Jesus Prays For You

Transcript

If you’re just joining us for the first time, we’re in the Gospel of John, continuing our series, studying this wonderful book of the New Testament, where we get to see Jesus, the Logos, the Word, and how in Him we have all that we need for life and godliness. He is the most beautiful, the most captivating, the most magnificent person to have ever walked on this earth, and that is because He’s so much more than just a person. Amen, Craig? Amen. Amen. If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to open them to John chapter 17, and we’re going to be looking at the end of John chapter 17, specifically verses 20 through 26, and if you don’t have a Bible with you, there should be one in the seat in front of you. If you don’t have a Bible at home, we would just invite you to take that as our gift to

The Lord’s Actual Prayer

you, read it, study it, get to know it, and get to know the one of whom that book speaks much of. What I want to do is actually read the whole chapter to give us a broader context of this prayer so that we hear it in its entirety, and then dig into verses 20 through 26, and since we’ll be reading the whole chapter, I won’t ask you to stand, I’ll have mercy. John chapter 17, beginning from verse 1. You can.. No, no, no, that was confusing. That’s on me. We’ll stay seated, because it’s a long chapter. John chapter 17, beginning from verse 1. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him, and this is eternal life,

that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do, and now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you, for I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost, except the son of destruction, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil

one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world, and for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just 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 have sent me. The glory you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one, I in them, and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and have loved them, even as you loved me.

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. This is the word of the Lord Saints. Thanks be to God. Would you pray with me? Father, would you help us to see the beauty, the majesty, the glory of Jesus this morning as we look at him in your word? Help us, Lord. We can’t come to it ourselves. We need your spirit to move in our hearts, in our minds, in our affections.

Tune our ears to hear from you, we ask, in Jesus’ wonderful name and for his glory. Amen. If you’ve been with us for the last several months, you know that in our study of John’s Gospel, we’ve been looking closely at what’s known as the Upper Room Discourse, and we’ve been there since about October. This covers chapters 13 through 17, and this is a very, very important portion of the discourse. Nearly a quarter of the entire book to one conversation lasting a couple of hours. In this intimate conversation, what Jesus does is he teaches his disciples, he washes their feet, he foretells of their betrayals of him, he tells them what’s to come, he promises them the Helper, the Holy Spirit, and then as the evening is drawing to a close, as it gets late, he prays for them. Here we see the most profound, most beautiful prayer ever prayed.

What we’ve been studying over the course of the last two Sundays and into this morning is what can be called the Lord’s Prayer. When I say that, when I say the Lord’s Prayer, most of you, your minds go to Matthew 6, where in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, and we all know that prayer. But really, that was the disciples’ prayer. That can’t really be the Lord’s Prayer, since in it there is the request for sins to be forgiven. And we know that Jesus never sinned. What he was doing is he was giving his disciples and all of us a model for prayer back in Matthew 6. But this, John 17, this is the Lord’s actual prayer, because this is something that only he could pray. Both Paul and Pastor Sean did a wonderful job of walking us through the first two parts

of what’s known in your Bibles and most commonly as the High Priestly Prayer. We first saw Jesus praying for himself. Then we saw Jesus praying for his disciples. And now, at the end of the prayer, he prays for us. The High Priestly Prayer is a marvelous portion of Scripture for a variety of reasons. We get to listen in and hear our Lord pray to his Father. We get to hear him pray for himself, for his disciples, present and future. But this is called the High Priestly Prayer for a reason. This is seen as Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer because prior to going to the cross, to be the lamb slaughtered for his people, to atone for their sins, to cover them and shelter them and save them, our priest offers up this one final prayer where he brings his people before God and prays on their behalf, preparing the sacrifice, if you will, that

Unity and Glory

will atone for their sins. Jesus is preparing to complete his mission, to redeem his people, the mission that his Father gave to him. And how does he then conclude his mission? How does he conclude his earthly ministry alongside his disciples? Praying. As Jesus prays to God the Father, he shows us a beautiful picture of trust, of reverence, of exaltation. And so, beloved, as we look to the end of our Lord’s Prayer, as we look to the end of the Upper Room Discourse, as we look to the beginning of the end, if you will, what we see in these final seven verses of John 17 are the themes of unity in verses 20-23 and glory in verses 24-26. And those will be our points as we move through our text this morning, unity and glory. Let me reread verses 20-23 as we look at the topic of unity.

