Glorious Mission of the Son

WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.190 --> 00:00:13.150 John Seventeen verses, one through five. When Jesus had spoken these words, 2 00:00:13.189 --> 00:00:18.910 he lifted his eyes to heaven and said, father, the hour has come 3 00:00:19.910 --> 00:00:24.620 glorify your son, that the son may glorify you, since you have given 4 00:00:24.660 --> 00:00:30.260 him authority overall flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him, 5 00:00:31.019 --> 00:00:36.289 and this is eternal life that they know. You, the only True 6 00:00:36.369 --> 00:00:41.890 God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on 7 00:00:42.049 --> 00:00:45.729 Earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do, and now, 8 00:00:46.409 --> 00:00:51.039 father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had 9 00:00:51.280 --> 00:01:00.320 with you before the world existed. Amen. Well, I can promise you 10 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:07.469 right now that you're not going to understand all of this passage, because there 11 00:01:07.549 --> 00:01:14.269 are infinitely deep things here. Even the word glory itself. How do you 12 00:01:14.989 --> 00:01:19.219 describe that? How do you define what glory is? I'm going to try, 13 00:01:19.819 --> 00:01:25.620 but you will for sure sense that there is some difficulty in that. 14 00:01:25.900 --> 00:01:34.090 There is difficulty in describing the father, the son, their relationship with one 15 00:01:34.090 --> 00:01:38.890 another, the glory that Jesus had before he came into this world, the 16 00:01:40.010 --> 00:01:42.290 glory that he is going to the glory that we are caught up in. 17 00:01:42.969 --> 00:01:49.120 Glory is a big thing, we might say. That is the nature of 18 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:53.439 glory. It's bigger than us with that's one reason we talk about it in 19 00:01:53.519 --> 00:01:57.359 these ways. We have the feelings that we do, which means that it's 20 00:01:57.480 --> 00:02:01.349 never going to be something that we can just grasp on, to hold on 21 00:02:01.510 --> 00:02:05.870 to, Tuck in our pocket and say, okay, good, got that. 22 00:02:07.590 --> 00:02:10.909 What instead we find are these there are things here that we learn, 23 00:02:12.069 --> 00:02:16.219 and we learn truly and we understand truly, but only to a certain degree, 24 00:02:17.500 --> 00:02:23.300 and ultimately it's it's to the degree that God desires us to understand them. 25 00:02:23.180 --> 00:02:29.500 We don't understand them as God knows himself in in himself, but we 26 00:02:29.580 --> 00:02:32.689 understand them in the ways that he wants to communicate to us and he wants 27 00:02:32.729 --> 00:02:38.530 to communicate to us, to you, so that you might be encouraged. 28 00:02:42.009 --> 00:02:46.599 Consider it this way. Notice what's happening here in our passage. Jesus, 29 00:02:47.159 --> 00:02:52.560 the Eternally Begotten Son of God, whom all glory and honor and Dominion and 30 00:02:52.680 --> 00:03:00.270 praise belongs, is praying to his heavenly father, the father from whom he 31 00:03:00.430 --> 00:03:07.430 was eternally begotten, to whom all glory and honor and praise belongs the persons 32 00:03:07.590 --> 00:03:14.659 within the Trinity, within our one God, or who are our one God, 33 00:03:15.580 --> 00:03:23.219 are speaking. The son of God is speaking to God, the father, 34 00:03:24.219 --> 00:03:30.409 and we get to hear that. And he's not just speaking, he's 35 00:03:30.650 --> 00:03:38.370 praying. Jesus lifts his eyes up to heaven and says father. Remind you 36 00:03:38.449 --> 00:03:42.319 of the Lord's prayer, doesn't it? Well, Jesus taught us to praise, 37 00:03:42.759 --> 00:03:46.879 pray like this, say our father, who are in heaven. Jesus 38 00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:52.599 lifts his eyes up to heaven and says father. Some commentators have pointed out 39 00:03:52.599 --> 00:03:57.310 that it's a very useful thing to think about this prayer in light of the 40 00:03:57.430 --> 00:04:01.349 Lord's prayer. Jesus taught us to pray and here he is praying, and 41 00:04:01.550 --> 00:04:06.629 indeed we learn things, we come to understand things about, understand some of 42 