Jesus Prays for The Church – Pt. 2

If you would, take your Bibles
and turn back to the Gospel of John. John chapter 17 is where
we find ourselves. John chapter 17. We find ourselves at the end
of this great prayer of the Lord Jesus where he is praying for
not only himself as he does in the opening verses, But then
he prays for his apostles, the 11 that were left and remaining
in verses 6 through 19. And then at the end of this great
chapter, he turns his attention to the rest, to these who he
points to referring to the church. If you would, I want to begin
in verse 20 this morning for the sake of time. Verse 20. of John chapter 17 where Jesus
prayed I do not ask on behalf of these alone but for those
also who believe in me through their word that they may all
be one even as you father are in me and I in you that they
also may be in us so that the world may believe that you sent
me. The glory which you have given
me I have given to them that they may be one just as we are
one. I in them and you in me that
they may be perfected in unity so that the world may know that
you sent me and loved them even as you have loved me. Father,
I desire that they also, whom you have given me, be with me
where I am, so that they may see my glory, which you have
given me, for you have loved me before the foundation of the
world. Oh, righteous Father, although
the world has not known you, yet I have known you, and these
have known that you sent me. and I have made your name known
to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which you
loved me may be in them, and I in them.” Jesus is intensely
praying, he has prayed for himself, he has prayed for his apostles,
that they would have a fruitful ministry, and now he turns, in
essence, to the fruit of that ministry, the church, all who
would believe because of the work of the apostles, and he
prays for the church, for three particulars. We already said
last week that this final section of scripture is of great interest
and really should draw the great interest of all believers. Because
it’s us for whom Jesus is praying, including you, including me. He’s praying for the church that
would stem from the labor of the apostles. I repeat a portion
of a quote we had last Lord’s Day from R.C. Sproul when he
said that not only is this a special text, one that should be treasured
by every Christian, Jesus prayed for all who would be brought
to faith by the ministry and testimony of his apostolic band. In other words, Jesus here says
that the work of the apostles is going to advance just as he
prayed, And as he prays, there are going to be those that come
to faith. We see that even in the opening
pages of the book of Acts, where 3,000 were saved on a single
day. All of those, though, comprising
the church, including down to our day, to you and I, and to
any who will ever come to Christ, are caught up in this particular
prayer. We looked at the first request
last Lord’s Day. And it is a significant request,
isn’t it? And even as I preached this last
week, the request is weighty. The request lodges in each believer’s
heart and should And we found that there probably isn’t one
of us that’s completely innocent in this regard, but we are constantly
called back to the idea and the ideal of godly unity. Jesus prayed, first of all, that
the church would show forth a divine unity. So the standard is none
other than godly unity to begin with. The unity that exists between
the Father and the Son. This is no easy task, right? We all have our little idiosyncrasies,
we all have our preferences, we all have our quirks, and let’s
just be frank, we all have our sinful tendencies. When I preach
through the book of Romans, Romans 15, you may recall that I made
a comment that we would all be the greatest Christians the world
has ever seen. if we just didn’t have to deal
with people. It seems that people bring out the worst in us but
the fact that it’s in there to begin with and hasn’t been dealt
with is an opportunity for us to purify our fellowship and
improve our unity. And so as we began to look at
Jesus’ prayer for the church that ultimately it would grow
to a point where it mirrors and imitates the very unity of God
and Christ, we saw, first of all, the extent of that unity. Look at verses 20 and 21 where
Jesus says, I do not ask on behalf of these alone, the apostles,
but for those who also will believe in me through their word, the
church, and what is it that he’s asking? First and foremost, that
they may all be one. Now it would have been helpful,
and it was helpful, that the Spirit of God, as the church
was planted, as we looked at in our discipleship class, brought
about a unity in the Spirit from the very start. The apostles
were unified. The church was unified. The church
began to go forth and preach the gospel. They had one heart
and one mind. And may I add one pocketbook, that soon problems came, didn’t
they? Troubles came, differences came,
different gifts, different ideas, different approaches, that even
the Apostle Paul and Barnabas we saw had a breach in their
relationship. And so the cause, the need for
unity is perpetual it lasts throughout the entirety of the church there
will always be a need to return to the idea of a pursuit of unity
in the church that they may all be one that God would not only
draw all believers in in faith that he lose not one sheep but