I do not ask for these only but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just 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 have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and loved them even as you have loved me.

— John 17

(ESV)

As I’ve already mentioned, the people that Jesus is praying for here, as seen in verse 20, are not just the disciples seated at the table around him, but for future believers.

So Jesus here is praying for you. Beloved, have you ever considered this awesome truth, that in the pages of Scripture, in the pages of the New Testament, recorded in the ministry of Jesus is a prayer for you? In 2025, 2026, that sounds very futuristic, but Jesus knew and he prays for you. If you’re a Christian, you receive that gift of saving faith because Jesus prays for you here in John 17. If you are born again, Jesus’ prayer has been answered. If you have come to know him and believe in him and trust in him for your salvation, it’s because he prayed for you. What providence is this? This can sound a little bit cheesy, but there’s this cliche of Jesus has you in his heart, but that’s what’s happening here. Jesus is thinking of the future believers. Jesus is thinking of the people that will come to saving faith in him beyond the ministry

of the disciples, beyond the ministry of the people that are seated around him. And he’s thinking into the future. He’s thinking into different countries, different languages, different cultures. And he’s thinking of those people. He’s picturing those people and he’s praying for them. As his time with the disciples draws to a close, Jesus desires for the way that he discipled them to continue. He desired for what he has invested into them to have a continuity beyond just them. For them to pass on what they’ve learned from him to the next generation of believers and so on. For there to be a continuity of evangelism and discipleship. Just consider the fact that every single Christian can trace their spiritual heritage all the way back to the disciples. Every single one of us. Generational obedience to the great commission of our Lord. Starting from a group of Galilean fishermen and then one of those fishermen has a conversation

with a Roman Gentile. The truth going through what’s now known as modern Europe and Asia and Africa spreading as people go and talk to people and share about this Jesus that changed their lives, that saves them from their sins. And continuing on and on and on until in my case some Slav hears of this Jesus. Some former pagan, idolater, worshipper of false gods hears this gospel. And then he shares it with his family and they share it with their families and somehow one of my ancestors hears it at some point. And then I get to grow up in a Christian home. Isn’t it wonderful? One day we’ll be able to look back at this long line of people that it took for you to get saved. This long faithfulness over borders, through generations, across languages, one person in some cases maybe even risking their lives to share this good news so that it can get

to you. And it all starts with a prayer where Jesus looks forward and says, him, her, I’m praying for them. So our Lord prays. What does he pray for? What does he want for us and for the disciples seated around him? Our text tells us that he prays earnestly for unity. Everyone who is a Christian is in Christ and Christ is in them. This then means that every two Christians are connected and they have a unity that’s unique, a unity that’s supernatural. Christian unity should be something that is readily visible to the world, enticing to them because our world desperately desires unity. People look for it in various clubs and groups and movements, in sports, in national identities and so on and so forth. And Jesus here promises the real, true kind of unity, lasting unity. And what’s at the core of this unity that he promises?

