Jesus' Personal Promises

LaRue Baptist Church, OH

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Old Testament reading will be out of Psalm 56, starting in verse 8 to 13.

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You have kept count of my tossing, my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?

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Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know that God is for me.

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In God whose word I praise, in the Lord whose word I praise, in God I trust,

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I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? I must perform my vows to you,

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O God. I will render thanks offering to you. For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

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New Testament scripture is Luke 22, beginning in verse 7. Then came the day of unleavened bread, on which the

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Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the

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Passover for us, that we may eat of it. They said to him,

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Where will you have us prepare it? He said to them, Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you.

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Follow him into the house that he enters, and tell the master of the house, The teacher says to you,

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Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?

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And he will show you a large upper room, furnished, prepare it there. And they went and found it, just as he had told them, and they prepared the

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Passover. And when the hour came, he reclined at the table and the apostles with him.

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And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat the Passover with you before I suffer.

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For I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said,

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Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.

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And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you.

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Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise, a cup after they had eaten, saying,

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This cup that is poured out for you is a new covenant in my blood. But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table.

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For the son of man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed.

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And they begin to question one another, which of them it could be who was going to do this.

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A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.

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And he said to them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors.

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But not so with you. Rather let the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader as one who serves.

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For who is greater? Who is the greater? One who reclines at the table or one who serves?

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Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves.

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You may be seated. Good morning.

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I'd like for you to turn your Bibles to John 14. Decided to tackle a pretty big passage, so I'm going to be hitting some of the key highlights and I'm going to ask you to hang with it.

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Verse 1. I'd like to read verses 1 through 23. Let not your heart be troubled.

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Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms.

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If it were not so, what I have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.

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And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will take you to myself and where I am, you may be also.

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And you know the way to where I'm going. Thomas said to him,

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Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said,

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I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

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If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

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Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, have

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I been with you so long that you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the

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Father. How can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the

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Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the

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Father's who dwells in me does his work. Believe me that I am in the

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Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on the account of the works themselves.

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Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the

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Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, and the

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Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

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If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the

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Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever, even the

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Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

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I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me, because I live, you also will live.

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In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

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Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my

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Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Judas, not

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Ascariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will make yourself known to us and not to the world?

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And Jesus answered, If anyone loves me, he will keep my words, and my

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Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

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Let's pray. Father, we ask for your strength.

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Father, we ask for you to help us as we open your word and hear what you have to say to us.

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May you speak. May you use this moment in time to change our hearts, to affirm to us your goodness in our lives, your faithfulness in our lives, and that your words are powerful, and your words are for eternal purposes in our lives.

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Father, we praise you and thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, and in his name we pray, amen. Interesting, this starts out, let not your heart be troubled, and here

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I am all this week troubled. What are we worried about, right?

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God's word is true. So I want to do a little background here as far as why are the disciples troubled?

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We understand we have trouble every day, right? Every day in our lives there's trouble.

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Disciples are dealing with troubles, and Christ, of course, knew this. Jesus was with his disciples for the past three years.

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Jesus has done everything for them. He called them, he taught them, he fed them, he sheltered them, he paid their taxes, he protected them from both

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Roman and Jewish leaders. He saved them both physically and spiritually, that is except for Judas.

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And now preparing them for the future, Jesus has led them for three years towards a great kingdom, a kingdom that he often referred to as God's kingdom, to my kingdom.

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Things were just starting to line up for this kingdom in these disciples' minds anyway, as the people were waving palm branches and shouting,

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Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel.

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The disciples were hearing this ringing in their ears. They were convinced that Jesus was setting up an earthly kingdom, even so that there were several arguments recorded among the disciples.

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Other discussions directly held with Jesus about who would be positioned on his right and on his left.

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All the while, Jesus himself was troubled. He was troubled in his spirit, according to John 13 .31,

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concerning his upcoming suffering, his death, that he knew was inevitable.

