United to Christ
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We serve a God who loves riddles, he loves mysteries, he loves to play games of hide and seek with his creation.
Jesus was a master at telling riddles that would leave people scratching their chins trying to figure it.
The Lord loves mysteries. We mystery all throughout the prophets and embedded in the sacrificial system.
And he loves to play the game of hide and seek with his creation.
It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.
Next time your kids play hide and seek, you ought to praise God because they are acting like their creator.
God loves concealing his glory throughout the pages of scripture, throughout creation itself.
The concealed glory of the universe is being searched out with things like Webb Telescope.
The glory of Christ is concealed through the OT in astounding ways.
We find Christ when we search the pages of the OT
We find Christ in creation,
We find Christ in the story of the flood and the story of Abraham
As we look close we Christ throughout the Tabernacle and the Mosaic Law
Christ in the Writings and Christ in the prophets.
This is the ultimate goal of bible reading.
This is the ultimate goal of life… to discover Christ.
It is our glory, it is the glory of kings, to search out that which God has concealed.
God loves mysteries, he loves riddles, he loves suspense.
We are going to be looking at one of, if not, the greatest and most glories mysteries of God.
And that mystery is our union with Christ.
When we start looking, we see clues and breadcrumbs left for us all throughout the OT.
This mystery is one that Paul particularly was called to reveal to the church.
of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,
the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.
The mystery hidden for ages and generations has now been revealed to his saints… to his people.
And what is this great mystery?
To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
The great mystery that has been hidden for ages and generations is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
This mystery of our union with Christ is one that has been revealed to us by Christ himself.
And it is the central theological theme of the NT - and I think we could make an argument that it is one of the central theological themes of the whole council of God
In the realm of Christian theology there are many deep wells of truth to explore.
Perhaps there is no greater truth, no deeper well, no more glorious reality than our union with Christ.
John Murray wrote that “union with Christ is . . . the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation. . . . It is not simply a phase of the application of redemption; it underlies every aspect of redemption”
Charles Spurgeon once said, “There is no joy in this world like union with Christ. The more we can feel it, the happier we are.”
Union with Christ is the essence of our salvation: Jesus saves us by uniting us to himself
Individual Christians are united with Christ in his
righteous life (Phil 3:9),
crucifixion (Rom 6:6),
death (2 Cor 5:14),
burial (Rom 6:4),
resurrection to new life, and ascension (Eph 2:6).
We are united to Christ in his heavenly status
We will be united to Christ when he returns in glory.
Union with Christ is an majestically expansive topic. It underlies all the works of God in our lives:
election, calling, regeneration, faith, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance, and glorification.
All of these blessings are “in Christ.”
All that a Christian receives from God is received “in Christ,” .
If we could think of salvation as a meal, this is metaphor the bible encourages us to use.
I see ads all the time for meal prep packages that companies will send to your door.
They will send you the ingredients and the recipe for a very specific meal.
We should not think of our salvation in this way.
As if Jesus is something that is sent to us individually that we are able to take and enjoy by ourselves.
But rather, we should think of salvation like a grand feast that the king has prepared in his Kingdom.
And the only way to enjoy the benefits of this feast is to come into the his gates, come and dwell in his midsts.
Christ is the feast, he is the gates, he is the one we are brought into in order to have eternal life.
Noah’s ark likewise demonstrates this reality.
God did not have Noah and his family build individual arks… but rather one ark, which is a type of Christ, for all the people to come into for their salvation.
John’s gospel has been bringing this mystery to the forefront.
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
Our Passage this morning is John 16.25-33.
We are going to be finishing chapter 16
In Christ we Know the Father
In Christ we Know the Father
In so many ways, at the heart of the gospel, at the heart of Christ’s work, is to make the Father known to his people.
Jesus has come to make known the Father.
Jesus makes the father known in his deeds, in his words, in his life, and in his being.
