Ultimate Fellowship

If God’s people would take their
Bibles and turn back once again to John’s Gospel, we find ourselves
in John chapter 14 once again. We’re in a section that I’ve
called practical discipleship. Practical because Jesus is answering
the apostles’ own questions. and giving them not just platitudes,
not just quick reference in scripture, but he’s dwelling down and giving
them solid answers and promises from his word. There are a series
of questions that have been posed to Christ, where, and how, and
who, And Jesus Christ has taken the opportunity for his apostles
to avail to them the very mysteries of God himself. We come to John’s Gospel, John
chapter 14, and just since we have We have spent so much time
in this gospel, I would just take you back to chapter 14,
verse 8, for the purpose of reminding us of his answer to Philip. He had already answered Peter’s
question of where, where are you going, where are you going
that I cannot go? How do we know the way, Thomas,
asks, if we don’t even know where you’re going, how do we know
the way? And Philip chimes in with a new
question about the father. Who is the father? Show us the
father. We don’t know who the father
is. Verse 8. Philip said to him,
Lord, show us the father and it is enough for us. Jesus said
to him, have I been so long with you and yet you have not come
to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the
Father. How can you say, show us the
Father? Do you not believe that I am
in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say
to you, I do not speak on my own initiative But the Father
abiding in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father
and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of
the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he
who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also. And greater works than these
he will do, because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name,
that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. If you love
me, you will keep my commandments. I will ask the Father and he
will give you another helper, that he may be with you forever.
That is the spirit of truth. whom the world cannot receive
because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because
he abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you
as orphans. I will come to you. After a little
while, the world will no longer see me, but you will see me.
Because I live, you will live also. And that day you will know
that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. He who has
my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. And
he who loves me will be loved by my Father. And I will love
him and will disclose myself to him.” As we saw when we started this
chapter, There was no hard break in chapter 14. Jesus is continuing
on in answering the question that Peter had posed to him,
where are you going that we cannot come? And it’s almost as if Jesus baits
Thomas because he says in verse 7, if you had known me you would
have known my father also from now on You know him and have
seen him. Thomas is responding to the statement
that Jesus makes in verse 4, correction, you know the way
where I am going. Thomas asks him, Lord, we do
not know where you are going. How do we know the way? It’s
in verse 7 that Jesus poses another statement that prompts Philip’s
question. If you had known me, you would
have known my father also.” And Philip seizes upon that, desiring
to see and know this father that Jesus mentions. Well, Jesus responds
to that question, and we consider that passage several weeks ago,
where Jesus clearly chides Philip and the others. Look at verse
9. Have I been so long with you,
and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen
me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the
Father? And so Jesus very stridently
defends and articulates his oneness with the Father, and then immediately
moves to provide a series of promises. This is where we’ve
been the last several Lord’s Days. The first promise that
he provides in this series of three was the promise of greater
works. This was astounding. That not
only would we do works like Christ, but we would do even greater
works. And we looked and discovered
that that essentially came down to the work of the gospel which
Jesus had begun, but which Jesus had only in God’s providence
enjoyed marginal success. Garnering these 11 apostles,
a handful of additional disciples, even that following was eclipsed
the very first day of ministry by the apostles when 3,000 were
saved. And on and on it goes throughout
the centuries even to our day when you and I participate in
this promise. This promise of doing greater
works. And it’s in that context that
Jesus tells us to ask. that whatever we ask, in the
context of doing these great works of preaching and sharing
the gospel, whatever we ask in that regard, Jesus will do. So the first promise is a promise
of greater works, but there is a second promise. We consider
this last Lord’s Day in verses 15 through 17, there is the promise
of that which we desperately need. The promise of a helper
that is essentially flagged by that statement in verse 15. If
you love me, you will keep my commandments. I will ask the father and he
will give you another helper. We desperately need help or we
will keep no commandments, especially the commandment to love one another.