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With the unbelieving Jews and disciples around him, he considered his very own disciples,

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Judas, the betrayer, Peter, who was about to become the denier,

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Thomas, the consistent doubter, and the other disciples that lacked faith and showed ignorance in their lack of understanding of what

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Jesus was saying to them. And these were supposed to be his closest companions.

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The thing that bothers me the most, this is off script, is that the portion that we read this morning,

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Christ was trying to tell them about his death, his upcoming death. And what were they doing?

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They ended up arguing over who was the greatest. How is that to leave you in a troubled situation?

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This is the thing that's really boggled my mind with the disciples, and yet we do some of the same things.

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The troubling part for the disciples is that Jesus is now stating that he's leaving, he's going to suffer and die. Throughout the week of Passover, Jesus had been telling the disciples that he was leaving.

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John 12 .32 starts out by saying that he was going to die. 13 .33

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says, and a little while I am with you. And Peter even states in 13 .36,

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where are you going? His disciples have no clue. They don't understand.

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In this chapter that we've read this morning, in chapter 14, in verses two and three, Jesus is saying,

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I go. He says it again in verse three, I go. Verse four, he says,

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I am going. And verse 12, he's saying, I am going. And in verse five,

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Thomas states plainly, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?

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These disciples were clearly confused. Their mindset, their thinking, their direction is all going one way.

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And Jesus is trying to tell them that he is the way, and he's going a different direction than what they are thinking.

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Yet, they're troubled because, well, the party's over. They've been hanging together for three years.

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This is a very, Christ has tried to create a tightly knit group to listen and to follow them.

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But yet, Peter's sentiments apply here from Matthew 19, where it was a totally different subject, but it applies here where he says, we have left everything to follow you.

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What, then, will there be for us? It's a great question.

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If Christ leaves, what would there be for us? Who would we be without Christ?

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Where would we be without him? And these are the troubling questions that are hitting them.

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Disciples are troubled, confused. Things are not going the way that they had thought. The pieces no longer fit together the way that they had planned.

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What are we going to do if he leaves? Are we going to be abandoned here, without him?

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In chapter 13, Peter asks the Lord, why can I not follow you?

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Why can I not follow now? I'll lay down my life for you. Jesus' words to Peter are almost haunting.

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Will you lay down your life for me? We, like Peter, have a difficult time making our life, our love, our loyalties to the

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Lord on a daily basis, let alone physically laying down our life.

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Yet Jesus loved them in their unfaithfulness, their fear, and in their doubt.

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In fact, John says in chapter 13, verse 1, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

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That's a powerful statement. That Christ was with them and he loved them every moment that he was with them.

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The disciples needed to be reminded of what God said to Joshua, which applied to their present time, which now applies to their present time.

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I will never leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed.

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For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1 .5. This is a good reminder for us.

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These are promises that Christ is going to make to the disciples that apply to us. They apply to us every day to be a reminder.

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A promise from Jesus Christ, as we're going to see, is eternal. He doesn't change his words.

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He doesn't mince words. He doesn't change his mind. He doesn't tell you something to get you on his side and then later do something for himself.

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In fact, while he was troubled to go to the cross in chapter 13, he loved them and continued to show them humility of word and indeed by washing their feet.

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This is the king of glory stooping to wash their dirty feet. Jesus washes our feet and he makes a promise.

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He makes many promises to us. And here's just a few. And I might not even get through all of them because of time, but I'm going to start and we'll see how this goes.

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So what promises does Jesus give the disciples and how do they apply to us? Jesus promises a personal and permanent place with him.

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Verse one. Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.

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Comfort is found when we trust Jesus for what he says. Even when Jesus was facing the worst situation in life to die a humiliating death, to be forsaken by God because of our sin and the full payment of our sin that was pinned on him was nailed to the cross.

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Yet he loved and cared for these men. He loved us even while we were yet sinners.

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So how does he comfort them? First he starts out by saying, let not your heart be troubled.

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Or in other words, stop letting your heart be troubled. Stop being troubled.

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Stop the bleeding. Stop thinking this way. You believe in God who you cannot see.

