I have repeated that several times today, but it is really good to see you, to see your face after all these years. And you know, you cannot imagine how good it is for us. I've seen my wife, Wendy, speaking more today than she would speak on a Sunday normally. It can be a very lonely place to be in a small group. And it's such a blessing to be with you and to know that we have fellowship in the gospel of the Lord. This evening, I'd like to invite you to come with me in Luke, Gospel According to Luke, chapter 22. And we will read a few verses and look at one in particular. Luke 22, and we'll start reading at verse 13. And they went, that is, some disciples were instructed by Christ, went and found as he had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover. Passover is coming. They find a place suitable for that, the upper room, and as he has directed them, verse 14, and when the hour was come, he sat down and the 12 apostles with him. And he said to them, with desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup. And this is the word of God. I want to concentrate more maybe on verse 15 here. With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you. And the reason why my mind was drawn to that text is that, coming from my own experience, I find that there may be a danger sometimes, especially when the Lord has revealed himself more clearly in his grace, sovereign grace. There is a danger to focus just on that and to be able to voice and express the truth as it is in Jesus, but somehow to become detached of the fact that this truth is in Jesus. And it's not a question of doctrinal error here. No, actually, often it's the opposite, the opposite. And it is a bit like the words of Christ through that church in Ephesus in Revelation. You know, I know your works. I know your efforts and your perseverance that you cannot bear with the ungodly. And so on. And Ephesus was really a well-told church. But when we come to the end of the century, several years later, we find that Christ has a controversy with that church. That church has everything right. They can spot the heretics. They can deal with them. They know the truth, and so on. So the question is, where is the problem? Where is the problem? And to say it briefly, it is that the experience of truth, living the faith, has become a system, has become something which we can manipulate. And when I say manipulate, I'm not saying with the wrong connotation, but just that we can handle And it becomes the truth becomes my truth. But not in the sense Paul was talking about. It's something which I can handle quite easily. And this touches the individual. This touches churches as well. And we become sort of hunters for heresies. And someone comes in our midst, and he better not put his foot in the wrong place because we're not going to miss him. This is a danger. And if that danger has not touched you, bless the Lord and be on your guard because it does touch many people far better than we can be. And we see the Lord Jesus Christ addressing that And he comes to that church and he says, but I've got something against you. There's something, there's something. And what is it? It's that you have forsaken your first love or the love you had at first. You see, everything was right except that. Now he's not saying you're none of mine because otherwise he wouldn't warn them. Warning is a sign of grace. It gives us the time to, or the occasion to repent, to come back from our ways. But the love we have at first has grown cold. Or not necessarily cold, but just kind of channeled. You know, we often go, well often, not as often as we like, but we go into the Alps and you have these the streams down the mountains, and they're uncontrollable, but they're marvelous, they're beautiful. And we take pictures and so on. And you see a young Christian, somebody who's just suddenly has been touched by the grace of God in a mighty way. And some of the things I say, you say, I wouldn't say it this way, but I find myself very often wishing I was there. I was overflowing with this love, this new love. And this is a danger, you see. We talk about justification. I know the definition. I know what's right and where it ends and so on and how to say it properly and how it relates to adoption and so on. And some of you might even go to understand prelapsarianism or that sort of thing. There may be a place for that. I'm not too sure. But there's something that can be missing. can be missing. And going a bit further, what I want to see is the manifestation of that spirit. How can we see it? How can we detect it? How can I detect that this danger has got hold of me? Things don't necessarily come, you know, just in one go. Often it comes gradually and you don't notice it, don't notice it. And the question is important because often If I'm beginning to understand the truth and I'm able to express it and put it together and so on, there is a certain slide into what is the word I'm looking for? Pride. You know, I'm better than others. I'm a doctor or I'm a special, defender of the faith, you see. There is pride there. And defining the truth, being clear about the doctrine, that is, the saying of the truth, is a good thing. It's a good thing. But when it's at the center of our experience, of our