Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.watermarkchurch.hk/sermons/81885/the-light-of-the-world/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] All right, it's great to see you. If you're visiting today, my name is Niels, also one of the leaders here. I'll be preaching in a moment. Yeah, we're going to turn to God's word. Hope you have a Bible because that's what we're going to look at today. In a moment, Kristen will come and read parts of today's passage. But before we do that, why don't we pray for God to speak to us.

[0:20] As we heard in last week's passage, Simon Peter answered Jesus, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that you're the Holy One of God. Lord, we thank you for the words of eternal life that we have here in this book, the words of Jesus, your son. We pray that we would believe that he is the Holy One of God and receive eternal life. Please speak to each of our hearts today in Jesus' name.

[0:49] Amen. Great. Good morning. Today's reading, scripture reading is from John chapter 7, verse 1 to 18. And then we move on to verse 37 to 39. And then chapter 8, verse 12 to 18. Starting in chapter 7, verse 1, we read, And then you read, He would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him.

[1:27] Now the Jews' feast of booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you're doing.

[1:41] For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. For not even his brothers believed in him.

[1:53] Jesus said to them, my time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it, that its works are evil.

[2:08] You go up to the feast. I'm not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come. After this, he remained in Galilee. But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but in private.

[2:26] The Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, where is he? And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, he's a good man, others said, no, he's leading the people astray.

[2:43] Yet for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him. About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews, therefore, marveled, saying, how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied?

[3:00] So Jesus answered them, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

[3:16] The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory. But the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.

[3:28] In verse 37 we read, On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

[3:42] Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive.

[3:56] For as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. In chapter 8, verse 12, we read, Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world.

[4:15] Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. So the Pharisees said to him, You are bearing witness about yourself. Your testimony is not true.

[4:28] Jesus answered, Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I'm going. But you do not know where I come from or where I'm going.

[4:40] You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

[4:53] In your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.

[5:05] This is the word of God. Great. Thank you, Kristen. So we didn't read the whole passage.

[5:17] I'll come and explain why in a moment. Let me get the papers ready. Here we go.

[5:29] Well, now, if you were here last week, you may remember what we talked about, right? One thing we wondered is it would be great if we'd see more people, you know, come to put their trust in Jesus.

[5:43] That's what we want as a church. We think Jesus is amazing news. We'd love to see more people believe, but, you know, it's not happening as much as we'd like it to be. Maybe that's something that you struggle with.

[5:56] Maybe you wonder, well, isn't this true? How can this be true? So few people believe it, right? Surely if this is amazing from God, we'd see great revivals.

[6:06] And we thought about last week what would help. Like, would people want to see more miracles? Maybe that will help. Maybe they would have to meet Jesus personally. That would help. Well, if you were here last week, we could see from John's gospel that that was not the case, right?

[6:20] Because there were a big crowd of people, thousands, and Jesus did an amazing miracle. And they met him, they listened to him, and they walked away. And why did they walk away?

[6:32] Well, because his message is really hard, right? What he talks about is difficult. But then there's a very obvious solution, right? Why don't we just change the message? Why don't we tone it down a bit, right?

[6:45] Wouldn't that help? Because I can see that, right? We sometimes run a course here for people to help explore Christianity, and we get a handful of people, right?

[6:56] And after three weeks, they stop coming, because they don't like to hear about sin. And then there's this other church. They run this other course, and they've got, like, 150 people coming. And, you know, afterwards, they all start coming to the church.

[7:08] Wouldn't that be wonderful, right? That's what we want as well, right? More people just to be together, right? Maybe more giving, more serving. I don't know, right? Various things. Why don't we do that?

[7:19] Maybe, you know, if you're here and you're visiting today, you're slightly apprehensive, because you don't always like the message of Christianity, right? You don't like to be told that Jesus is the only way.

[7:30] Maybe you want to bring a friend to church, but it's so offensive for them to hear. They're from another religion, and so I don't want them to always hear that Jesus is the only way, and that kind of thing.

[7:41] Can we just leave it out? Well, I think today is going to be a very helpful message as we think about that. Now, just a few words on this section of John's Gospel.

[7:53] I'm going to spend basically two weeks speaking about chapters seven and eight together. Why do I do that? Well, because I think it's one long section, and, you know, if it belongs together, it's good to cover it in one go.

