Good morning. If you have your Bibles with
you please turn in them to John chapter 13. If you don't know me my name is Danny Schillero,
I'm one of the pastors here at Parkside and I'm glad to stand in this pulpit and preach from
God's word this morning as Alistair's away. John chapter 13, verses 1 through 11 will
be the verses that we'll study this morning. John's gospel can kind of be broken into two
parts when you look at it as a whole. Many have seen the first half of the book, one through 12
generally could be described as the book of signs. Whereas the gospel writer is introducing us to
Jesus we see that Jesus is performing these signs that tell us about who he is and what he's
come to do. And then in chapter 13 we see a transition from the book of signs to what
is called the book of glory where we're introduced to Jesus in these final moments with
his disciples as he marches onward to the cross where he will be glorified. And the verses
that we'll study this morning at the beginning of chapter 13 are our transition from the book
of signs to the book of glory. And chapters 13 through 17 are what are called the upper room
discourse. It's the time that Jesus, the final moments that he spends with his disciples before
he goes to the cross. So the verses that we'll read verses 1 through 11 this morning are those
opening moments that he has with his disciples. So I'll read aloud and you can read along
with me John, chapter 13 starting in verse 1. "Now before the Feast of the Passover when
Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father having loved
his own who were in the world he loved them to the end. During supper when the devil had
already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him Jesus knowing that
the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back
to God rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments and taking a towel tied it around
his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe
them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter who said
to him "Lord do you wash my feet?" Jesus answered him "What I am doing you do not
understand now but afterward you will understand." Peter said to him "You shall never wash my feet!"
Jesus answered him "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me." Simon Peter said to him "Lord
not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" Jesus said to him "The one who has bathed
does not need to wash except for his feet but is completely clean. And you are
clean but not every one of you," for he knew who was to betray him that was
why he said not all of you are clean. Father we look to you this morning as we come to
your Word. We come confident that as we hear your Word we hear your voice. We come in great need of
you this morning. We need to hear your voice. We need your Word to sink deeply into the bottom
of our hearts to change us into who we're not. We thank you that when we look to the
Bible here we can see your son Jesus, who is our everything, who's our all in all. So we pray that this morning that You would fix
our eyes and our hearts on your son Jesus that he would be exalted and that You would be
glorified. We pray all this in Jesus name, Amen. Anytime we open our Bibles we can be sure that
every page of our Bible in some way or another points us towards Jesus. We do well to understand
what Jesus taught those disciples on the road to Emmaus, that from Moses and the prophets from
Old Testament to New Testament, that everything that we see in the Bible is ultimately
concerning Jesus. While we understand that, we realize that there are certain parts of
the Bible that show us Jesus from a distance. That we see Jesus from only a shadow
of Jesus or a glimpse or a need of him. While some passages in the Bible
give us Jesus from a distance there are certain passages in the Bible
that bring us face to face with Jesus. So while some parts of the Bible point us
forward to the Messiah as an idea, there are other passages that introduce us intimately to him
as a person. John chapter 13 this morning as we study these verses as one of those precious places
in the Bible that does bring us face to face with Jesus. And not just face to face with Jesus but
we see the very heart of Jesus in these final moments with his disciples in the upper room. As
we said before these verses that we're studying are the beginning of this section, the upper
room discourse, Jesus' farewell addressed to his disciples as he's anticipating his nearing death,
his crucifixion and his resurrection. These are precious moments that Jesus has with those whom he
has loved, those who he has loved to the very end. But for those of us who have encountered that
sobering experience of saying goodbye, saying that final goodbye to a loved one, know that our
final moments with someone that we care about- there's a certain poignancy and heartfelt intimacy
that comes with those final words that we get to speak to that loved one. I think as we see
Jesus here we get a very strong sense of that, that he knows that it is his time to depart
that he has these final moments with those whom he has loved to the end. And we get
a sense of that poignancy and intimacy as we hear from Jesus. He knew that his hour
had come to depart and he speaks to those who he loved who were in the world. We see affection
and intimacy, honesty and ultimately an outpouring of love from the heart of Jesus to his disciples.
