Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled — John 12-14

0:00 Praise the lord. Good morning. Good morning. What a great day to be together in the house of the lord in a country where we're free to do this. We are going to continue our study in John chapter 14.

0:17 And earlier this morning, they had the clock up back there. It was 12:30, it said and I thought somebody purposely put that up there just for Christian Eichley so that he would think he was way late. Now, it's gone. So, there's no clock. We're going to read the text then we're going to pray and then we're going to go back over the text some more, okay?

0:41 So, John chapter 14 I've been assigned to go through the first 15 verses. John chapter 14 verses one through 15. Jesus speaking, Let not your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you.

1:16 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going. How do we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.

1:45 No one comes to the father but through me. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. From now on, you know him and have seen him. 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?

2:10 He who has seen me has seen the father. How do 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 in me.

2:34 Otherwise, believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, shall he do also and greater works than these shall he do. Because I go to the father. And whatever you ask in my name, that will I do. That the father may be glorified in the son.

2:59 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. Turn a couple pages to John seventeen one verse verse three. John seventeen three, Jesus said, praying to the father and this is eternal life that they may know thee, the only true god, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. So, let us pray that as we continue to look at John that we will know the father and know Jesus Christ. Let's pray.

3:34 Heavenly father, thank you for your word on paper. Lord, for us, mortals, we can look at it and read it. We can hear it. And yet lord, we read in your very word that is living, that is alive, that is all powerful, that is eternal, that is never going to end. Father, we ask that through your word that you would fill us with your spirit.

4:05 Send your spirit as it were among us in a powerful way. We know he's already here in us but we pray for his blessing and anointing upon the teaching of your word that we might see Jesus. That we might know him more of his glory. And his majesty. In his name, we pray.

4:25 Amen. We're going to go back through John 14 now and before we do that, I want to give us some context. Context is very very important. Where are we coming? Where is this story at?

4:41 Two places. On God's eternal scope, where does this story fit in? And then very immediate. Where's the immediate context? So the big picture, if you would, the eternal plan of God.

4:54 We've shared this before and others have shared this from the scriptures that God has a plan. He says in Romans eight, he says, all things... Let's turn there. Romans eight. Romans eight verse 28.

5:08 All things are working together for good for a purpose to those who love god, who are called according to that purpose and then that purpose is Romans eight twenty eight. We know that god causes all things to work together for good to those who love god, to those who are called according to his purpose, for whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son. That's Jesus, of course, that he, Jesus, might be the firstborn, the preeminent one among many brethren, among many brothers and sisters. And God is gonna bring this to pass. Look at the next verse.

5:53 And whom God predestined for that purpose to be conformed to the image of his son. That's the predetermined destiny that God has determined for each person that he would save. This is his eternal program. All things working together for good. All things working together for this purpose.

6:12 That there might be a group of people conformed to the image of his beloved son And those whom he predestined, these he also called. That's the calling to come forth to his son. And those whom he called, these he also justified. In other words, those are the ones who got saved. These are the ones that god justified, declared righteous, made them like his son, and whom he justified these, he will finish his process.

6:40 He also glorified. He will do it. If you turn with me to Revelation chapter 21, just trying to get the big picture here of god's program and what is this all about? Why are we studying the book of John? Why are we here this morning?

6:57 Revelation 21. God's picture is that he would create a people like his son and dwell with them and dwell among them. That's his eternal program. He did that in the beginning in the garden. Why did he create Adam and Eve?

7:21 He created them perfect, right? Until they sinned, right? Before the sin came into the world, there is the perfect man. More people in the image of Christ to be like my son but then we all know that they lost that image when they disobeyed god, when they sinned and now, Colossians tells us that he's recreating us into the image of the one who created us. That's Jesus.

7:47 So, god's eternal plan is that he's creating a people to dwell in and among and with. He wants a bigger family. That we might be, that he might be, Jesus might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. If you're a believer here today, the Bible says that Jesus is not ashamed to call you his brother, his sister. We are now who have received Christ, John one twelve, right?