life, there's something wrong there. There's something which is missing. according to the words of Christ. And it becomes very mechanical. Now, I'm very conscious that this seems to be a caricature, but I've been caught in that spirit. Mechanical. You know, you bring a subject and you hear. The person knows and explains to you. And if you've got a little bit of experience, you know before they speak what they're gonna say. There's no originality in that. And there is also a coldness, a hardness, which comes in. And I've got this tendency, you hear somebody, it's not quite clear, my first tendency would be, is no good. You see the spirit? And it's very, very subtle, it comes there. I remember, just to explain to you, I remember once I was getting in touch with a brother about something which was touching his own family, something quite hurtful and painful and so on. And I was so sad because on the other end of the line, I had a sort of doctrinaire person. Oh, you know, if you do this, you cannot be a Christian. I've known worse things. But you see, there was no hurting. There was no grief. No grief. Even for the person. It was all cold. And I felt, when I hung up, I felt really very, very sorry. And to a certain extent, I felt Hurt. Hurt. Because I know I could have been just as easily guilty of the same wrong action for not saying sin. And love covers a multitude of sin, says the word. So there's this mechanical and hardness and lack of sensitivity These are the sort of manifestation of the spirit I'm talking about tonight here. And they even lead to despise people, to pride, to isolation. We are the ones. And the Pharisees were like this. We are the ones. Yeah, they were probably the closest to the truth in those days, but they didn't love the people. They didn't love the people. So this is a sort of spirit. And I just want to add a little warning, because the one who is prey to this spirit is probably the last one to see that he is prey to that spirit. And the other thing to say is that it doesn't always happen to others. So we need to keep our eyes open and to say, Lord, show me your way. What is the end of the Psalm 139? Search my heart. Search my time. And see if I'm on the wrong path. So here's the problem. Is there a remedy? Is there a remedy to that? And so how can I stay clear of this deviation? I'm caught by that, how can I get out of this problem? And maybe I'm wrong, but I think it's quite probable that when I've talked about remedy after briefly mentioning the problem, you have thought, unconsciously, we must something, or something must be done. that is exactly where the problem is and where the remedy is not. We want to heal or to sort out the problem which is caused by the flesh with something which is produced by the flesh. I will do things, my works, you see. And our flesh is still so much there that we cannot avoid it. The first thing, I'm faced with problem in the church, in our little church, and I must admit, I've got to really kick myself not to think, well, we need to do this and that and this. Which might be right, but the Lord is not in it. The Lord is not in it. And so, this is the failure, assured failure, because the flesh cannot doesn't have the understanding, the right understanding, the understanding of the truth of God. And we can see that. I have met with some people who were theologians, people who can really deal with the truth, who were atheists. So it's not something which is produced by the flesh, by intelligence. Because what is the dynamic which is behind the flesh? Always. Which makes the fundamental dynamic. What is it? It's myself. It's self. And you know, it is easy to prove this. Now, if it was light, when we finish, we'll have a picture of all together, of all of us together. Okay? And the picture is, we pass on the picture to everybody. You receive the picture on your smartphone or wherever. You know, who is the first person you're looking for? It's there. It's there, isn't it? Just that. And so the remedy is not in ourselves. So where is it? And there again, we need to come back to this passage in Revelation. What does the Lord says to his church? He says, remember from where I'm just not quoting exactly from memory, but remember from where you have fallen and repent, which means come back. Come back to that love which you had at first. Be conscious of what you've lost and come back to the place where you've lost it. You've lost it. What have you lost? The love you had at first. And it was so obviously a love which was given from outside, given from above. And then we've channeled it somewhere or other. So the love you had at first, our first love. And this love was not something which was produced by our own effort, was it? Or is it? What is it? It's this new life, new life, which comes from the fact that suddenly the Spirit has given us life and we can see the wonders of the wonderful Savior that is Jesus Christ. And we're taken up, we fall in love with Him. And if you do not know the Lord, this is what you want to ask. Make me fall in love with you. Make me fall in love with you. And love is not something you can channel, really. So the remedy is in coming back to a living relationship, living, pulsating, and bubbling relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm not here saying we must strive for that. No, we must desire it and ask the Lord, Lord, in your own good time, come to me, come to me and make me come to you. It's not works. Works, the life will come later. But now I want to see, to look at the words of Jesus in our passage in chapter 15. And you might have said, when was he going to come back to that verse? Well, there we are. There we are. The Lord Jesus here is the remedy to this problem, this illness, this... I'm stuck for words tonight. Yeah. This danger in which we can fall quite easily. It's the union with Christ. and his union with us. And the way to see that is to look at him, to have our eyes fixed on him, to see him and to imitate him. I often repeat this. When the Lord calls his disciples, you remember he says to them, follow me and I will make you fishes of men. But the follow me, He is not translating exactly the original text. The original text says, come behind me. Come behind me. And you see, you come behind. Only recently, I was in Cameroon, and it rained a lot. And my eyes are not so good when it's kind of dark. So we had to go to a restaurant, and it was muddy and everything. And I made really sure I was putting my feet you know, where the other one had put his feet. Well, that was a bit of faith, really, because if he'd put his foot in the wrong place, then two of us would be muddy. But you see, come behind me. So we want to see him and imitate him and do as he did. Here, we are at the very end of his earthly ministry. And it is certain that the Lord Jesus is tired. He had 30 years, just more than 30 years, when he was actually closed in, this body and these dimensions. The one who spoke and the universe was created had to walk from Nazareth to Capernaum. And for now, for more than three years, he was faced with the animosity and the unbelief of the religious people, the people who should have known. And they were against him all the time. He was faced also with the slowness of understanding of his own disciples, a man who is tired because he's a man. And moreover, here. He's coming to the last stretch, the last stretch. Less than 24 hours later, he's hung on the cross and then put in the tomb. It's the last stretch of his work. And the agony of the cross is there, the agony of Gethsemane, the rejection and the wrath of his father on him, who has never been separated from his father. The hour is terrible. And it is the hour which is at the center of everything. And it's coming, the shadows really become really long. And it's there, the last evening, the last evening. And if there is a time when the Lord Jesus could have legitimately thought of himself, when he could have expected his friends to take care of him, That was a time. That was a time. If there was a moment where really he had a reason for despising his disciples, for not understanding, Lord, show us a way, and all these sort of phrases, I mean, all these comments from the disciples. After all this time, they've not understood a thing. I find that very encouraging for myself. Three years with the Lord and they haven't understood the first thing, hardly. I am with them. I am with them. This is a time when really he could have taken care of himself. And what do we see? What do we see? We see him sitting at the table and he said, I have desired. And the way it is, you've noticed with desire, I have desired. This has been what is filling my heart at this moment. I desire very, very strongly to eat this feast with you. Can you see, can you feel his heart pulsating there? And when he says it to his disciples, he says it to his church. I have desire to share this moment with you. And I don't know how you feel thinking of this, but for me, all my well-arranged theology just goes to pieces, and I'm glad. Now, I'm not saying I'm changing convictions, but really I feel something more here, more here. What the the work is going to accomplish on the cross, which is going to open the gate for billions of souls, lost souls. The crushing burden of the wrath of his father and so on, does not that count? I mean, this is really the center of redemption, isn't it? and he thinks of his disciples, he desires to be with them. But you know, in scripture, eating with somebody is very important. It's very important. It's closeness. And he wants to eat with them. For the Son of God, my friends, for the Son of God, the union, living, pulsating and bubbling with his disciples go before everything else. And actually, we can understand it because why does he go to the cross? He doesn't go to the cross as a theological gesture. No, it's so that they will be saved, that the doors will be opened, that the veil will be torn in two. This is it. and his heart is in it. And I stand condemned because often I will even share and teach and preach and so on, and my heart is kind of somewhere, but not totally in it. In it. And this is my prayer. This is my prayer for myself, my prayer for you, that we may really be taken hold of by this love. the love which he shares with us. It's, when I look at the Lord Jesus, I can see that it's not just an isolated moment, you know, sort of, oh, we have this special family gathering, family feast, so, you know, we've not seen each other for a long time and now, oh, it's