The belief and the trust in the fact that he is who he says he is. We believe in him as the son of God and that his death and his resurrection is what saves rebels like us. Unity around something else or some other aspect of Christianity is shallow and it’s fleeting. We’ve all heard this phrase, doctrine divides, and it’s nonsense. It’s complete and utter nonsense. True doctrine will not divide. The way that dead people are brought back to life, the way that sinners are reconciled to God is by Jesus and Jesus alone. That can’t divide. If that divides, good. If that’s the dividing point, good. Now we need to think carefully about primary, secondary, tertiary doctrines. And if we’re dividing over nonsense like worship styles or certain views, secondary views on this doctrine or this doctrine apart from the doctrine of salvation, then yeah, maybe

Christian Unity

we need to reevaluate how we think of unity with brothers and sisters who approach worship or something else differently than us. But if the thing that divides us is Jesus, the exclusivity of Jesus, good. If that’s what our unity is supposed to be built around, here he says that it is about him, our identity in him, our putting our trust in him that unites us. And that kind of unity can’t be broken up. As we consider our unity with other Christians, we inevitably start to think of all the ways, all of the things that could unite us or maybe could stand in the way of our unity. This then leads us to think about who we are, what we’re interested in, what we’re all about, how we understand ourselves as Christians. And so brothers and sisters, before we start to think of ourselves as anything, you know,

maybe in terms of denominational affiliation or a certain preference in terms of our understanding of what worship should look like or how liturgical a church should be. Before we start to think about ourselves as anything, we need to see our identity first and foremost, our very essence as Christians, not Baptists primarily, not the kind of person who does X, Y, or Z, not the kind of person who leans towards a certain thing. We are Christians, a term that once was used as a derogatory term, meaning little Christs, those who look so much like him that we get to bear his name. This informs and defines everything else that we are, whether that’s Baptist or keep kind of going down the line of whatever else your identity could be. If it’s not Christian, you’re in trouble. When we understand that, then as we look at other Christians, as we look at other people

that bear that name, everything else that could divide us, that could impede our unity all of a sudden seems somewhat insignificant. Jesus also died for them if they are a Christian. The core of their life is the same as the core of my life. Their greatest love is what my greatest love is. How could I not love these people? How could I not desire to be around these people? How could I not want to spend time with these people, enjoy these people, see Jesus in them, learn from them, serve them? Jesus wants for our unity to be all about him, not what we get to determine unites us. Christian unity is not optional for us, beloved. A couple of texts of scripture to help us paint this picture. First Corinthians 110, I appeal to you brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that

all of you agree and there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. First Corinthians 12, 12, for just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ. Philippians 2, 2, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Galatians 3, 28, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And just to make it a comprehensive biblical theology, let’s go to the Old Testament. Psalm 133, 1, behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters dwell in unity. The list goes on and on and on. This is how our lives were always supposed to go.

The people of God united, the people of God together, the people of God putting on display the beauty of God. We are united in Him and by Him and we are to pursue the people that He has called to Himself, but also we are to pursue the people He is calling to Himself, seeking lost people, giving them Jesus. You know how people will come to believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior? When you go and tell them. We’re called to live not a private, isolated, personal faith, but a faith that points others to Him. An interesting thing that Jesus says here is about how people will see something in us that’s appealing and it’ll actually be through our unity, through our togetherness. And how does that conversation start? Because that in a world that is divided by anything and everything is a very, very different

picture. 1 Peter 3.15 tells us that we are to be ready to offer a defense for the hope that is in us. Look around. Everything is fractured and falling apart and cracked and chaotic. Everybody’s angry and edgy and defensive. And when they look at us, they ought to be able to see, man, these are like people from different backgrounds and different cultures and different, they dress different, they act different, they talk different, but they love one another. They draw to each other. And that’s supposed to be a testimony. Our bond and love for each other will be a testimony to an unbelieving world. Jesus knew that and so He prays to that end. And so He says, just as you and I are one, Father, I want them to be one. I want them to have the unity that I have with you. So through them, the world would believe in who I am.