[8:09] I don't know if you've probably... We didn't read the whole thing, because that would be 15 minutes. There is this section in the middle about a woman caught in adultery. That seems to have been inserted later.

[8:20] You can ask me why, but if you go back to 8 verse 12, you will notice, you know, again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I'm the light of the world.

[8:31] It's in the middle of a conversation, right? So clearly, you know, it's one big section. And so that's what I want to do, but there's a lot in there. So I'm going to basically look at it from two angles.

[8:41] Today, we're going to look at Jesus. Next time, we're going to look at the Jews, the Jewish leaders, because all these chapters are a big confrontation between those two.

[8:54] So, yeah, that's just so you know. It means that we need to flick around a bit, right? We're going to, you know, 8 verse 12, and then 7 verse 28, and those kind of things. So I hope you've got a Bible in front of you. But we're going to, yeah, look at it, basically look at Jesus.

[9:09] And I think for this chapter, we need a bit of context. John wrote primarily to, I guess, people from a Jewish background, or, you know, people who knew a lot about it, because he assumes a lot of, you know, Jewish background that maybe we don't have.

[9:26] And so when does this take place, these two chapters? Well, the context is the Feast of Booths. And that's what it says in 7 verse 2.

[9:37] Now the Feast of Booths was at hand. Booths, the Feast of Tabernacles is what is sometimes called the Feast of Tents. Right? Because Jesus has some famous sayings, right?

[9:48] I am the light of the world, rivers of living water. We put them on a calendar on our wall, but actually they come in a certain context. Right? What is the, why a Feast of Tents?

[9:59] It's one of the three big festivals of the Jews where they all had to come to Jerusalem. And they had to build tents and kind of live in them for a week to remember something.

[10:09] And apparently this is a photo of something modern. People still building kind of huts to live in for this festival. People still do that. Why? Well, the past few weeks we've been talking about the Exodus, the great rescue in the Old Testament, when God brought his people out of Egypt and they had to go through the desert.

[10:30] How could they live? Well, they lived in tents. And so in this festival, they remembered how God rescued them. And they all lived in tents to just remember, oh yeah, God was so good. He got us through the desert, right?

[10:41] He got us to the promised land. So yeah, that's why we have these tents. They remember the journey. They didn't just, so yeah, there were hundreds of thousands of Israelites all together in Jerusalem.

[10:54] They didn't just remember the tents. They remembered God's provision of them. And two big things were water and light. Water because God provided water for them from the rock, right?

[11:08] If you're in the desert, you need water. You know, there was no water. But God miraculously out of a rock provided like enough water for 2 million people. That's amazing, right?

[11:19] God's provision of water. And of course, the light, like on the next slide, there was this pillar of fire that guided them, right?

[11:29] You're in the desert. You don't know where to go. But God was with them in this kind of this pillar of fire. So they just had to follow, you know, follow the clouds, follow the lights. And they would get to the promised land.

[11:41] God's amazing provision for them, right? And they would celebrate that. So apparently, you know, in the temple, they would have these, they would erect four like huge lights, like big lamps that would burn all night to remember the lights.

[11:58] On the last day, they would have a huge vat of water from the pool of Siloam. And they would kind of carry that through the city and pour water from it, right?

[12:08] To remember the water. Well, imagine that festival. And now see what Jesus is doing, right? Because 7 verse 37.

[12:20] On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

[12:36] Right? That's why he's talking about water. Come to me. I can give you living water. And then he goes up to the temple. 8 verse 12. Right? I am the light of the world.

[12:47] Whoever believes in me will not walk in darkness, but have eternal life. Right? Suddenly, these statements come alive. He's talking to these people who are celebrating. They're remembering God's water, God's light.

[12:59] And he says, well, that's me, right? I am the light. And I can give you water. I don't know. Jesus is pretty. I don't know how this feels to you. Jesus is a pretty controversial guy.

[13:11] Right? Standing up at these festivals and kind of, hey, it's all about me. I guess we don't see this festival anymore. I mean, I don't know. How could you compare it? Imagine our Muslim friends.

[13:22] They have this pilgrimage. Right? They go to Mecca. There's this big stone. And all of them go around the stone and those kind of things. And then someone stands up and says, hey, come to me.

[13:34] You know, that's just a rock. But I'm from Allah. And I can give you his blessing. Come to me. You know, how would that come across? Jesus is, wow. Right? He, I mean, he does it to be a good communicator.