been real good to be, it is really good to be with you and so on. No, this is something which is all through his life. all through, well, actually all through the Old Testament. But in his earthly life, he's there all the time. He's there after a whole day given to teaching the crowds. And what does he see? The distress of that crowd. He doesn't see people like people who don't know anything, like the population. No. as sheep wandering, have no shepherd. And actually, that passage is interesting. It says that he was moved with compassion. Well, that's a nice way to speak in English, isn't it? No, actually, his bowels were constrained. And you can feel that. You know what it is. He hurt in seeing these people who should have known. Seeing the crowd, he was moved with compassion. Why? Because they should have been led, and they were not led. And there he gives them bread to reveal himself, the bread of life. So the heart of the Lord is in this continually. And they bring this woman taken in the sin of adultery. It's obvious she should be stoned by the one who has no sin. the one who has had no evil thoughts, which is why these Pharisees leave. And he's the one who can throw the first stone. But no, what does he do? He forgives. He forgives. And we think of this difficult passage as this young man runs after him and says, so Lord, what must I do? And then the Lord shows him his heart, and the man turns away, all sad. Cuz when you turn away from Christ, you've got to be sad. But he knew he was, whereas before he didn't. And what do we read? We read something which is very strange, isn't it? Jesus loved him, loved him. Try to reconcile that with any commentary. Is it possible? But that's what the word says. And like I mentioned this morning, the Lord, when he sees Jerusalem, Jerusalem was, I mean, it's portrayed in the New Testament as being Sodom. Jerusalem, he could have brought the fire from heaven on Jerusalem. No, how often I've tried to gather you. And he weeps, he weeps. I want the same heart. I want the same heart. Don't take the truth away from me. No, this is important. But I want the same heart. I want to feel like Jesus feels. Because he's my head. Because he's my head. But with all I've said, I don't want you to think that I've become very loose about the truth, about understanding the truth, about what the truth says. No. Doctrine and truth are important, crucial. The one whom we're considering tonight, remember, he's their truth. He's the one who is the truth. Before everything else, he's a person. He's a person. And he lives like a person, both divine and human. But when you hear him say, I have greatly desired, you see a man who is also God, who wants to be with his disciples, wants to be with his people, with his own, with a heart like a man. His heart vibrates for his own people. His heart vibrates for the purpose of his Father, who has determined that there will be a people in peace, reconciled with him in his presence. And he's going to do everything needed to accomplish that. But the Savior who goes to the cross is a Savior whose heart is filled with love for his people. It is true that he has this irrepressible love for his disciples, but he's on the verge of suffering. Jesus has endured the horror of the cross. And it was not just as I mentioned, the physical pain or just the spiritual separation from his father. No, it was a whole experience. And he's ready to go through that because he loves his people, because he knows the word of his father who promised him that his work will accomplish what has been decided. There will be that bride. And today, today, if we travel a bit, we see that bride all over the world. Don't look at the news. You won't see it there. listen and see we have brethren all over the world and I personally believe that there is not one nation today under the sun where there is not any believers. His people and he's gathering them through his spirit and his word day after day maybe tonight gathering them attracted them, come, you come, because I have desire, greatly desire to have you with me, to have you with me. So he goes to the cross, filled with this irrepressible love. He will go through all the shame and the pain so that they may be with him in the glory of the Father. And really, when you see Christ hanging on the cross, the nails are through his hands and his feet, but before, more than the nails, his love is nailing him to the cross. That's why it's there. And such a love, such a love calls for our own love. This wonderful love is a love which will bring him right to the end, right to the uttermost. And this is really what he says. If you look just at verse 15, I have desired to eat this Passover with you. For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. This is what he says. The text really is stronger than that. I swear solemnly, I put myself under oath that I will not eat a meal with you before this is accomplished. And the word is the same as the one he utters from the cross. It is finished. It is finished. I will not eat until that I must bring you to my to my intimacy with me. This is, my friends, the heart of the covenant. The heart of the covenant. This brings back to the eternal counsel in eternity, when it was decided, just because God wanted