In these verses, Jesus prays for those who will come to saving faith through the witness of His people, saying that the unity of His people, both those who are currently His and those who will become His, will function as the very testimony of who He is and will further the gospel. Do you notice that? It’s an ecosystem. Love and unity, drawing people into more love and unity, which furthers the good news of how sinners can be saved. A life that is appealing, a love that is appealing. Christ in us, loved by God, loving one another. That’s what Jesus wants the world to see in His people. Not dividing over nonsense. And then look with me, dear friends, at this staggering thing that Jesus says in verse 23, so that the world may know that you sent Me and loved them even as you loved Me.

Take that in. God loves us just like He loves Jesus, the Son of God. How can that be? It’s because God the Father loves us in God the Son. Before we start thinking of God’s love for us, we need to contemplate deeply the love of the Father for the Son and the Son’s love of the Father. This is what will deepen our understanding of God’s love in a profound way. This will help us better understand how loved we are and how we are to be safe and secure in that love. God loves us with the same love with which He loved the Son, who is eternal and sinless and perfect. And this, friends, this is the majesty of the Gospel. He doesn’t love me because I’m lovable. He doesn’t love me because I’m just so wonderful that He couldn’t resist loving me. He loves me because I’m in the Son.

He looks at me as if I’ve lived the life that Jesus lived. He sees the righteousness of the Son when He looks at me. Me. How incredible is that? He doesn’t look at me through the lens of the life that I’ve lived and the mess that I’ve made of it and the sins that I’ve committed. He loves me because He sees the righteousness of the Son when He looks at me. And did I earn that righteousness? Did I do something to attain it? Did I just impress Him enough to where He’s like, okay, it’s yours now? Absolutely not. There’s nothing I could have done even if I wanted to, and I didn’t want to. He called me. He opened my eyes. He showed me the depth and the depravity and the severity of my sin. He gave me the faith to believe in the Son.

And then He looks at me as if I lived the life that He lived. You may ask in looking at yourself and knowing yourself, if you’re like me, how could He love me? How could He possibly love me like that? It’s because of the love He has for the Son. This is profound. It’s staggering. And to add to this profundity, consider the fact that He not only loves me, but He loves me and He knows me. This isn’t just like He sees the nice parts of me, the impressive parts of me, and that’s what He loves. He knows the depth of who I am. He sees the sins that are so horrible and so disgusting that they are worthy of eternal hell. He sees the things that if any of you ever saw in my life, you’d be mortified. He sees it all and He loves me.

Seeing His Glory

Paul Washer says, I’ve given God countless reasons not to love me. None of them has been strong enough to change Him. We are loved. We are united to Him and to one another. We are prayed for. There’s one more thing our Lord wants for us, to see His glory. Brings us to our second point. Look with me at verses 24 through 26 once again.

Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Oh, righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.

— John 17

(ESV)

As we consider what our Lord says in this prayer about glory, look how He speaks of us in verse 24, they whom you’ve given me. We are a gift from God the Father to God the Son. We are His people given to Jesus. People tend to think about their salvation as being all about them, but that’s not what the Bible tells us. Yes, we are the recipients of a good, gracious, immeasurably generous gift, but our salvation is about God the Son saving the people that God the Father has given Him. Our salvation is about the Son being glorified and magnified and exalted and made much of. In this, what we have is that we are woven into the eternal love of the triune God, getting to participate in and enjoy it forever. And how do we get there, dear friends? The Father calls a people to Himself, gives them to the Son who saves them, who dies for

them, and then the Father and the Son send the Spirit to them, all to put on display the love and the grace and the mercy of God towards sinners. How is this not worthy of all glory? Isn’t it glorious? Isn’t He worthy of all praise and honor and glory? He calls enemies friends. He saves rebels. As our Lord speaks of this glory, as He looks forward to His rightful place at the Father’s right hand, receiving the glory due His name, what does He desire? I desire that they also may be with me where I am. Jesus asks that we will be with Him. He wants His friends with Him. How do I know that He wants His friends with Him? Do you remember John 15, 15? No longer do I call you servants, but I call you friends. That was just a little bit ago in the Upper Room Discourse.