[13:48] But he's pretty full of himself. I don't know if you noticed that. Right? He has a pretty high view of himself. If you kind of stand up and say, hey, all of what you're doing, I'm the true thing.

[14:00] But that's what he's saying. Right? What is he saying? I'm the true rescuer. You're a rescuer. I am. I'm from God. I'm the true. Last week, the bread.

[14:11] That was not the real bread. I'm the bread of life. Right? I can give you living water. I am, you know, the light. Later, I am the good shepherd. Right?

[14:22] We have these famous sayings of Jesus. But all of them are the same. Right? All of them is, you know, what you've been waiting for. That thing from the Old Testament. It's all me.

[14:32] Right? I'm the fulfillment. I'm the true rescuer. That is what we see. Right? And then suddenly, these things, I hope that makes it come alive. This is what Jesus is saying.

[14:44] And these people knew. And so you'd say, I guess you'd expect a big response. But at the same time, they help us understand it. Right? Well, what does Jesus mean when he talks about water and light?

[14:55] Well, look at that context. Right? We're not going to talk much about the water. Because actually, John did that in chapter 4. But let's explore this idea of light. What does Jesus mean with light?

[15:08] Well, I think it means this. That Jesus is the truth that brings us to eternal life. Jesus is the truth that brings us to eternal life.

[15:18] Right? Because what is the idea of light? Well, go back to the Exodus. Right? Go back to that cloud of, you know, that pillar of fire going through the desert.

[15:30] You're in the desert. You need to know the way. You need to get to the promised land. How do you do that? Well, you get to the fire. And you stay with the fire. Right? You stay with the light. And you follow the light.

[15:41] And that's how you get there. Right? That's why he says, if anyone, well, 8 verse 12. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness. But will have the light of life. Right?

[15:52] God is there to show you the way. So you follow him. Right? That's the idea. God's presence is what you need. I mean, light is a wonderful thing. I mean, darkness.

[16:03] Darkness is about ignorance and evil and death and sin. Light is, well, God is light. Right? It's purity and life and beauty and truth and all those things.

[16:16] And in these chapters particularly, yeah, truth is often emphasized. Right? That's why he's the light. Like later in 8, didn't read it, 8 verse 32. Right? If you're abide in my word, you're truly my disciples.

[16:29] And you will know the truth. And the truth will set you free. And the thing here is that eternal life is not just a one-off thing. We often think of that, right? You know, you believe in Jesus.

[16:40] Boom. You have eternal life. In some ways that's true. Right? Because Jesus has done everything. But in another way, you need to follow the light. You're not there yet. You need to. Okay. You're with the fire, with the light.

[16:52] But you now need to follow the light. And you need to follow it all the way to the promised land. And you shouldn't wander off. Right? That's the idea. You need to. You have this relationship now. But you need to get there.

[17:03] Because it's eternal life. It's for after you die. That's the idea. Right? Because, yeah, you're not. I hope that's not a surprise to any of us that we're going to die one day.

[17:16] Well, until then, yeah, you need to keep going. And, okay, what will happen? Right? Jesus, yeah, he says, you need me.

[17:29] I am the light. I'm the light that gets you there. Because, I mean, do we really know what happens after death if it wasn't for Jesus? Right?

[17:40] Many people are confused. What happens? Will we rot? Will we stop existing? Is there a kind of life? How do you get that life? What do you need to do for it? All these questions are what people are asking.

[17:52] Right? It's important for us. It's important for everyone in the world. Well, we don't know by ourselves. We don't know the future. We are really in the dark. We need someone to tell us.

[18:04] We need someone to guide us. And Jesus says, well, that's me. Right? I can tell you that. Why? Well, because I'm from there. Right?

[18:14] There's all these verses about how, yeah, where he is and where he's from. Right? 7 verse 28, for example. Right? What does he say? He who sent me is true.

[18:26] And him you do not know. But I know him. For I come from him. And he sends me. Right? I know God. I come from him. And so my teaching is true. Right? 8 verse 23.

[18:37] You are from below. I'm from above. You're of this world. I'm not of this world. Right? I'm from above. I can tell you. Right? The father sent me. Therefore, you know, he is from there.

[18:48] So he can get you there. He can tell you. Right? If you want to, imagine you want to go on holiday to South Africa. Who should you ask? Don't ask me. Ask Kevin. Right?