However, the disciples were not ready to bear the full weight of Christ’s revelation of the Father…
Because of this, Jesus had to wait to speak to them plainly about the Father… he had to speak to them in parables, figures of speech, cryptically.
“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father.
So he says the hour is coming, it has not come yet, but it is coming.
The hour that is coming is referring to the time that will come after the cross and resurrection.
Its the hour where the disciples will be united to Christ in his death and resurrection.
Its the hour when the Spirit comes to dwell with the people of God.
When this hour comes, when the disciples have eyes to see and ears to hear, then Christ will speak to them plainly about the Father.
The Son reveals the Father only after the cross, resurrection and ascension,
And the reason for this we cannot know the father apart from the Son, and we cannot understand the son until we see him lifted up in glory upon the cross.
We cannot know of the Father’s love apart from the cross.
For only when we see Christ on the cross can we begin to understand the love that the Father has for us.
Only when we see Christ on the cross can we understand the God’s grace and mercy, his redemption and reconciliation.
Only when we see Christ victorious over the grave can we understand the promises of God and the power of God.
Only when we see Christ defeating death can we understand the plan of God and the victory of God.
Jesus has come to make the Father known. And he makes him known through his life, death and resurrection. And apart from Christ, outside of Christ, we cannot know the Father.
Not only does our union with Christ allow us to know the Father, but also…
In Christ We Have Access to the Father
In Christ We Have Access to the Father
In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
I am the type of person that if I have a question I need answered I like to go to the source.
avoids drama… it avoids triangles… it avoids confusion and frustration.
However, that is not always easy to do…
If i had a question about Teslas I could not pick up the phone and get Elon Musk on the other side.
If I had a question about about a particular ruling I would not be able to get one of the Supreme Court Justices on the phone.
If I was doing research on the monarchy of the United Kingdom and traveled to the London, i would not be able to walk up to Buckingham and get a meeting with King Charles.
Now if there was a chance for me to get time with any of these people i would have to go through layers and layers of people before getting a conversation with any one of them.
But it isn’t like that in the Kingdom of God
On the contrary…
The mysterious and intimate union between Jesus and the father, which is one of the main subjects throughout gospel of John, means that those who are united to Jesus, the branches who are united to the vine, are granted the same immediate access to the father that Jesus himself has.
Jesus is saying that we don’t need to ask him to talk to the Father for us, but rather in our union with Christ, he brings us into the very presence of God.
Because we are in Christ, we have immediate access to the Father.
This is part of the wonderful doctrine of justification.
We are justified when, by faith, we are united to Christ.
Which means, that we are declared righteous by the Father, not because of anything we have done or not done, but because we are united to Christ.
When we are united to Christ we are clothed in his righteousness… which means when the Father looks upon you - he sees Christ!
Thus we have the righteous standing of Christ before God, so we are able to boldly come before the Father in prayer making our requests known.
The Father accepts you as he accepts Christ
The Father hears you as he hears Christ
The Father welcomes you as he welcomes Christ
The Father loves you as he loves Christ.
This is an amazing!
Look at verse 27
for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
The Father himself loves you
This verse is wonderful and beautiful in so many ways.
Jesus says that the Father himself loves his disciples -
because they have loved Jesus
And have believed that Jesus came from God.
But here is the thing, the disciple’s love and faith were thin, weak, and pathetic,
within a few hours they will deny him and run from his presence.
There is nothing about the quality of the disciples love or faith that somehow earned them the love of the Father.
The Fathers love for his children is not based off the profundity of their love for him, nor based off the sageness of their faith and understanding.
The Fathers love for his children is not based on our merit or maturity,
but his love for us is based solely on our connection to Christ.
To love Christ, no matter how thin our love may be
To believe in Christ, no matter how weak our faith might be - is to be connected to Christ.
Its not the strength of our faith or love that the Father sees, but rather the object of our faith and love.
Noah’s family on the ark
Ham’s wife was afraid
Shem’s wife was confident
who was more protected from the flood?
Its not the strength of their faith, but the object.