Thomas Goodwin said "That the upper room discourse essentially gives us a window into the heart of
Jesus." So this morning as we study John 13 we're going to look into that window and we're going to
see down to the very bottom of the heart of Jesus and we're going to see in Jesus the love
that he has for his disciples and ultimately the love that he has for sinners like you and like
me. As we consider the love of Jesus, as we look into this window that shows us his heart, we will
see really two things, two aspects of the love of Jesus I think in this passage; that we see a love
from on high in verses 1 through 3 and a love that stoops low in verses 4 through 11. So we'll break
these, for these 11 verses, down into two parts; a love from on high and a love that stoops low.
Those will be our two headings that'll guide our time this morning. So we'll begin in verses 1
through 3 considering this love that comes from on high. As i've gone on a couple of vacations
with my family over the last couple of years there's a route that we take to where we drive, to
uh where i've seen this big sign on the highway, that it's just on a black background, big white
capital letters, it just says "God loves you." So i've driven past that sign,
there's part of me that goes "Okay I agree with that," but one of the
thoughts that crossed my mind was thinking about the thousands of people who drive past that sign
every day who maybe disagree with that sign, who look at that sign with really no explanation
for why God loves you, no argument being made, just a statement on its face that God loves
you. I have the thought of going how many people just drive past that sign and say "No he
doesn't. I have no evidence of that. I have no proof of that. There's no way I can actually know
that this transcendent eternal God up in the sky loves me." There are plenty of people who
would look at the circumstances of their life and they say "I can say that I've
got plenty of evidence to the contrary." I want to pose a question to you this
morning, "Do you think God loves you? And if you are convinced that God loves
you, why do you think that that's the case? What proof or evidence that you have that
there is a God in heaven above who actually loves you as an individual, that he
actually knows you and cares about you? I think that as we look at John 13 we find one
of these special and precious places in the Bible where we don't have to just take that
statement at its face that God loves us, but we see proof and evidence of a picture
of exactly how it is that God loves us. And we see here in John chapter 13, as we look
through this window into the very heart of God, we see the cross of Christ and that
the cross of Christ, we will see, is the greatest proof and evidence
that God loves sinners like you and me. Now you see you may have read that passage this
morning or read along with me and you say that "We haven't gotten to the cross yet. This isn't the
the crucifixion, what what are you talking about?" Well we'll see here in Jesus interaction with
Peter that though there is this foot washing act of service that takes place here it's not
ultimately about this act of hospitality that Jesus performs. We'll see in Jesus interaction
with Peter that this act of foot washing is only a symbol that's meant to point the
disciples forward to the cross. See the disciples were not ready, they were not prepared for what
was going to happen at the cross. And Jesus in these final moments with his disciples takes this
opportunity to teach them, to show them something, to prepare them for what was going to happen
at the cross. And that's the purpose of the foot washing. And that's the end to which Jesus
performs this act of service. And we have special clarity as we've got the whole New Testament we we
have the the crucifixion and the resurrection we can look back on this moment and understand with a
certain clarity exactly all that's going on here. First, as we consider what Jesus is doing here in
in this final meal, in this final meeting with his disciples, we understand that the cross for the
Christian is the clearest and most undeniable evidence of the love of God to sinners. John
speaks of this not just in his gospel but in his letters; we know that famous verse from John 3:16,
"That for God so loved the world that he gave his only son." First John 3:16 says this, "By this
we know love that he laid down his life for us." First John 4:9 says "in this the love
of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the
world so that we might live through him." So in the heart of God, the love that God has
towards his disciples, those who belong to him front and center is the cross of Christ. And
that's what we'll consider this morning. But first let's consider three things that are crucial
about the identity of Jesus as we consider that this love that the disciples experience is a love
that comes from on high it's a love that finds its origin in God the God who is love. And we see
something very important about the character and nature of God and the character of nature of Jesus
in these first three verses. I want us to think about three words that describe Jesus here in
verses 1 through 3, when i think about his origin, his authority and his awareness. His authority,
his origin, his authority and his awareness. First we'll talk about origin. We can best
understand what's happening here in chapter 13 if we've read all of John's gospel and we
see in chapter 1 what John has to tell us about who Jesus is. John pulls no punches from the very
beginning of his gospel where he tells us "That the word became flesh, the word was with God and
the word was God." We see a picture of Jesus from chapter 1 verse 1 that tells us that he is the
eternal son of God who has been beside the father, who is equal with God and has come from God from
all of eternity. Then in verse 3 we're reminded of that very same fact, that Jesus had come from God
and was going back to God. So John's pointing us back to this crucial and central identity of Jesus
that he's introduced from the very beginning. We have this incredible picture of the one who's
seated side by side with his disciples here, is the one from on into eternity has
been seated side by side with the father. So Jesus is of eternal origin. He is the eternal
son of God, that's his origin, eternal origin. Secondly, authority- you see in verse 3 says
"The father had given all things into his hands." As we look forward to what's coming and we know
what's coming next because we read those verses, it's imperative that we understand that Jesus
in his incarnation, as he is in this upper room, Jesus remains of the highest rank, power,
control, sovereignty and authority. And though what the hymn writer describes
"is Jesus being robed in frail humanity," never relinquishes any of his power and any of
his authority and he remains the authoritative son of God. This is Jesus in the upper room,
the authoritative son of God of all power and all supremacy from everlasting to everlasting.