8:18 Have the right, the power to be called what? Children. Children of god and such we are, John says, and it has not appeared yet what we shall be but when he appears, we know this, we shall see him as he is and what? We shall be like him. Reconformed into that image of his beloved son.

8:42 That's all god's program for all eternity. He's going to create a creation, create a people that he can live among, live in, live with, and be like his precious son who is eternal, never created the son, Jesus Christ. We'll see more of that as we get into the text. So, that's god's eternal big picture. Now, he's working all things in our life.

9:05 Romans eight twenty eight, we just read that and following for that purpose, to conform us, to reconform us back into, to transform us back into the image of our creator, which is Jesus, his son. That's the big picture. So, the again, still the big picture and then we're to laser down into John and the time that we're looking at here when Jesus was on Earth. So, why are why does god have the book of John? Why did what happened in John happen?

9:32 Why was there Jesus coming to Earth? Well, Bible says, Christ came into the world to what? Save sinners, to seek and to save that which was lost. So, he comes into this Earth to do that process, to redeem mankind that we can now be reconformed back into that image of his own very person. So that and the key here is in Romans eight twenty nine, so that he, Christ, might be the firstborn, the preeminent one.

10:00 It's still all about Christ. We get the benefit, the blessing of being as we shared this morning in the first service how walking here so miserable and beaten up and then we remember what he did for us and we are the children of god. Wow. And so then, now we laser down into the gospel of John and we read in chapter one that the word Jesus who was always in the beginning with god the father, the eternal one, invisible because he's spirit, right? In the beginning but now, two thousand years ago, he takes on flesh.

10:34 The word became flesh and what? Dwelt among us. God among us. Emmanuel, god with us. So, god comes down to with us, Jesus Christ and hence, the gospel of John.

10:47 Hence, the whole Bible, really, right? The whole New Testament, Christ comes down and now, John carries on and he's looking specifically from his point of view as the Holy Spirit would lead him. His story of Jesus Christ. So, that's the big picture, the big context. What's the immediate context?

11:40 He's already been with the disciples for three years, did all the miracles, lots of the teaching, and now it says this in verse 32, and they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them, and they were amazed and those who followed were fearful. Things had already began to change. The disciples heard the message that the Messiah is here. The kingdom's going to be set up. But they didn't understand that first the kingdom had to be set up with sinners who were regenerated.

12:12 They didn't see that the Messiah, the king, had to be the lamb that was slaughtered. They didn't understand that and so now, all of a sudden and very quickly, Jesus had been teaching them. We're going to see. This is one of the times he teaches them that no, the king, speaking of himself, first, has to become the lamb crucified. And so there, all of a sudden, things begin to turn very rapidly that last week of Jesus' life for the disciples.

12:39 Now, Jesus knew this all along. This is the purpose he came for but in verse 32, they were on their way and so they're afraid, it says, in the middle of verse 32 and again, Jesus took the 12 aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to him. Again, it says, he had already done this before. I read in the gospel accounts at least three accounts where he gave them this teaching and here's what he says. Verse 33, behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and the son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes.

13:09 They will condemn him to death, will deliver him to the Gentiles. They will mock him and spit on him and scourge him and kill him and three days later, he will rise again. Did the disciples get it? No. Look at the next verse.

13:25 And James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, oh by the way, Jesus, okay, whatever you were just teaching about, lord, we want to ask you to do something for us. Can we sit on your right and left? They're still thinking kingdom immediately going to be set up on planet Earth. They didn't have a clue. They weren't understanding that Jesus has to come and suffer and die.

13:45 It was their pride because their pride just like today in any person forces them to not see their need of a savior. They didn't understand their own great need of his salvation in its entirety. So now, we're getting more immediate context. Jesus is now coming up to Jerusalem. Now, we go back to the gospel of John and if you look at chapter 12, Look at verse one.

