1. "If you trust in Jesus, what he gives you transforms your past, present, and future."

2. "Jesus came to bear the penalty for our sin on the cross. He came to die the death that we deserve and to bear God's wrath in order that all who trust in him would be spared from eternal death. He came to destroy death by rising from the dead. And he came to reveal God to us."

3. "The knowledge of God is not merely a means to an end. It is the ultimate end that we were created for."

4. "We know God in order to know God. We know God in order to know him better and better."

5. "Whatever sins you once committed in darkness and ignorance, those don't claim or control or characterize you anymore."

6. "The maker of the universe has given you his card. When he says call me anytime, he means it. And because you have his contact, it doesn't matter whose you lack."

7. "The gospel doesn't just put the world at your fingertips, it puts the creator of the world inside you. His power becomes your power, his life, your life, his love, your love."

8. "No matter what changes may surprise and threaten to overwhelm you, there is no change in God's love. No matter what losses you suffer, there is no diminishing God's love. God's love outweighs your greatest earthly blessings and it can more than compensate for your greatest losses."

9. "Death remains an evil and an enemy. But death is also a butler admitting us into the Father's house with many rooms. And it's God who rings the bell."

10. "There is no past so dark that His electing love can't redeem it. There is no presence so stormy that his presence can't provide bright comfort. There is no future so bleak that Christ's promise of seeing him face to face can't provide a hope that pierces the darkness."

Observation Questions

1. In John 17:25, what contrast does Jesus draw between the world and himself regarding knowledge of the Father?

2. According to John 17:26, what has Jesus made known to his disciples, and what does he promise to continue doing?

3. In John 17:24, what specific request does Jesus make to the Father concerning those who have been given to him?

4. What reason does Jesus give in John 17:24 for the glory that the Father has given him?

5. According to John 17:26, what is the purpose or intended result of Jesus making the Father's name known to his disciples?

6. In John 17:24, where does Jesus desire his followers to be, and what does he want them to see?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is it significant that Jesus claims unique knowledge of the Father in verse 25, and how does this relate to his role as the only one who can grant knowledge of God to others?

2. The sermon emphasized that knowing God is not merely a means to an end but "the ultimate end we were created for." How does John 17:3 ("this is eternal life, that they know you") support this understanding of the knowledge of God?

3. In verse 26, Jesus says that "the love with which you have loved me may be in them." What does this reveal about how believers are brought into the relationship between the Father and the Son?

4. How does Jesus's reference to the Father loving him "before the foundation of the world" (v. 24) connect to his teaching about God's eternal plan for those he has given to Christ?

5. The sermon described Jesus's final request as his "last will and testament." Why is it significant that Jesus's ultimate desire for his followers is that they would be with him and see his glory, rather than something else?

Application Questions

1. The sermon challenged listeners to identify which time orientation—past, present, or future—they tend to gravitate toward. In what ways does dwelling unhealthily on one of these affect your trust in God, and how might the knowledge of God specifically address that tendency?

2. If knowing God is meant to be an ongoing, ever-deepening pursuit, what is one practical habit or discipline you could cultivate this year to grow in your knowledge of God through Scripture?

3. The sermon described God's love as an "active ingredient" that drives out sinful loves and blocks temptations. What specific sinful love or recurring temptation in your life do you need to ask God's indwelling love to address this week?

4. Jesus prayed that believers would see his glory face to face. How might fixing your heart on this promised future glory change the way you respond to fears about death, loss, or an uncertain future?

5. The sermon stated that "what we revere, we resemble." What are you currently gazing at or giving your attention to that may be shaping you in unhelpful ways, and how can you redirect that attention toward Christ's glory revealed in his Word?

Additional Bible Reading

1. John 14:1-7 — This passage shows Jesus comforting his disciples with the promise of preparing a place for them and reveals himself as the exclusive way to know the Father.

2. John 1:14-18 — Here John introduces the theme that no one has seen God except the Son, who makes him known, reinforcing Jesus's unique role as revealer of the Father.

3. Ephesians 1:3-14 — Paul expounds on God's eternal, predestining love for his people in Christ before the foundation of the world, echoing Jesus's words in John 17:24.