And the upper room is no exception to that. So Jesus is of total authority, eternal origin,
total authority and thirdly, awareness- verse 1, Jesus knew that his hour had come and then in
verse 3 Jesus knowing that the father had given him all things that he had come from the father
and was returning, all of these words that Jesus is going to speak to the disciples are spoken
in the awareness of what was about to come. He's not coming up and scrambling with some sort
of contingent plan just in case things go wrong, here's what the disciples need to do Jesus is
purposefully saying "I know what is coming. i'm aware that even Judas is in this
room and he's going to betray me," yet he purposefully washes their feet and
gives them a battle plan for the days to come. Jesus is of eternal origin total authority
and perfect awareness here in the upper room. As we consider that, it should
strike us that there is no one like Jesus. The eternal son of God became a man
and dwells among these common ordinary men in the upper room. We see in that book of signs,
if you've read through the beginning of John, that Jesus is doing all of these signs
and miracles that are clear indications that he has come from God that he is God that
he's breaking the natural order of things that these people are used to of the way that
that sickness and death and and and nature works and Jesus is breaking through that
and showing them that he's different. And it's Jesus, the supreme son of God, co-equal
with the Father in dignity and glory and power who has left his eternal seat beside his Father
to take on human flesh and to enter in to these circumstances. Don't miss that, don't miss how
majestic and supreme and powerful Jesus remains even though he is in the form of a human man. The
God of the universe and this full awareness that he's left his throne and will soon return to
his throne -he's on this divine rescue mission and he's sitting down with the disciples in these
final moments before he goes. Jesus is the one who has turned the water into wine. He's the one who
has produced bread and fish out of nowhere, who fed the five thousand, he opens the eyes of the
blind, he's the one who said "Before Abraham was, I am." There's no one like Jesus; he's the
resurrection and the life, the bread of life, the good shepherd, the way the truth and the life,
and it's here in these moments in John chapter 13 that that person, that Jesus has the fullness
of time has come and his moment has to come to be glorified. Feel the weight of all that Jesus
is and all that he's shown us up to this point in the Gospel and then let the weight of that move
you from verse 3 to verse 4. Look at these verses with me it's in this moment that the eternal
son of God knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, that he had come from
God and was going back to God, "Rose from supper, he laid aside his outer garments and
taking a towel tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to
wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him." What
a drastic transition from verse 3 to verse 4. All that John is telling us about who Jesus
is in his eternal origin, his total authority, and his perfect awareness; Jesus the son of God
stoops to wash the filthy feet of his disciples. We see here the transition from love from
on high to a love that stoops low to serve those he loves. This would be our
second point in verses 4 through 11. Some of us who have been at Parkside for a while
have found ourselves over time developing certain maybe you could say british tastes
and sensibilities over time. Who's to blame for this, I can't say, but
I find myself over time at Parkside being increasingly maybe interested in things that
are across the pond. One of the things that is interesting to me is the British monarchy and
the queen. Very recently I watched that episode of the Crown where they reenact the queen's
coronation. And you watch that and if you're someone who appreciates ceremonies and things that
are sacred and things that are ornate and reverent we can watch something like that coronation and
we understand that even if even if you don't like Great Britain if you don't like the queen, if you
just like democracy in that moment you look and you go "There is something incredibly special
and awe inspiring about what is going on here in this room." And I think that even that that
television adaptation of that gives a wonderful picture of that. That in that ceremony in that
coronation every moment and every action and every detail of this coronation is designed to magnify
her majesty and her divine calling as the queen. You can just imagine being in that room while that
ceremony takes place and feeling just the weight of a sense of glory and what's going on and what