as those sheep come in they too would be brought into the unity
of the fellowship the second thing that we saw as Jesus prays
that the church would show forth a divine unity, is the source
of that unity. We have this tendency to think
that we can, if we just try real hard, that we can either produce
unity or that we can hang on to it. It’s a divinely produced
unity. Look again at verse 21, that
they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I
in you, that they may be in us so that the world may believe
that you sent me. Don’t be deceived. Regardless
of how much the world suggests they’re on the same page, regardless
of how much any group in the world and a group of people who
does not know Christ, regardless of how much they say that they
are unified, they’re not unified. They’re in it for themselves,
each one, no matter what the cause. And at times it looks
very plausible that they really, truly are unified. They really,
truly are one. But oneness, oneness that measures
up to the level of divine unity is only possible in Christ. And unless you misunderstand
me, let me just say it for the sake of the tape. Only Christians
can truly be unified. Only if you are in Christ can
you really truly begin to know divine unity. There’s a third thing that we
saw. Not only the extent of the unity and the source of the unity,
but the cause of the unity. The cause of the unity we see
in verse 22, it’s the glory which you have given me, I have given
to them that they may be one. It’s the glory of Christ. It’s
our view of Christ bearing the very marks of Almighty
God, bearing the very nature of God, bearing all of the attributes
of God. We have seen Him and beheld Him.
We know that He is God in the flesh. The cause of this unity
was the glory of Christ. And the glory of Christ is only
going to be magnified throughout all time. There was a fourth
and final thing that we looked at last Lord’s Day. As we looked
at Jesus’ first prayer for the church, that the church would
show forth, that they would exhibit, that they would manifest, that
part of their testimony to the world would be unity. The fourth
thing that we noticed was the purpose of that unity was the
salvation of souls. It’s the salvation of souls.
Look at verse 23. I in them and you in me that
they may be perfected in unity so that the world may know that
you sent me and love them even as you have loved me. There have
been those in time. that think that maybe they can
be at odds with their brothers, or they can be at war with others,
and still get the job done as a believer, still have a witness
in the world, it isn’t the case. We’re called to be at peace,
we’re called to be one, we’re called to do so for the sake
of the lost, so that they may see the unity in Christ, and
they too may come to know the Savior. From the earliest days
of my ministry, I seized upon a quote from Isaac Watts, which
really summarizes these first four verses. for the honor of
God, that everything that we do is to honor and please God,
for the honor of God, for the glory of Christ, to expose and
present Jesus Christ in all his glory, for the honor of God,
for the glory of Christ, and for the salvation of the souls
of men. That is our great privilege. That is our great opportunity.
That is our great challenge. And it is a challenge because
it’s not easy. We deal with people. We deal
with real people. We deal with people that challenge
us and trouble us and, let’s be frank, irritate us. And Jesus
says that there is a purpose standing back of it all that
calls us back, if you will, to the table, calls us back to consider. this idea and this divine ideal
of unity. But that isn’t the only thing
for which Jesus prayed. Jesus did pray for his church.
Jesus prays that the church would show forth, would exhibit a divine
unity. But the second thing that Jesus
prayed for is that the church would one day behold the glorified
Christ. I want you to sit tight, I want
you to dial in, if you will, and I want you to grasp the fullness
of this point. Look at verse 24. Father, I desire
that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am
so that they may see my glory which you have given me for you
loved me before the foundation of the world. Jesus turns so
gently and delicately to his heavenly father, whom he has
appealed to on a number of cases already. But in this particular
request, we have almost a new form here. At the beginning of
this prayer we saw that it was almost like a review of a contract
where Jesus was telling his heavenly father that he essentially had
upheld his end of the bargain and now contractually the father
was obligated to uphold his end of the bargain. I glorified you,
now you glorify me. And we saw that Jesus Christ
was not being rude or brash, not being insolent towards Almighty
God, the Heavenly Father, but He was merely reviewing the great
plan of redemption as God talking to God. And He does the exact
same thing here. When He says, Father, I desire
that they also We almost have this idea that Jesus is flipping
a coin into a wishing well. That he’s simply expressing a
heartfelt desire. I desire that they also be with
me where I am. It’s much more than that. It’s
much more than just an ardent desire in the heart of the Savior. On repeated occasions throughout
this gospel, We have seen, we have heard Jesus say, I did not
come to do my will. It’s all about the Father’s will.