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Believe me who you do see and have before you. When he's talking about a belief, he's saying, obey.

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He's saying, have faith. Believe in me. Jesus has given the disciples his word.

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And if you don't believe what I say, believe in my works. This is what he told the unbelieving Jews. Are you like them?

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That you have to have works before you in order for you to believe? You have seen me heal the lame, the blind, the leper, the demon possessed, feed the thousands.

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From my hand and with my powerful, truthful words, raise dead men back to life.

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What's not to believe? What's not to trust? Keep watching me. Keep believing me.

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If you turn to Hebrews 1, Pastor Tim has been doing a study on Hebrews.

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And right in the very beginning of this book is an extremely powerful statement.

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And I think that it fits perfectly because Jesus is speaking to them and he's telling them in verse three, he,

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Jesus, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of God's nature.

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And he, Jesus, upholds the universe by the power of his word.

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In other words, the word of his power or the power of his word he holds all things together, not with his hands, with his word.

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Just with his word. When Christ tells us not to be troubled,

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I need to listen. Why? The disciples need to listen.

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It is from his words that all this power that is possessed and just in what he has to say.

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We need to realize his power. The authority of his words for our lives and for the disciples need to realize this for themselves.

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He goes on to say, in my father's house are many rooms. The father's house is heaven in this context.

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Christ stated that he's going back home to be with his father and that he is going to prepare a place for you.

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How is Jesus preparing this place? Did he go there with hammer and nails and lumber?

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How did Christ prepare this place? He did this with the instruments of the cross.

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An empty tomb, his shed blood, and his resurrected life. These are the tools that were used in order to prepare heaven for his children.

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Do you realize that his heavenly preparation is already done? If we stay in Hebrews, read the second half of the verse again, it says, he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe with the power of his word.

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Part B is the key point here. After making purification for sins, our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

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When the son of God sat down, it meant that his work in preparing heaven was complete.

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It's done. He's not still working on it. He did it once and for all.

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Your detail room is ready, sir. It's been ready. It's been waiting.

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But the disciples did not have the privilege of knowing what you and I know. For they could not see and know what you and I know.

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They didn't know what was going to happen in the next 24 hours. So it was all coming together for them, right?

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Little by little. Can I share one more truth with you? It's a freebie. Not a

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BB, but a freebie. In Acts 7, when Stephen was being stoned, he made a statement before his death that applies here.

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It says that the Jews were about to stone him and that he gazed into heaven and said,

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Behold, I see the heavens open and the

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Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

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I thought it was finished. He was seated, but he stands to welcome

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Stephen. He'll stand to welcome us to his eternal home.

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It's finished already. He's prepared it for his children. So Jesus' words are great words of hope.

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The hope of heaven. And not only that, but Jesus adds to his words of promise and hope and even more when he says to the disciples,

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I'll come again and I will take you to be with myself. That where I am, you may also be.

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Heaven is with Jesus. That's the hope. That's heaven. Where God is, is heaven. Where Christ is, is heaven.

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The reward is Christ. It isn't this eternal plush place like our vacations may be sometimes.

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The beauty is, it's where Christ is. Right? It's an eternal promise.

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Book the trip. Hang your hat on it. Yes, I'm leaving you in order to prepare the way for you and to save you all.

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It reminds me of a story that I had to look up. I was trying to wrap my mind around this a little bit more and it's like a true story of a famous explorer.

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His name is Ernest Shackleford or Shackleton and his crew of 28 men left England aboard a ship called

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Endurance on August the 8th, 1914 to fulfill his dream of crossing the solar polar continent or the south polar continent from sea to sea.

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During the expedition, the ship got trapped in ice. Shackleton and his men found themselves marooned in the

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Antarctic for five months. They lived on top of floating ice. They fed on seals, kept warm by playing hockey and holding dog sled races.

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In April of 1916, Shackleton and five of his men set off in three small lifeboats that they had recovered to find help on Elephant Island.

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The six men spent 16 days crossing over 800 miles of ocean. The six men landed on an uninhabited part of the island.

