A Loving Union

WEBVTT 1 00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:05.599 Since this is the ending of the chapter, I'd like to read this, 2 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:10.349 the entire chapter, this prayer of Jesus, and then we will focus on 3 00:00:11.070 --> 00:00:16.429 verses twenty five and twenty six. This morning. I hope that as I 4 00:00:16.469 --> 00:00:23.780 read this, you will give your hearts over to the word, that you 5 00:00:24.420 --> 00:00:28.620 would hear and pay attention, I'm to what has read to you, and 6 00:00:29.100 --> 00:00:35.259 that you would come with a greater understanding, having heard and reflected on this 7 00:00:35.890 --> 00:00:42.130 passage for some time now, and where you find yourself not understanding and weak, 8 00:00:42.329 --> 00:00:46.210 know that that's true for me too. There are difficult things here, 9 00:00:46.649 --> 00:00:52.359 mysterious things, wonderful things, infinitely deep things. Let us humble with ourselves 10 00:00:52.439 --> 00:00:58.560 before the Lord, and here is word to us. John Seventeen, when 11 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:02.000 Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted his eyes to heaven and said, 12 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:07.870 father, the hour has come glorify your son, that the son may glorify 13 00:01:07.069 --> 00:01:12.030 you, since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life 14 00:01:12.109 --> 00:01:17.870 to all whom you have given him, and this is eternal life that they 15 00:01:18.069 --> 00:01:22.260 know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have 16 00:01:22.459 --> 00:01:26.379 sent. I glorified you on Earth, having accomplished the work that you gave 17 00:01:26.500 --> 00:01:32.099 me to do. And now, father, glorify me in your own presence, 18 00:01:32.500 --> 00:01:37.049 with the glory I had with you before the world existed. I have 19 00:01:37.209 --> 00:01:40.569 manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. 20 00:01:41.530 --> 00:01:44.849 Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept 21 00:01:44.930 --> 00:01:49.959 your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from 22 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:53.359 you, for I have given them the words that you gave me and they 23 00:01:53.439 --> 00:01:57.239 have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you, 24 00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:04.310 and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. 25 00:02:05.189 --> 00:02:08.110 I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given 26 00:02:08.229 --> 00:02:14.590 me, for they are yours. All Mine Are Yours and yours are mine, 27 00:02:14.629 --> 00:02:17.819 and I am glorified in them, and I am no longer in the 28 00:02:17.939 --> 00:02:22.979 world, but they are in the world and I am coming to you. 29 00:02:23.099 --> 00:02:27.379 Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, 30 00:02:27.780 --> 00:02:30.210 that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was 31 00:02:30.289 --> 00:02:32.889 with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. 32 00:02:34.370 --> 00:02:37.810 I've guarded them and not one of them has been lost, except the 33 00:02:37.930 --> 00:02:42.849 son of discret destruction, that the scripture might be fulfilled, but now I 34 00:02:43.090 --> 00:02:46.039 am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world that they 35 00:02:46.159 --> 00:02:53.199 may have joy fulfilled or may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have 36 00:02:53.319 --> 00:02:55.800 given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of 37 00:02:55.879 --> 00:03:00.069 the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not 38 00:03:00.349 --> 00:03:05.030 ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them 39 00:03:05.110 --> 00:03:07.430 from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I 40 00:03:07.509 --> 00:03:12.550 am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is 41 00:03:12.750 --> 00:03:15.659 truth. You sent me into the world, so I have sent them into 42 00:03:15.659 --> 00:03:21.539 the world and for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be 43 00:03:21.699 --> 00:03:25.099 sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for 44 00:03:25.219 --> 00:03:30.169 those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be 45 00:03:30.370 --> 00:03:34.449 one, just as you, father, are