14:15 Chapter 12 verse one, Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover. This is Passover started on Thursday evening when sun goes down, ended on Friday sunset. Jesus was crucified Friday at 9AM and died at 3PM. So Passover is only six days away. The crucifixion is only six days away.

14:36 Jesus therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was whom Jesus had raised from the dead and we're going to see, look at verse seven, just for time's sake, Mary comes and anoints him with oil preparing him for what? Verse seven, Jesus therefore said, let her alone. The disciples were saying, wow, this perfume, a year's way, a year's wages for a little bottle perfume. Jesus, this could have been money for the poor and what does Jesus say? Let her alone.

15:07 In order that she may keep it for the day of my burial. So, get the immediate context here. Jesus in his last, well, his whole teaching ministry but especially this last week or so is teaching then that he's going to be crucified, brutally murdered and so this is setting up the stage to get into John chapter 14 where Jesus says, let not your heart be troubled. So, they're understanding or at least he's teaching and so he's giving them clues, not clues but he's teaching them for the day of my burial for the poor you always have with you. But look at this, another one, but you do not always have me.

15:45 And maybe they're just starting... Burial? Wait. On the way up to Jerusalem, death? Hand it over to the Jewish leaders, then the Gentiles are going to murder him.

15:56 And you don't always have me with you. You're leaving? Go to John chapter 12 verse 23. After that story there, then, we see Jesus continuing to come after the triumphant entry coming in on the donkey and we notice that he he stops, he pauses, and he weeps over Jerusalem. This transition, I want you to see the transition that's happening in the ministry here.

16:27 They went from this great joy. The king is here. We win. We're on the king. He chose us.

16:31 The king is here. Messiah is here. Let's celebrate. Israel is going to be restored and we're going to live happily ever after but now things are starting to rapidly, rapidly change to the death and crucifixion of the one whom they loved and left everything to follow. And so the some of the Gentiles came, the Greeks in verse 20, we want to see Jesus and then Jesus picks it up and he says in verse 23, the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified.

17:20 He's going to die and there's going to be much fruit. The next verse teaches us that we have to die also if there's going to be fruit. We're not going look at that right now though. If you look at John 13 verse 21, John 13 verse 21. So, now, it's Thursday evening and they prepared the upper room for the Passover meal And during the Passover meal, Jesus says these words in verse 21.

17:53 When Jesus has said this, he became troubled in spirit. It's getting closer for him. Hours away from this horrible suffering. Truly, truly, I say to you that one of you will betray me. What?

18:13 We're with you, Jesus. We're all together. We love each other. Everybody's with you. One of us is going to betray you and of course, they all, is it me?

18:22 Is it me? Is it me? Verse 31 of chapter 13. We'll pick it up there. Jesus identifies that as Judas and Judas goes out and he leaves to do his dirty work.

18:38 Jesus and who? Satan, it says. Satan came into him and so now, it's just Jesus and the 11 it seems. When therefore, he, speaking of Judas, had gone out, Jesus said, now is the son of man glorified and god is glorified in him and here's the immediate context, okay? So, we're going to just go right in to read the the text that we're in today, John 14.

19:04 Now is the son of man glorified and god is glorified in him. If god is glorified in him, god will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him immediately. Wow. Five times in two verses that we're glorified. Now is he going to be glorified through the incredible suffering and things are starting to get quieter with the disciples as they listen to Jesus.

19:33 Things are taking a real radical change here. Somebody's going to betray the lord. They didn't fully understand it was Judas, it says. They thought he went out to maybe buy something with the money or something. Little children, I am with you a little while longer.

19:48 You shall you shall seek me and as I said to the Jews, I now say to you also, where I am going, you cannot come. That we're going there is maybe better translated departed. Where I am departing, I'm leaving. Where I am leaving, oh, death, prepared for burial, betray me, somebody's going to betray, and now you're going, you're departing, and we can't come. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

20:28 By this, all men will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another. Simon Peter said, woah, woah, lord, what's this stuff about your leaving? It's just like the love stuff didn't matter. Simon Peter starting to get it.