4. 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 — This passage describes believers beholding the glory of the Lord and being transformed into his image, connecting to the sermon's emphasis on gazing on Christ's glory now.

5. Revelation 21:1-7; 22:1-5 — These passages depict the ultimate fulfillment of Jesus's prayer, when God's people will dwell with him, see his face, and experience the fullness of his glory forever.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Reflections on Time: Past, Present, and Future

II. Jesus Gives You Knowledge (John 17:25-26a)

III. Jesus Gives You Love (John 17:26)

IV. Jesus Gives You Glory (John 17:24)

V. The Lord's Supper Unites Past, Present, and Future

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Detailed Sermon Outline

A new year tends to prompt lots of reflection about time, especially when it's a nice round number like 2020. One article I read this week pointed out that today's 35-year-olds were born closer to the 1940s than to today. That sounds false, but the math checks out. The article continues: If you were born in the 1980s, like me, a kid today who's the age you were in 1990 will remember Obama's presidency the way you remember Reagan's. 9/11 to them is the moon landing for you.

The 90s seem as ancient to them as the 60s seem to you. And the hippie 60s seems as old to them as the Great Depression seems to you.

I wonder has this new year caused you to reflect at all on your past, present, and future?

Which do you tend to prefer? Which does your mind and heart tend to gravitate toward?

Serious question: Reflect for a moment and pick one.

Maybe you tend to dwell on the past. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps the Lord has given you a long and full life. Maybe the memory of beloved family and friends who have passed away, though tinged with sadness, is still a source of lasting comfort.

But often the past casts a darker shadow. Sometimes pain from the past feels like a magnet whose reach we can't escape. Sometimes it seems like the past keeps coming after you.

Or let's say you chose the present. Maybe you're more of a seize the day, savor the moment type. It is often wise to be present in the present And yet, being particularly happy with today is not necessarily something you can take any credit for. Your life might just be going really well for reasons that are entirely beyond your control.

Who knows what tomorrow might bring for interest rates or a committee chair or your health?

I wonder how many of you chose the future. My hunch is not as many as accuracy would require. Here's what I mean. This is a young congregation. Statistically speaking, on average, the average member of this church has almost twice as many years ahead to look forward to as they do behind.

Which means a lot of us tend to live in and for the future. We spend a whole lot of time investing in the future: a degree at night, a certification at work, saving, dating. We do all these things in hope of some future payoff. That's when we'll become who we want to be. That's when we'll get what we're striving for.

Many of us have leaned on the future so hard for so long that we don't even see our own tilt.

Past, present, future. Which looks best to you? Which looks worst? Here's the claim I'm going to try to prove over the course of this sermon. If you trust in Jesus, what he gives you transforms your past, present, and future.

I'll say that again, what Jesus gives you transforms your past, present, and future. This morning we conclude our study of John 14 to 17 with verses 24 to 26 of chapter 17. The passage is on page 903 of the Pew Bibles. You can go ahead and turn there. In these four chapters, Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure.

He's about to die and rise again and ascend to the Father, so he's getting his disciples ready both for the shock of his death and for the struggle of following him when he is physically absent. And throughout chapters 14 to 17, one of Jesus's main comforts to his disciples is that though physically absent, he will be present with them with them in a whole new way. And not only will Jesus be with them, but so will the Father and the Spirit. To help us recall the context, I'm just going to give us a few highlights from these chapters. You can just jot down the references and return to these.

John 14:23, 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 with Him. John 15:5, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in Him, He it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 16:7, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you. And then John 17:22 and 23, which we studied last week. The glory that 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 loved them even as you loved me.

Throughout chapter 17, Jesus is praying and in our passage, verses 24 to 26, Jesus makes the last request in the last prayer that he would pray before he steps outside and stares down. Death. These verses are Jesus's last will and testament.

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.

In this passage, Jesus makes his final request and he surveys the salvation that he has accomplished for us. If you put those two halves of the passage together, we can see three saving gifts that Jesus gives us. Three saving gifts that Jesus gives us that each Transform our past, present, and future. What does Jesus give you? Knowledge, love, and glory.

Knowledge, love, and glory. Those will be the sermon's three points. We'll work through these, not exactly in the order of the text, but in the order in which we come to experience them. Point one, knowledge. What does Jesus gives you?

