Gospel of John, 16:12-24

We are in Lesson 31, Chapter 16. And we're I think we've got to like question six. Am I right about that? That far. OK. Let's see. OK. I'm going to read a couple of verses starting at 16. A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me, because I go to the Father. Then some of his disciples said among themselves, what is this that he says to us? A little while that you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me, and because I go to the Father. And they said therefore, what is this he says, a little while?

We do not know what he's saying. Okay, so what's the time frame here? What's the little while he's going and the little while we're going to see him again? Probably a day or two, maybe a day before. And from what event to what event? Crucifixion and resurrection. When they don't see him, what happens? He's crucified, right? And so he's gone and then in a few days they see him again.

So they don't really understand. The Jews had the idea that when the Messiah came, he was going to abide forever. And so for him to say, well, I'm going to be here for a while, and then I'm going to be gone, and then I'm going to come back, it's difficult for them to get a hold of that. And we'll see, I think, as we go on today, there's a lot of things that he has said that are confusing to them because they had a preconceived notion of what the Messiah was going to do and what function he was going to serve. And of course they don't understand that he's going to die, although he's told them. And for sure they don't understand the reason that he's going to die and all the work that's tied up with that. They anticipate that he's going to come and manifest himself and take over, but they don't get what he's talking about here.

Now, you know what? If all of us in this room were living at that time, and we hadn't already seen the game, and it wasn't Monday morning, and we weren't reviewing whether the Broncos won or not, we'd be having the same trouble understanding what he's saying. We'd have exactly the same problem. We wouldn't understand. You know, we all think we're so smart, that's because we saw the end of the movie.

In verse 17 and 18, why didn't the disciples understand? And we're talking about that a little bit, but they're saying, well, what is he saying to us? And they don't understand. what part of it, I mean they could have, he has said to them several times up to now, I'm gonna go up to Jerusalem and die. And he said it to Peter, and Peter said, no you're not. And he said, yeah I am. But the little while you will see me again, they didn't have any clue about that. Because if he was gonna die, they'd never met anybody or heard of anybody that died and came back.

So they're having a tough time with that. And the other thing that they're having a tough time with, even though he has told them now three times, is the work that the Holy Spirit is going to perform when he does leave and when he goes to heaven. They don't understand that part either. So it's very difficult for them.

Is the Lord Jesus purposely trying to confuse these people? What do you think he's doing? Yeah, I think that's right. I think what he's doing is he's laying out the scenario, realizing that they don't really get it all. But later, they'll review and say, oh, that's what he meant by this, and that's what he meant by this, and that's what he meant by this. Do you think that happens with us?

Where you are exposed to a truth in the Word of God and you kind of get it in your mind? but you don't really kind of get it, especially the part between understanding and believing the position and then at some time the Spirit of God is working that position into your life and you go, oh yeah, I see why he said that and why this circumstance that I find myself in was so important for my life because I now see what I couldn't have understood if we'd have gone another way. So I think what you see here is a principle laid out that the Lord, even today, continues to use. In my talking to my friend last night, whose son was in that accident, I said to him, I said, you know, the Word of God tells us that God works all things together for good.

And there isn't anything that seems like a tragedy to us that He doesn't take and use for good to not only the person that's immediately affected by the circumstance, but also those around him for their approval and spiritual growth. But it doesn't seem that way at first. When your son is hit by a car and he's going to be paralyzed the rest of his life, boy, what are you thinking? But it's going to yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. And I said, our job as believers is just to trust God in the middle of those circumstances. And then as time goes on, we will see that he had a specific gracious purpose in mind to bless everybody involved in this and they would not have been blessed in any other way. Now, to be 25 years old or something and to face the fact that you're going to be paralyzed from the chest down for the rest of your life doesn't sound like it's at the top of the list of the blessing chart. But it is.

And this guy is a recovering alcoholic, 25 years. He's been sober. And he'll tell you, he thanks God for alcoholism in his life. You know why? Because he would have never learned what he knows now if he hadn't been. Learn to trust God to stay sober. That's a huge thing. You know, you and I who don't have any trouble that way, Gee, do I have trouble not drinking? No. I don't drink anyway. But this guy, who was an alcoholic, for him not to drink by the grace of God is a learned thing.