20:41 Lord, where are you going? Jesus answered, where I go, where I depart, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me later. Peter said to him, Lord, why can't I not follow you right now? I'll lay down my life for you. Jesus answered, will you lay down your life for me?

21:01 Truly, truly, I say to you, a cock shall not crow until you deny me three times. So the context, suffering, death predicted. Jesus predicted his death and suffering. He was anointed for burial. He said, the poor you always have with you but me, not always.

21:19 I'm leaving. Again, death predicted in John 12 but then the glory to follow. One of you will betray me. And we're just reading here in the upper room. I'm departing and you cannot come.

21:34 And Peter, you're gonna deny me three times. I have to believe it was this silent. Then Jesus says, let not your heart be troubled. Trust in God. Believe in god.

21:56 Believe also in me. The transition from chapter 13 to chapter 14, when life seems hopeless, and none of us have had the hopelessness that these guys were feeling. I believe this is the bottom as hopeless as you could get. And some of us are going through some very serious things. I know that but when life seems hopeless, trust in god, Jesus says.

22:36 Trust in god. Trust in me. Trust in me. And then what does he say? As we go on within the rest of this the text here, consider the big picture.

23:07 When life seems hopeless, consider the big picture, consider eternity, where we're going, what it's really all about. This too shall pass. This too shall pass. One day, we're gonna be on the other side, and this is all gonna be gone. All of it.

23:25 All the worries, all the struggles, all the problems, whatever they might be, will be. Jesus says, in my father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. So the you there in verse one is plural apparently. So he's speaking to all the disciples.

23:45 Don't let your heart be troubled. Look at how bleak it looks. There's no, it's all over it seems. There's no hope for tomorrow. It's not going to get better.

23:57 It's going to get worse. Jesus is going to be crucified, going to be betrayed, etcetera, etcetera. Peter, you're gonna deny me. Believe in God. Trust in God.

24:09 Trust in me. There's one house, my father's house, and this is a... He says a house. So the picture here is in a little town, a little village, okay, to help you understand this one very important word that's coming up. How do you get to the house?

24:27 Well, there's a road. There's a road. It's translated most of our Bibles the way but really in the context, it it's the road and Jesus says, in my father's house, there's many dwelling places. That word dwelling places is an awesome word. It's only used one other place in the New Testament and that's in this chapter in verse 23.

24:48 Look at verse 23. Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our, there's the word. Some of your Bibles, the old King James, I think says mansions. Terrible translation. We will come to him and make our mansions with...

25:11 No. Our rooms, some of your Bibles say, no, not really room. It just means an abiding place, a dwelling place. And again, why would that be? Well, that's always been god's plan from the beginning, right?

25:26 To dwell among man, to dwell with man, and we are now what? The dwelling of god. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Don't you know the holy spirit is in you, right? And so now, we are the temple, the dwelling of god and god is dwelling in us.

25:42 In my father's house are many abodes, abiding places, dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. I'm leaving. I'm departing to prepare a place for you. Brothers, sisters, in the midst of despair as we're getting older, some of us, and life is really getting painful, and people are dying around us, and we're dying, and the world, and the country, and everything, and all the troubles.

26:11 He's going to prepare a place for us. It's in his father's house. He's there now. He's been there for two thousand years preparing that place for us. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself so that where I am, there you may be also.

26:41 I think the lord himself was finding encouragement in these words. He knew the suffering was ahead but doesn't it say for the joy set before him? He was able to endure the cross and for the joy set before you, you can endure anything. And we do, right? But be encouraged, trusting god.

27:02 Where I because I want you to be with me. Notice that. He wants us to be with him. So many times, shame on me, shame on us. We're down here, you know, yeah, lord, the rapture be great but wait, you know, I'm just enjoying life down here and things are good.