He gives you knowledge. We see this in verse 25 and the first part of verse 26. Look again at those verses. 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.

When Jesus says that the world does not know you, he's saying that the world as a whole is estranged from God. He's saying that in its post-fall condition, the world does not love God as it should, does not relate to God as it should. And an aspect of this broken relationship is the mind.

It's not that the world doesn't know anything true about God but that its knowledge is distorted and the truth that it does know, it suppresses.

Jesus says, even though the world does not know you, I know you. If you're not a Christian, do Jesus's words strike you as harsh? Dogmatic, exclusive. He is making an exclusive claim. He's making a claim to a unique and privileged knowledge of God.

Imagine someone came up to you and started talking about your dad. They start talking about how your dad is such a political junkie and he's a really talented engineer. Now, as your dad's son or daughter, you are in a position to confirm or deny what this person is talking about. You might say, well, actually my dad's a basketball coach and always has been, and he never watches the news unless you count sports.

The claim to know your dad is falsifiable. You, as the son or daughter, are in a position to validate or falsify.

The relationship that Jesus is claiming with God the Father is like that only even more exclusive. Jesus is saying that no one on earth knows the Father like he does. He's saying that he alone can grant the knowledge of God because he alone has full, innate, supreme knowledge of God. As John writes near the beginning of his gospel in chapter 1 verse 18, no one has ever seen God, the only begotten God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. If you're not a Christian, how would you say you know whether there is a God?

How do you know what God is like if you do think there is a God? And again, if you do think there is a God, what's your source or standard for knowledge of God? How do you get at that source? Who is it that you're trusting to bring you knowledge of God?

And how do you distinguish a true claim about God from a false one?

Jesus says, 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. Here Jesus is telling us the purpose of his saving sojourn on earth. He came to give us the knowledge of God that only he has. God created us that we might know him.

But Adam and Eve by their sin lost that knowledge of God. Ever since the fall, sin, death, and ignorance of God have been the common lot of humanity. Ever since the fall, sin, death, and ignorance of God have formed a triple lock that shuts us out of the life God wants for us. Jesus came to break that lock open forever. Jesus came to bear the penalty for our sin on the cross.

He came to die the death that we deserve and to bear God's wrath in order that all who trust in him would be spared from eternal death. He came to destroy death by rising from the dead. And he came to reveal God to us. He came to make God's name, that is his character, known. As Jesus says in John 8:28, referring to his coming crucifixion, When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.

In order to receive righteousness, life, and light in place of your sin, death, and ignorance of God, All you need to do is trust in Jesus. All you need to do is turn from sin and believe in him. Embrace him as your savior. So turn from sin and darkness and find life and light in him.

We often treat knowledge, all kinds of knowledge, as a mere means to an end. This is too frequently true even in formal education. We urge students to learn. Why? Well, so that you can pass a test and get a good grade.

Why should I care about that? Well, so that you can graduate high school and get into a good college. Why should I care about that? Well, so that you can get a good job. We often treat knowledge just as ticking a box, just a chore you have to get through in order to get something you really want.

But the knowledge of God is not merely a means to an end. It is the ultimate end that we were created for. As Jesus prayed in John 17:3, and this is eternal life, that they know youw, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. The knowledge of God is a means to so much. It's a means to joy, to holiness, to growth in Christ, to loving God, to worshiping God.

But did you notice in all those things that the knowledge of God is a means to, it's a means to getting more of God. We know God in order to know God. We know God in order to know him better and better. In the first half of verse 26, Jesus says, I made known to them your name and I will continue to make it known. Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus made known God's character and identity through his teaching, his miracles, and his death and resurrection.

He revealed that God is Father.

Not just as the maker of creation, but as the begetter of his eternal son. And Jesus says he will continue to make God's name known.

The main way he does this is through his spirit. As we read from John 16:7, Jesus sends the spirit to enable us to embrace the truth, to delight in who he has shown God to be. If you trust in Christ, what does all this mean for your past?

It means that you aren't who you used to be. And the crucial change is that you didn't used to know God And now you do. You once were blind, but now you see. As Jesus says in John 9:38, For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. Whatever sins you once committed in darkness and ignorance, Those don't claim or control or characterize you anymore.