The Father loves you, not because of your acts of great sacrificial love…
It is because we are united to Christ by faith that we receive the unrelenting love of the Father.
It is our union with Jesus that makes us objects of the Fathers eternal love.
It is our union with Christ that brings us into his presence
It is our union with Christ that gives us hope
Jesus goes on in verse 28
I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”
The disciples here Jesus say this and they respond to him in vv.29-30
His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”
What a strange confession from the disciples…
They have gotten to their breaking point with Jesus figurative language.
And here they announce that they now fully know and understand what he is saying.
However their excitement is only matched by their ignorance.
Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.
This was a dire prediction.
He said: “You may be full of belief and trust now, but it isn’t going to last.
You all are going to leave.
When you see the guards coming through the Garden of Gethsemane, led by Judas, when you see the swords of the Roman soldiers gazing with the moonlight, you’re going to run for your lives, and you’re going to leave Me alone.”
The disciples still don’t know what they are in for.
In a matter of hours their whole world is going to fall apart.
They will be left anxious, fearful, stress, and worried.
Yet even in this state of weakness… Jesus words are still true.
They are loved by the Father.
They are loved by the Father because they are united to Christ.
Jesus wants his disciples to understand this union.
He wants them to rest in it reality - even when the Roman soldiers come.
He wants them to have a peace that passes all understanding, even when they see him being beaten and mocked.
He wants his disciples to have peace.
Which brings us to our next point…
In Christ We Have Peace
In Christ We Have Peace
John 16:33 (ESV)
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.
That in me, you may have peace.
Church, our union with Christ is the ultimate source of peace in our lives.
Its not the economy that gives us peace
Its not your retirement accounts
or your investment portfolios.
Peace is not determined by who sits in the white house or who our neighbors are.
The peace that comes from being united to Christ is a peace that transcends all circumstances.
The world screams “peace peace” when there is no peace.
For the chaos of the soul to find rest, for the heart to be quieted, it must find its rest in Christ.
One of the great dangers we face is that we are always looking to other things to bring us the peace we long for.
Wives, you cannot find peace in your husbands.
Moms, you must not search for peace in your children.
Men, your job, your hobby, your plan for the future must not be your source of peace.
If you are single, you peace is not waiting for you in a spouse
Peace is not around the corner, peace is not over the next hill.
The true peace, the Shalom of God, the peace that passes all understanding is only found in union with Christ.
Now you might be thinking… that sounds good… but in real life this world is losing its mind like a blind dog in a meat locker.
How can we truly experience peace when:
The economy is crashing
the housing market is about the burst
Sexual perversion is no long hiding, but it is hunting you down.
How can we have peace when inflation is so high and everyone seems to be panicking.
How is peace to be experienced when the world has taken aim at those who follow Christ.
When the world seems to be strategically brainwashing an entire generation.
when the world is hell bent on Chaos how can we have peace?
And that brings us to the last instructional phrase Jesus gives his disciples before going to the cross
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
The world threatens to crush you and me every minute of our lives.
It hurls insults, tribulations, pain, death—all sorts of things that take away the joy that should be ours in Christ.
But Jesus overcame the world.
The world will try and manipulate you, wine and dine you, persecute you, and steal your children from you.
Yet you can have peace, because Christ has overcome the world.
And if Christ has overcome the world, and you are united to Christ, then you can stand firm and say with Paul…
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
The disciples are about to see Jesus turned over to be crucified, and they must remember that Christ has overcome the world.
And Church,
We will see many things that cause us to be afraid, cause us to worry, cause us to want shrink back, cause us to question if God is really in control...
but we must remember that Jesus has overcome the world.
And you are in Christ!
Though dark days come, you are in Christ and loved by the Father
Though fear grips our hearts, you are in Christ totally secure
Though our faith is weak and our love is thin… you are in Christ who brings you to the Father where you are eternally loved with an unconditional, unrelenting love.
And this is only scratching the surface of the great mystery of our union with Christ!
Lets pray
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