And now all of a sudden, in John 17, just now minutes before his
arrest, hours before his crucifixion, now Jesus looks at the Father
and says, this is what I want. This is my will. One commentator referred to it
as Jesus Christ’s last will and testament. This is what I want
to happen. Father I desire that they also
whom you have given me be with me where I am. I pray that there
would be a continuation of this spiritual fellowship. That nothing
would be lost, nothing would be broken. That there would be
a perpetual unending fellowship with my church. That’s what I
want. And this prayer in particular
is asking that the disciples, all of the disciples, not just
the 12 apostles, but the church, beginning in first century Christianity,
continuing down to this day and beyond as long as the Lord waits. The petition, this request, asks
for the disciples ultimately to be with Jesus Christ in eternity. He asks the Father, and really,
let’s be honest, essentially tells the Father, this is what
I want. I want them to be with me throughout
eternity. And then he tells him why. Father,
look at verse 24. I desire that they also, whom
you have given me, be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory.”
So that they could see the glorified Christ. The Christ that not only
bore the glory of God in His humanity, in His flesh, but the
glorified Christ that went to the cross for you and I. The
glorified Christ whose sacrifice was received. The glorified Christ
who has ascended into heaven. His church would one day be able
to behold the glorified Christ in His fullness and in all His
glory. This is a significant passage. One said that there’s no other
passage. that refers to eternal relationships inherent in the
deity with the same boldness and confidence of vision that
appears in this last prayer of Christ. Did you hear his superlative
language? There isn’t anything like this
in all the New Testament. Because Jesus is essentially
telling God what he wants. And what he wants is for them,
the church, to see His glory, that it’s divine glory, that
it’s eternal glory, that once we get a glimpse of Christ, I
mean, settle into this truth. Once we get a glimpse of Christ, we’ll never lose sight of Him.
We’ll never get tired of looking at Him. We’ll never get tired
of beholding how glorious our Savior is. Jesus speaks of it as, if you
look at it, he speaks of this gift as already given. And he
wants believers, believers of all time to share in that rich
glory, the gift of God. As one pastor said, there were
moments on earth when the apostles and others who would come to
Christ, there were moments when his glory broke through and shone
with those who were present. You think of the Mount of Transfiguration
for one. Yet those were only brief foretastes
of the glory that awaits the consummation of the kingdom,
when we will enter into the new heaven and behold the glory of
Christ in its fullness. We will be absolutely overwhelmed
with the glory of Christ, but we’ll never tire of it. We will
be overwhelmed with the glory of Christ, but we won’t be able
to look away. We’ll be overwhelmed with the
glory of Christ, but we’ll continue to gaze upon him with great interest
and desire. Jesus says that believers would
know the glory of Christ, who know the glory of Christ by the
testimony of the word and the affirmation of the Holy Spirit
in our hearts and lives. But we have it in these faint
glimpses, don’t we? We read the pages of scripture
and we see who Christ is enough that we would place our faith
in him for salvation. And then we turn and go about
our day and much of the mundane and chaotic portion of life pushes
in upon us and we lose our glimpse of the glory of Christ, don’t
we? And we return to his word. And we feast upon his word and
we rekindle that vision that we had. But Jesus says here that
he wants believers to one day know experientially. That means it’s never going to
fade, it’s never going to go away. He wants us to witness
the face-to-face glory by being face-to-face with himself in
eternity. Wherever it is, whether it’s before or after
this resurrection, whether it’s in the company of
Christ, ultimately it will be with Him in paradise. J.C. Ryle put it in these terms. He said, the full nature of the
future state is wisely hidden from us. It is enough for believers
to know that they will be with Christ, it is company and not
place which makes up happiness. From time to time, I did a, I’ve
done a study over the course of the years and some of this
has really bothered me over time. Hymns about heaven. And you would
think that hymns about heaven, that’s a good thing. But it’s
the content of the hymns about heaven that kind of rub my fur
the wrong way. Bear with me. This may be just
the manifestation of a grumpy old pastor, but here’s some contemporary
songs. And sadly, the contemporary songs
are really some of the best that we have that speak of heaven,
There’s one by Mercy Me that talks about how I can only imagine
what it’s going to be when I get to heaven and what’s going to
transpire. At least he stopped short of
declaring things that really we have no way of predicting
how we’re going to react. Jeremy Camp has one, There Will
Be A Day. It’s a good song. And then there
are A lot of old hymns, as I mentioned, some good and some that entirely
miss the point. The ones that always, they at
least get a smile out of me. They have that kind of marching