As Jesus says in John 8:12, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. You used to walk in darkness, but you don't anymore. God has flooded your mind and heart with light. That's a light that he will never turn off.

It's a light that will only grow brighter and brighter until in the new creation, God himself will be your light and the lamb will be your lamp.

What about for your present? What does knowing God mean for your present? It means knowing God is a greater privilege than anything you own. Lack. Many of us work in industries that depend heavily on networking.

It's not what you know, it's who you know. For many in this city, that's a way of life. Having the right contact could make your career. Lacking it could freeze you out. Christian, who do you know?

The maker of the universe.

Has given you his card. When he says call me anytime, he means it. And because you have his contact, it doesn't matter whose you lack. The knowledge of God is an unsurpassable blessing. The knowledge of God frees you from self Delusions.

The knowledge of God releases you from sin's grip to live in line with reality. The knowledge of God lifts the blinders of self-interest. The knowledge of God unlocks secrets that science can't even scratch. Why is there something rather than nothing? That's a question science can't even ask, much less answer.

Why Is the universe here? Does the universe have a purpose? Does life have a meaning? The knowledge of God gives you answers to all that and more. Another present implication of knowing God, knowing God is a better ambition than anything you could strive for.

What is one habit you can cultivate this year to help you know God better? How can you devote yourself this year to the knowledge of God? And how does the knowledge of God transform your future? Jesus says, I will continue to make it known. Christ is still revealing the Father.

He still has more to show you and he always will. Whatever this coming year and each coming year, gives or takes away. You can be confident that if you trust in Christ, you will come to know God better. You will swim deeper into the bottomless pool of the knowledge of God. You will keep climbing that towering mountain with no peak in sight.

You will discover more of the riches of God's glory and grace.

There's always more to know, and with Christ dwelling in you by his Spirit, you will. If you seek him from the heart, you will never grow bored with God. The more you know, the more you'll marvel and rejoice. Point two, love. What does Jesus give you?

Love. Looking at verse 26, especially the second half, 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.

God the Father has loved the Son eternally, changelessly, steadfastly with infinite joy and delight. How can that love possibly be in us? What does that mean? It means that Christians are brought into the loving fellowship of the Trinity. In answer to Jesus's prayer, we love him the way the Father does.

We delight in him and treasure him. We see in him the sum and substance of all good. And in loving him this way, it's not just that we love him the way the Father does, but that we love him with the very love that the Father has. And how does that love get into us? It gets into us by God's saving grace in the gospel.

Through the gospel, we don't just experience God's love for us, but God's love in us. God's love poured out on us through Christ sets off a chain reaction of love in which we love him with the love that he himself gives us. God's love for us in Christ sets in motion an endless circulation of love. In this circulation, the currency never runs out because God is love. He never has to borrow love.

He never has to mint more. His love account never runs out because God is himself an inexhaustible fullness of love. The Father has infinite love to give and the Son is the infinitely worthy object of that love and the gospel draws us up. Into the current of that love.

For much of the past two weeks, I've been pretty sick. For every day except one of all the days off that I had around Christmas and New Year, I was stuck in bed. Not a very fun way to spend the holidays. Because I had either a bad cold or a sort of moderate case of the flu, I was taking a lot of ibuprofen. Which is named for its active ingredient.

I don't know whether it did me any good, I'm feeling better now by God's grace. But whenever you take any medicine, the most important part about it is the active ingredient. That's the part of the medicine that is doing something to your body, to tell your body to start or stop something, to tell your body to keep something in or block something out. Jesus is saying here in verse 26, that if you're a Christian, God's own love is an active ingredient in your soul. The love with which the Father loves his Son is at work in you.

If you're a Christian, God's love is a continually acting, never expiring medicine for your soul. God's love drives out sinful loves. God's love blocks temptations that try to infect your soul. God's love jumpstarts your soul's desire for what is good and pure, for knowing him and for serving others, for what will bring permanent spiritual health now and in eternity. What does God's love do to your past?

Look at verse 24.

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.

