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The Authority of Jesus, His Power over all flesh
He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh…
John 17:1b-2a NASB

Let us pray:
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LORD, help us to understand the Person of Your Son Jesus Christ through His prayer to the Father.
Amen.
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We have begun our look at Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer made corporately before the Eleven just prior to the Lord’s departure for Gethsemane where He will be betrayed. The Hour Is Come – Glory to the Son AND the Father

Jesus stands before the Apostles, looks up (probably with His arms extended as later they would be on the Cross) and His open hands of flesh turned heavenward and prays,

“Father the hour has come … glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you—

Jesus, the faithful only Son of God always prayed to the Father; but listen once more to a most familiar prayer and hear along with this High Priestly Prayer a connection you may have missed.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.
Amen.
Jesus’ closing from ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ – Matthew 6:13b KJV

Did you catch that Jesus connects ‘the power‘ to ‘the glory’ of the LORD God – a glory we examined at some length previously in our study of John 17:1?

Our prayer to Heaven’s King

Now beloved believer, you will not have had much cause to consider so far anything less than glorifying this humble Servant Son of God made flesh; for Jesus epitomizes everything peaceful in mankind. Our Lamb of God is submissive in His love of God and approachable by His fellow man.

But this temporal nature of Emmanu-El, born humbly in Bethlehem, though His humble nature will continue to the Altar of the Cross, Jesus will not continue as servant until the judgment of the world, but ultimately as its ruler and Lord!

We pray to GOD because HE IS THE LORD GOD, and the humble must confess that we are NOT.
- Does your daily life witness your own humility to bow down to GOD in prayer as did Jesus the Son?
- Will the created acknowledge the authority of Jesus, WHO WITH THE FATHER IS the creator of all things and Judge of all flesh?
This is why we pray.

Jesus now prays for us as the Perfect High Priest. The Messiah Jesus therefore intercedes before the Father for those who willingly seek eternal life with Him in glory — disciples in spirit seeking grace for a dying flesh from dust rather than the judgment we deserve of sinners refusing the authority and mercy of the LORD God.

Christians of these last days speak lightly of grace given as if any claim of Jesus is fruit of a sinful spirit saved. Yet does our witness of Christ glow in the glory of His High Authority?
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com

Authority

Jesus is not praying about anything new here, for authority in relationships both earthly and between the created and Creator appear throughout Scripture.

When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice.
But when the wicked are in power, they groan.
When the wicked are in authority, sin flourishes,
but the godly will live to see their downfall.
Proverbs 29:2 & 29:16 NLT

The authority between those on earth ought to be immediately evident since Jesus provided much guidance and many examples to the Disciples and crowds of Jews so well schooled in the discipline of Scripture.

In this prayer, however, Jesus speaks directly to God the Father not only as their Authority but about His and the Apostles authority.

John 17:

Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said,

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him.

What does our Lord and High Priest pray?

Glorify your Son; that is, Jesus prays in essence, ‘Father glorify Me!’ Yet what reason does Jesus offer?

Jesus prays that HIS glory will be necessary “so that [He, Jesus] the Son may glorify you [the Father]. The Lord restates His own authority recalling an action of the Father which had already taken place.

Jesus then offers through this granted authority a higher reason for His intercessory request:

“… So that he [Jesus] may give eternal life…”

Note that Jesus does not promise eternal life to all, but to only to those the Father has already given to the Son our Savior. He becomes our perfect Priest and Sacrifice.

As for those who refuse Christ? Justice will find the dust and ashes of unrepentant souls who will stand before Jesus’ authority at the judgment.

Authority of The Word

John opens his Gospel with Jesus’ preeminent authority.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1 KJV

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

John 5 excerpt:

[We shall stick with the King James Version for the moment to remind our long-lost 21st century perception of the authority and appropriate approach of a king.] – RH

For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.

For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.