in me and I am you, 46 00:03:34.729 --> 00:03:37.770 and that they also may be in us, so that the world may 47 00:03:37.849 --> 00:03:42.159 believe that you have sent me the glory that you have given me, I 48 00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:45.560 have given to them that they may be one, even as we are one, 49 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:50.199 I in them and you and me, that they may become perfectly one, 50 00:03:50.840 --> 00:04:00.750 so that the world may know I lost my place there, so that 51 00:04:00.870 --> 00:04:03.710 the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved 52 00:04:03.789 --> 00:04:09.270 me. Father, I desire that they, also, whom you have given 53 00:04:09.349 --> 00:04:13.340 me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that 54 00:04:13.460 --> 00:04:17.019 you have given me because you love me before the foundation of the world, 55 00:04:18.100 --> 00:04:23.220 Oh righteous father, even though the world does not know you, I know 56 00:04:23.420 --> 00:04:28.250 you, and these know. These know that you have sent me. I 57 00:04:28.329 --> 00:04:31.529 have made known to them your name and I will continue to make it known 58 00:04:32.410 --> 00:04:38.089 that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and 59 00:04:38.410 --> 00:04:47.240 I in them. As after praying this, that Jesus then goes to the 60 00:04:47.319 --> 00:04:53.709 garden of Gussemine. It is there that he will be betrayed and soon hung 61 00:04:54.230 --> 00:04:59.470 on a cross to die for our sins, the sins of those whom he 62 00:04:59.629 --> 00:05:02.389 is praying for, the sins of those whom the father has given him. 63 00:05:02.389 --> 00:05:09.620 And as we come to our passage this morning, verses twenty five and twenty 64 00:05:09.660 --> 00:05:15.779 six, we realize that we are those in whom we have the very we 65 00:05:15.860 --> 00:05:20.569 are those in whom God has placed his love in us, even Christ in 66 00:05:20.689 --> 00:05:29.009 us. There are three things I want you to see and recognize from this 67 00:05:29.170 --> 00:05:33.970 passage. The first one is that God is righteous though that the though the 68 00:05:34.009 --> 00:05:41.639 world would say otherwise. The God is righteous, though the world would say 69 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:47.720 otherwise. Jesus begins his prayer, Oh righteous father. Previously he has addressed 70 00:05:47.800 --> 00:05:53.949 the father several times. He is addressed him primarily as simply father, but 71 00:05:54.029 --> 00:05:57.910 here, right at the end of his prayer, he adds the word righteous. 72 00:05:59.629 --> 00:06:02.670 Why is that? Why does he say, Oh righteous father, even 73 00:06:02.709 --> 00:06:06.259 though the world does not know you, I know you and these know you. 74 00:06:06.779 --> 00:06:12.819 That you have sent me. Well, has to do with what it 75 00:06:12.939 --> 00:06:17.500 means to know God. It's difficult to describe this, and least I have 76 00:06:17.569 --> 00:06:23.529 a difficult time describing what that means in a very short way. I do. 77 00:06:23.689 --> 00:06:28.089 I I understand it best using tone of voice. So somebody were to 78 00:06:28.170 --> 00:06:31.920 say to you don't know me. Right, what are they saying, even 79 00:06:31.959 --> 00:06:35.240 though they're right in front of you, even though they probably know your name 80 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:40.839 or all kind you have some sort of relationship. If somebody says you don't 81 00:06:40.839 --> 00:06:45.360 know me, what is that accusation saying? Saying you don't know who I 82 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:49.509 really am. Right, you don't know what I'm about, why I do 83 00:06:49.750 --> 00:06:56.189 the things I do, what I care for. That's the negative of what 84 00:06:56.670 --> 00:07:00.750 or that that is what of Jesus is saying here? And when he says 85 00:07:00.790 --> 00:07:05.180 the world does not know you, they of course no God. Everybody knows 86 00:07:05.420 --> 00:07:10.060 is God. His fingerprints are all over us. We're all made in his 87 00:07:10.180 --> 00:07:15.569 image. Paul tells us in Romans that all of creation speaks to the existence 88 00:07:15.649 --> 00:07:21.009 of God. Nobody can deny it. Everybody is justly condemned because they know 89 00:07:21.209 --> 00:07:25.889 him and they don't obey him. How people will say they don't know him, 90 00:07:25.930 --> 00:07:30.360 people