See? Well, I said that's the same thing that's going to happen with this. You're going to see over time that this is a gracious thing from the Lord. You know, we have a guy in our midst, Norm Avery, who's been in crutches and stuff since, what was he, six years old? Something like that. Well, you get in a conversation with him sometime and talk about, gee, has he been resenting his paralysis all his life? No, he doesn't think like that.

He thanks God for what God has done. I was ever amazed when I used to lead the Sunday service and lead this hymn singing. Coming out of Catholicism, you don't know anything about hymns. Nothing. I used to research them, and boy, I used to research Fanny Crosby, and every hymn she wrote, somewhere in that hymn was something about seeing, because she was blind.

And she used to say a lot, you know, the first human being I'm going to see is the Lord Jesus Christ. How cool is that? She couldn't get over how neat that the very first face she will ever see was Christ. Sounds like a blessing to me. Anyway, so why does... I'll read on here. Let's see.

Most assuredly I say to you, Omen 20, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice and you will be sorrowful but your sorrow will be turned to joy. And a woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come, but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish or joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore, you now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take away from you. Okay, so why does the world rejoice at the leaving of the Lord Jesus? Why does the world rejoice at the leaving of the Lord Jesus? Well, they hated him. Did they think they'd been victorious over him? Yeah.

Do you remember back in chapter 3, verse 19, when John says, and this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil? For everyone that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. I think it's initially difficult for us to understand, but as we go forward it's probably pretty easy.

That the Lord Jesus Christ himself is light, and his very presence exposes men for what they really are. It's like walking into a dark apartment and turning on the light and the roaches all run for cover. They can't stand the light. And what it does is it exposes them for who they are. And believers today who walk in the Spirit, you wonder why there are people that just have an attitude about you.

Good example of this, and not to make him out to be any greater of a believer than he is, because he's not, he's a baby Christian. But George Bush, there are people that viciously hate that man for no reason. other than the fact that he's got a little bit of light coming out of him and they can't take it. Do you see that? Do you see that? I see it in society everywhere. I see people that really are people of light and they're hated by the world. And so the world does rejoice when the light leaves, so to speak.

And you don't have to be the guy down there at Coors Field after the game with the megaphone, telling everybody who went to the game that they're all going to hell. You don't have to do that to be... The problem is that he, by his very presence, exposed sinners for what they really were in the light. So once you're exposed, you hate the light. as a non-believer. And you welcome the time when the light goes out. Now there's going to be another time when the light comes on for all non-believers and they're going to not only hate the light, but so dislike it that they're going to choose hell. When is that?

At the Great White Throne Judging? Single person on the planet who is a non-believer will come before Christ to be judged, right? And he's going to be standing there or sitting there in all of his glory, in the fullness of life. And every human being is going to have to come before him for judgment. they being sons of darkness, he being light. So their exposure is full on. Now you would think, gee, in that circumstances there's going to have to be at least one person who's going to say, you know, it's probably better. I should have believed and Lord would you give me another chance. Not a single one will say that. Why not? Why not?

Because of their nature. Yeah, their nature. Their nature of loving darkness. Of loving darkness. And to have to be forced to stay in the light is a worse consequence to them than going to hell. Understand that? If you hate the darkness and you're forced to stay in the light, the light of God himself, is a worse consequence than if you have to spend eternity in the lake of fire. Isn't that something? We don't think of it that way, but you could make this statement that hell is a blessing. Because if you had one of those two choices, everybody that comes before Christ is going to choose hell.

He's not going to have to shove them in there. They're going to choose it. Because it's a better alternative than having to stand in the light. You see that? So that's why I'm convinced that at the Great White Throne Judgment, no one is going to say, oh boy, I wish I had another chance because of their nature. They hate the light. So if the light leaves, they rejoice because they're not exposed. So as there are always two opposite reactions to the existence or the presence of Christ, If you go back, if you go to, you don't have to go there, we're studying on Thursday night, or now Wednesday for a while.

1 John 1.4 And that which is from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life. For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness and show it unto you, that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. that which we have seen and heard declare we to you that you also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son and these things we write to you that your joy may be full." You either have that reaction or you have the reaction of sin hating light. You have one or the other.

There is no middle ground. How many of you came to Christ later than childhood? Did you know what it was like to be uncomfortable around Christians? Around white? I did. At 35, when I came to the Lord, I thought Christians, I didn't like being in the same block they were in. I felt uncomfortable in those environments.