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So their last hope was to cross 26 miles of treacherous mountains until finally they reached a whaling station where they found help.

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Shackleton returned to rescue the remaining men on the ship. On the ship

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Endurance. And found in their amazement, apart from missing a few toes from frostbite, no one member of the crew was lost.

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You gotta wonder what Shackleton said to these men, these other 22 men.

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He didn't even expect them to be alive. But the reality is he came back for them.

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There was hope for these men to continue to live and to survive. Christ is saying to these men,

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I'm coming back. I'm coming back. I'm coming back to get you. This is a hope.

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There's great hope when we're stranded on this earth, when we're dealing with all the things that we deal with. As believers, we have this great hope of Christ's return.

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Now would be a good time for the disciples to remember what the Lord had told Moses to speak to the people crossing the

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River Jordan, be strong, be courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them. For it is the

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Lord God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.

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As God led Israel by the pillar of fire into the promised land of milk and honey, so it is the foreshadowing of heaven for us.

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Just like the children of Israel who had sojourned at foreign desert land, Jesus says that there is only one way to heaven, to the

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Father, and we are not sojourning alone. Second, Jesus promises the way to him, the way to heaven and the way to the heavenly

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Father in verses four through six. It says, you know the way to where I'm going. Thomas said to him,

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Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? The famous verse that Jesus says is our path to hope, path to eternity.

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Jesus says, I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. No one comes to the

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Father but by me. He starts out with a positive of I am. I'm the way,

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I am truth, I am life. Jesus had used these things prior to, as he was teaching these men, as to who the

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I am is. But the negative connotation here is no one, no one will see heaven, no one will see the

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Father except through me, through the way.

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I am the way means that it is an exclusive path to salvation. That is the only path that leads to the

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Father. It is the path of faith in Jesus Christ. So we need to follow that path.

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In fact, Jesus says in Matthew 7, 13, enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many.

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For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few.

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In fact, Jesus said earlier in John 10, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door.

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If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

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There's life through this door. He said, I am the truth,

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I'm the truth to the way. And what is this truth and what is this way?

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To follow him by walking and living like Jesus Christ walked. Jesus walked in truth and obedience to his heavenly

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Father, to his Father's will and humbly lived and served and died for us.

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I am the life. John 1, 4 states that in him was life and this life was the light of men or in other words, nothing was made that has not been made to live except through and by him.

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What did he say to Martha in John 12? Actually, it was my last sermon. Maybe you don't remember either.

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I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

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Friend, you're not living unless you've met Christ. There is no life.

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There is no real life without Jesus Christ. He upholds life.

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He is life. He is life eternal. That's why he is our hope.

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Jesus promises a personal assurance. I'm gonna turn to verse 15.

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It says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Well, how is that a promise?

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How is that a personal assurance, a promise? The Lord told the disciples that one of you will betray me and that in their minds, the disciples were questioning that.

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If you walked in here and said, one of you are gonna betray me, we'd all be saying, is it me? What assurance do

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I have that it's not gonna be me that's gonna be the betrayer? Christ gives them a condition of insurance.

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The term is, if you love me, you will keep my commandment. You'll be keeping his commandments or you will be obedient.

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This is like a person's acid test, so to speak, to see whether we're truly one of his.

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To continue to love and obey Jesus Christ is in and of itself our statement of true saving faith.

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This is a true love for Christ, a supreme affection. A loyalty to him is what marks our lives and assures our hearts every time we submit and obey him.

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With all your heart, mind, and soul, and spirit, are you passing the test?

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Peter was a denier. Did he pass the test?

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It's a good question, isn't it? Judas turned his back.

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Did he pass the test? What's the difference between these two men? Peter passed the test because he confessed to Christ.

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He was broken in remorse in his sin as a true believer.

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Jesus asked him three times, do you love me? Lord, you know that I love you, he said. Christ wanted to feed his sheep.

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What did Peter do? He responded through repentance. He responded to Christ in his love for him.