We desperately need the Holy Spirit’s help and guidance. We
need God’s grace in order to see that through, in order to
be what God would have us to be. And so we asked for another
helper, a paraclete, to come along, not just to come alongside
of us, the meaning of that word, but Jesus says to come and dwell
within us, the spirit of truth, imparting the truth of Christ,
imparting the truth about our own nature, imparting the truth
of salvation, which salvation we just read of, justification
by faith. It’s the spirit of truth that
work in our hearts and lives. Jesus says you will know him
because he abides with you and will be in you. You will be indwelled
by the spirit of the living God. What a profound truth and a profound
promise. But I told you there were three
promises. We’ve considered only two. Jesus Christ is articulating
these gracious promises to troubled people, troubled men, and these
same promises are to more troubled people, even troubled people
of our own day. Not only the promise of greater
works, what a rich privilege we have to know that God essentially
has drafted us into service, into His service for usefulness,
and that it isn’t just, you know, some blind adventure that we
go on, but He has given us the Holy Spirit and His Word to guide
us. But there’s a third promise,
and the third one is just as astounding as the previous two.
Jesus Christ gracious promises to troubled men includes thirdly
the promise of communion with Jesus Christ. Now I know what immediately comes
to mind when I use the word communion that’s why I’ve done it. When
we talk about communion, when we talk about the Lord’s table
and you have this idea of communion we immediately think of fellowship
with one another, fellowship of a sort with God, but it gets
distilled down through the ages where it just is communion and
we think immediately of just bread and the cup. But communion is a rich concept. Communion is a rich word. It has implications and meaning
and significance. And we would do well to pause
and ponder. And that’s why I spent just enough
time to kind of nudge us in a different direction. It’s fellowship. But it’s not just any fellowship.
We love fellowship. But mostly for our day and age,
we tend to think of fellowship as including food and maybe a
prayer at the beginning, and certainly plenty of conversation. But fellowship is an intimate
kind of communion. It’s a relationship with one
another where there’s openness and depth and significance and
meaning. But to consider ultimate fellowship
is fellowship of an altogether new and different kind. The ultimate
fellowship is communion with God, its fellowship with God,
its intimacy of heart and mind with Almighty God Himself. Jesus Christ, in providing these
troubled men comfort, not just answers to their questions, but
even beyond to where Jesus now is in the midst of opening to
them promises, promises that they had never heard. The promise of greater works, the
promise of a helper, and the promise of communion with Jesus
Christ. It’s ultimate fellowship. It’s
the ultimate kind of fellowship. What I want to do this morning
is look at five elements of this ultimate fellowship. that if
we truly fix our minds on those things, this passing world, this
passing world, as difficult and hard and challenging as it is, will be fleeting as we look to
eternity. First of all, believers in Jesus
Christ will one day know the reassuring comfort of adoption
as sons. The reassuring comfort of adoption
as sons. Look at verse 18 where Jesus
says I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. He looks on these men, men that
he loved, these 11. And they looked to him like so
many would-be orphans. Jesus is now just hours away
from his arrest, his crucifixion and burial. Ultimately then,
40 days later, his departure. But Jesus Christ is looking on
them with compassion and he knows their hearts. He knows how troubled
they are. And they appear to him, and in
a very real way, they are as orphans. They are soon to be
left alone, almost desolate, like those who are left fatherless. We have known several in the
course of our time on earth whose parents were both killed in an
untimely fashion, where the children are left fatherless and parentless. It’s a tragic situation and from
a human perspective we can immediately empathize with that and that’s
why Jesus uses this word. He looks to them and says to
them, I’m not going to leave you parentless, I’m not going
to leave you fatherless. This word is only used one other
time in all of the New Testament. It’s James 127, you know the
passage. Pure and undefiled religion in
the sight of God and our God and Father is this. to visit
orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained
by the world. Now when he says visit, he’s
not just talking about a stop in, you know, perhaps with a
loaf, a blessing of some sort. He’s not talking about a brief
visit to the orphans, to the widows, but he’s talking about
ministry to them. whatever is needed to come alongside
and to care for them and to be with them and to love them thoroughly. That’s pure and undefiled religion. That’s real ministry, is to come
alongside those who really and truly need it. The utter helplessness. being desolate, what Jesus sees
of his disciples moving forward, he sees them as being very much
like these orphans. Without parent to care for them,
without provision save whatever some kind stranger throws in
their direction, these men are going to be just such a, just
such a condition. And Jesus is not going to leave
these to fend for themselves. He’s not going to leave them
to migrate through the world on their own, and so he promises
them, I am going to provide for you, I’m going to come for you,
I’m not going to leave you fatherless. That’s one of the great comforts
of Scripture, isn’t it? I remind you of Romans 8.15. You have not received the spirit of slavery
leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption
as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father. What Paul says
there in Romans 8 is that we are not second-class citizens
in the home. We’re not adopted as so many
slaves. We’re not brought in as second-class
citizens. We’re not, quote-unquote, stepchildren. But we are sons of the family
just as true as if we were born by natural means. We’re currently
reading through the book of Galatians. We’ll get to this passage in
just a matter of weeks. Galatians 4. Galatians 4 says
essentially the same thing. It’s Paul’s illustration and
what a rich illustration it is when he looks at people, humans,
who have essentially been abandoned by the devil who scarred them
and ruined them and would destroy them They are like orphans running
around in the land, dead in their trespasses and sins. And yet,
along comes a loving Savior. Listen to Galatians 4. Now I
say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from
a slave, although he is the owner of everything. Here’s the picture.