will say that he doesn't exist, but we know that they know, 91 00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:38.240 because it's impossible not to know God. But that's the but that's not 92 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:43.600 the way that Jesus means it here. He doesn't simply mean that they know 93 00:07:44.040 --> 00:07:48.550 God and know that he exists and know that he has that he sovereign over 94 00:07:48.629 --> 00:07:55.990 their lives and know that they rightly deserve are required to obey him. He 95 00:07:56.189 --> 00:07:59.860 means it in the way that they they don't know him, in that intimate, 96 00:07:59.899 --> 00:08:03.220 friendly way, that in such a way that they would call him righteous. 97 00:08:03.259 --> 00:08:09.100 The world does not call him righteous. The world says what you do 98 00:08:09.180 --> 00:08:15.329 is unfair, what you do doesn't make sense. The world says, I 99 00:08:15.529 --> 00:08:18.930 want to live my own life in my own way. The world says, 100 00:08:18.970 --> 00:08:20.529 I don't want to have to obey your word. I want to do what 101 00:08:20.649 --> 00:08:26.889 I want to do. I deserve these things. The world is constantly accusing 102 00:08:26.089 --> 00:08:31.840 God, accusing him of being unrighteous, of him being not fair, of 103 00:08:31.919 --> 00:08:39.360 him doing evil things. Is God good, the world says, but Jesus 104 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:48.029 knows that he is, and so do we. Oh righteous father, even 105 00:08:48.110 --> 00:08:52.389 though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know 106 00:08:54.669 --> 00:08:58.940 that you have sent me. Now, when he says these, what does 107 00:08:58.019 --> 00:09:01.740 he mean? He means his disciples, whom he's praying for. And, 108 00:09:03.019 --> 00:09:07.700 as we saw in verse twenty US two. Remember Verse Twenty I do not 109 00:09:07.820 --> 00:09:11.450 ask for these, only his his immediate disciples there with him on that night, 110 00:09:11.889 --> 00:09:16.370 but also for those who will believe in me through their word that they 111 00:09:16.409 --> 00:09:22.289 may be one. And so we see ourselves united with the disciples in this 112 00:09:22.450 --> 00:09:24.919 way. Those are early disciples, and we know that Jesus is praying for 113 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:28.840 us, and we know then, in Verse Twenty Five, when he says, 114 00:09:28.919 --> 00:09:33.000 even though the world does not know you, I know you, and 115 00:09:33.320 --> 00:09:39.070 these know that you have sent me. Now, perhaps it's not a amazing 116 00:09:39.269 --> 00:09:45.190 thing for Jesus to say I know you. Of course he knows him. 117 00:09:45.509 --> 00:09:50.429 Of course the son knows the father, but it is a remarkable thing that 118 00:09:50.990 --> 00:09:58.139 these know that you have sent me. Because how do we know that Jesus 119 00:09:58.179 --> 00:10:01.259 is the sent one? How do we know that he is the one who 120 00:10:01.259 --> 00:10:07.250 can turn water into wine, that can heal lame people, that can forgive 121 00:10:07.409 --> 00:10:11.690 sins? How do we know? How do we know that the very power 122 00:10:11.730 --> 00:10:18.769 over life and death and judgment belongs to him? Because he's shown us, 123 00:10:18.929 --> 00:10:22.519 as he said here, that all that the father has has been given to 124 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:28.240 him. Everything has been given to him in such a way that we praise 125 00:10:28.360 --> 00:10:35.200 the son not as a lower of subordinate being, but as the one true 126 00:10:35.399 --> 00:10:39.509 living God. We worship him not just as a great man, we worship 127 00:10:39.509 --> 00:10:43.909 him as the one true living God, because he and the father are so 128 00:10:45.230 --> 00:10:56.139 united that they are one being, power and glory, and we know that. 129 00:10:58.139 --> 00:11:03.179 How could we know such a thing? Except for the thing that Jesus 130 00:11:03.220 --> 00:11:11.169 says he has revealed God to us. That is amazing, that the god 131 00:11:11.570 --> 00:11:16.570 of all creation, that the God who is sovereign over every particle in the 132 00:11:16.649 --> 00:11:24.600 universe, would reveal himself to us so that we would know him and love 133 00:11:24.759 --> 00:11:35.269 him and pray as Jesus praise, saying our father or righteous father, to 134 00:11:35.549 --> 00:11:41.110 be those who are no longer enemies of God, be people