So, when will the sorrow of the disciples be turned to joy? In other words, put in your mind the disciple's viewpoint. There's going to come a time in the next few days when the one that they put their faith in is arrested, hauled off, beaten up, and crucified, and actually dies. They take him down and they put him in a grave. What do you think they're thinking about at that point?

Oh dear, oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, yeah. Is our faith in vain? What have we done here? Boy, we've been following this guy around for three and a half years and he's dead. And he gave us all this rhetoric about life and light and we thought he was the Messiah, yet those Romans came and nabbed him and they killed him.

What are they thinking? And then their sorrow turns to joy. When do you think that started to happen? There's resurrection, but specifically when? They go down to the tomb and guess what? It's empty. Mary found it first. Hallelujah, it's empty. And they run and tell the rest of the disciples, hey, I don't know where he is, but he isn't in the tomb. something's going on here and then he appears to them, all of them, and they're, you know, what they're thinking at this point, oh wow, now what?

They're joyful, they're joyful, and they're observing a resurrected human being who just shows up in their presence, you know, things are really strange at that point to them, but now he's alive. Mike, I wonder if they related that in any way to Lazarus when he was raised from the dead? Did they know that there was something different? Oh, I see what you're saying.

I would say that they related this to some degree, but the difference was that nobody raised Jesus from the dead that they could see. They heard the story of Peter and John going to the grave, and Mary, and that he wasn't there. And then there were these two fellas there, who were angels, who said, well, he's not here, he's risen. And then he tells Mary that when she finally recognizes him, go tell my disciples that I send my God and their God.

So there has to be an incredible amount of excitement and joy at this time. And of course, he's telling them that that's coming. probably remembering even then about the things that he had told them. Yeah, they start to remember things, you know, wow.

Now when the newfound joy is theirs, why can't it be taken away? In other words, they know he's resurrected now and they're hanging out with him 40 days, then he leaves again. But the joy isn't taken away. He tells them to stay in Jerusalem until the spirit comes. But you can't take the joy away.

How come? The event was so embedded in their minds that they're hanging on to it. I don't think it would be enough. I think possibly because they've realized now it's not an earthly kingdom, it's a spiritual, eternal happening. Yeah. When Pentecost happens and the Spirit of God indwells them and baptizes them into Christ, what comes with that?

Nature and life. And what are some of the characteristics of the life? Joy is one of them, right? So you can't take away the life, so you can't take away the joy. I think that's what it means. The joy is one of the characteristics of the life that they get. at Pentecost, so it can't ever be taken away from him. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, etc. Against such there is no law, and Christ hath crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. So because joy is a fruit of the very life of Christ, and the position in Him is permanent, you can never take it away. Never. Now that doesn't mean you're always going to walk in it. But it does mean you always have it. Because you always have the life. Alright, verse 23.

And in that day you will ask me nothing. Most assuredly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, He'll give to you. until now you've asked nothing in my name, ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full." Do you think the disciples regarded Jesus as an equal? Verse 23 says, in that day you will ask me nothing.

And the key is the word ask. I think they regarded him as their master and their Messiah. I would have thought that too, but this word ask is eroteste. which is used among equals in the sense of demand and invite by a superior to an inferior. I think that they regarded Jesus as pretty much an equal. He was their leader, but in terms of nature, he was the same as them. He just was a guy that was going to be the Messiah. They didn't understand that he was the Son of God. So I think from a creation and a nature standpoint, at least from the up to a while, they think that they're fairly equal with him. Like if I was in the same room with George Bush, I would think he's the president, but we're the same. You know the old saying, we put our pants on the same way every morning? We're equal. Well, when he says, in that day, you will ask me nothing. In other words, you're not going to ask me from a as inferior to a superior. The petition that you're going to offer, you're not going to do it as an inferior to a superior.

They're thinking that they're equal. He's saying, wait a minute, let me explain something to you. You're going to ask me, not in that frame of reference, not as someone who's inferior to someone who's superior. even though they think that they're pretty much the same, even though he's probably just a little tighter with God than they are. He's still a human being. So what he's beginning to set up, from looking at this, you might draw the conclusion that they thought he was equal, but he's not.

He's saying, I am superior to you, but there's going to come a day when I'm not. And as we go on, hopefully you'll see what he means there. Does verse 23 mean that after the resurrection and the revelations of the Spirit, of all the questions, let me read that again. Does verse 23 mean that after the resurrection and the revelations of the Spirit, All these questions would be superfluous, in other words, wouldn't matter.