There’s a home, and there are slaves in that home, and there
are little children in that home. But he is under guardians and
managers until the date set by his father. And so now the children
are being handled. Maybe there’s a caretaker, maybe
a nanny, maybe one of the servants of the home is tasked with overseeing
the children. That’s the picture that Paul
is presenting. So also we, while we were children,
we were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. Now he begins to apply his illustration
to our life. And he says we were just like
this household. Only we were in bondage, we were
under the care of a manager by the name of the devil himself.
And he told us what to do and we did it. But when the fullness of time
came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the
law so that he might redeem those who were born under the law,
that we might receive the adoption as sons. So that our status might
change completely and thoroughly, profoundly. Because you are sons, Paul says. God has sent forth the spirit
of his son into our hearts crying, Abba, Father. If you know the
scriptures, you know that word essentially means daddy. You’re
not a second class citizen in God’s kingdom. You’re no longer
an orphan. God has adopted you and brought
you into his family giving you his family name and all of the
privileges that go with knowing Almighty God. See this was a particular concern
of God even in the economy of Israel. One of the earliest laws
that God uttered was that you shall not afflict any orphan
or widow Exodus 22, Deuteronomy 10. He executes justice for the
orphan and the widow and shows his love for the alien by giving
him food and clothing. God is the father of the fatherless. God puts a premium on widows
and orphans. Not only literal widows and orphans,
but even spiritually speaking those who are destitute and lost
without a Savior, without a father, Jesus says, I’m not going to
leave you as orphans. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. This is essentially
a reiteration of what he said in chapter 14 verse 3. I will come again and receive
you to myself. Now as we looked, Jesus was not
ambiguous about his departure, about his announcement of the
news of his departure, and that news caused deep concern in the
hearts of his disciples. And so neither was Jesus ambiguous
about the news of his return. I will come to you. So it was astounding to me how
many commentators looked and asked this question, how? How does Jesus propose to come
to us? The even more astounding thing
was how many suggested that his coming was in reference to what
he had just talked about, the promise of the Holy Spirit in
verses 14 through 17. that Jesus was going to come
as it were in the form of the Holy Spirit. And we know that
to be true. We looked and considered and
enjoyed those passages last week. That is one of the promises that
God is going to supply a helper who is going to dwell within
us. And it is indeed the Spirit of
Jesus Christ. That’s not this promise. This
is a new promise. a different promise. So some people said that this
is Christ’s spiritual reunion with his troubled friends through
the Helper, the Holy Spirit. In other words, it was not a
literal coming to them, but a spiritual coming. And there’s a sense in
which this is true. We talked about it even last
week, Matthew 28. I am with you always, even to
the end of the age. And even though Jesus Christ
isn’t literally with them through the spirit, indeed he is. And so they say that it’s not
literal sight that he’s talking about here, but a perception. of Christ, but the context and
the wording don’t lead us to restrict here or to limit these
words and the application of them in reference only to the
Holy Spirit. And so we wonder here, is this
perhaps a return of Christ physically and bodily? following his resurrection. We know that to be true. He appeared
to Mary Magdalene. He appeared to the two on the
road to Emmaus. He appeared to the eleven. Acts
1.3 records as Luke opens that second volume, to these he presented
himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing
to them over a period of forty days, speaking of the things
concerning the kingdom of God. Even the Apostle Paul who was
not present for those appearances, recounts the history of it in
1 Corinthians 15. When Paul lays out the gospel
there, 1 Corinthians 15, I delivered to you as of first importance
what I received, that Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised
the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared
to Cephas. and then to the 12. After that,
to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain
until now. Then he appeared to James, then
to all the apostles, and last of all, to one untimely born,
he appeared to me also. When Jesus said, I will come,
he did come. He came in the form of the Holy
Spirit, but he also came physically following his resurrection there’s
a third way to consider his coming. And this is no less true. Jesus
Christ will come once again. He will come in his final return.