who no longer 135 00:11:41.549 --> 00:11:46.149 fight against him and hate him and try to rule our own lives, but 136 00:11:46.269 --> 00:11:52.700 instead submit to him and find that not to be drudgery but pleasure, joy 137 00:11:52.740 --> 00:11:58.899 and life, to study and meditate on his word, to gather in worship 138 00:11:58.980 --> 00:12:03.450 with his people and know that these are the things that just feed our souls, 139 00:12:05.250 --> 00:12:09.409 that we have become that through the power of the revelation of God. 140 00:12:09.889 --> 00:12:15.450 That is an amazing thing. It's only by God's grace that that happens, 141 00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:20.279 which is I mean there's all kinds of applications of this, but one is 142 00:12:20.360 --> 00:12:26.639 simply to praise God, to praise God that Jesus came and did what God 143 00:12:26.840 --> 00:12:31.990 asked him to do, what God required him to do, what Jesus willingly 144 00:12:31.110 --> 00:12:39.590 accepted to do for us, for undeserving, unrighteous people. Jesus did these 145 00:12:39.669 --> 00:12:45.379 things, and this is what he describes in Verse Twenty Six. He says, 146 00:12:45.419 --> 00:12:48.460 I made known to them, be your name, and I will continue 147 00:12:48.539 --> 00:12:54.299 to make it known. So this is the second thing to point out. 148 00:12:56.019 --> 00:13:01.570 We know God in this intimate, familiar way, a way that we can 149 00:13:01.690 --> 00:13:05.929 come into his presence and we can pray, we can ask him for things 150 00:13:05.970 --> 00:13:09.250 from them, something as small as can you help me find my keys, 151 00:13:09.769 --> 00:13:15.159 to something as big as will you forgive my sins to be able to come 152 00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:20.960 into the presence of the Almighty God and ask for anything, to know him 153 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:26.240 and that familiar way, as a friend, as a father. We know 154 00:13:26.519 --> 00:13:31.429 that because he has been made known to us. We Know God because we 155 00:13:31.590 --> 00:13:41.620 share his righteousness with his son. What does Jesus mean when he says I 156 00:13:41.779 --> 00:13:46.299 made known to them your name? It's not language that we use very often. 157 00:13:48.419 --> 00:13:50.539 Here's how one commentator puts it. To know Jesus, or to know 158 00:13:50.659 --> 00:13:56.610 the father's name, means to know his character, deeds, words, his 159 00:13:56.809 --> 00:14:03.610 great and major desires and especially, he's his means of access. To know 160 00:14:03.850 --> 00:14:07.169 someone's name, you might think of it this way, is one of the 161 00:14:07.289 --> 00:14:11.759 first things that we it's, let me put it this way, it's representative 162 00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:16.120 of knowing a person. Who is that? That's Bob Right, who is 163 00:14:16.279 --> 00:14:20.399 that? That's Jennifer, whatever these are, this is a way in which 164 00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:24.149 we it's the doorway, we might say. The name is the doorway into 165 00:14:24.429 --> 00:14:28.669 to knowing something about someone and if we don't know their name right away and 166 00:14:28.750 --> 00:14:33.029 we come to know them from a distance, it's not long that we say 167 00:14:33.549 --> 00:14:39.700 what's that person's name? Rights it's it's a point of connection or something we 168 00:14:39.740 --> 00:14:43.419 might say. It's a symbol also of who that person is. And so 169 00:14:43.580 --> 00:14:48.899 that's why this commentator summarizes all those things. When Jesus says I reveal his 170 00:14:48.940 --> 00:14:52.330 name, it's essentially the same as saying I revealed the father. I make 171 00:14:52.409 --> 00:14:56.769 him known, but I make him known in a personal way, a way 172 00:14:56.809 --> 00:15:00.409 that we don't stand at a distance and say, I wonder who that is, 173 00:15:01.450 --> 00:15:03.850 I wonder if I might be his friend, I wonder if he might 174 00:15:03.970 --> 00:15:07.559 protect me, if he might love me, if he might know me. 175 00:15:09.399 --> 00:15:16.480 Oh yes, he will, and here's his name. And the Old Testament 176 00:15:16.559 --> 00:15:18.679 this is a big deal. Moses asks a question. And who shall I 177 00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:22.429 say that you are? What name Shall I give them? And God says 178 00:15:22.470 --> 00:15:31.789 I am, and here we see that his name is also Jesus. God 179 00:15:31.549 --> 00:15:37.139 reveals himself in the Sun, so that when we pray in Jesus is US 180 00:15:37.220 --> 00:15:48.299 name, we are praying to God and in God we are praying according to 181 00:15:48.379 --> 00:15:52.129 his will, according to his desires. We are praying for the things that 182 00:15:52.250 --> 00:15:56.250 he wants. We are praying with access that we have been given to by 183 00:15:56.330 --> 00:16:00.850 him. We stand in His grace, desiring his will. All these things 184 00:16:00.889 --> 00:16:06.840 are summarized there, and all these things are made known to us through Jesus. 