theme song. When the roll is called up yonder,
I’ll be there. In the suite, By and By, it speaks
of the time, the time in the future where God will draw us
home. A song that we were humming and
singing yesterday, I’ll Fly Away. There are many songs that speak
about eternity and speak about heaven. And I’m not kidding you,
I have looked at more than 500, at least the titles or the several
lines of the hymns, 500 hymns about heaven. In fact, I counted
them up, 663 I’ve looked at. Some of these hymns, as I indicated,
are bewildering in their disappointing tendencies. And I want to share
some of that with you. Disappointing tendencies because
while they sing about heaven, and they sing about heaven in
these very general terms, they almost miss the point entirely. Think of these recurring themes
in these songs about heaven. They sing about the realm. They
sing about this thing that is so undefined, this realm called
heaven or paradise. Many of the Heavenly hymns speak
of a place, and they speak of a city, or a land, or a promised
land, or a valley, or Zion itself, or a garden. Some choose to focus on the particular
dwelling that we may have in glory. They speak of a home,
they speak of a mansion, and then they begin to describe these
things. And the descriptions are fascinating. It almost seems as if you’re
reading a travel brochure. Paradise. The gates. Pearly gates. Streets. Streets of gold. A sea of crystal. Golden staircase. And then the
benefits. I mean, who wouldn’t go to heaven?
Who wouldn’t want to go to heaven when you begin to read of the
benefits that we enjoy just by singing about them if they were
only true? Crowns and mansions and seeing
all of our loved ones. I mentioned that a lot of the
hymns focus on a city. That we’re going to a heavenly
city, a place. And it’s called a beautiful city,
it’s called the city of God, the city of gold. And so that
you don’t have to choose between gold and glory, it’s the glorious
golden city. It’s the city of the blessed,
it’s the celestial city, the holy city, the pearly white city,
the city of the angels, the city of the heavenly, it’s the bright
city. And hymn writers did the same
thing with the land to which we’re going. They called it homeland,
land above, land of pleasure, land of rest, land of God. And
then they took up this summer theme for all of those who think
that it will be summer in heaven all the time. The land of sunshine,
summer land, land of the unsetting sun. happy land, glory land,
faraway land, Beulah land, beautiful land, pleasant land, promised
land. I came across one that seemed to sum up these quirky
idiosyncrasies, these tendencies that we have to sing so generally
about a place. A place to which no person has
ever been and come back to tell of it. Oh, house of many mansions,
thy doors are open wide, and dear are all the faces upon the
other side. The portals, they are golden,
and those who enter in shall know no more of sorrow, of weariness,
and sin. Oh, house of many mansions, thy
doors are open wide, and dear are all the faces upon the other
side. O house of many mansions, my
weary spirit waits and longs to join the ransomed within the
pearly gates, who enter through the portals, the mansions of
the blessed, who come to thee, O weary, and find in thee their
rest. O house of many mansions, O house
not made with hands, I sigh for thee while waiting within these
borderlands. I know that but in dying the
threshold is crossed o’er. There shall be no more sorrow
in thy faces forevermore. O house of many mansions, thy
doors are open wide, and dear are all the faces upon the other
side. You say, well, pastor, I think
maybe you just didn’t have your coffee this morning. You’re a
little edgy today. Let me tell you what’s missing. Not once does that hymn, not
once do these many of these heavenly hymns speak of the main feature
of heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m not going there I’m not going
there to see relatives. When I get there, I’m not going
to be examining the streets of gold. When I get there, I’m not
going to go try to find out at the reception desk where my key
is to my mansion or room in a mansion, depending on your perspective. I hope to see friends. I hope
to see family. That’s not my main draw. I hope
to see famous figures from church history, famous figures throughout
Bible history, but the main feature, the main focus, the main desire
that I want to see is the risen and glorified Savior, Jesus Christ
himself, and nothing more. We’re not going to be there checking
out the Crystal Sea and the river and all the rest of it. We’re
there to see Jesus. What will we do? All hail the
power of Jesus’ name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all. Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all. Crown him ye martyrs of your
God who from his altar call. Extol the stem of Jesse’s rod
and crown him Lord of all. O that with yonder sacred throng
we at His feet may fall. We’ll join the everlasting song
and crown Him Lord of all. We’ll join the everlasting song
and crown Him Lord of all. It’s not about all the other
things. Not about cities. It’s not about
streets and mansions. It’s about Jesus Christ. and Him glorified. Peter said
it this way, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born
again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead to obtain an inheritance. We’ve talked about this before.