00:04:06.669 --> 00:04:11.500 the things that we pray, that we ask for in the Lord's prayer, 43 00:04:12.219 --> 00:04:16.939 by thinking about Jesus's prayer here in John Seventeen. So I'd encourage you, 44 00:04:16.980 --> 00:04:20.540 as we go through this chapter, not all today, to think along these 45 00:04:20.579 --> 00:04:26.209 lines. What does this teach us about the Lord's will being done on earth 46 00:04:26.250 --> 00:04:29.290 as it is in heaven? What does this teach us about God's name being 47 00:04:29.490 --> 00:04:33.170 hallowed? What does it teach us about God providing us our daily bread, 48 00:04:33.410 --> 00:04:42.279 these these kinds of things? Well, as we have this prayer from the 49 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:45.800 father to the son, the important thing to remember, to tie back to 50 00:04:45.879 --> 00:04:49.399 what I said a moment ago, is that we're not sort of sneaking in 51 00:04:49.639 --> 00:04:57.509 on this conversation, accidentally overhearing something that we ought not to hear, something 52 00:04:57.910 --> 00:05:02.430 holy, accidentally finding ourself in the holy of holies. I don't belong here. 53 00:05:03.670 --> 00:05:09.259 No, it's just the opposite. Jesus praised to the father, but 54 00:05:09.420 --> 00:05:13.620 he does and he is speaking to the father, but he specifically wants you 55 00:05:14.339 --> 00:05:16.939 to hear this prayer, to learn from it, to understand from it, 56 00:05:17.060 --> 00:05:21.410 to be blessed by it. How do we know that? Because he gave 57 00:05:21.490 --> 00:05:26.410 it to his disciples, John here in particular, by his spirit, to 58 00:05:26.569 --> 00:05:30.649 be included in this Gospel. Remember, at the end of John He says 59 00:05:30.689 --> 00:05:33.170 there's lots of things that Jesus did that I didn't write, but I wrote 60 00:05:33.290 --> 00:05:39.360 these things so that you might know and believe and have eternal life, which, 61 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:44.279 interestingly, fits perfectly with the mission that Jesus has been given here. 62 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:49.750 As we read it and John, Chapter John Seventeen too. He says you 63 00:05:49.910 --> 00:05:54.870 have given him. He speaks of himself. He's in the third person. 64 00:05:55.709 --> 00:06:00.629 You have given me him authority over all flesh. Why The me? Here's 65 00:06:00.670 --> 00:06:08.220 the mission to give eternal life to all who you have given Jesus. He 66 00:06:08.420 --> 00:06:12.139 came to give eternal life. That was his mission, and that's why these 67 00:06:12.220 --> 00:06:16.500 words are recorded. All that to say this simple point, these words are 68 00:06:16.699 --> 00:06:24.610 for you. We're not sneaking in on a extremely holy conversation, though it 69 00:06:24.850 --> 00:06:30.689 is very holy, precious, worthy of taking our shoes off, we might 70 00:06:30.889 --> 00:06:36.360 say, of being careful, of listening carefully, of humbling ourselves, but 71 00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:44.879 nevertheless, God is revealing himself and his mission to you. He wants you 72 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:56.189 to understand the glorious mission of the Sun. So it is Jesus's mission. 73 00:06:56.430 --> 00:06:59.509 Why? And why is it glorious? Let's consider these things. Well, 74 00:06:59.550 --> 00:07:03.019 we've already read his mission, as I mentioned in verse two, to Give 75 00:07:03.060 --> 00:07:08.779 Eternal life to all whom you have given to him. That's Jesus is a 76 00:07:08.819 --> 00:07:13.660 mission. He describes it a little more in verse three. He describes what 77 00:07:13.740 --> 00:07:17.129 eternal life is, that they know you, the only true God, and 78 00:07:17.370 --> 00:07:23.569 Jesus Christ whom you have sent. One way you might think about it is 79 00:07:23.569 --> 00:07:28.649 Jesus is mission, in a way, is to reveal his mission. He 80 00:07:28.889 --> 00:07:33.600 is on a mission to reveal the knowledge of his mission, and the knowledge 81 00:07:33.639 --> 00:07:39.000 of that mission, the knowledge that he comes for this purpose to give eternal 82 00:07:39.079 --> 00:07:46.550 life, is knowledge which can save it's not the kind of knowledge that