185 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:11.399 Well, but this is why Christians learn to read, this is why 186 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:17.399 Christians read the word. This is why we come to church, this is 187 00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:21.549 why we encourage one another singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. This is 188 00:16:21.629 --> 00:16:26.789 why we do these things. That's why we meditate on God's words, why 189 00:16:26.789 --> 00:16:33.539 we pray God's word, because here in the word, Jesus gives to us 190 00:16:34.379 --> 00:16:41.340 the father, so that we are no longer separated from him, angry sons 191 00:16:41.419 --> 00:16:45.100 and daughters rebelling on me in sin, kicked out of the garden of Eden, 192 00:16:45.700 --> 00:16:51.769 but instead are brought back into his presence. And that brings us to 193 00:16:51.850 --> 00:16:56.610 number three. The third thing here is that Jesus gives us the reason for 194 00:16:56.649 --> 00:17:00.960 all of this, why he has made why he has made known the father's 195 00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:04.960 name and continue is to make it known, a promise which he is fulfilling 196 00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:12.839 right now in this building. Amazing, praise God. He says, I 197 00:17:12.880 --> 00:17:17.750 will continue to make it known. For what reason? Why is the Lord 198 00:17:17.869 --> 00:17:22.910 telling us these things this morning? The answer is this, that the love 199 00:17:23.470 --> 00:17:30.420 with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them. 200 00:17:32.579 --> 00:17:36.339 If that doesn't knock your socks off, I don't know what else to say. 201 00:17:37.460 --> 00:17:44.890 That the love that is between God the father and God the son would 202 00:17:44.890 --> 00:17:52.730 be in us, and that that's not some pie in the sky hope that 203 00:17:52.170 --> 00:17:59.200 we mystic Christians sort of wish for, but it's the very promise of the 204 00:17:59.319 --> 00:18:07.160 son of God recorded very plainly right here in the scriptures. This is not 205 00:18:07.880 --> 00:18:14.990 this is not coded here right this is not require some sort of complicated thing 206 00:18:15.230 --> 00:18:19.869 to have access to. For Fun, I plugged this passage into a common 207 00:18:19.990 --> 00:18:26.430 reading scale that teachers use to determine the reading level ability, you know, 208 00:18:26.549 --> 00:18:29.740 for their students, on a scale of one two hundred, one to a 209 00:18:29.779 --> 00:18:33.500 hundred, with a hundred being the easiest to read, which means that a 210 00:18:33.900 --> 00:18:36.859 like about a ten or eleven year old would be able to read it with 211 00:18:36.980 --> 00:18:40.619 no problem. It scores a ninety nine point five out of a hundred. 212 00:18:41.569 --> 00:18:51.450 This is a cities are simple words, but profoundly deep truth. Why does 213 00:18:51.609 --> 00:18:55.529 Jesus reveal these things. Why did he come to Earth? Why did he 214 00:18:56.079 --> 00:19:00.480 go to his death on a cross, with whippings and a crown of thorn 215 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:06.519 and shame and humiliation and ultimately death itself, the worst any human has ever 216 00:19:06.599 --> 00:19:10.470 experienced. It's the wrath of God was poured down on him. Why? 217 00:19:11.789 --> 00:19:15.109 He tells us right here that the love with which you, he says to 218 00:19:15.150 --> 00:19:19.150 the father, the love with which you have loved me, may be in 219 00:19:19.430 --> 00:19:33.380 them and I in them. The goal of this revelation is the stated goal 220 00:19:33.700 --> 00:19:38.849 of God's revelation to us in Christ, is to be brought into a relationship 221 00:19:40.049 --> 00:19:48.410 of love