[18:58] Why? He is from there. Right? Yeah. He'll take you there. That's the thing. Right? Who can tell you the truth about God? Who can tell you about heaven? About eternity?

[19:10] Well, Jesus says, I can do that. Right? He, well, he can tell you the truth. More than that. He is the truth. Right? If you want to know about God, actually, he was here.

[19:23] He walked around in a human body. And you could see his character, his love. You could see him dying on the cross. I mean, he doesn't just tell you, go over there. No, he, he did everything to get you there.

[19:36] And he came down to be with us, to die for us, to then take us and take us home. If we stay with him. So he is the truth that brings us to eternal life. And he puts it very starkly.

[19:46] Right? Eight verse 24. Right? Unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. You will die because of our, your wrongdoing.

[19:57] Because of your sin. It's so stark. And so, yeah, we need that just like last week. Now, how do we apply that? What does that mean? Okay.

[20:07] We believe this. What does Jesus want us to do? Remember, it's not just a one-off. It's a, it's a following thing, which I think means, well, we need to hold on to Jesus' words.

[20:19] We need to hold on to Jesus' words. Because that is what Jesus keeps on telling people to do. Right? Look at, you know, eight verse 31. If you abide in my words, you are truly my disciples.

[20:32] Right? If you remain in my words, if you, if you keep it. Verse 47. Whoever, whoever hears the words, you know, whoever is from God, hears the words of God.

[20:43] And not just hears once, but keeps on hearing, keeps on listening to the words of God. Eight verse 51. What does he say? If anyone keeps my words, he will never taste death.

[20:54] You get the point, right? Abide in my words. Keep my words. Hold on to my words. You see it in a negative example. So, again, we're not looking much at all the negative responses.

[21:06] But if you've read these chapters before, you know that, well, the Jewish people aren't listening to him. Right? He says something and they say, oh, you've got a demon. You're a Samaritan.

[21:18] Right? What you say isn't true. Or they want to pick up stones and kill him. But why? Why? It's all about, again, his words. Right? Did you hear it in the reading? Seven verse seven.

[21:29] The world can't hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its words are evil. They don't like his words. What does he say in 8 verse 37?

[21:45] What does he say? You seek to kill me because my words find no place in you. And then a few verses later, verse 43. Why do you not understand what I say?

[21:55] It's because you cannot bear to hear my words. Right? All through these chapters, Jesus' words. We need to hold on to it. We need to accept it. Hold on to it.

[22:06] Keep it. And not reject it. Right? That's the application. You know, if you believe Jesus, okay, he is God's true rescuer. He's the truth that brings us to eternal life. Well, we need to hold on to his words.

[22:18] Hold on to what he says. It's pretty, yeah, it's pretty straightforward. Right? Especially if we don't like them, maybe. We need to keep believing them. Don't walk away from them. Don't change them. And what kind of words?

[22:31] Well, I guess what he means is the gospel. I mean, Jesus said lots of things. And it's easy to think, oh, yeah, things like love your neighbor. That's not really what Jesus focuses on.

[22:42] Right? He doesn't go and stand in the temple. Love your neighbor. Don't judge. Or you will be judged. Right? He doesn't say those things here. I mean, he says this in other things. Okay?

[22:52] This is how you live as a Christian. And those kind of things. But what he's saying here, it's not those things. I mean, because those things don't save you. Right? Jesus, it's so clear from these chapters.

[23:04] Right? Jesus is not just a moral teacher. Still, many people think, okay, Jesus, he was this nice moral teacher. But I hope when you see him in a temple talking, I'm from God.

[23:16] Believe in me or you will die. That is not a nice moral teacher. As C.S. Lewis said. Right? This guy is either crazy or he's a fraud. Or he's telling the truth. But he's not just a nice teacher.

[23:29] But, no, it's not about those things. Well, what is he saying? Well, he's saying the gospel. Right? He's talking about how wretched we are. You will die in your sins. 8 verse 33.

[23:43] Whoever practices sin is a slave to sin. We are enslaved to sin. And slaves can't make themselves free. Right? You are not from God.

[23:55] Next week he's going to say they're children of the devil. I mean, it's pretty wretched. And he talks about how great he is. Right? How he is from God. And, you know, if you keep my words, you can have eternal life.