You with ears to hear, LISTEN to this previous proclamation of Jesus our King! Jesus clearly proclaims:
- God the Father raises the dead to life (quickeneth).
- Jesus the Son gives life (quickeneth) to whom He will.
- The dead will hear the voice of Jesus, Son of God.
- Those dead souls who Jesus chooses shall live again.
Did we overlook one point of power of the Lord Jesus’ authority?

In our too-near familiarity with the humble Lamb of God made man we often lose His authority to come in the wrath of God:

and He [the Father] gave Him [Jesus] authority to execute judgment, because He [Jesus] is the Son of Man.
John 5:27 NASB
- The Father gave Jesus authority to execute judgment!
WHY? Because He IS the “Son of Man,” as well as the “Son of God.”

Returning to the Upper Room

Do you recall what Jesus had said after Judas left the room to go to Jerusalem’s religious leaders to betray his Lord?

Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said,

“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately. – John 13:31 NASB

Now in His High Priestly Prayer Jesus prays, “you gave him authority over all people.

“I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

(or from the more formal King James Version🙂

I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. – John 17:6 KJV

Power over all flesh

Once again returning to the kingly language of the King James Version as introduction once more to Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer:

As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Prayer of Jesus Christ from the Gospel of John 17:2-3 KJV

Jesus prays of His Power over all flesh, over creation, over you and me, even power over all authority of this world.

Is Jesus your Lord, a High Priest interceding for your sinful flesh before the HOLY LORD GOD ALMIGHTY?
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To be continued... 
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June 11, 2020
Father, the hour is come
Jesus uses ‘Father’ as a relational approach to God, just like the trust which the boy Jesus surely must have had with Joseph, husband of His mother Mary, many times.

Yet what does this mean to a disciple of Jesus’ teaching to address the Lord God as Father?

Father, the hour has come

There’s a certain immediacy to saying, ‘the hour’ is come, or now is or has come. It is the precise time we have been awaiting – a time prepared long before now.

Our present focus of The Hour Is Come is Jesus’ prayer at the precise time after Judas left the room and prior to the Lord and the Eleven departing for Gethsemane where He is about to be betrayed.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come;
glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
John 17:1-2 ESV

Jesus begins His conversation in prayer by addressing the LORD God in a most intimate and relational way.

“Father,” the Son of Man so boldly addresses Almighty God in heaven. What a connection!

A Man Who IS more than a man — speaking directly to the LORD GOD, as if He Who IS the very Son of God would humbly address his papa on earth.

Trinity begins with the Father

The lesson and relationship learned from Jesus’ prayer is both mysterious and wonderful — glorious in a sense of worship and humbling in the light of an intimate relationship.

Later we will focus again on Jesus the Son of God, His connection through the Holy Spirit and a new covenant of grace for all who will follow Jesus as Lord. But for now we look up only to the Father, as did Jesus in His prayer..

πατήρ – patēr

Choose any of the three definitions you like, but realize that John and the Eleven are listening to the Son of Man, Jesus their Master and Teacher, pray directly to the LORD God in heaven, whose Voice they have heard previously.
1. generator or male ancestor
2. metaphor for:
  1. the authors of a family or society of persons animated by the same spirit as himself
  2. one who has infused his own spirit into others, who actuates and governs their minds
  3. one who stands in a father’s place and looks after another in a paternal way
  4. a title of honour
    teachers, as those to whom pupils trace back the knowledge and training they have received (We don’t really honor teachers in this way in these last days, but some give this authority to a priest leader of a flock.)
    the members of the Sanhedrin (As you know, Jesus had some issue with these ‘fathers of Israel’ as well & they will be the ones to clandestinely convict the Messiah of God our Father sent as our atoning Sacrifice to save a remnant of Abraham.)
3. God is called the Father (This applies is many ways you may read here, but above all ‘Father of spiritual beings and of all men.’)
By all Authority implied in Jesus’ opening of HIS High Priestly Prayer, it is highly significant that the Lord Jesus ‘lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father …’

And from Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament the definition instructs us from the everyday Greek word used by Jesus and those in Jerusalem governed by Rome:

πατήρ : ‘from a root signifying “a nourisher, protector, upholder” (Lat., pater, Eng., “father,” are akin), is used

[God’s] “Fatherhood” in spiritual relationship through faith is the subject of NT revelation, and waited for the presence on earth of the Son. The spiritual relationship is not universal.
Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament

[& an additional insight: Note: Whereas the everlasting power and divinity of God are manifest in creation, His “Fatherhood” in spiritual relationship through faith is the subject of NT revelation, and waited for the presence on earth of the Son, Mat 11:27; Jhn 17:25.

The spiritual relationship is not universal, Jhn 8:42, 44 (cp. Jhn 1:12; Gal 3:26).] [I will leave you to your own further revelation of the Father through your research of these scriptures. RH]

The ‘Father’ of Jesus’ prayer

With additional insight of bowing down to God the Father in our prayer to heaven, let us recall that Jesus had already taught the Disciples that which we know so well and do take for granted.

The Lord’s Prayer

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Matthew 6:9 KJV

‘Our,’ which precedes Father, in the Lord’s Prayer is a personal possessive pronoun, a possessive plural in corporate prayer.

So perhaps appropriate in a singular personal possessive sense in prayer, you or I might reasonably pray,

“My Father in heaven. Holy is your Name.”

(And recall that the Lord Jesus has declared: “I and the Father are One.” [John 10:30]

What glorious mystery for us to observe Jesus and the Father, who are One, in this, His most personal prayer prior to the Son’s sacrifice on a Cross for our sins.

The Disciples had been accustomed to Jesus praying to the Father at many times corporately before the multitudes, more privately among them and privately away from them at times.

Luke 11:

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him,

‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.’

And he said unto them, ‘When ye pray, say,

Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
as in heaven, so in earth.
Luke 11:2b KJV

When your mortal ‘time is come’ will you able to approach your heavenly Father saying, ‘Thy will be done?’
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com on Jesus’ prayer in John 17

So from this final prayer following the last supper of Jesus and the Disciples, John witnesses this high priestly prayer of their Master and Teacher Jesus, a beloved father to the Twelve for these past three years.

πατήρ – patēr – a title of honour – teachers, as those to whom pupils trace back the knowledge and training they have received

John 17:

… “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You…

5 Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself…

11 I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You.

Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me,

that they may be one even as We are.

One with the One Father

Do you think that it is important to the Apostles that Jesus again prays to the Father with words confirming that He and the Father are ONE?

שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהוָ֥ה אֶחָֽד׃
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
Deuteronomy 6:4 Masoretic Text, NASB

Jesus continues and prays just a short time later:

21 that they may all be one;

even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You,

that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

Relationship with our Father in heaven

Paul, Apostle to the gentiles, later writes to the church in Corinth:

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? … But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him… Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you
1 Corinthians 6:15-19 excerpt NASB

Again, the Apostle Paul and Jesus both point to the glorious mystery of the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as ONE, as well as a personal relationship between the spirit of a redeemed man like you or me to the ONE GOD, Who IS Spirit and truth.

John 17:

Jesus continues His High Priestly Prayer as intercession for these disciples and those to follow:

24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am…

25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me…

What must the Disciple have thought following Jesus’ prayer to the Father?

What do you think of this prayer to the Holy Father in heaven by the Highest of High Priests praying for your soul?

“Lord,” they called Jesus — “the existing One” as more than a Son of Man, as the LORD GOD IS ONE!

אֱלֹהִים

‘elohiym – ʼĕlôhîym, el-o-heem’; plural of H433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God

Our LORD is the ONE GOD — Trinity — the Son interceding by prayer and His own priestly Sacrifice for those who believe and would be saved.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.
John 18:1 ESV
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To be continued...
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May 28, 2020
In case you missed it, Church..
“that you also love one another!

This is the NEW COMMANDMENT of Jesus.