it means for Queen Elizabeth to be crowned queen. Now I wonder if in that moment in the coronation
you can put yourself in that room and imagine being there and just try to imagine with me in
the midst of that ceremony amidst all the pomp and circumstance that Queen Elizabeth rises from
her throne descends walks to the back of the room and starts emptying one of the trash cans in
the back of that place that they're doing the coronation. And she takes off her crown and
she grabs a mop and starts mopping the floor and dirty water gathers at the bottom of her dress
and you can just imagine in those moments just the utter disgust of the people who would have been in
that room. So this is such an egregious violation of royal decorum happening here especially
in this special moment where the queen is being crowned. People would have been
appalled and disgusted and you and I would probably feel the same way because we understand
the weight of what's happening in that moment. I'd argue to you this morning that what we see
here in John chapter 13 should be a much more shocking violation of what we would assume
is royal decorum here in the upper room. Because we felt the weight of all that Jesus is,
king Jesus come from on high, the one of eternal origin, total authority, perfect awareness
and it is his time to be glorified. This is where the book of glory begins. This is where
Jesus is going to be crowned as king and it's in that moment at that crucial moment that Jesus
rises from supper, kneels down at the feet of his followers and he performs a menial task that
was reserved for only the lowliest of servants D.A. Carson writes this about the way that
this act of humility virtually blindsides these disciples. D.A.Carson writes,"With
such power and status at his disposal we might have expected Jesus to
defeat the devil in an immediate and flashy confrontation and to devastate Judas
with an unstoppable blast of divine wrath. Instead he washes his disciples feet
including the feet of his betrayer." It should be utterly shocking to us that
this is what Jesus does in his moment of being glorified. And we get maybe
even a sense of whiplash from what we've understood to be true about Jesus in verses one
through three to what he does in verse four. Peter stays on brand with being
classic Peter and where he blurts out what basically everyone else in
the room is probably thinking in verse 6 he says"Lord do you wash my feet?" Maybe
the intonation being "Lord do YOU wash MY feet?" as much as Peter is often probably saying
not the best thing at the best times i think we should actually commend Peter here for being aware
of the situation and understanding what's going on and having a deep sense of the majesty of Jesus
in this moment because he understands that Jesus should not be the one who is washing my feet at
least in the conventional terms of what great people ought to be doing. Peter very well may
have even realized in this moment he was going "Oh me and the disciples probably should have
been the one washing feet when everybody walked into this room for dinner." But now the
most impressive person who Jesus(Peter) has ever met or will ever met is the one who stoops at
his feet to wash him in the act of a servant. Jesus graciously responds in verse 7 "What I am
doing you do not understand now but afterward you will understand." And it's here that Jesus
begins to point his disciples towards, in this outrageous foot washing, that it is a symbol
and a sign of what Jesus will do on the cross. Because they don't yet understand the
concept of their Messiah and their King dying on a cross they can't yet understand
why king Jesus would be washing their feet. This foot washing is essentially an acted
parable of what is going to happen on the cross. Jesus often does this as disciples there are
things that they won't naturally understand and so he gives them these pictures and
these stories that if they're willing to pursue understanding in the stories we'll give
them a picture of some deeper or greater truth. Sinclair Ferguson is very helpful in this that
he points out that that well-known teaching of humility that Dan read for us from Philippians 2-
he says that in the upper room in John chapter 13, Jesus is acting out symbolically what Paul
in Philippians 2 is describing theologically and the two actually line up perfectly with each
other. Consider this so Philippians 2 begins with "Though he was in the form of God," John 13
says "Jesus knowing he had come from God." Philippians 2, "Jesus emptied himself
taking the form of a servant," John "Jesus laid aside his outer garments taking
a towel and pouring water into the basin," Philippians, "He humbles himself and
becomes obedient to the point of death even death on a cross," John, "He kneels
to wash the feet of the disciples." Jesus acts out symbolically what Paul there