is 83 00:07:46.629 --> 00:07:48.389 just sort of the kind of thing you know, you write down in your 84 00:07:48.430 --> 00:07:53.670 notebook and then forget about. But what Jesus wants to do is give the 85 00:07:53.750 --> 00:08:00.339 kind of knowledge that changes our understanding of everything, of the world, the 86 00:08:00.459 --> 00:08:03.980 purpose of the world, the beginning and end of the world, a way 87 00:08:03.060 --> 00:08:09.420 that helps us to understand God himself and our life in him. This is 88 00:08:09.459 --> 00:08:16.329 Jesus mission, and all the words that surround that mission in our passage help 89 00:08:16.410 --> 00:08:20.649 us to understand the glorious nature of it. Notice that. That's why I 90 00:08:20.810 --> 00:08:26.850 say that he wants us to understand that his mission is glorious. Let me 91 00:08:26.970 --> 00:08:31.000 just walk you through quickly the flow of this passage. Jesus, praise father 92 00:08:31.159 --> 00:08:35.480 the hours come, glorify your son that the son May glorify you. He's 93 00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:41.870 asking for this thing to happen in the future. He's asking God to glorify. 94 00:08:43.029 --> 00:08:46.909 And the reason, then, is in verse two, because you've given 95 00:08:46.029 --> 00:08:50.149 me this mission, as he defines in verse two and three, a mission 96 00:08:50.190 --> 00:08:56.379 which he has completed. Verse for, He says, I glorified you on 97 00:08:56.580 --> 00:09:01.940 Earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do, and now, 98 00:09:01.179 --> 00:09:07.620 father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had before 99 00:09:07.779 --> 00:09:11.929 the world existed. You see what I mean by saying his mission is wrapped 100 00:09:11.970 --> 00:09:15.289 all up and glory. That's why we don't want to. He wants us 101 00:09:15.330 --> 00:09:20.049 to think about it in this way. Jesus, we could, we could 102 00:09:20.090 --> 00:09:24.919 reorder the passage and still speak very truly and put it this way. We 103 00:09:24.039 --> 00:09:31.360 could say that, before the world began, the father gave a people to 104 00:09:31.559 --> 00:09:33.759 his son, as he says in verse two, to Give Eternal life to 105 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:39.470 all you whom you have given me. He gives a people to his son 106 00:09:39.750 --> 00:09:46.029 to save, to give eternal life to the father sends his son into the 107 00:09:46.110 --> 00:09:52.700 world and says do this work, glorify me, that I may glorify you 108 00:09:54.500 --> 00:10:01.539 and these people that I have given you in my glorification of you. So 109 00:10:01.659 --> 00:10:09.649 the Glorious Triune God determines this glorious plan from before time to save us and 110 00:10:09.809 --> 00:10:18.330 to wrap us up into his own glory to give us eternal life. Is 111 00:10:18.409 --> 00:10:24.039 How it's described there. Well, that's Jesus's mission and clearly it's glorious. 112 00:10:24.039 --> 00:10:28.240 It's a glorious thing. Let's think now about some of the specific ways in 113 00:10:28.399 --> 00:10:33.440 which it is glorious and a little more about what glory exactly is, and 114 00:10:33.480 --> 00:10:37.549 I hope that as we consider this, as we consider the glorious nature of 115 00:10:37.590 --> 00:10:43.429 Jesus Mission, that will increase your confidence in your courage and you're hoping him. 116 00:10:46.549 --> 00:10:48.110 As I said, glory is a tough thing to define, but I 117 00:10:48.149 --> 00:10:52.059 do think it's one of those things that you know it when you see it, 118 00:10:52.820 --> 00:10:58.899 you know it when you feel it. Glory is that quality of magnificence. 119 00:11:00.019 --> 00:11:05.129 Glory is what we see and here and experience when a particular quality or 120 00:11:05.169 --> 00:11:11.289 trait is magnified, when it is made great, when it is worthy of 121 00:11:11.529 --> 00:11:16.769 praise. And I want to give you four examples and think about those in 122 00:11:16.889 --> 00:11:20.960 relation to the mission of Christ. First one is power. One way we 123 00:11:22.120 --> 00:11:28.039 see and experience glory is in power. One image that comes to my mind 124 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:33.710 is is an army marching, dressed ready for battle, the tanks rolling, 125 00:11:33.870 --> 00:11:39.190 the flags flying, you hear their stomping. March, March, March. 