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Christ said in Revelation, to him who overcomes, believer, we sin, and we sin every day.

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And just as it was prayed this morning that we would continually seek to repent daily and be right before the

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Lord, how did Judas respond? He didn't overcome, he killed himself.

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That's the response. And if we don't overcome, we're basically allowing death to occur to our eternal life.

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Live because Christ lives, right? So there's an assurance.

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Christ said even in Matthew 10, you would love me more than these, talking about father, mother, children, your own desires, your own wants, your own aspirations.

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Are those before your love for Christ? And only your heart before the

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Lord can answer those questions. Jesus promises personal help.

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Many of you know this passage as well. This is a very well -known section, both one through the chapter.

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But in verse 16, the Lord is asking the father, he says,

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I will ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever.

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Who's the other helper? Jesus is the one helper that they knew, right? But he's saying he'll give you another helper, even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you.

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Now this is a word of promise and hope. Christ was with them, but now he says,

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I'm gonna send another helper and we know who that helper is, right? The Holy Spirit.

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And what is there in heaven that the father would not give to his son? I'm going to ask the father,

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I'm gonna ask daddy for this. What wouldn't his father not give him? What did

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Christ already do? He already obeyed the heavenly father. He's already obeying him as he walks to the cross.

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What would God withhold from his son? What father would withhold anything from their son if they know it's good for him, right?

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But especially Jesus. Philippians said that he died on the cross in obedience and God highly exalted him and gave him the name above every name.

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He pleased the father. Jesus pleased the father. And so when

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Christ prays for us, he fulfilled it as he does everything that he says.

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So another helper means, this terminology means another of the exact same kind.

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It is Jesus's very spirit. It is God the father's very spirit that is going to be exactly like Jesus.

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That would be comforting to these disciples because they knew. They knew Jesus. But now

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Jesus is going to be, he is offering for his spirit to be with them.

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Only it's gonna be better. And you're saying, how can it be better than Jesus being with me? That's why we wanna go to heaven, right?

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We wanna see Jesus face to face. We wanna be with him. But yet it's even better because Jesus was confined by his humanity.

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Jesus could only be, if you will, in one place at one time with the disciples.

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Not that he was sinful or not that he was limited in anything that he could do.

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But in this point of humility in his humanness, he could only be with the disciples.

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And it would be like, after we leave, I can't be with each of you, but you can be with me right now, right?

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When we go home, it's just, you know, Deb and I, the same thing's true with Jesus.

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He couldn't be with the disciples if he was going to die, right?

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But what he says, I'm gonna do something even better. I'm gonna place my spirit not only with you, but that spirit of mine will be in you and in you all at the same time.

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Believers, Jesus Christ is present with us because he lives in our lives.

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He is promised. So the beauty of us being together is the spirit of God is working on your life.

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And when you come and encourage me and he's working in my life, we just sharpen that.

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We just strengthen that. So Greg Field was right all along.

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We need to be together. We need to be together. A helper who will not only be with you, but he will also be in you.

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The term helper has a lot of meanings. The base meaning is one called alongside of, and you've all heard this from Genesis.

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One called alongside to help. Genesis 2 .18 says, it is not good that the man should be alone.

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I will make him a helper fit for him. Helper has a lot of meanings.

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Deb is my helper. Heaven forbid where I'd be right now without my helper.

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But helper has a lot of meanings. It has more than a marriage relationship.

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With God's spirit as our helper, it has a lot of meanings to strengthen the relationship.

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Jesus' spirit lives inside every believer and is working in behalf of the believer, helping, revealing truth, interpreting the word, guiding through the word, counseling through the word, encouraging, teaching, comforting, convicting, correcting are only a few of the things that God's spirit does in our life according to his word.

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And Jesus said, he's going to live with you and will be in you.

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It's a promise. So he's no longer living just beside you as Christ did, but Christ sent his spirit to live in us.

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Jesus promises his personal closeness in verses 18 through 20. I will not leave you as orphans.