What do you think? I said yes. Yeah, I think so. Because they could ask the Father for anything in Jesus' name. So the question is, what does it mean to ask in the Lord Jesus' name? Don't you see that? All these prayers that you hear and we ask it or we pray it in your name. What does that mean? You're in here now. I've been a Christian, I've been watching these guys pray and they're always asking prayers in Jesus' name. I think I'll do it. Once they do, so what? In His authority. His intrinsic value. So I ask him to do something in his authority and he doesn't do it. What's the problem? What's the recognition? What is the recognition in his name?

In God's will. God's will? Let's see. Like-mindedness with Christ. That's good. That's moving in the right direction. Coming out of Catholicism, one of the reasons that the Virgin Mary is such a big deal in Catholicism, you know why? Why do you think she's so highly valued? Because she's mom.

And in the Jewish society, mom had the ear of the son. So if you go to mom and make a petition to her, she'd go to the son, look at the wedding feast at Canaan, what happened there? You know, they have a problem with the wine, she goes to the Lord and says, fix it. And he says, okay. The fact is that there's an extremely high value placed on the one who has the ear of the one who can do things.

If you want something done in the city and county of Denver and you happen to know somebody who's really tight with John Hickenlooper, you're going to call him up. You're not going to call me up. I don't know him. You're going to call him up. Why? Because he's got the ear of the one who can make it happen. So, if you want to go to the Father about something, you want to go in the name of the Lord Jesus. Why? Because he's got his ear. He's the one that the Father has great focus on and is the one that has the greatest influence on the Father. You think so? You think that's what he's saying here? I think that's what in his name means.

That his name is very powerful. Well, powerful with what? If I say, well, the name of the Lord Jesus has a lot of power, big deal. Powerful with who? With the Father. Got big influence. All blessing comes from the Father and it comes in his name. Don't take this irreverently, but there are times that People will call me and we'll be talking about their troubles and I'll be talking to them about praying. And I'll say to them, I'll pray for you, I'm really tight with the Lord.

With the understanding that maybe you're not so tight. Yeah, they are. We all are. You understand? That's why I say it that way. I'm really tight with the Lord. Well, so are you. So you go to the Lord Jesus to talk to the Father about something in the name of Christ, He's really tight with the Father. So that's why you're talking to Him. And I'm making a big point of this now because a few verses down the road it's going to change.

It's on His account, or according to His efficacy of His name, of all that in Him is acceptable to the Father, that good comes to us. In other words, of all persons in the universe, the one that's most highly valued by the Father is the Lord Jesus Christ. So, if the Lord Jesus Christ is telling these disciples, hey, you're my friends, you can ask the Father anything in my name and he'll do it, because he highly values me. So, you should always ask, according to this verse, I think the disciples in their everyday demeanor were used to going to the Lord Jesus and asking him stuff and asking him to do things. And now he's saying, well, you probably ought to ask the Father in my name in light of the fact that I'm leaving. You ask the Father. I'm going to go and be with the Father, so you need to ask him in my name.

Maybe I should ask you, do you see how the line of authority is set up there? And what I'm telling you, why I'm making such a big point of this is because in a few verses it's going to change. He's no longer going to be the intermediary. See that? Let's start on Lesson 32. Verses 24 and 25, until now you have asked nothing in my name, ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

These things I have spoken to you in figurative language, but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God." So do you think that the Lord understood what he had communicated to the disciples so far about the Father was confusing to them? Do you think he understood what he was saying was confusing to them? Yeah, because he spoke to him in parables. You understand what a parable is all about? How many of you think a parable is a story designed to explain a situation? Nobody? How many of you think a parable is designed to make it purposely confusing?

I do. You watch those parables and when the Lord Jesus uses parables with the Jews, they don't understand what he's talking about. It's purposely confusing. Why? Because they don't understand. And he's telling them stories that make a point, and they never get the point. And it's the same thing here. He says to the disciples, I've been talking to you in parables, but I'm going to get clear here soon. Why would the Lord do that? Why would the Lord speak to the Jewish nation and to the disciples in parables and purposely be confusing to them? Just because he wanted to trick them? To make them think and grow?