And the statement here is absolutely broad enough to receive and welcome
in that possibility. I would even suggest to you here
that while he’s talking generally about his post-resurrection appearances,
ultimately he’s talking about his second coming. His return
once and for good. There’s nothing that prevents
us from understanding this as a presentation of Christ by the
Holy Spirit, in person, in post-resurrection, but especially at His second
coming. We will see Him. What a great promise. What an
incredible promise. Jesus Christ’s announcement here
in the same context is explicit. He’s speaking of his second coming.
You see, he did come to them in a sense, immediately following
his resurrection for 40 days. And he did come to them in a
sense, sending his Holy Spirit in Acts chapter two. But on neither
of those dynamic occasions did Jesus ever take his followers
to the place where he had prepared especially for them. That’s what
he had told them when he first said, I will come to you. I will
come to you and bring you to that special place which I prepared
just for you. Jesus tells them going to return. I will return. I will come for
you. He would come. And when he came,
he would call his disciples as he does to us to faith. The news of Christ’s return was
and is enough. It’s enough for the child of
God to walk by faith and to wait. Paul said in 2 Corinthians, which
verse I just had occasion to read through with hardly any
time to comment, therefore being always of good courage and knowing
that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from
the Lord. And that dismays us. We’d like nothing better. Right?
Even today, this morning, than to go and to be with the Lord.
For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are of good courage,
I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be
home with the Lord. What a rich promise this is. That Jesus Christ is going to
come. We’re not orphans. We’re not
abandoned. We’re children of the King and
He is coming. We certainly, we remember what
it was like to be an orphan. The scriptures speak of it to
be hopeless and helpless, lost without God, without Christ,
without any kind of spiritual moorings at all. We know what
it is to be hopeless. We know what it is to be helpless,
to not know how to get from our current condition to being right
with a holy God. We know what it is to be friendless,
truly friendless and godless. But now we know. We know what
it is to be faithfully anticipating a reunion with our Savior and
with our Father. We’re not orphans. He will come. This is ultimate fellowship. This is a communion of a sort
we’ve never known. We’ve had good Christian fellowship
from time to time. Good, not perfect. This is perfect. This is the ultimate fellowship
with Almighty God. Believers in Jesus Christ will
one day know the reassuring comfort of adoption as sons, but they
will also know, point two, the everlasting presence of a risen
Savior. the everlasting presence of a
risen Savior. Look, if you would, at verse
19. After a little while, the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me. And that word here is used of
really any kind of vision, used in a variety of different ways,
as we’ll see in a moment. But he says here, you will see
me. And I suggested to you that I
was astounded that so many people saw this only as a spiritual
vision, as this thing that occurs way down. And in the meantime,
we’ve just got to be content by an indwelling of the Holy
Spirit, because that essentially is our vision. As I suggested
to you, the word is used in both ways. Listen to it. And I’m only
going to pick a few examples. John 2.23. This is how John uses
it, and it’s almost exclusive to John. A couple of other uses. The interesting thing about this
word, Paul never uses it. For Paul, it’s a vision of, a
vision is a reality, and Paul talks in much more concrete terms.
John uses this, it’s almost a Hebraistic term. Here’s how he uses it. John chapter 2, verse 23. When
he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed
in his name, observing his signs. He wasn’t talking about a spiritual
observation. He said they literally saw what
he was doing. John 6, 2. They saw the signs. John 6, 19. They saw Jesus walking. This wasn’t a perception in their
mind, where in their mind’s eye they saw Jesus ambulating down
the pathway. John 9, they previously saw him
as a beggar. This isn’t something they imagined
about this poor man who first of all had his eyes returned
to him and then ultimately had his salvation bestowed upon him.