126 00:11:39.549 --> 00:11:43.870 Everything is tight, everything is organized, everything is planned, nothing is out 127 00:11:43.909 --> 00:11:48.259 of place. There's power in that. That's why armies march in this way, 128 00:11:48.340 --> 00:11:54.419 specifically before people and in in when there are parades, in this way. 129 00:11:54.539 --> 00:11:58.419 It is to magnify the power in a way that makes you stand back 130 00:11:58.539 --> 00:12:03.129 and go wow. And if you're on the side of the army, it 131 00:12:03.250 --> 00:12:07.169 gives you confidence. Right, it gives you boldness. We're going to win 132 00:12:07.210 --> 00:12:09.090 this thing, we're gonna this is gonna work, we're going to defeat our 133 00:12:09.090 --> 00:12:13.529 enemies. And if you're are not on the side of that army, it's 134 00:12:13.570 --> 00:12:18.720 supposed to instill and you fear that glory in that power is it marches before 135 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:24.120 use to make you feel overwhelmed. Right, that's what glory does. It's 136 00:12:24.279 --> 00:12:31.309 magnificent, it's big. But take the our example of the army marching. 137 00:12:33.350 --> 00:12:35.990 We all know that, even as we watch that parade, if you that 138 00:12:37.669 --> 00:12:43.190 it's not always as it seems. Perhaps the weapons are not fully operational. 139 00:12:43.419 --> 00:12:48.179 That soldier that just walked by that seems so confident and strong, there's probably 140 00:12:48.179 --> 00:12:50.820 a good chance that in the back of his mind he's going, did I 141 00:12:50.899 --> 00:12:56.539 leave the Coffee Pot on right? He's thinking about, you know, is 142 00:12:56.620 --> 00:13:00.009 it did I get all the loops on my belt? Or what's going to 143 00:13:00.090 --> 00:13:03.570 happen tomorrow? or I've got to make sure I finish this thing when this 144 00:13:03.730 --> 00:13:07.649 thing is over. There's a way in which, even at are at the 145 00:13:07.769 --> 00:13:11.919 height of power, it doesn't last very long and there's it's something of a 146 00:13:11.960 --> 00:13:16.639 veneer, of a show. There might be truth to it, but there's 147 00:13:16.639 --> 00:13:26.000 a certain amount of fragility to any kind of human power when we also know 148 00:13:26.279 --> 00:13:30.029 that these kinds of parades are not what it looks like on the battlefield. 149 00:13:31.149 --> 00:13:35.389 Armies don't typically March and their dress a uniforms out and just walk through the 150 00:13:35.429 --> 00:13:39.950 battlefield and then go home. Now they fight, they die, there's blood 151 00:13:39.149 --> 00:13:52.980 and and and glory and death. People lose their sons and their father's plans 152 00:13:54.059 --> 00:14:03.049 go wrong. Enemies sometimes win. This is human power. This is the 153 00:14:03.129 --> 00:14:07.730 glory and the not so glorious nature of human power. Now consider that with 154 00:14:07.889 --> 00:14:13.759 the power of Jesus's mission, the glorious power of Jesus's mission, Jesus comes 155 00:14:13.840 --> 00:14:18.799 into the world to conquer Satan to conquer sin, to conquer death. He 156 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:26.070 comes not to secure a border or to secure a region or a food supply 157 00:14:26.429 --> 00:14:31.269 or have this victory of that victory. He comes to conquer death itself. 158 00:14:33.110 --> 00:14:39.580 Remember his mission to give eternal life. What army, what rule or what 159 00:14:39.740 --> 00:14:48.259 kingdom has ever given anyone anything even close to what Jesus gives in his mission, 160 00:14:48.779 --> 00:14:58.250 eternal life. And when you think about the ways in which Jesus exemplifies 161 00:14:58.370 --> 00:15:03.289 this mission, the way that he glorifies the father throughout his mission here on 162 00:15:03.450 --> 00:15:07.559 Earth, we get a taste of that. A man who has not walked 163 00:15:07.759 --> 00:15:13.919 for decades all of a sudden walking, a woman touching the hem of Jesus's 164 00:15:15.039 --> 00:15:18.840 garment and the power going out from him, or she is instantly healed, 165 00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:26.110 after doctors had tried for long time to help her. People who are vile, 166 00:15:26.429 --> 00:15:31.830 despicable sinners turning their lives around, giving themselves fully over to him and 167 00:15:31.190 --> 00:15:39.259 being willing to die for him. Tax Collectors who had previously been hoarding money, 168 00:15:39.299 --> 00:15:43.740 stealing money, oppressing people, now giving back what they had stolen. 