it, that the people would be saved, would be redeemed, would be brought into his presence. And Christ has come to do that. and he has come full of love for his people. I have greatly desired, he has greatly desired to fellowship, to commune, to be united, to be one with you who are a believer. Well, the world can keep its praise and honors and so on. This is enough for me. In a sense, and I hope you won't misunderstand me, but more than truth, we need to learn Christ. Christ is the truth, but he's the one who has a heart for his people. We need to learn that. Do we see those who worship with us as fellow believers or do we see them as united? The ones who are one with Christ, like I'm one with Christ through his grace. But the last thing I want to say with you briefly is that He did the work alone. Alone. Because we tend to go from one extreme to another. So we will be theologians and know the truth, and the truth is all we know, and so on, and be hard, and so on. Or, like we see some others, go on the soft extreme. that the truth doesn't matter really. That yeah, in the end, everything will be okay. No, no, the Lord, the Lord Jesus manifests his love in following the truth, in being careful to walk in obedience in the path his father has opened to him. You see, the Lord Jesus has disciples. He has apostles, brothers. Elects, but nobody. Whereas today, we see the opposite. Some people are too strict, too hard. And some others are just kind of like if it's a buddy we can go and hang out with. No, the Lord Jesus is the Lord all the time. And we have to be careful. We have to keep in our minds the fact that although he has come, although he unites himself very closely with his people, he is still the Lord. And there comes a time when we've got to let him go on his own. He goes to the cross, and all the disciples fled. That was not their most brilliant page of history. But they had to flee. They couldn't stay with him, could they? He had to be alone. As soon as you bring something which is sinful, a man, into the equation, the whole salvation fails. He was the one who had to tread the press of the wrath of his father, and he did so. The Lord must be the only one to save. And we see that in this passage, because he goes on to say, here is the hand of the one who will give me over to these people. Can you imagine somebody who's been walking with the Lord, betrays him, sells him very cheaply, actually, but then This is all what man can give? You say, well, I'm not Judas. Hm. I hope not. But if you look a bit further, go to verse 24. Verse 24. And there was also a strife among them. Which of them should be accounted the greatest? Now, I know that Luke is not writing chronologically. It's probably something happened probably just on the way to Jerusalem. It doesn't matter. He puts it there because he's trying to teach us something. Now the Lord is going to accomplish the redemption with his people. And you know, often we say, well, the Lord, not we, people say, the Lord has done, God has done everything he could. Now it's up to you to clinch the deal by your decision, acceptation, and so on. in the presence of Christ, when he has said all these words, when he has got up from the table or from where he was sitting and lying down and washed their feet, the master, like Matthew said, a thought came to them, who was the greatest among them? And certainly for them, Jesus is nowhere near there. Can you imagine? This is the best man can give to help the Lord accomplish the work. And you try to do it? No, it's impossible. He has to go alone. We cannot do it. I mean, imagine Israel was already a favored nation compared to the rest, and then now we're talking about 12 people. Well, 11 people were the closest and they debate among themselves and they fight among themselves. Who is the greatest? Who is going to sit on the right or on the left? Aren't we pathetic? Aren't we pathetic? But the beauty is that deserted by everyone, even deserted by his father, he went. He went. And he went as a man. Went as a man. Do you remember in the garden? If that cup, Father, can pass away from me. This is a man speaking. A real man. Not a man who is a sinner. No, no. But a man who can sleep in the middle of a storm. I tremble when I hear these words. Because if the cup passes away from him, I know where it goes. But then his divine nature, his divine person comes in and says, well, your will, not my will. And then he goes to the cross. He goes to the cross because he loves his people. And do you know what? Today, he presents his blood before the throne in the most holy place, a real most holy place. And he pleads, intercedes for his people out of love, this great love which made him decide to have this last meal with his disciples. And he's coming again. Is he coming again to make things right? Yes, but primarily to gather the people he loves, you and me, if you believe in Christ through his spirit. My friends, maybe we're not given over to jumping with joy, and most of us maybe can't do it anymore. But doesn't your heart jump with joy? because the Lord desire our presence. This is not, we're not at the center. It desires greatly our presence because that is the will of his father. But nonetheless, it's a good place to be. May he be glorified. Amen.