They saw him as a beggar because that’s what he was. John 10, we want to talk about
a rich one. John 10, He’s not the owner of
the sheep who sees the wolf coming. Now this isn’t the shepherd imagining
in his mind a wolf-like creature in his dream that then causes
him to flee. This is a wolf. That’s the whole
point of the passage. There are certainly other occasions
where this word is used in a spiritual kind of a sense. John 4.19, I
perceive that you’re a prophet. Everyone that beholds the Son
and believes will have eternal life. This
is one that is liberating to us. We don’t have to physically
see the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. Otherwise, we’re all
doomed, right? The word is used both ways. But
here, it’s absolutely referring, as I just declared, it’s referring
to literal sight, post-resurrection, second coming, throughout all
eternity, we will see Jesus. I love the way Stephen, you talk
about one great sermon. Preach the word, and then exit,
right? Exit not only the pulpit, but
exit life. I mean this is one great sermon. Acts chapter 7. Why don’t you
just turn there real quick. Acts chapter 7, verse 51. Either Stephen had a good imagination,
an imagination worth dying for, or this really absolutely happened
and he saw Jesus Christ. Acts 7 verse 51. You men who
are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always
resisting the Holy Spirit and are doing just as your fathers
did. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They
who killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous
One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. You who
received the law as ordained by angels and yet did not keep
it. And so he’s kind of No, He really
is stepping on toes. He’s letting them have it. He’s
preaching to them, hoping to bring about repentance. Now,
when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began
gnashing their teeth at Him. But, being full of the Holy Spirit,
He gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of the Lord
and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, behold,
I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the
right hand of God. And after all that he had already
indicted them for, they killed him for that. But they cried
out with a loud voice and covered their ears and rushed at him
with one impulse. People, this is the great hope
of Christianity, isn’t it? That we’re talking We were talking
on our drive these last couple of days, what biblical character
would you most like to see when you get to heaven? It was almost,
it was almost a difficult conversation to even have. You know, it’s
like, ho-hum, Moses, yeah, Paul, sure, but Jesus Christ? To him will be whole throughout
all eternity? This is exactly what John had
in mind. in his first epistle, see how
great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we would be called
children of God? And such we are, for this reason
the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved,
now we are children of God. And it has not appeared yet what
we will be. We know that when He appears,
we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is. That’s the great hope of Christianity.
We will see Christ. He is our inheritance forever. Point three. Ultimate fellowship. Believers
in Jesus Christ will one day know the reassuring comfort of
adoption as sons, the everlasting presence of the risen Savior,
and thirdly, the reassuring blessing of resurrection to eternal life. Look at the remainder of verse
19. It’s a second point. Because I live, you will live
also. It’s a higher, different kind
of life. He’s not just talking about more
of this life. Who would want it? Because of Jesus Christ, what
John 1-4 said, in Him was life, eternal life. And the Father,
just as the Father has life in Himself, John 5, 26, even so
the Son has life in Himself. His resurrection is our resurrection. His life is our life. There is
no life outside of Christ. There is no life worth enjoying
outside of life in Jesus Christ. Paul loved this doctrine. Romans 6, 4, we have been buried
with him through baptism into death. Talked about this verse
the other day. Is there water in John 6? I tell
you there isn’t. We’ve been immersed into Christ.
We’ve been placed into Christ so that as Christ was raised
from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might
walk in newness of life. It’s a resurrected kind of life.
It’s life as God designed it to be lived. It’s in rich, deep
fellowship with Almighty God. Over and over again in John’s
gospel, this has been declared. Just as the father raises the
dead and gives life to them, John 5, 21, even so the son gives
life to whomever he wishes. Life, real life, eternal life. John 5.26, John 6.57, He will
live because of me. People, if you have placed your
faith in Christ, you have already begun to live as God designed
it, and that will never end. It’s eternal. There’s a fourth mark of this
ultimate fellowship. Believers in Jesus Christ will
one day know absolutely the reassuring comfort of adoption, a son, the
presence of the risen savior, the blessing of resurrection
to eternal life. Fourthly, the stabilizing realization
of oneness with Jesus. Look at verse 20. In that day, you will know that I am in my
father. And you in me, and I in you. The first portion of this verse
is yet another reiteration from earlier in this dialogue, verse
11. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.