169 00:15:46.779 --> 00:15:52.649 Power and these things in Jesus is miracles that we see, and we could 170 00:15:52.690 --> 00:15:56.129 listen any more. These miracles and things that we see his teaching, as 171 00:15:56.210 --> 00:16:03.009 well as attributed to his glory and power. They're just little for tastes of 172 00:16:03.169 --> 00:16:11.600 the glorification that he will receive later on, little warehouse samples of what he 173 00:16:11.080 --> 00:16:17.440 will come into and what we will see and experience with him at the resurrection. 174 00:16:17.480 --> 00:16:25.509 Amazing, amazing. The power of Jesus is mission, the glorious power 175 00:16:25.549 --> 00:16:30.029 of Jesus's mission, surpasses all the powers of this world, the in the 176 00:16:30.149 --> 00:16:41.179 ease and which he does things and things which are humanly totally impossible. There 177 00:16:41.220 --> 00:16:45.659 were two. Another way Jesus shows us is glorious, his glory, of 178 00:16:45.740 --> 00:16:51.529 his mission, in his wisdom. You know, wisdom is right and wisdom 179 00:16:51.649 --> 00:16:56.210 is win. The means and the ends are perfectly chosen, and so are 180 00:16:56.250 --> 00:17:00.889 all the means to get there. The beginning and end are all planned and 181 00:17:00.090 --> 00:17:06.599 matched and everything is decided. Well, we know this, of course, 182 00:17:06.759 --> 00:17:11.680 and in the world, when you read a book that describes something and you 183 00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:18.789 go that person gets it right and all of a sudden questions you had and 184 00:17:18.990 --> 00:17:22.430 things you didn't understand, it at all comes together and your heart fills with 185 00:17:22.549 --> 00:17:26.190 joy and that wisdom and that understanding you say, Oh, that's so helpful, 186 00:17:26.950 --> 00:17:30.579 and you go and you recommend the book to your friends and you say 187 00:17:30.579 --> 00:17:36.259 you've got to read this. This really helps you understand whatever it is you're 188 00:17:36.420 --> 00:17:45.089 you're reading about the glory of wisdom fills with joy. But of course, 189 00:17:45.210 --> 00:17:48.809 again, humanly, this is extremely difficult to do. Think about some of 190 00:17:49.130 --> 00:17:53.890 our wisest people, or people at least who spend a great amount of time 191 00:17:55.170 --> 00:18:00.720 and money trying to gain wisdom. What do we do? We specialize, 192 00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:07.240 we narrow our field down more and more and more and we focus more and 193 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:11.079 more and more, gaining degree after degree, job after job, so that 194 00:18:11.319 --> 00:18:18.269 we can really get close to what we might call mastery over this tiny little 195 00:18:18.349 --> 00:18:22.829 thing. And even then, those humans that we say are best in class, 196 00:18:25.190 --> 00:18:27.740 they'll even say that there's still so much they don't know, even in 197 00:18:27.900 --> 00:18:34.259 their own field. And that's the best that we can do. And then 198 00:18:34.339 --> 00:18:44.210 there's God, from all time and space, deciding every leaf, every grasp 199 00:18:44.410 --> 00:18:51.849 blade, every hair on our head. What would be to accomplish this mission? 200 00:18:52.609 --> 00:18:59.079 It's not amazing. The glorious nature of Jesus's mission is not only in 201 00:18:59.160 --> 00:19:02.319 his power, but it's in the wisdom. How this all fits together. 202 00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:11.549 Sometimes it confuses us. Why exactly did Jesus called Judas? Perhaps some of 203 00:19:11.589 --> 00:19:15.150 you are thinking of certain answers, perhaps they're correct, but the point is, 204 00:19:15.990 --> 00:19:19.390 notice the wisdom of God. Who would think of these kinds of things? 