27:22 Yeah, we're supposed to enjoy life and things are good But Jesus wants us to be with him more than we even want to be with him, I think. Verse four, and you know the way or the road to where I'm going. You know the path. You know how to get there. Get where?

27:40 The father's house, right? Thomas said to him, lord, we do not know where you're going. Departing, how do we know the way? And Jesus said to him, I am the road. I am the way to the father.

28:01 I am the truth. I am the life. Wow. In him was life I am the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life.

28:18 Colossians says, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in god when Christ is revealed, Christ who is our life is revealed, you also will be revealed with him in glory. He's life. He's our physical life. He's the sustainer. He's the creator of physical life, spiritual life.

28:42 He is life. But he's the road. He's the way to the father's house, to the father himself. We'll come back if there's time to that in a moment. Verse seven, if you had known me, you would have known my father also.

29:22 Philip is thinking god. Jesus is knowing his father is god but he's calling him my father and our god is a father. He is our father. He's our father but I want you to get for the context here. Philip is thinking, god, show us god.

29:42 He's not fully comprehending who does. That this man, Jesus Christ, standing in front of him is god. No, no. You you you're a great prophet. You're the Messiah.

29:53 Yeah, the Christ but but not really god. Could it be? Show us god. And that will be enough. Verse nine, Jesus said to him, have I been so long with you?

30:06 And yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen god, the father. You've seen me. You've seen the father. How do you say, show us the father?

30:25 Do you not believe that I am in the father? The father is in me. This is so spiritual and so heavy. I, my own words can't do much justice to it but we're just going to look at some scriptures and I've been meditating on this for weeks now since since I was assigned to do this text and this is so wonderfully deep and beyond our comprehension. The father is in Christ.

30:50 Christ is in the father. Here's this man, Jesus. He's god, the son, and yet the father is in him. That's what it says and he is in the father. Wow.

31:04 Wow. 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 in me. Otherwise, believe on account of the works or the miracles. You've you've seen the works, Philip.

31:25 Boys, you've seen all the things I've done. You were there in the boat when we were going to drown and I was sleeping and I just said, peace, be still, and instantly it says, the wind and the waves obeyed me. And Lazarus, when I called his name, he came out of the grave and the thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people that were healed and you've seen, don't they speak to you enough to let you know that I am one with the father. Let's look at a couple verses in John chapter four. John...

32:06 Jesus's declaration to be one with the father and to be god himself. John chapter four, the woman at the well and we're just going to pick it up at verse 24. We're a little short on times but just to give you an idea here that Jesus constantly revealing himself, revealing the father, John one eighteen says, nobody has seen god but Jesus, the only begotten son or god, some of your translations say, reveals him, reveals the father. So, all that we see in Jesus, all that we hear in Jesus, all that Jesus is thinking, how he thinks about people, how he feels and acts about people, how he thinks and feels and acts about sin, how he thinks and feels and acts about the enemy, Lucifer and his army, and how he thinks and feels about the father, and how he thinks and feels about eternity, and how he thinks and feels about how we should live our lives. This is the father.

33:17 It's the father's heart. It's the father himself in Christ. And yet Christ himself being the son of god. Such a mystery, isn't it? Such a mystery.

33:29 Verse 24, Jesus talking to this woman at the well and trying to reveal himself to her is revealing himself to her. And concludes in the conversation that god is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth and the woman said, she's already been convicted of her sin because Jesus without ever seeing her before physically at least in in the person of the man Christ Jesus knew that she had already been married five times. I think it's five times and with another man or living with a man now and so she's convicted and now she changes to get the, well, yeah, we we know that when Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ, when that one comes, he will declare all things to us. Pause. I who speak to you, am he.

34:27 God manifest in the flesh right in front of her. And I've shared this before. I watched the the movie production of the Gospel of John, and of course, it's just a movie, but I wish you could have seen it. It it portrays this woman who... She's like this, and then when he says I, who speak to him, he eyes get as big as coffee saucers.