It’s a matter of faith. Not only for Philip, but for
all the disciples. Remember he was speaking to all
of them now, in the plural. their faith was feeble and weak,
and they could either trust him, either they could believe his
words, what he was articulating about his testimony, his teaching
about the divine unity, his oneness with the father, they could either
take him at his word, which would ultimately lead to faith in him,
or they could look at his works and take those as they were either
way. Whether the reception of this
deep theological truth of the nature of God, the oneness of
God, one in nature and essence, or the much more basic proof
of miracles, either way, it was a matter of faith. And the oneness of Christ with
his Father leads ultimately to the oneness of Christ with his
children. is oneness of Christ with you
and I. And you have all kinds of imagery in the New Testament
that speak of this kind of oneness. Shepherd and sheep, vine and
branches. Remember? Abide in me and I in you, as
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides on
the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. It’s
that same kind of oneness. One of the other images that
is presented in scripture repeatedly, the body of Christ, of which
he is the head, we are the many parts. The bride and the groom,
it’s oneness, it’s union with almighty God. Jesus had pointed
out to the disciples on many occasions that they should have
reached this point of faith. They should already know that
the father and son are one. one in essence, one in purpose,
one. But they will know. One day they
will grasp it. And not only will they grasp
the nature of Almighty God, that He is one, but they will realize
that Jesus Christ is in them and they are in Jesus Christ. That’s the significance of Romans
6. We have been baptized, literally
immersed into Christ. What a beautiful image. This
union, not only among the Godhead, but also with the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, it’s precisely that which Jesus prays for in
John 17. That they, that is you and I,
the disciples, the followers of Christ, may all be one. Even as you, Father, are in me,
and I in you, that they may be in us, that the world may believe
that you sent me. This was This was an exceedingly
profound concept to the Apostle John. And the Apostle John sees
his hold of it, not only in his gospel, but listen to his epistle.
1 John 3, 24. The one who keeps his commandment
abides in him, and he in him. We know this, that he abides
in us by the Holy Spirit whom he’s, you think John was listening
when Jesus was preaching? Scurrying and taking notes, right?
1 John 4.13, we abide in him and he in us. 1 John 4.15, whoever
confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and
he in God. The one who abides in love abides
in God and God abides in him. He was listening. You in me and
I in you. It’s oneness with Almighty God. This is a communion, a fellowship,
the likes of which we’ve never enjoyed. We’ve had good friends
before. We’ve had people that we could
tell anything. We’ve enjoyed good, rich, wholesome
Christian fellowship from time to time. Saints, I’m telling
you, we’ve never enjoyed the kind of fellowship that stands
ready to be enjoyed for eternity as we are one in incredible,
deep, rich fellowship with Almighty God Himself. It’s almost too much to even
conceive that there’s a fifth. Talking about ultimate fellowship.
Believers in Jesus Christ will one day know the reassuring comfort
of adoption as sons, the everlasting presence of the risen Savior,
the reassuring blessing of resurrection to eternal life, the stabilizing
realization of oneness with Jesus, and finally, The calming revelation
of the fullness of Christ. And I’ll just tell you, you get
to the end of this one, I have no idea what it is. But Jesus Christ
is going to reveal himself to us. Look at this, look at verse
21. He who has my commandments, a
repeat of chapter 14, verse 15. He who has my commandments and
keeps them is the one who loves me In 15, it says, if you love
me, you will keep my commandments. He who loves me will be loved
by my father and I will love him and will disclose myself
to him. You see, what he says first is
that this love, it cannot be a love of God that allows a person
to ignore his commands. Likewise, a genuine love for
God will inevitably respond in obedience to him. If you’re not
growing in grace, there’s good cause to wonder whether you are
in Christ. If you’re not growing in obedience,
if you do not love God more now, practically speaking, there’s
good cause to wonder. And likewise, God’s love for
us is rich and full. No better description of God’s
love for us than Romans 8. We know that God causes all things
to work together for those who love God, to those who are called
according to His purpose, For those whom He foreknew, He predestined
to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would
be the firstborn among many brethren whom He predestined, He called,
these He called, He glorified, these He justified, these He,
pardon me, these He justified, He also glorified. If God is
for us, who can be against us? This is the most practical kind
of love. But not only does Jesus say that
this fellowship is marked by love, what fellowship isn’t?