But they never did get it. They're not ready. Right. I think when you're telling somebody something they need to hear before they're ready to hear it, it's completely ineffective. So they'll wait until they are ready. Is that what you're saying? That's partly what he's doing. Partly is that you and I get to read the Gospels and read these parables and we get to understand them. Why?

Why can't we understand them? Just because we saw the end from the beginning? We have the Spirit of God to see him. And so, like Corinthians says, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, they're foolishness to him, he can't know them. So parables are the kind of thing that are understandable by the spiritual man and not the natural man.

Were they purposely confusing? Well, you could say they were, in the sense that because they're only spiritually discerned, they can't understand them. Was he trying to confuse them? Not really. He just was speaking spiritual things and they couldn't get it.

And now he's saying, I'm going to start talking to you plainly. But it's a gradual kind of thing. And he knew, he was conscious of the fact that a lot of the stuff that he said fell on their ears and they thought, what is he talking about? There must have been a lot of that going on.

And what's the primary thing that he's trying to communicate to them? What's the number one thing? That he is love, or that God is love, that Father is love. The primary thing is the communication of who the Father is. That's what he's trying to do. That's his job, and it's confusing to them. And he's using stories, but he isn't talking plainly. So, they would soon be made clear.

What methods would the Lord employ to start to clear things up? Now, I should have said methods, but let me see what you think first. In terms of events and things that the Lord did, how would it start to clear things up? Did his resurrection help start to clear things up? Did his appearance in the conversations during those 40 days start to clear things up? Did the message that he gave Mary Magdalene on the first day of the week help to clear things up?

Yeah, it did. Did he not plainly declare about the Father and that the Father was his and theirs? That's a new thing. That helped clear things up. Was not his God and their God meant that they were going to be blessed because it was his God and their God? And then he promised them the Holy Spirit to be sent down from heaven. Didn't that help them understand that there was a full understanding of the truth that was coming? And he made known to them the name of the Father.

It's one thing to hear about it, but the reality is different. I mean, you think about the disciples and the circumstances they're in on Friday, Saturday, I don't know if the days are right or not, but then they hear after three days that he's been raised from the dead and he's alive.

And then he shows up in the room by not coming through the door. And then he says to Thomas, put your fingers in my hands, the holes in my hand and your hand on my side. How come no scabs? How come? You ever thought about that? Why no scabs? Why could he just put his finger right in the hole? Why no scabs? Because the body didn't have any blood in it.

Why not? Because it was poured out. It was poured out. Now you and I, in this environment, have to have blood to live. Don't we? If you take the blood and separate it from the body, what happens to the body? It dies. It's a real simple equation. But here he is, standing in front of him with no blood in his body. Why not? How can you function? How can you live? He doesn't need blood to live.

Resurrected life doesn't need blood. When you and I get glorified bodies, there isn't going to be any blood in them. We're not going to have to have our blood chemistry done. Nobody is going to care about your cholesterol level. So the resurrected body doesn't have any blood in it because the source of its life isn't chemistry. See that? You don't need the blood to move oxygen to all the parts. Isn't that cool?

Alright, verse 26. In that day you will ask my name and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you. What does this mean? What does verse 26 tell us about our relationship to the Father? What's it saying? Remember I said that we were coming in a few verses where you won't have to ask the Father anything in my name? What's happening here? We can go directly ourselves. We don't have to go to the intermediary. And again, I hate to keep using Catholicism as an example, but it's the perfect example for this. The entire religion of Catholicism is based on intermediaries.

You have a priesthood, you have all those saints, each one of them is a patron saint of something. And so if you have a certain problem, you get out the book and say, oh yeah, the patron saint of acne. I better talk to him and he'll intercede and we'll get the acne fixed.

One of the great joys when I became a Christian, the very first day I realized I didn't need any of those folks. I could go directly to the Father and sit down and talk to him about anything. That's a really incredible thing. And so the Lord Jesus is saying to these disciples, you know, you haven't asked much in my name, and it's good that you do, but now you're not going to have to.

Because of me, you have direct access. You see that? Because of me, you have direct access. Now, how does that fit? How does, because of me, you have direct access, give them direct access? Did he go to the Father and say, hey look, Jack and Lenny and Joanne are going to come to you and it's okay to let them in? How come? Why do you have direct access to the Father? He opened a way. He opened a way so that we could go in.

Hebrews 10.19 says that we should enter the holiest by the blood of Christ. The veil was torn in two.