If you're in Christ, than before you ever did anything for or against God. Before you ever did anything good or bad, God did something for you. God did something to you. He chose you and gave you as a gift to His Son, for His Son to save. And keep and bring into glory.

Before the foundation of the world, God loved you. As Paul says in Ephesians 1:4-5, In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. You might see your past fundamentally as a liability to being loved, whether by God, or by others. Your past is baggage. You've made messes and other people's messes have found their way to you.

Do you think your past makes you unlovable? God says no way. Look farther back.

God loved you before you even had a chance to do all the wrong things that he knew you would. God knew you would and He loved you anyway. He loved you before, He loved you still.

God's free, sovereign, eternal decision to save you through Christ gives you a different past, a deeper past, a longer past.

There is no love so sure, and so assuring as God's eternal electing love of his people in Christ. What about your present? What does God's love do to your present? Looking at verse 26, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them. In the end, for Jesus to say that God's love is in us and for him to say that he himself is in us are two ways of saying the same thing.

Where God's love is, there is Christ as its source and incarnate embodiment.

To be a Christian is to have God's love and God's son dwelling in you. Jesus is here revealing the mystery of our union with him. We live in him and he lives in us. If you're a Christian, you don't live by your own strength, by your own power or by your own merit. People sometimes say that the internet puts the world at your fingertips.

And in a sense, that's true. Through global internet connections, you can talk to anybody on the other side of the world, through a few keystrokes, you can pull up facts about anything around the world.

But the gospel doesn't just put the world at your fingertips, it puts the creator of the world inside you. His power becomes your power, his life, your life, his love, your love. Whenever you feel weak or helpless to overcome temptation, whenever your resources seem utterly insufficient, remember that Christ is in you. And your future, no matter what uncertainties lurk like thunderheads on your horizon, there is no uncertainty in God's love. No matter what changes may surprise and threaten to overwhelm you, there is no change in God's love.

No matter what losses you suffer, there is no diminishing God's love. God's love outweighs your greatest earthly blessings and it can more than compensate for your greatest losses. God's love predates all your trials and it will outlast every one of them.

Point three, glory. What does Jesus give you? He gives you glory. Look again at verse 24.

Father, I desire that they also whom youm have given Me may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that yout have given Me, because youe loved Me before the foundation of the world.

This is Jesus' last request. What does he finally want for you? He wants you to be with him.

When will we see Jesus' glory? In one sense, we see it by faith now. Jesus is talking specifically about the glory that we will see when we see him. Because we are with him where he is. That happens in heaven and ultimately in the new creation.

Here is Jesus' ultimate answer to his looming absence. He won't be gone forever.

The absence will be temporary. Here in verse 24, Jesus' prayer effectively ends with the promise of personal, tangible reunion and that's also how this This whole section of John began. So look back at John 143. Just turn the page. Jesus begins and ends this section with the comfort of seeing him face to face.

John 143.

Actually, start with verse 2. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.

That is when we will see this glory. And what is the glory that we will see? Turn back to John 17:24. Verse 24, Jesus says that we will see the glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. As is so often the case throughout John 17, I think it's best to understand this gift of glory as eternal.

The Father has always loved the Son because the Father has always granted the Son to share his own divine glory. What we will see in heaven is the glory of Jesus' divine sonship shining through his glorified humanity. And that sight will satisfy us. That sight will fill us. That sight will dry every tear and send away sorrow.

Theologians call this the beatific vision.

Which literally means the sight that makes us happy. The storyline of the Bible starts in Genesis 1 and 2 with Adam and Eve seeing God face to face, walking with him and talking with him. But when they sinned, they were banished from God's presence, cut off, excluded, sent away. And the storyline of the whole Bible is the story of God himself setting about to bring us back in. So we read earlier in the service in Psalm 16, verse 11, you, make known to me the path of life, in youn presence there is fullness of joy, at yout right hand are pleasures forevermore.

And as we read in Revelation 22, verses 4 and 5, at the tail end of the Bible, they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

In the last words of his prayer for us, Jesus takes us to the last page of the last chapter of God's plan of salvation.

He brings us to the very end which, as it often is, is the key to the whole. He is praying for the greatest blessing possible for us, the greatest good conceivable for us, that we would see his glory face to face.