[24:07] Who dare say that? I mean, he is really, well, this is what he says of himself. Right? Later he calls himself I am. I'm the God. I'm the Old Testament God.

[24:19] You need to believe in me. But it's the gospel. Right? How we are sinners and we can't save ourselves. And, well, and he is great and he can save us. So we need him.

[24:29] That's the gospel. Right? Loving your neighbor is good. But it doesn't save you. Because we can't love our neighbor enough. Right? It's a good thing. If you're a slave, you need someone to free you.

[24:41] Right? If you're lost, you need someone to find you. And it's the hopelessness. It's the gospel. So that's what we need to do. To accept the gospel and to hold on to it.

[24:52] To not move away from the good news of Jesus. All these truths. Because it's the gospel that saves you. Right? The gospel is what gets us to Jesus.

[25:03] And Jesus is the one who saves us. So, yeah, that's why we need the gospel. I hope that makes sense. It's something we say often here as a church. Right? One of our values is the gospel. We are renewed by the gospel.

[25:14] Yeah. That's because that's what Jesus says. Now, let's talk a bit about that. What kind of implications would that have? First of all, maybe let's think about for those who don't yet believe.

[25:25] Let's think about, well, for being saved. Right? I guess how I started our message as a church. Should we change our message? Right?

[25:36] Maybe that's attractive. Max is more popular. But I hope you see that it's not really the good thing. Right? Would people be saved if we stopped talking about Jesus?

[25:47] People won't be offended. But they also won't be saved. Right? We can't do that. We have. People need to hear about Jesus. Again, if you're here and you're visiting, you would call yourself a Christian.

[25:59] Yeah. We keep going on about Jesus because that's what we need to hear. And it's a tough message. Right? How we're slaves to wrongdoing. And, you know, we're going to die. And only Jesus can help you.

[26:10] I know it's offensive. But it's what you need. And Jesus says it because he loves you. And we say it because we love you. Right? Warning someone is loving. I hope we see that.

[26:23] I hope you feel a warning someone is loving. I mean, a silly typhoon illustration. Right? Imagine we have lunch on Friday. And you ask me, okay, what are you going to do this weekend?

[26:34] I'm going to go windsurfing. This is not me, by the way. This is... Right? But, yeah. I'm going to go all the way around. I'm going to start in the wetland park around all the islands, all the way to Wongsek Pier.

[26:47] Right? That's what I'm going to do. And you've seen the weather forecast. And you know there's a typhoon coming. Are you going to warn me? I think the loving thing we need to say, well, you'd better counsel that and stay inside.

[27:00] There's a typhoon coming. Right? That would be a loving thing. And I think you... I hope you wouldn't say that, well, I don't want to be patronizing. You know? I don't want to ruin his day.

[27:10] So let me just keep quiet. No. Warnings are loving. And Jesus puts it very starkly. If you don't believe in me, you will die under judgment for your sin, for your wrongdoing.

[27:25] It's a loving warning. I hope you see that. So, yes, as a church, we shouldn't change this message. Right? We need to hold on to it. And in some places, that's really difficult. Here in Hong Kong, we're pretty free to say what we want.

[27:38] But in other places, yeah, if you keep saying how Jesus is the only way and other religions don't get you there, that brings trouble with the police. And yet, we can't move on from this.

[27:51] Right? We need to hold on to this truth. But the thing is, it's holding on to Jesus' words, not just as a truth, but also let's think about the long term.

[28:03] Because most of us here, we would call ourselves Christians. Yeah, I believe that. Right? I put my trust in Jesus. Some time ago. I think this chapter is asking us, well, are you abiding in it?

[28:16] Are you, do you still believe it? Because we shouldn't move on from it. But I guess that's easy to do. Right? I mean, let's have a look in the mirror.

[28:27] Right? Do we still believe we are slaves to sin? I think it's very easy to forget. I mean, when I became a Christian 24 years ago, I just graduated university.

[28:39] I really knew I was a sinner. Absolutely. Right? I got drunk three times a week. Right? That, you know, yeah. It's not a good thing. Right? I studied electrical engineering.

[28:49] Just men, no women. So you can imagine the kind of joking we did. You can imagine the kind of attitudes we had. You can imagine what I watched on the internet and those kind of things.

[29:00] I really knew I was a sinner. And so, yeah, being a, if the gospel tells me I'm a sinner, I would believe that. But now, in some ways, my life is so much better.