34:52 The Messiah, the son of God, God himself. Go to John chapter eight. Jesus said, when you see me, you've seen the father. Jesus still trying to teach. He's been showing with his actions, with his life, with his life without sin.

35:17 But now he's teaching with words, teaching them that he is god himself. He is deity. He is the great I am. The one that was revealed to Moses in the burning bush. The I am that I am.

35:30 There's none like me. I need nothing. I'm the self existent one. No beginning, no end. The first and the last.

35:38 And look at what he says in verse 24 of chapter eight. Jesus speaking to the religious leaders here. He says, I said therefore to you that you shall die in your sins for unless you believe that I am. The he is in italics. It's not in the original writings.

35:53 It's not in the Greek. It's not in the Bible. Translators added that. Jesus said, unless you believe that I am, unless you believe that Yahweh, I am that I am. I am the eternal god.

36:08 You shall die in your sins. And then the conversation goes on in verse 30. As he spoke these things, many came to believe in him. Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed in him, if you abide in my word, then you're truly disciples of mine and amongst those people who supposedly believed, there were some who believed in their head but didn't weren't really converted because the conversation goes on and Jesus says, your father is the devil and now we'll pick it up at the end of the story in John chapter eight verse 53, Jesus standing off with the Pharisees, these religious leaders who are debating with Jesus. They're saying he's got a demon and Jesus saying, no, your father is the devil.

36:55 In verse 53, the Pharisees say, surely you're not greater than our father Abraham who died. The prophets who died too, whom do you make yourself out to be? Jesus answered, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my father who glorifies me of whom you say he is our God. And you have not come to know him, but I know him.

37:23 And if I say that I do not know him, I shall be a liar like you, But I do know him and keep his word. Your father, Abraham, Abraham had been dead dead for many centuries now. Your father, Abraham, rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad. The Jews and I'll add the word rightly, therefore, said to him, humanly speaking rightly, you're not yet 50 years old. You've seen Abraham?

38:14 The Jews knew exactly what Jesus was teaching. He was Jehovah. He is Jehovah. But they thought he wasn't. And if any man says he's god, that's blasphemy.

38:29 They picked up the stones to throw at Jesus, but it wasn't his time yet, I'm adding. And the text says, but Jesus hid himself, went out of the temple. John chapter 10. Pick it up in verse 27. Verse 25.

38:47 Ten twenty five. Jesus answered again the Pharisees, I told you. They asked if if he's the son of god, the Messiah, the Christ. Tell us plainly. I told you and you do not believe.

39:02 The works that I do in my father's name, these bear witness of me, but you do not believe. Why? Because you're not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give on and I give eternal life to them. Wow.

39:20 And they shall never perish. No one shall snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand, out of the father's hand. I and the father are one. Same response, the Jews took up stones again to stone him.

39:43 Jesus answered them, I showed you many good works from the father for which of them are you stoning me? The Jews answered him, for a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, and because you, being a man, make yourself out to be god. He is god. Let's move on to the book of Colossians chapter one talking about this deity of this man, Christ Jesus. A concept even Timothy, Paul writes in Timothy, the mystery of godliness, the mystery that god becomes a man, still fully being god and yet becoming a man and the unity of the trinity.

40:34 It's incomprehensible because Jesus said, he's god. I'm Jehovah but he's calling god his father and his god on the cross he calls him and he's saying it's the father in me. I'm in the father. The father is in me. We'll never fully grasp getting our minds around this.

40:53 They're not one person. They're three distinct persons. Somebody once said it. I I I can't remember who it was. It's not my own but it's I think it's the best short statement.

41:08 There is one god, one, who has eternally existed in three distinct persons. Let us make man in our image. Next verse, then god, he made man in his image. Don't ever lose the wonder of the three being one but also don't ever lose the wonder of the one being three distinct. Awesome.