is describing theologically in these final precious moments with his disciples in which
we see directly into the heart of God front and center is the cross of Christ. And Peter
does not like this. Peter rejects this. Verse 8 Peter says to Jesus
"You shall never wash my feet!" Jesus replies "If I do not wash
you you have no share with me." See Peter does not yet have a category
for a serving savior or a suffering king. Thankfully as we read on the New Testament
we read first, and second, Peter we'll see that he eventually does but it's in these moments
that he can't quite get his mind wrapped around the greatness that he knows to be true of Jesus
yet the lowliness of this act that he's performing here. See Peter's just caught in this tension
that Paul talks about in the Corinthian letters of the wisdom of God in the cross yet the
perceived foolishness of the cross to a watching world who hasn't had their
hearts changed by the grace of Jesus. It doesn't make any sense to Peter and it is
actually counter-intuitive to us that what is a stumbling block to the Jews and follies to
the Gentiles doesn't make any sense to us that the love from God on high would actually
stoop this low to do what Jesus has done. Understand that this is counterintuitive
and understand that the cross, if you're really understanding
what is going on in this passage, you will know that the cross will be offensive to
us. It is offensive to our natural sensibilities. We can't think that Peter is somehow unique in
his reaction, in fact Peter is just willing to be a lot more honest than most of us are when
we think about what is happening at the cross. Maybe you see yourself in that story from Second
Kings chapter 5 where Naaman, who is this mighty commander of armies, he's this mighty man of
valor, one of the most impressive man men you can wrap your mind around, he's a man who also is
stricken with leprosy. And Naaman in his efforts to rid himself of this disease tries to leverage
all of his power and his resources and his money to try and go to the king of Israel to get a
cure for his disease, but the king of Israel can do nothing for him. but Elisha the prophet
hears about Naaman and he actually says as a prophet from God "I actually have a solution for
you." He says to Naaman "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be
restored and you shall be clean.' finally a cure for his leprosy something
that could actually remove this thing that has chronically ailed him for so long. Surely
Naaman would have been so grateful and thankful that a cure had been provided for this thing that
essentially proved to be a death sentence for him. But in the story we see that Naaman's
reaction was actually that he became angry and he said "There are like a half dozen other
rivers I can think of that aren't as dirty as the Jordan river. Someone as important as me shouldn't
have to stoop into the Jordan river to be cleaned of my disease" and his immediate reaction is anger
that's rooted in a deep sense of pride. That he wants to be cured but there's only a certain depth
to which he's willing to go in order to be cured. But the only way that he can be cured
is by washing in that Jordan river and being cleaned Naaman was disgusted
his pride and self-esteem rendered him unable to go to receive that
healing at least at least initially. Make no mistake this morning friends, the
cross is a direct assault on your pride and your self-esteem. If you think that
there is anything that you can do to take the dirtiness of your heart and the burden
of your sin, if there's anything that you can do on your own to relieve yourself of
your sin to clean yourself to make yourself right before God you will find yourself like
Naaman at the beginning of that story unwilling to go to the only place where you can receive
the only solution to your greatest problem. You see you can either cling to your pride or
you can cling to the cross you cannot hold to both at the same time. And you'll have to
release one in order to cling to the other and that's what Jesus is teaching Peter
here he says "If you don't let me do this you have no share with me. You cannot receive
mercy from me unless you let me wash you." This demands that you come to grips
with the fact that you are someone who needs someone else to deal
with your biggest problem. Have you ever considered that the humility that
it requires of us to lay down our own efforts to pick ourselves up and fix our problems, to go "I
can't do this, I need Jesus to do this for me." Have you ever considered that you need at
the cost of someone else to be made clean, to receive a gift that you
can never earn for yourself. And we see here that to reject the
cross is to reject Jesus himself. What are you going to do with the cross today?