You know, you go to a place and that’s partly why you enjoy the
fellowship. That’s why you go home and you call it good fellowship.
Because you go there and you feel loved. And I suppose in
the first definition of superlative, ultimate fellowship, ought to
be marked with that word love. But this is the part that just
is almost inconceivable. Jesus says, not only will I love
him, I will disclose myself to them. And we say, well, I thought
we already knew the Savior. We don’t know everything there
is to know about the Savior. and all of eternity will be an
ongoing revelation, deeper and deeper and higher and more profound
than even the last. The word is a simple word. It
means to notify. In the book of Acts, it’s used
to talk about bringing charges. In other words, a prosecutor
would come and he would lay out the charges and the proof. Jesus
Christ is one day going to lay it open to us. He’s going to
reveal himself in his fullness to us in a fellowship that kind
of fellowship we’ve never known. Moses had that same kind of desire,
right? Let me know your ways. That’s probably how Moses asked,
isn’t it? God, let me know your ways. Not even close. Moses likely
fell on his knees. Let me know your ways. I need
to know who you are. I want to know what you’re like.
And then he adds, I pray, show me your glory. I need to know
who you are. This presentation that Christ
will make of himself will be clear. It’ll be absolutely perfect. What he reveals to us, I have
no idea what it is. But it’s the kind of fellowship
that only God could participate in, right? God is a God of communion. God is a God of relationships. God is a God of communication.
God wants to be known. This is what one described as
a spiritual revelation of himself to the soul. Communion. This would certainly be true
of the way in which Jesus Christ reveals himself to us through
his written word, right? That’s one of the reasons we
have Bible study, one of the reasons we sit under the teaching
of his word and read the word privately, attended, mind you,
by the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit. That’s one
of the things we enjoy most, is learning about Christ, right? But it can’t be limited to that.
It’s not only that. Certainly we will learn about
him throughout eternity once we come face to face with Jesus
Christ. What a glorious thought. This
is a fellowship the likes of which we’ve never enjoyed. It’s
fellowship with the Holy God. It’s fellowship with our Savior
who died for us. What a joyful promise. What a joyful promise to men
who were troubled. Because after you hear these,
the promise of greater works. We come into fellowship with
God, drafted into his service. We come into fellowship with
God and are bestowed the gift of the Holy Spirit. And then
we have this kind of communion, this kind of ultimate fellowship
with Almighty God. What a promise. Let’s rejoice
before him. Our merciful God, we do rejoice
in these promises spoken first to the apostles, but absolutely
given to us as well. Lord, we know we have already
experienced the greater works. We’ve already seen your hand
somehow inelicably using us for your glory. Lord, we know we
already know the possession of the Holy Spirit leading us, convicting
us, teaching us, And Father, we’ve already had a taste, a
foretaste, and a rich one at that. The fellowship that we
will enjoy throughout eternity has grown. We’re not the same
people we were five years ago. We’re not the same people we
were before we knew Christ. We’re not the same people even
that we were last Lord’s Day. You grow us. You deepen our fellowship
with you by your grace every single day, and that will continue
forever. Lord, we thank you for these
promises. We thank you for the promise
of ultimate fellowship. We thank you for the promise
of your Holy Spirit. And we thank you for the quite
undeserved promise of working in your kingdom. God grant us
the grace to be faithful. And if there are any who do not
know the Lord Jesus Christ, who do not know and could not say
amen to each and every one of these promises. Lord, it was
so simply laid out to us. We are justified by faith. All we have to do is place our
faith in Jesus Christ. Our sins are forgiven. The righteousness
which we lack to stand before a holy God is bestowed. We are
right with God. God grant us your grace. If there are any who do not know
Christ, bring them to repentance. Even this day. It’s in Jesus
name that we pray. Amen.