But there's another reason. Why do you have such intimacy with the Father? Because we share life. Of course. He has the intimacy, so do you. The same access that Jesus had to the Father they were to have because of him. That's what he's saying. Does this mean that Jesus isn't going to pray for them anymore or pray for us anymore? No. He intercedes for us. What do you think? He intercedes for us. Does he intercede for us? If you say, oh, you know, I've got this terrible arthritis in my knee and I need you to intercede to the Father about that, does he do that?

Why would you go that direction if you knew you had direct access? Why would you? You wouldn't, would you? I mean, if I said to you, now look, if you want to talk to Vern, you've got to come to me. Because you can't talk to him without me. And you said, I don't need you, I can go talk to Vern. Why would you ever come back to me? You wouldn't. You wouldn't.

So what role does the Lord Jesus play now on your behalf? Do we still pray in Jesus' name then? It says he's our intercessor. But why do we need an intercessor? Do we need one? Well, Romans 8.34 says that he makes intercession for us. According to what? And why does he make intercession? What's the one job he does intercessorily? Because he's a defender of us.

Well, 1 John 2.3, I think.

Take a look at that. I think that's where it is. Maybe it's 2.2.3. Let's see if I'm right about this. Somewhere in two there, I think. About we have an advocate with the Father. Yeah. Verse 1, My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. What's advocacy? means you have a representative, someone who represents you. So you sin, you commit sins, and you have an advocate with the Father.

Why do you need him? Can you go direct to your father about your sins? To restore fellowship? Satan is called the accuser of the brethren, right? So, good old Mike sins. And then, you know, time, space, Satan says, aha! He needs condemnation because he sinned. What does my advocate do? That's what he says. He says, no he doesn't because I paid for that.

Now, what's interesting is, if you look at that Hebrews 10, it says that we have 19 or so that we enter into the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus. by a newly slain lamb. What that means is that the blood of Christ is of such a character that it is brand new right now, brand new right now, brand new right now, brand new right now.

In other words, it's like it just now happened. It just now happened. It just now happened. So every time I sin, The blood of Christ always covers my sins because it just now happened. Because it's an eternal event. You see that? Freshly slain there means it just happened. So the advocacy of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have to look at it in time and space. But from an eternal standpoint, every sin that we commit this week was future at the time of the cross, wasn't it?

And was it paid for then? And it was paid for because of the spilling of the blood of Christ, right? So, in the Jewish system, you know, they spilled the blood today for I bought the land and they slain it and my sins were covered, but boy, I never made it out of the courtyard of the church and I sinned again. And I sinned again, and I sinned again. How about the covering of all of those sins? Was a Jew ever in a position where he wasn't vulnerable? Seems like he probably wasn't. But the believer is different. Because the Lord Jesus Christ is our advocate.

His finished work sits in front of the Father, the blood, always taking care of the sin issue constantly. It's not gonna, gonna, gonna. It's always constant. And it's hard to explain because it's an eternal event. And Hebrews 10, 19, 20, 21 talks about when that phrase in there, a freshly slain lamb, means it just happened, it just happened, it just happened. It's happening all the time. That's the advocacy, I think, that Christ serves for us as believers, and it has to do with the issue of sin. Other than that, we have direct access to the Father.

This is talking about him being a high priest. Why is that language in there? Let's see if I remember my Hebrew study. The high priest is the one, in that context, the high priest was the one who gained access into the Holy of Holies. The encouragement there is for every believer to go into the Holy of Holies.

And in that environment, we're in there with the high priest. And the household of God is inside the veil, not outside. And the purpose of our going in is to go home and stay there. And we do have, earlier on in Hebrews, it talks about that the builder of the house has greater honor than the master of the house because he built it. And so, in that sense, the high priest is Christ, but every one of us is a priest now.

And we belong in there. And because of the blood of Christ, that separates us from, well, maybe put it this way, the ticket to get in is the blood of Christ. If you don't have the ticket, you're not getting in. But once you go in, you're never to leave. You stay there. Alright, for those of you with good memories, we'll start at five next time. Actually, we'll finish up some more at four.

Alright, dear Father, we thank you for your grace. We thank you that you have allowed us access to you by your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We find such great value in his work that did the one thing that you desired, which was for us to be in fellowship with you, Father. We thank you. We pray in your Son's name. Amen.