[29:11] Right? I now have nice friends who are Christians and they don't get drunk and they don't make rude jokes. And so, you know, I fit in. I'm married. A lot less temptation. You know? And it's very easy to think I'm actually a pretty good person.

[29:25] Right? We have a confession of sin. And, yeah, yeah, I know I'm a sinner. That's what I believe. And yet, do I really, do I really believe it? Or is this also something, yeah, yeah, other people, they are sinners.

[29:39] They need Jesus. But by myself, actually, you know, it's very easy to move away from that. I think that's dangerous, right? You've been a Christian for a long time. Many things in your life are kind of sorted out.

[29:50] It's easy to think, I'm actually, I'm not that sinful. I'm not that bad. Right? Of course, the Bible would tell you, look at your heart. Look deep inside.

[30:01] It's very different. But so often we just look at the surface, right? And then it's so easy to move away from Jesus' teaching. Right? Or Jesus' greatness.

[30:11] Do I believe that he is great? That he is the only one who can save? That he is the greatest treasure? And as Christians, we know that, right? We know, yeah, Jesus is the greatest.

[30:22] And yet, I sometimes meet Christians and they seem a bit bored of Jesus. Right? Yeah, yeah, I know. He died to save us. Yeah, I know. And he's not that special anymore. Right? And there's more special things about the Christian faith now, about the environment or social justice or something.

[30:39] Jesus isn't that special anymore. I think that's dangerous, right? Because if you're moving away from, you're moving away from the only one who can save you because he's the only one who's from God. Right?

[30:50] I think that that's worth pondering. Are we holding on to Jesus' words? What we tell to others, do we believe it for ourselves? I think, yeah, it's a challenge for me.

[31:01] Do I still believe what I believed 10, 20, 30 years ago? No, maybe never lose Jesus' words in what we proclaim to others, in what we believe ourselves.

[31:12] I think this is a great hero. John Newton. I don't know if you know who John Newton is. He wrote to him Amazing Grace. I don't know if you knew what he did before he was a Christian.

[31:26] He was a slave trader. Right? So he would bring people from Africa to the U.S. and sell them and those kind of things. Well, he was a bad person. Right? He knew that. And then later he became a pastor.

[31:37] And it's very easy to think, wow, you know, now he's a good person, right, from slave trader to pastor. Well, this is what he said at the end of his life, age 82, I think. My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things.

[31:51] Yes, that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great savior. Right? Isn't that what we need to know? Isn't that what we need to hold on to? Even when we're 80.

[32:04] Well, yeah, let's make sure we remember. Let's make sure we keep hold of that. And that's what we're going to do in a moment. And I think it's so great that today, well, we're going to in a moment have communion as we celebrate the Lord's Supper together.

[32:19] This amazing gift of Jesus. You know, okay, I want to remember the gospel. I want to hold on to it. What can I do? Well, Jesus says, do this in remembrance of me.

[32:30] Right? Well, what do we take? What do we have here? It's not just about the wafer and the thing and the juice. You know, Jesus says, this is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for your forgiveness.

[32:44] It implies that we have done wrong and we need forgiveness. And Jesus' body had to be broken for us. His blood had to be shed for us.

[32:55] Right? It's the gospel. And, well, Jesus is basically preaching the gospel to us. I remember once visiting a church. I was visiting and I was struck that they never talked about the gospel.

[33:10] They never talked about sin. It was a sermon on knowing God loves you but never mentioned the cross. But then at the end of the service, we had communion. And they followed the liturgy, the official liturgy from the denomination.

[33:25] And it was full of the gospel. It was all about God's love and how Jesus died as a sacrifice and, you know, how much we need him. And it was wonderful when I left the service, moved and touched because we celebrated this together.

[33:40] Right? That's why we take it and we take this twice a month. And whether you've just been baptized or you've been a Christian for 60 years, take and eat and remember. Well, why don't I pray?

[33:52] And during that time, maybe the stewards can come up. Let's pray. Just give us a moment to reflect before I pray.

[34:14] Lord Jesus, we thank you for your words of eternal life.

[34:34] Lord, Lord, as we take now these elements, the Lord's Supper, Lord, remember, help us to remember these.

[34:54] Yeah, the gospel. Feed us. Strengthen us. Make us again see our great needs and your great provision of your death for our sins.

[35:06] Lord, would this be a special moment as we take this together? In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you.