What is this inheritance? Well, Peter colors it for us
without telling us with exact specificity initially, to obtain
an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade
away, reserved in heaven for you. And a lot of people come
away from that thinking that in heaven they’re stored up for
them some kind of heirloom, some kind of a trinket, a gift that
they’ll open. It’s imperishable. It will never
fade. It will never rust. It will never
be destroyed. It’s undefiled. It’s unable to
be tainted. It’s unable to be ruined or destroyed. It will not fade away. It will
not decay. And it’s reserved in heaven for
you. Yours will never be given to
another. What is it? What is this inheritance? What is this thing that we already
possess, says scripture, but is yet to be fully enjoyed? It’s
none other than the risen and glorified Savior himself. It’s
an eternal place in heaven with Jesus Christ our Lord. As Paul
said in the epistle to Titus, that we are to be looking for
the blessed hope in the appearing of the glory of our great God
and Savior. Jesus Christ. As we set our sights
on heaven, we don’t do so with some kind of a crass and coarse
greed for some thing to be given to us in heaven. We set our hope
and our desire on seeing and spending eternity with Jesus
Christ. R.C. Sproul said it this way,
and it’s gripping. It’s gripping what he says. The
greatest benefit of Christianity is not the forgiveness of sins. Now, if that doesn’t get your
attention, almost nothing will if you’re a Christian. I thought
that I already enjoyed the greatest benefit of all, that God forgave
my sins. Jesus paid for them on the cross. It’s not what Sproul says. It’s not the greatest benefit.
The greatest benefit of Christianity is not the forgiveness of sins.
That simply is a means to an end. The greatest benefit that
we have is access to the presence of God and His Son. Nothing else
will satisfy us more than to behold the unveiled glory of
Christ. There can be nothing sweeter
or more excellent than that. No wonder Paul said, after he
had so clearly laid out our need for a Savior in Romans chapters
one through three, and laid out the gospel justification by faith,
that as he opens up into chapter five, he says that we exalt in
the hope of the glory of God. We can’t wait to see a risen
Savior. Isaac Watts put it this way,
how divinely full of glory and pleasure shall be that hour when
all the millions of mankind that have ever been redeemed by the
blood of the lamb shall meet together and stand around him
with every tongue and every heart full of joy and praise. It’s Jesus Christ that we long
to see. It’s Jesus Christ that we’ll
focus on throughout eternity. But I want to go back, look at
the passage, I want to go back to the thought of his will. Verse 24, Father, I desire, this
is what I want, that they also whom you have given be with me
where I am so that they may see my glory. Some of us, You know, we read
about election and predestination and maybe we’re in some halting
path along the way to understanding those deep doctrines. They are
big. Those are difficult doctrines.
I love the way George Whitefield said it. Let a man go to the
grammar school of faith and repentance before he goes to the university
of election and predestination. They are difficult doctrines. I happen to believe that they’re
true. But I don’t expect every person
to have a full understanding and appreciation of those great
truths. But let’s agree on this one thing.
God moved first. Even if you don’t believe that
God set his electing love on you from eternity past and in
time brought you to faith, brought you to repentance, even if you
don’t believe that, God moved first. God made the earth. God
made his son. God sent his son. Jesus Christ
paid for the sin of sinners before anyone placed their faith in
him. And here in this passage, we have an echo of that same
truth. I told you to, you’re sitting already. Sit tight, listen
to this. You know what, when you realize
It isn’t even so noble, so astounding to say that we want to see Jesus. Of course we want to see Jesus.
Why wouldn’t we? It isn’t astounding to see that
we want to see Jesus, that we will or desire or long to see
Jesus. That isn’t surprising at all.