205 00:19:21.670 --> 00:19:32.660 Or calling someone like Paul so late in the game, or the prophets 206 00:19:33.059 --> 00:19:42.089 prophesying these things, or the the the genocide that Herod a committed. You 207 00:19:42.210 --> 00:19:45.529 can on and on and on list all kinds of things and you can see 208 00:19:47.170 --> 00:19:52.640 how God pulls them together. Sometimes, sometimes you can't. But in all 209 00:19:52.680 --> 00:19:56.720 of it what is undeniable is that the Lord is sovereign, that the Lord 210 00:19:56.799 --> 00:20:00.880 is wise in a way that doesn't even begin to compare to our wisdom. 211 00:20:00.920 --> 00:20:10.670 Jesus came into the world in a veiled form that the world would call foolishness. 212 00:20:10.829 --> 00:20:12.230 Well, that's your save. You're dying on a cross. Yes, 213 00:20:12.390 --> 00:20:17.430 that's our savior dying on a cross. Why does God do it that way? 214 00:20:17.750 --> 00:20:25.539 To confound you, to put you to shame, to make it known 215 00:20:25.779 --> 00:20:29.460 that your wisdom is not so wise and so that the wisdom of God and 216 00:20:29.619 --> 00:20:36.009 the grace of God might be magnified in Jesus on the Cross? No plan, 217 00:20:36.210 --> 00:20:41.609 no mission has ever been devised that will ever begin to compare to surpassing 218 00:20:41.769 --> 00:20:48.930 the glorious wisdom of the mission of Jesus. I really want to talk about 219 00:20:48.930 --> 00:20:52.759 beauty, but we're going to skip beauty and talk about love. What about 220 00:20:52.759 --> 00:21:03.000 the glorious the gloriousness of Jesus's love in his mission? In this life, 221 00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:07.910 again, following this pattern that we're on, we experience sometimes great love. 222 00:21:10.470 --> 00:21:14.670 It's father's day, perhaps, between a father and his son or daughter. 223 00:21:15.869 --> 00:21:19.660 Perhaps it's between a husband and wife, perhaps it's between two friends. I 224 00:21:21.259 --> 00:21:27.220 hope that you've all experienced it and have opportunities to experience that, where you 225 00:21:29.180 --> 00:21:34.930 look into someone's eyes and you are so in sync with them, so connected 226 00:21:36.089 --> 00:21:41.009 with them, at a moment where you sort of lose yourself. This is 227 00:21:41.130 --> 00:21:45.529 my friend, this is my child, this is my spouse, and you're 228 00:21:45.690 --> 00:21:55.519 just together, just together, and isn't there a glory in that? Something 229 00:21:55.680 --> 00:22:00.680 that when the two come together, it's more than just the two people together, 230 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:06.069 that the two become one in a way there's a community that grows that 231 00:22:06.549 --> 00:22:11.990 either can hardly express, and our great poets try to write about it, 232 00:22:11.230 --> 00:22:17.500 try to write about love, try to express to try to get at it 233 00:22:17.539 --> 00:22:21.740 when you talk about, you know, being in the clouds or feeling weightless 234 00:22:21.740 --> 00:22:27.900 or losing ourselves, all very in exact language, but we're trying to get 235 00:22:27.940 --> 00:22:33.210 at something, trying to get it something bigger than ourselves, and these moments 236 00:22:33.250 --> 00:22:40.769 are so wonderful. They fill us with joy and confidence and safety. But, 237 00:22:40.890 --> 00:22:44.400 of course, and talking about it, we all know how fleeting these 238 00:22:44.480 --> 00:22:51.799 are, even with the people that were closest to, most committed to relationships 239 00:22:51.880 --> 00:22:59.230 that seems so strong in this life, fall apart in such a way that 240 00:23:00.630 --> 00:23:03.750 makes me feel so angry I want to cust and swear a little bit. 241 00:23:04.029 --> 00:23:11.109 Maybe you have. It's frustrating, isn't it? We want so badly to 242 00:23:11.190 --> 00:23:15.099 be connected with each other, to be unified, to be at one and 243 00:23:15.220 --> 00:23:22.819 at peace, and we just can't manage it. It's so, so hard. 244 00:23:26.490 --> 00:23:30.849 What does Jesus do then, in his mission, he comes into this 245 00:23:32.009 --> 00:23:37.329 world and he gives us eternal life that is so unifying. He says that, 246 00:23:40.009 --> 00:23:42.000 