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I will come to you yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live and you also will live in that day.

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You will know that I am in the father and you in me and I in you. What Christ is saying is basically a figure of speech.

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I will not leave you as orphans, but he's going to go die. He just said, I'm going, right? But what he's saying is

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I am leaving for the cross for my death. I will come to you and after I die and after my burial,

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I will see you then and then I'll see you again on the final day.

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The world will not see me. In fact, Christ returned. He revealed himself only to the believers.

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In fact, no unbeliever ever saw Christ after his resurrection. Think about his appearing and when that happened.

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Dr. Lawson, Dr. Steve Lawson, who I really appreciated in some of these studies, said, if I were

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Christ, I think I would want to walk down the middle of the street of Jerusalem and show myself off to the world just to prove them wrong and to say,

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I told you I'd arise on the third day, but Christ didn't do that. It wasn't according to his words.

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His words said that he will come to us. Believer, the world has no truth, no wisdom, no life, no way out, no answer to our future, no hope.

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Why do we listen to the world's lies? Be wise.

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It does not see, nor does it know God. Don't get hung up on what the world is dishing out.

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Stay focused and believe in God.

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Christ gives us another promise very quickly. Verses 21 through 23, whoever has my command and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and he who loves me, which you've already heard, he who loves me will be loved by my father.

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It's not just an assurance now that we're saved because we know that we love him and obey him.

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Christ is adding to it, if you will. He who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and make myself known to him.

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This is where Judas says, Lord, how is it that you will make yourself known to us and not to the world?

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He says, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home or abide in him.

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In verse 15, Jesus helps them understand that their obedience to Jesus is the assurance of love for him in their obedience, that is.

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And serves as an affirmation of being his child. But here, Jesus reassures his love for them.

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Not only do I love you because you love me, the father loves you as well. This is why you're not left abandoned like a broken marriage, but you're more than loved by the father and the son.

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I will not only tell you that, he says, that I love you, but I'm about to show you as well.

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No greater love, no one, no greater love has anyone than him who lays down his life for his friends.

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What Christ is saying is, is that not only is the Holy Spirit gonna live in your life, but I am too.

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Because you love me, because you obey me, and because you love me, the father loves you.

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It's a very simple principle. You like my kids, I like you. It's easy for us humanly.

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It's easy to love someone who loves you, right? But Christ said that he would die even while we were sinners.

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God is different. But the point is, is you're not alone. Because the spirit of God lives in you.

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Jesus Christ is the spirit. And Christ is saying, and the father's in me.

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We're not alone. The deity of God lives and operates in our lives.

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The realization is they are stable. We, on the other hand, we have the tendency of doing some of these things.

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We are like a wave. Sin is that wave. Sin pulls us away from that relationship.

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But as we obey more and more every day, and as we grow, our relationship with the father and the son and the spirit grows.

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An encouraging verse. Think about Peter's life. Think about Peter's life.

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He really blew it. I know each one of us can sit here and say, man,

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I really blew it. Peter blew it big. And the whole world knows.

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Everybody knows about Peter's life. But there was an overcoming because he believed.

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And then he writes later in his mature life, as he led the disciples, as he loved

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Christ, as he shared the truth, as he died, similarly to the way

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Christ died. Here's a man that says later in 1

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Peter 1, 6 through 8. In this you rejoice. Though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.

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So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

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That's encouraging coming from a man who's been tested and sifted by Satan himself.

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Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him.

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And rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.

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Let's pray. Father, your word is so great.

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And the power of your word holds all things together. And your word is a promise to us that you will not leave us or forsake us, that you will live in your children and that you will help us and comfort us as we walk in this world.

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And as we're bombarded with all kinds of information and so many lies,

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Lord, help us to realize that we have to run to you at all times. We have to see what your word has to say, what your spirit has to teach us, and to hold fast to these things.

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Help us, Father, to hold fast to your promises and to the faithful one.

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Faithful and true is Jesus. So we praise you and thank you in his name for your word and for your son, we pray, amen.