you're gonna notice that there is a top layer there that will get you to the bread.

We'll take that together this morning.

It was Jesus who said, when he had given thanks and broken the bread, this is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Let's take it together.

In the same way, also, we're told he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is a new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

Let's take the cup together.

Let me pray.

Father, we thank you so much that, Lord, you have done all the work of committing yourself to us.

And Lord, we are left without question because of what we just participated in.

God, you shed sent your son and he shed his blood.

His flesh was pierced, so that we could partake in this cup together, so that we could confess together our union with him, that his death was in our place, and that the benefit is ours, that we have found salvation in his name, by his blood.

And so we give you all the praise, Lord.

And in light of the commitment that Christ has made to us, God, we take this cup and commitment to him to say, Lord, that not only do we receive him as our Savior, but we receive him as our Lord, that our heart is his, that our life is his, that our love is his.

God, we are yours.

We commit ourselves to you to say, Lord, that it's your will over our wants, that it's your word over our wisdom, that it's your glory over our reputation.

God, may this be true of our lives.

May you, by the power of your Holy Spirit, grow us to have kingdom values, God.

We pray this all in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Three ways we get to participate membership, communion.

The third is by singing simple song, I love you, Lord.

And let us sing this as a declaration that we desire God's favor, we desire God's love more than anything.

Would you stand and sing with me?