as the that he is as in the father, and the father is 247 00:23:42.039 --> 00:23:48.240 in him and we are in him and he is an us, that we 248 00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:55.440 might be one with each other. Do you know how much unity there is 249 00:23:55.829 --> 00:24:03.069 within God? I don't know what else to say after that, I really 250 00:24:03.109 --> 00:24:18.420 don't. But that's what we are united to when Jesus fully engages with us, 251 00:24:18.460 --> 00:24:23.490 when he gives us his spirit. It's not a fleeting thing, it's 252 00:24:23.529 --> 00:24:27.130 not something that he's going to drop the ball on. It's the glory of 253 00:24:27.210 --> 00:24:30.730 that love, the glory and of that unity is not something that's going to 254 00:24:32.410 --> 00:24:34.650 fall apart in a few minutes or a few days or a few years, 255 00:24:36.849 --> 00:24:42.480 because we're talking about Jesus who does the impossible, he does the glorious things. 256 00:24:44.119 --> 00:24:52.359 His mission is glorious. Well, I said earlier, this glory, 257 00:24:52.670 --> 00:25:00.150 the Glorious Mission of the Sun. It's the kind of thing that if you're 258 00:25:00.190 --> 00:25:03.390 if it's for you or against you, it kind of depends on how you 259 00:25:03.509 --> 00:25:08.140 relate to it. If you are against it, if you are separated from 260 00:25:08.140 --> 00:25:14.819 it, it's all sorrow and despair. But if Jesus Christ is looking into 261 00:25:14.819 --> 00:25:18.900 your eyes and says you are my beloved, I will be your God and 262 00:25:19.059 --> 00:25:25.650 you will be my people, and I and and the father in love sends 263 00:25:25.730 --> 00:25:29.369 his son into the world so that whoever would believe on him would be saved, 264 00:25:29.730 --> 00:25:33.009 so that all who look to Jesus Christ on the Cross and see their 265 00:25:33.130 --> 00:25:38.160 sins there would be caught up into his love and his power and his wisdom 266 00:25:38.440 --> 00:25:48.960 forever. That kind of thing helps, helps a great deal, and that's 267 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:52.549 one of the reasons Jesus wants you to know this, because this life, 268 00:25:52.549 --> 00:25:59.109 as we've been discussing, is very hard. We want glorious things. We 269 00:25:59.269 --> 00:26:03.150 don't want to be entrapped by fleeting things. We don't want to put our 270 00:26:03.420 --> 00:26:10.099 work to things that will vanish into the air or blow away like the chaff. 271 00:26:12.299 --> 00:26:22.529 Life is hard. But if we put our eyes in faith, in 272 00:26:22.650 --> 00:26:29.450 the sun, in the glorious promise that he's given, what did he say? 273 00:26:30.569 --> 00:26:33.480 He says that when we know God and the son whom he has sent, 274 00:26:33.720 --> 00:26:42.400 we will have glory, Eternal Life, God himself as one that we 275 00:26:42.880 --> 00:26:48.190 can pray to and say, our father, who are in heaven, how 276 00:26:48.309 --> 00:26:59.589 would be thy name? So when the fleeting things of this world are feel 277 00:26:59.630 --> 00:27:03.380 fleeting and when the inglorious things of this world are so inglorious and only things, 278 00:27:03.460 --> 00:27:07.420 like everything is just keeps slipping through your fingers and you want to despair 279 00:27:07.579 --> 00:27:14.539 and you want to give up, remember the glorious mission of the Sun set 280 00:27:14.579 --> 00:27:18.690 it before you like a bright, Shining City, that you are going to 281 00:27:21.289 --> 00:27:26.970 keep going. It's there, it's promised for you. He came into the 282 00:27:26.049 --> 00:27:30.920 world and what did he do? He did what he came to do. 283 00:27:32.640 --> 00:27:38.319 He says that I have glorified you and now glorify me, and that's exactly 284 00:27:38.519 --> 00:27:45.509 what God did. Jesus Christ sits in heaven now at the right hand of 285 00:27:45.589 --> 00:27:51.069 God, the Father, ruling and reigning over us, working in us, 286 00:27:51.470 --> 00:27:59.019 calling us, bringing us to these final ends. So keep your eyes on 287 00:27:59.140 --> 00:28:03.500 him, remember that the glory that he brings is different than the glory that 288 00:28:03.579 --> 00:28:10.339 we experience in this life, and press on, beloved. Let's pray