The Lord Jesus does NOT instruct followers to ‘love the world’ (as God so loved-the world…), but HIS first NEW commandment is to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Jesus asks the Apostles who have been together for three years as a church, iterate followers in community with and taught by the Lord Jesus, to love one another.

We know from story after story how competitive His Disciples are, but now that Jesus will return to the Father His command is that they MUST love each other.

Church

Previously we examined the possibility of who Jesus commanded in:
1. In case you missed it, friend.. and
2. In case you missed it, disciple.. and
3. now I pose Jesus’ command to the church.
NO, the building is NOT the Church.

From an earlier post: Amos – For those who turn justice into wormwood

We may also point ahead to more obvious application of his warning to the church of these last days.

Have you ever really met the ‘christians’ who come to your church?

It’s really difficult in this impersonal 21st century #social environment!

Our relationship to others of the Church pales by comparison to the close personal relationships of the Apostles to each other or even that of the saints of the first century church. Yet have we, the church’ possibly missed a relational community commanded by the Lord Jesus?

Let’s first look to a definition of church and scriptural application.

Church – ἐκκλησία

It’s pronounced Greek: ek-klā-sē’-ä (Key )

Vine’s Expository Dictionary: View Entry Assembly:

from ek, “out of,” and klesis, “a calling” (kaleo, “to call”), was used among the Greeks of a body of citizens “gathered” to discuss the affairs of State, Act 19:39. In the Sept. it is used to designate the “gathering” of Israel, summoned for any definite purpose, or a “gathering” regarded as representative of the whole nation. In Act 7:38 it is used of Israel; in 19:32, 41, of a riotous mob. It has two applications to companies of Christians,
(a) to the whole company of the redeemed throughout the present era, the company of which Christ said, “I will build My Church,” Mat 16:18, and which is further described as “the Church which is His Body,” Eph 1:22; 5:23,

(b) in the singular number (e.g., Mat 18:17, RV marg., “congregation”), to a company consisting of professed believers, e.g., Act 20:28; 1Cr 1:2; Gal 1:13; 1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:1; 1Ti 3:5, and in the plural, with reference to churches in a district.

Since “It has two applications to companies of Christians, it’s worth restating from this definition of church:
- (a) to the whole company of the redeemed throughout the present era, the company of which Christ said, “I will build My Church,” Mat 16:18, and which is further described as “the Church which is His Body,” Eph 1:22; 5:23,
- (b) in the singular number (e.g., Mat 18:17, RV marg., “congregation“), to a company consisting of professed believers, e.g., Act 20:28; 1Cr 1:2; Gal 1:13; 1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:1; 1Ti 3:5
Church briefly defined then is:
- ALL of the CHURCH, every true follower of Jesus, Master and Teacher of the Church.
- EACH true believer joined to the CHURCH personally, relationally, locally and beyond all measure of both distance and time.
This is the Church which the Lord Jesus commands by saying, “Love one another, as I have loved you.”

We are called to Him, therefore we are called into relationship with Jesus AND His church.

And we are called out – to take His love, visible to seekers of the Lord in His Body the Church, the Personal Love of Jesus in the Holy Spirit by which He builds us into His eternal love.

A New Commandment

John’s Gospel builds the case of Jesus’ Authority, questioned by the Jews to whom He was sent.

Before addressing Jesus’ New Commandment given to the Disciples just after the last supper, take a brief look at His explanation about His obedience to God the Father.

A Chain of Command from the Father

John 10 & 12:

“I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me…
… they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.
… the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again…
I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
excerpt John 10 NASB

And Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me.
John 12:44-45 NASB

49 “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.

50 “I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”

John’s Gospel has already set the scene for Jesus’ New Commandment. Let the church hear what our Master and Teacher Christ Jesus says to the church.

John 13:

“I give you a new command:
Love one another. Just as I have loved you,
you are also to love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34 CSB

Beloved believer, does everyone know that Christ Jesus is your Teacher and friend? Does the world see your Lord and Savior by your love for one another of His Church?