That’s a given. The truly amazing thing is that
what this passage tells us is that Jesus Christ wills, longs,
desires to see us. To see you. And that is truly
humbling. Is it not? There’s a third thing
for which Jesus prays in this passage. Not only does Jesus pray that
the church would show forth a divine unity, and that the church would
one day behold the glorified Christ, but Jesus Christ prays
finally that the church would reflect the very love of God. Look at verses 25 and 26 if you
would. O righteous Father, although
the world has not known you, yet I have known you, and these
have known that you sent me, and I have made your name known
to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which you
loved me may be in them, and I in them. Jesus has called out
to his Father on numerous occasions. He called him Holy Father, he
calls him just plain Father, that endearing term. Here he
calls Him righteous Father. Righteousness was an absolutely
fundamental attribute of God to the Jews. Jeremiah 12, 1,
Righteous are You, O Lord. Psalm 119, 137, Righteous are
You, O Lord, and upright in all Your judgments. So that the appeal
at this point of the prayer is to the justice of God. That he may distinguish between
those who receive Christ, that see him for who he is and yield
to him in repentance and faith as over against this world that
hates him. God’s justice will be known. O righteous Father, although
the world has not known you, there’s a contrast here, isn’t
there? A strong contrast. This contrast between the wickedness
of a world that refuses to behold Christ as he is, and the contrast with those who humbly
place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Do you realize
that whereas Jesus said at the beginning of this prayer, I do
not pray for the world, now he does pray for the world,
and he prays for the world repeatedly. Look at verse 21. Jesus prays
that the world might believe in his mission, and I take that
to mean in a relative general fashion, that they might see
it as legitimate. And even for those who aren’t
hardcore believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, they generally
believe with the testimony of the date on their newspaper that
something happened 2018 years ago, and we happen to believe
that it was Jesus. But verse 23 takes it even a
step further, doesn’t it? Jesus prays for the world again
that the world might know that they might come to a real saving
faith in Jesus Christ in both his mission and in God’s love
for them. But here in verse 25, what Jesus
effectively prays for even by just mentioning his righteous
father, Jesus alludes to what I would call the if not element. That if they don’t believe and
they don’t know in Christ’s, they don’t know experientially
in Christ’s mission, that he references here the fact that
God is a righteous judge. God will not ignore a casual
disregard of his precious son. The son who came and paid the
price of sin. O righteous Father, although
the world has not known you, yet I have known you, and these
have known that you sent me, and I have made your name known
to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you
loved me may be in them. This isn’t just a prayer that
God would love believers. He’s not just praying that God
would continue his work of redemption by continuing to love the church. That’s almost a superfluous prayer. What he’s praying is that the
church would reflect back the love of God through all of their
deeds, through all of their efforts, through the preaching of the
gospel, through the service of humanity, in their love for God, in their
love for believers, in their love for the lost. It says John, the Apostle John,
who must have been so overwhelmed with this passage, so taken with
it that he goes on to mention it numerous times in his epistles
to follow. 1 John 3, verses 10 and 11. 1
John 3, verses 16 through 18. 1 John 4, verses 7 through 12. Second John, verses five and
six. John said it this way. Beloved, let us love one another.
For love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and
knows God. The one who does not love does
not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested
in us that he sent his only begotten son into the world so that we
might live through him. In this is love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God at any
time. If we love one another, God abides
in us and his love is perfected in us. John Brown, one of my favorite
Puritans said it this way, wherever you see the image of your Lord,
wherever there is a consistent profession of the faith of Christ,
There we ought to fix our Christian affections. And having fixed them, we are
not easily to allow them to either abate, fade away, or be transferred
to love someone else. That’s the calling for the church.
Would you join me in pleading for grace to obey? Our merciful God, we humble ourselves
at your glorious feet. And Lord, we count it a great
joy to know that one day we will enter into eternity. Whether
a land far away, we don’t know. Whether it’s across a river,
or we have to sail through a crystal sea, or walk down a street with
gold bricks. Lord, our focus will be on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And once we see our glorified
Christ, that image we rejoice will never fade. Lord, if there
are any here, young or old, who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, one day they will either have
the glorious opportunity to see the glorified Christ for eternity, where they will never have opportunity
to see Him at all. God, grant repentance and faith,
and grant us a focused heart, a heart focused on the Lord Jesus
Christ. It’s in His name that we pray,
amen.