In a detective story or police procedural, there's often a single clue that unlocks the whole mystery. The author or the director usually sort of drops it in toward the end and if you're paying close enough attention, you can spot it. Understand the significance of it, you can unravel the whole mystery. It all starts to make sense. Wait, did he say the driver?

Who was the driver? All at once, the mystery opens up. Brothers and sisters, our seeing Christ face to face is that clue. It's the clue to the whole story of Scripture. It's the key to the purpose of the universe.

And it's the key to the mystery of our own lives. It's the key to why we long for something the world can't give us. If you're not a believer in Jesus, do you think that reality is ultimately personal or impersonal? And does that matter at all for how you live? Jesus is saying here that the Father loved him before the foundation of the world.

Before anything else existed, love did, before anything else existed, God the Father loved God the Son. Jesus is teaching here, the promise that he's holding out to us here points to the consummation of the world and it's rooted in God's plan before he even created the world and it brings to fulfillment God's purposes that continue far beyond this world in an unending world to come.

Jesus is teaching here that his act of salvation is the point of the whole universe. The God who is love stands behind this universe as its source and sustainer. And he created the universe in order to bring it to fulfillment in the glory of his Son. So one commentator wrote on verse 24, the beginning and end of time are here brought together.

To find their meaning in the historical mission of Jesus and its results. The past and future of the whole universe find their meaning in the present of what Jesus is accomplishing right here. This universe is not a chaos but a story, a story whose beginning and end is Christ. If you're not a Christian, what's the longest lasting glory that you can realistically hope to attain? When will it end?

And what happens then?

Brothers and sisters, members of CHBC, what does Christ's promise of glory say to your past? It says that no past could ever be your glory days. If you're a Christian, glory lies ahead, not in the rear view. Your best is still to come and it will. If you're tempted to doubt God's goodness because of some good that's now gone, remember that the good to come is better.

And in the present, devote yourself to gazing on Christ and His glory. Where do you see that glory? Here and now we see it in the pages of God's Word. Remember what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:8, and we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Did you see 2 Corinthians 3:18?

Anyways, the point is to gaze on the glory of Christ. That's how to be transformed now. As G.K. Beale has said, what we revere, we resemble, either for ruin or restoration. You become what you worship. You grow like what you gaze at.

So contemplate Christ in his word. Study Scripture in search of Christ's glory. And ask God to make your soul a mirror of that glory. Finally, your future.

Brothers and sisters, members of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, fix your hearts on the glory that Christ promises you in order to overcome the fear of death.

Whether you're more prone to fixating on death or to tricking yourself into forgetting about death. The glory of seeing Christ face to face is the answer to death's cold stare. Unless Christ comes back first, the full answer to this prayer will come for each of us only at death. Death remains an evil and an enemy. But death is also a butler admitting us into the Father's house with many rooms.

And it's God who rings the bell. Death takes us from those we love here, but it brings us to the one who loves us even better.

In the last letter he wrote before he died, On August 22, 1683, the English pastor John Owen wrote, I am going to Him whom my soul hath loved, or rather hath loved me with an everlasting love, which is the whole ground of all my consolation.

Past, present, future.

However dim any of those look to you from an earthbound point of view, Christ's glory transfigures them all. There is no past so dark that His electing love can't redeem it. There is no presence so stormy that his presence can't provide bright comfort. There is no future so bleak that Christ's promise of seeing him face to face can't provide a hope that pierces the darkness.

Past, present, future. The Lord's Supper, which we're about to celebrate, It brings together all three. In the Lord's Supper, we look back to the cross and forward to the coming kingdom when Jesus says, He will drink anew with us. In the Lord's Supper, we feast with Christ now, spiritually, in the confident hope of feasting with him one day face to face.

As God promised through the prophet Isaiah in chapter 25, verses 6 to 9 of the book of Isaiah.

On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine. Of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined, and he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth. For the Lord has spoken.

It will be said on that day, Behold, this is our God. We have waited for Him, that He might save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for Him. Let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank youk for this promise of glory to come. We thank youk for this promise of being with Christ where He is. May we know youw as yous are. May we love youe as yous deserve. May you keep us for glory.

In Jesus' name, Amen.