For Peter to reject this symbol is to reject the sign to which it points and if Peter is
unwilling to accept the reality of the cross he refuses to go to the only place
where he can deal with his uncleanness. John Stott said this "It was by his death that
Jesus wished above all else to be remembered. There is then it is safe to say
no Christianity without the cross if the cross is not central to our religion
ours is not the religion of Jesus." What are you going to do with the cross? As we move on through this narrative of Peter
talking with Jesus Peter himself is struggling with the logic of this foot washing and the
sacrifice that it points to but it's clear that Jesus (Peter) is earnest in his desire to please,
love and take share with Jesus. He rashly over corrects this initial rebuke of Jesus by saying
"Okay not just my feet but my hands and my head as well," to which Jesus replies "The one who is
bathed does not need to wash except for his feet but is completely clean and you're clean but not
every one of you." I think that those final verses can initially be confusing because it's Jesus
going "You need to wash, I need to wash you but you don't need to be washed because you're clean
but some of you aren't." I'm going to let Sinclair Ferguson explain really clearly and concisely what
I couldn't do as well myself. Sinclair says this "The foot washing is a picture of what Jesus does
for our cleansing and justification. Since Peter has already been made clean, he had after all
trusted Christ and confessed his faith in him, what he needs is the cleansing power of
Christ to continue to work in his life as the Westminster Divines pointed out we are
sanctified through the same union with Christ into which we are regenerated." Peter is
clean but he still needs to be cleansed. What words of encouragement that would have been
to Peter in these moments as he sits face to face with the heart of Jesus and reflects on what that
means to belong to him. And how differently would those words have fallen on the ears of Judas
who sits in that room and hearing Jesus say that knows that he's the one of whom Jesus is
speaking to say not all of you are clean. He's the one who would soon reject and betray the
one who had loved him to the very end. And what a thought that it's that person who Jesus along
with all the other disciples washes his feet. In Pilgrim's Progress we're introduced in that
classic story to a man named Christian who we're told bears a heavy burden on his back. And
Christian is greatly troubled and tormented by this burden, he can't bear to carry it anymore
and he realizes that it grows heavier and heavier by the day. And try as he may he can do nothing to
remove this burden from him. But along his journey he's told of a place where this burden can be
removed from him. This is what John bunyan writes of Christian when he reaches that destination,
"It was up a highway that Christian ran but not without great difficulty because of the burden
of the load on his back. He ran till he came to a small hill at the top of which stood across and at
the bottom of which was a tomb. I saw in my dream that when Christian walked up the hill to the
cross his burden came loose from his shoulders and fell from his back tumbling down the hill until
it came to the mouth of the tomb where it fell in to be seen no more. Then Christian was relieved
and delighted and exclaimed with a joyful heart he has given me rest by his sorrow and life by his
death. For a while he stood still in front of the cross to look and wonder, it was very surprising
to him that the sight of the cross should ease him of his burden. He continued looking at the cross
until tears began streaming down his cheek." I wonder if there are some of us here this morning or listening online who come this morning
with the heaviest burden upon our back and your life is characterized by failed attempt
after failed attempt of trying to rid yourself of that burden and with every failed
attempt the burden only grows heavier. Friends there is only one place where you
can be freed from the burden of your sin and it is at the foot of the cross of Jesus.
He's the only one who can take it from you and if you've ever tried to remove that burden on your
own you know that this is the case that you can never get it off your back. But what we learn here
in John chapter 13 is that there is a place where we can go where that burden can be removed and
relieved from us. It's at the foot of the cross. You have been trying your whole life
to rid yourself of the burden of lust and doubt and pride and selfishness and greed
and Jesus says "I can take that all from you if you would only come to the cross that's where
you can lose your burden." And like Christian it can come tumbling off of your back and you can
experience the joy for the first time being free not because of what you were able to do but
because of what Jesus did for you at the cross. See God loves you and you can know that
that is true simply by looking at the cross, looking at this foot washing and then
looking beyond it to see what Jesus will do for sinners who don't deserve his sacrifice.
The cross is the greatest evidence of God's love for people like us sinners. Do you believe
that? Will you receive that this morning? It's something that is even if you have received
that you have to be reminded of it day by day, week by week, month by month and year by year. If you won't receive that,
you have no share with Jesus. But if you will receive that you can say
these words that Christian went singing after he lost his burden at the cross,
"Thus far I did come burdened with my sin. Nor could I find relief from my grief within
until here I came, what a place this is! Here shall be the beginning of full eternal
bliss. Now my burden falls from my back, forever from the cords that bounded by
grace my grief is severed. Blessed cross, blessed tomb, rather most blessed be the man who
there was put to shame a shame he took for me." Father thank you for that man Jesus who takes our shame, who suffers our
death, who gives us new life in his name. What a thought that your love comes from on high and stoops so low to rescue us
from the depths of where we are. We pray God that you would take that
counter-intuitive reality, that paradox that makes no sense to the natural man, that you would
cause it to break through the hardness of our hearts this morning and grip us at the very bottom
of who we are to see your son Jesus for who he is. Help us to have lives and minds
and hearts that are shaped by the cross-shaped love of your son Jesus. We pray that you would stir up the
love of Jesus in our hearts even as we sing this final song now. We
pray all this in Jesus' name, Amen.