Are you truly, my fellow saint, a disciple of Jesus?

Do you and Christ’s Church love one another? (And remember, they know us by our love of one another or deny Christ by our lack of love for each other).

The Comfort of Christ’s Authority

John 14:

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.

6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me…

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
John 14:15 NASB

The Spirit of Obedience

Witness by the Holy Spirit of the LORD

Recall that John’s Good News of Jesus Christ, the Apostle’s Gospel of witness begins before time:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

The Apostle John was first a young disciple of John the Baptist, known to many as a Prophet of God. John witnesses:

32 John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’
34 I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
John 1:

John also opens his Gospel testifying to the Authority of Jesus through the same Holy Spirit of the Lord God.

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
John 3:5-6

34 For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.

35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Do you hear the Spirit of Truth?

“… but he who does not obey the Son will not see life!…

Do you, beloved disciple of the risen Lord Jesus recall this?

Do we, HIS CHURCH, have ears to hear Christ’s commandment to the Church – “Love one another, as I have loved you:” is this not for us?

John 15:

αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἐντολὴ ἡ ἐμή ἵνα ἀγαπᾶτε ἀλλήλους καθὼς ἠγάπησα ὑμᾶς
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answer in a minute in case you don't read Greek
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4 Live in me, and I will live in you…

6 Whoever doesn’t live in me is thrown away… and dries up… gathered, thrown into a fire, and burned.

Could this apply to some of a luke-warm church?
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The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John
3:16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.
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9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

If you obey my commandments, you will live in my love. I have obeyed my Father’s commandments, and in that way I live in his love.
The Master & Teacher, Jesus – John 15:10 GW

… be as joyful as I am, and your joy will be complete.
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Answer below to English translation of the Greek above.
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“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
John 15:12

A Commandment from the Cornerstone

Verily, verily, you may know is a Hebrew tool of emphasis by saying something twice, here meaning truly, truly. The youngest of Jesus’ Jewish Apostles now emphasizes the strong personal relationship of our Lord’s NEW COMMANDMENT a third time.

Here was John recalling this most important time preceding Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Do you recall the intimicy of this setting in the upper room?

John 13:

So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?

“You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am…

“Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.
John 13:16 NASB

There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved… He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ bosom, said to Him, “Lord, who is it?”

This is the Apostle John, youngest of the Lord’s young Disciples, laying at Jesus’ breast as they all reclined at table. Consider what John means to have recalled Jesus’ emphasis on a New Commandment to love one another.

THE KING OF THE JEWS is about to become the SACRIFICE for sin on a Cross in Jerusalem!

Prophesy of Isaiah

Therefore, hear the word of the LORD, O scoffers,
Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem…

28:16 לָכֵ֗ן כֹּ֤ה אָמַר֙ אֲדֹנָ֣י יְהוִ֔ה הִנְנִ֛י יִסַּ֥ד בְּצִיֹּ֖ון אָ֑בֶן אֶ֣בֶן בֹּ֜חַן פִּנַּ֤ת יִקְרַת֙ מוּסָ֣ד מוּסָּ֔ד הַֽמַּאֲמִ֖ין לֹ֥א יָחִֽישׁ׃

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone,
A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed.
He who believes in it will not be disturbed.

And Jesus said of the church:

… upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Jesus, of Simon Son of John, who the Lord then called ‘Peter’ or ‘the rock’ – Matthew 16:18b

In the intimacy of an upper room meal with the Lord Jesus, who had washed the Disciples feet, it was Simon Peter who motioned to John to ask Jesus who His betrayer would be. Judas departs then the Lord COMMANDS three times that they must LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

This is My Command

12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.

13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.

14 You are my friends if you do what I command you…

Are you, beloved, a friend of the Lord Jesus? And do you, fellow disciple, love one another – His Church?

“This is what I command you: Love one another.
“If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you.
Comman and encouragement of the Lord Jesus – John 15:17-18 CW

‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John (numerous times)
April 29, 2020