He looks at these disciples and He says, you are my friends. And here He prays, I want my friends with me. What better place for the believer than to be with Jesus? What better thing to behold other than the face of Jesus? R.C. Sproul said, the greatest benefit of Christianity is not the forgiveness of sin. That’s simply a means to an end. The greatest benefit that we have is access to the presence of God and His Son. You see, our sin keeps us from that. But when Jesus dies for our sin and reconciles us to God, we have access to the holy God who created all things with just His Word. We’re reconciled to our Creator. And what is it that we get in His presence? We get His glory. I don’t know if most of us have thought much of the magnitude of this gift.

When we read something like this, that we get to behold the glory of the Son, whether we stop to ponder what that is, consider the Mount of Transfiguration. What was the response of the disciples when they briefly encountered the glory of Jesus? They didn’t want to leave. They wanted to stay. They fell on their faces, but they wanted to stay there. They wanted to take that in. They wanted to live in that reality. And what we get as His people in glory is unending, marvelous beauty and joy and splendor forever. Christian, do you look forward to heaven? Are you ready to die? Yes, death is the enemy. Yes, it’s scary. Yes, it’s uncomfortable to think about. But are you ready to go and see Him? Are you looking forward to what comes after this life? It’s fascinating that this is something that He wants. He wants for this life to come to a close and for us to be with Him.

Why does He want it? It’s because He knows it’s the best thing for us. He knows it’s the best place for us. With Him, seeing His glory, worshiping Him, free from sin, free from pain. How magnificent must that be? How breathtaking, powerful. Do you believe Him when He says it’s good to go and be with Him? Do you believe the Apostle Paul when he says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain in Philippians 121? Or is this life and this world and this stuff still just a bit more appealing to you than that? The glory of the Son will be something spectacular, truly breathtaking. So magnificent is His glory that Revelation 21-23 tells us, the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the Lamb.

His glory will illuminate heaven. But that day is not today. At least not this part of the day. Maybe this afternoon, if the Lord wills. The reality with which each of us is well acquainted is that this life and this world is hard. We struggle with illness and death, disappointment and loss, hard marriages, unsatisfying jobs, strained relationships, and so on and so forth. And as much as we’d like for our faith to resolve each of these things and make them right, fix them, we don’t always get that, do we? Just because we’re Christians doesn’t mean all of those things fall neatly into place and they all feel better. Even as Christians, we still lose people. We still struggle in our marriages. We’re still not healthy. But we keep asking and we keep believing, right? But we have no guarantees that what we’re asking for will happen in this life.

What we are guaranteed, however, and what our faith in Jesus does give us, is the forgiveness of sins and hope for the life to come. The life where all things will be made new and every tear will be wiped away. The life that’s free of death and free of sorrow and loss and despair. In the forgiveness of our sins and in the receiving of a new heart and new desires and new affections, we long for Him. We value Him. We desire Him. And we believe that all these things, even if they’re not made right this side of heaven, even if they’re painful, are working together for our good. And we yearn all the more for the day when His glory is all we’ll see and it’ll completely take hold of all of our senses and overwhelm us with its majesty. You see, we have small glimpses of it here.

When we see beautiful things. When we encounter the laughter of a child. When we see something that really takes your breath away in this world. But what Jesus wants is for us to experience a joy, the joy that it is to be in the presence of His glory for all eternity. He’s praying this as He’s getting ready to be betrayed, tortured, and murdered so that He could save His people and give them that future hope. The very reality that stains every aspect of our lives, sin, death, destruction, is about to take His life. And what He desires is for the time when His finished work finally brings us home and we get to see Him in the fullness of His glory. What carries you and I, dear Christian, is Jesus, the hope of seeing Him, the assurance of being His, and the promise that He loves us and is with us and is in us.