41:36 It's just it's humbling. It's it's we can just read the text. Colossians chapter one. We'll start in verse 15. So, who who Jesus telling Philip and the rest of the boys, if you've seen me, you've seen the father.

41:52 Again, back in chapter one of John verse 18, he says, that no man has seen god but Christ has come and revealed him, made him known and here in Colossians verse 15, Paul says, Jesus speak, it says, he but if you read the context, it's clearly talking Christ and Christ, Jesus is the image of the invisible god. He is the visible manifestation of god. Whatever god is, if he would be a man, it's Jesus. He is a man. God is Jesus.

42:22 Jesus is god. God the son. Right? He's not god the father. It's as good as I can get it.

42:31 As he is the image of the invisible god. He is the firstborn, that preeminent one over all creation because by him, by Jesus Christ, all things were created. John even says that. Right? Verse three of chapter one.

42:47 All things were created by this one who's called the word. That's Jesus who became flesh. John one three says, all things were created by him. Apart from him, nothing was created that has been created. Everything was created by Christ Jesus before he himself even had this body, this physical fleshly body, but still being the son of god.

43:08 What a mystery. What a glorious god. And here Paul says, he's the image of the invisible god, the firstborn over all creation because by Jesus Christ, all things were created both in the heavens and on earth, visible, invisible, whether thrones or dominions, different ranks of angels. All things have been created by or through Jesus Christ and for him. And Jesus is before all things In time and in preeminence.

43:36 And in him, all things hold together. Jesus is the head of the body, the church. Jesus Christ is the beginning, the origin of all things. He's the firstborn, the preeminent one from among the dead so that he himself might come to have first place in everything. Why?

43:55 For it was the father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in this man, Christ Jesus. And there was also something else that it pleased the father to do in verse 20 and this goes back to John fourteen six that Jesus said, I'm the only road to the father. Look at what it says, verse 20, and it would be through Jesus as he becomes flesh and all the fullness of god would dwell in him that through Jesus, God would reconcile all things to himself having made peace through the blood of Jesus' cross, of his cross. Through Christ, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. It was on that cross.

44:34 We so wonderfully experienced remembering his death on the cross in the first service. It's there that the anger of god was fully meted out, poured out upon his son and now, there's atonement. There's atonement. There's covering over our sin. Our sins have been removed from us as far as the East from the West, all through the one time blood sacrifice of the perfect god man, the son of god, Jesus Christ.

45:07 Wow. And verse 21 goes on and more clearly helps us understand John 14 verse six. And although you were formerly alienated, hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet God has now reconciled you, reconciled you through the cross in Jesus Christ's fleshly body through the death on the cross in order. Look at this, verse 22, to present us, to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. If indeed you continue in the faith, if you continue to believe.

46:22 Whom he whom god appointed, heir, inheritor of all things, through whom also god made the ages. That's what that word world means. Through whom god made everything, time, space, and matter that he created to put in time and space. He created through his son, Jesus Christ. And this Jesus, verse three, is the radiance of god's glory and the exact representation of his nature.

46:56 That's why Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. Look at me. You've lived with me. Philip, you were one of the first ones I chose. And you're telling, you're asking, show us the father?

47:08 You've seen me for three years. You've seen the father. Don't you understand yet? Philip, that the father is in me and I am in the father. Wow.

47:18 Glory. He is the exact. Jesus is the exact representation of his nature, his reality, and he upholds. Jesus Christ upholds all things by the word of his power and when he had made purification of sins, this is back to John 14. It it hadn't happened yet.

47:37 Jesus is preparing them for the next day when he would make purification for sins. When he dies on the cross, when he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. If you go back, we'll wrap this up in John 14. As you can see, we're just skimming the surface here. I was thinking to myself earlier this week, I could speak in the first three verses.