instead of enmity, instead of war, not only where we love 222 00:19:48.569 --> 00:19:53.119 him, which is just required, it's what we should do anyway, but 223 00:19:53.319 --> 00:20:03.960 where he loves us even though we had done nothing good to earn that love. 224 00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:08.670 Our love to him is a required thing that we find ourselves, in 225 00:20:08.750 --> 00:20:14.829 our sin, unable to do. God's love to us is a gift which 226 00:20:14.869 --> 00:20:19.150 he is totally powerful to do and in fact does through his son on the 227 00:20:19.269 --> 00:20:30.140 cross beloved. When we look to the cross, which we will consider more 228 00:20:30.380 --> 00:20:34.420 as we go through the final passages and chapters here in John over, the 229 00:20:34.700 --> 00:20:41.809 rest of this year probably is. We go through these passages, remember what 230 00:20:41.970 --> 00:20:45.730 Jesus says here in John Seventeen and what he has been saying and throughout the 231 00:20:45.769 --> 00:20:51.480 whole Gospel and, honestly says throughout the whole scriptures. When we look to 232 00:20:51.559 --> 00:20:56.720 the Cross and we see our savior there, we see the love of God 233 00:20:56.559 --> 00:21:03.279 for us and we can know that, in the same way in which he 234 00:21:03.509 --> 00:21:11.430 loved the Sun, that same love is now in us, even Jesus in 235 00:21:11.670 --> 00:21:14.269 us, he says, and I in them. How is he and us? 236 00:21:15.230 --> 00:21:18.180 Well, he becomes in us in all kinds of ways. He's in 237 00:21:18.259 --> 00:21:23.619 us as a first principle, as he is in us as a life giving 238 00:21:23.859 --> 00:21:29.099 spirit, as he gives his spirit to us. He's in us in our 239 00:21:29.180 --> 00:21:33.210 mindset, right Paul says, have the mind of Christ. He's in us 240 00:21:33.289 --> 00:21:37.210 in our heartbeat and our desires. He is in us as in as light. 241 00:21:38.130 --> 00:21:45.410 He shines through us, he makes revelation known through us. He is 242 00:21:45.529 --> 00:21:48.079 our end. He is in us as our comfort, as our hope, 243 00:21:48.119 --> 00:21:52.000 as our peace, as our joy. He is in us as our intimate 244 00:21:52.200 --> 00:22:02.190 friend, someone that we are close to, spiritually connected with, deeply in 245 00:22:02.390 --> 00:22:06.309 love with. He is in us as a pattern for all of life. 246 00:22:06.750 --> 00:22:10.789 He is in us, not just individually, but as a people, leading, 247 00:22:11.029 --> 00:22:17.539 directing Peretta, a protecting guiding us together all the way to the place 248 00:22:17.579 --> 00:22:22.099 where he is prepared for us so that we may see his glory. This 249 00:22:22.299 --> 00:22:26.660 is what it means to be in Christ. It means to be protected by 250 00:22:26.700 --> 00:22:30.369 him, to love him, to know him, to no longer stumble around 251 00:22:30.369 --> 00:22:33.849 in the darkness and stumble into our own graves. It is to walk in 252 00:22:33.970 --> 00:22:41.569 light and Life and resurrection and hope. This is what God gives to us 253 00:22:42.410 --> 00:22:48.000 in the cross, Jesus reveals. To conclude, Jesus reveals to us the 254 00:22:48.039 --> 00:22:52.720 father, so that the father's love for Jesus would also be in us, 255 00:22:52.880 --> 00:23:03.150 even as Jesus himself is in us. This is the antidote for every disease 256 00:23:03.430 --> 00:23:07.509 and illness in life. It is the antidote, it is the antidote, 257 00:23:07.509 --> 00:23:14.059 it is the answer, it is the cure for death itself, and it 258 00:23:14.299 --> 00:23:19.980 is the answer for every accusation that the devil will fling at you every moment, 259 00:23:21.220 --> 00:23:25.180 every time he says that you are unworthy, that you don't deserve God's 260 00:23:25.220 --> 00:23:27.569 grace, that you don't deserve to be loved, that you're not really lovable, 261 00:23:27.690 --> 00:23:30.930 that you have to earn it, that you've got to figure it out 262 00:23:30.930 --> 00:23:37.130 or it's all going to fall apart. You answer with these words. The 263 00:23:37.329 --> 00:23:42.519 love of God, the father for the son, is in me. I 264 00:23:42.839 --> 00:23:48.480 am loved, I am lovable, I am worthy, I am dignified. 265 00:23:48.359 --> 00:23:53.000 And you're right, Oh evil one, not because I'm some righteous creature, 266 00:23:53.880 --> 00:24:00.269 but because the Almighty God, in his power and His grace, has decided 267 00:24:00.710 --> 00:24:07.630 to love me, and so I love him. Let's pray