Our Great High Priest

This prayer gives us a foretaste of our great High Priest’s intercession for us at the right hand of the Father. Isn’t it so beautiful to read of our Lord praying for us? Well guess what? Romans 8, verse 34 tells us that Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Right now. He’s interceding for you right now, Christian. He’s praying for you. What a wonderful motivation this is when we’re struggling, when we’re being tempted, or when we’ve failed and fallen into sin again. You see, we read a passage like John 17 and we think, oh, it’s so beautiful. It’s so encouraging. But the reality of it is, He’s doing that now, at the Father’s right hand. He knows your struggle. He knows your weakness. He knows your failure and He’s praying for you.

He loves you. And He’s holding you up until He gets you home. As you consider His prayer for you, dear brother or sister, does it stir your affections for Him? Do you long to see Him? Do you long to be with Him? I pray that it does. But may it also stir up an evangelistic zeal, a desire for more of those for whom He prayed to come to know Him and love Him because of you. Consider why He hasn’t called you home yet. Consider, Christian, the fact that He wants you to make Him known here for a little while longer. Friend, if you’re here this morning and you don’t know Jesus, if you’re visiting and you haven’t repented of your sins and trusted Jesus for your salvation, you know He’s praying for you in John 17, right? He desired that you would be here today.

He desired that you would hear the gospel all throughout the worship service. He desired that you would meet His people. And He desires that you would repent of your sins, turn to Him, and receive the free gift of eternal life. It’s no accident you’re hearing about Him. It’s divine providence. If you have questions about what that means or how that could happen for you, just grab a hold of anyone after the service and ask them to speak with you about what it means to be a Christian. We want to talk to you about that. Jesus desires for you to be saved. He prayed that for you. Beloved, I don’t know about you, but with everything that’s happening in the world around us, I want to be in heaven. I’ve been thinking about that a lot this week. I want to see Him. I want to enjoy Him.

I want to be done with the evil, and the death, and the lies, and the corruption all around me. Most of all, I want to be done with my sin, because as much as I want to look to the world around me and the various things going on in governments and among evil, wicked people, and whoever else I want to point the finger at, that same wickedness is in my own heart. I want to be done with it. In closing, I want to share a quote from our brother J.C. Ryle, as he wrote on this portion of Jesus’ prayer and as he helpfully pointed us to glory. We do not see Christ now. We read of Him, hear of Him, believe in Him, and rest our souls in His finished work. But even the best of us at our best walk by faith and not by sight.

And our poor, halting faith often makes us walk very feebly in the way to heaven. There shall be an end of all this state of things one day. We shall at length see Christ as He is and know as we have been known. We shall behold Him face to face and not through a glass darkly. We shall actually be in His presence and company and go out no more. If faith has been pleasant, much more will sight be. If hope has been sweet, much more will certainty be. No wonder that when Paul has written, We shall ever be with the Lord, he adds, Comfort one another with these words. We know little of heaven now. Our thoughts are all confounded. When we try to form an idea of a future state in which pardoned sinners shall be perfectly happy, it does not yet appear what we shall be.

But we may rest ourselves on the blessed thought that after death we shall be with Christ. Whether before the resurrection in paradise or after the resurrection in final glory, the prospect is still the same. True Christians shall be with Christ. We need no more information. Where that blessed person is who was born for us, died for us, and rose again, there can be no lack of anything. David might well say, In your presence is fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. If you know Jesus, that’s your reality, beloved. Amen? Amen. Would you pray with me? Our Lord, words fail us when we try to communicate all that you are to us. We stand in awe of your majesty, of your beauty, of your glory, and we’ve seen so little of it. It’s staggeringly beautiful. Lord, help us to live in such a way with heaven ever before us, longing for the day when we

will finally see you face to face and enjoy you forever. Nothing standing in the way, nothing distracting us, but just you and you forever. Oh, how badly we want that day to be today, but if it’s not, help us to live in such a way as to make you known to a world that so desperately needs this hope. Help us, Jesus, we ask in your name. Amen.