48:03 Any of us could speak and teach deeply on the first three verses for at least a year in the pulpit, easily. There's so much in our Christ. Roger was saying before at the end of the first service that we might come to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. But we're just being reminded here of his awesome deity, his awesome ununderstandableness. That's what Isaiah 40 says.

48:33 He's inscrutable. That means you can't understand him fully. Just what we're skimming the surface through the word and the spirit, trying to grasp here in our soul. But one day we're gonna see him. And that's what he says.

48:48 That's what he says in verse three. Verse two and three, in my father's house are many dwelling places. Many dwelling places. Many places to abide. If it were not so, I would have told you.

49:05 For I'm going, I'm departing. I go to prepare a place for you. I go to prepare a place for you, Christian. I go to prepare a place for you, Don. I go to prepare a place for you, Kathy.

49:26 You could put your name in there. I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Why is he coming again? To receive us to himself so that we can be with him for all eternity.

49:48 Do you know the way? Thomas said, we don't even... We're not getting a lot of this, Lord. It's... You're you're to...

49:57 You're you're speaking over our heads. We don't even know where the father's house is. Where is god? Where is where does he live? How are we going to know the road to get there?

50:05 Jesus said, I am the road. I am the road. I'm going to close with one scripture in Revelation and then an invitation for us to meditate on. Revelation chapter 21. Second last chapter in the bible, last chapter of God's plan.

50:33 Here it is. Here's where we're headed. I love Peter's verse. I've quoted often first Peter one thirteen says, fix your hope. Again, this is what Jesus taught the boys there.

50:43 He says, don't let your heart be troubled. Trust in god. Trust in me, my father's house. That's what he says. Think about my father's house.

50:51 That's where you're going. I'm going to prepare a place and I'm going to come get you. And first Peter one thirteen says, fix your hope completely. Talking about hope in the first service. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be given you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

51:12 We win. It's gonna be wonderful. It's gonna be beyond awesome. Verse 21 describes us a little bit of what it's gonna be. Chapter 21 verse one.

51:23 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth, gone. Passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, with the many places to abide, with the many dwelling places. I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. That's Jesus Christ.

51:52 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he shall dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be among them. Mission accomplished. God dwelling permanently, never ever ever again to be separated because of a sin of Adam, the sin of you and me. The fulfillment of it all, the suffering that we're going through now. We can fix our eyes on Jesus for the joy set before us, we can endure.

52:33 We can move forward. God is going to dwell among us, and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. And there shall no longer be any death. There shall no longer be any mourning over death or crying or pain because the first things have passed away. And he who sits on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new.

53:01 And he said, write for these words are faithful and true. And he said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. Invitation.

53:22 Three groups of people. Number one, what god is, what you have heard from the lord today through the word of god, through the spirit of god. Believers, if you're a believer here this morning, What is John fourteen six mean to us? No one comes to the father but through me. This is for believers now.

53:47 What is that verse saying to you? If you take it in context, the way I understand it, Jesus was speaking only to believers that verse. Judas had already gone out. It appears that only believers were there and he's still teaching them He said earlier, you're all clean at the lord's supper, right? At the foot washing except Judas but now he's teaching him, there's no other way.

54:59 And the invitation to the third group of people, that's all of us. Would you make, I'm just giving you an idea. Would you dedicate the rest of this year, 2016 to reading one chapter of the gospel of John every day? I think the... I I think I figured it out.

55:18 I think we'd read it about seven times or something if we did that. What an awesome way to just look at Jesus on every... He's in he's in all the scriptures, and I know you're reading... Hopefully you're reading the scriptures already. Maybe add one more, right, reading to your your timetable.

55:33 Reading a chapter of John every day over and over and over till the end of this year. Let's pray. Lord Dawson Trautman, who gave his life trying to save somebody is with you now. Lord, in those wonderful words, he coined, I believe it was him to know him and to make him known. Lord, would you please make that the purpose of the rest of every one of our days that you would give us to know you, Jesus Christ, and to make you known.

56:10 We ask in Jesus name. Amen.