Well, the prayer of intimacy, immediately, the word intimacy is almost bound to trigger off thoughts of, oh no, no, no, but God's holy, God's up there, God's way beyond, he is holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. To talk about being intimate with God is almost a wrong expression. However, the scriptures are full of intimate pictures. Pictures of the father with a child being held in his arms, a mother holding a baby in her arms, of God being like a hen gathering chicks. There's that sense of coming close to be near to the living God. And even in the very geography of the temple and the tabernacle, God is in the holy place and his people are in the courts and the priests come near on their behalf. And then what Jesus does on the cross is he opens up the way, what for? so that the people can come from the courts outside right into the very presence of the Living God and commune with Him and know Him and call Him Abba, Father. So the Gospel is at very root about intimacy with God and therefore to learn some language of prayer in intimacy can be no bad thing. It's something that I've probably just come to in the last ten years or so. through various life circumstances, had to stop and think and pray and realize something of the desire of God to have relationship with me. And so tonight's study has got a number of I suppose that they are personal discoveries and I just want to share them with you tonight. The first place that I want us to start is having a look at the close relationship that the disciple John had with Jesus. As all of you will know, there were twelve disciples originally called by Jesus, come follow me, and amongst them there were three that were his close buddies. Peter, James and John, and they were the ones who got to go to the very special places with Jesus. The Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James and John were there. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter, James and John were just a bit closer to Jesus. They appear as an inner group within the bigger group of twelve. And within that threesome, there was a special bond between Jesus and the disciple John. In John's Gospel, he's referred to as the beloved disciple or the much-loved disciple of Jesus. I want us to have a quick survey of these verses. I've got them printed out in front of you. Let's begin in John 13. at page 1081. This is where the disciples are with Jesus in the upper room and they're seated at table. Let's read in from 18 where Jesus Jesus is speaking about the person who's going to betray him. I'm not referring to all of you, I know those I've chosen, but this is to fulfill the scripture, he who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me. I'm telling you now, before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe that I am he. I tell you the truth whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me. After he'd said this Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified I tell you the truth one of you is going to betray me. His disciples stared at one another at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them The disciple whom Jesus loved was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, Ask him which one he means. Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, it's the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I've dipped it in the dish. Then dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So you can see the scenario, the table is set, now it's a low table, it's sort of Japanese style, so it'll be this sort of height, and the disciples are all kneeling with Jesus round the table. and it was the custom that they leant on one another. You get tired when you're down in your hunkers like that, so you sort of lean on each other and they leant on each other all the way round. And the person who was right beside him was John. Jesus here, John here. And he was leaning against Jesus. Jesus was his closest and there was a very physical closeness But that was, in typically John fashion, it was saying something deeply spiritual. It wasn't just a question of being his right hand man, if you like, right up close, physically. But it was that heart and mind communion which John enjoyed with Jesus which was particular. Let's have another look, again it's in John's Gospels, chapter 19 verse 26. And this is the scenario where Jesus is actually on the cross and he speaks from the cross. Verse 25. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there and the disciple whom he loved standing by her, he said to his mother, Dear woman, here is your son. and to the disciple, here is your mother. From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. Now, there can be almost no more intimate relation than with a son and his mother. And it seems as though Jesus had a very close relationship, particularly in John's Gospel, with his own mother Mary. And there he is hanging on the cross and he sees his mother and his heart goes out and he wants her to be looked after. And so what does he do? He calls upon John, the disciple whom he loved. So there's some special intimacy there. And he says, John, here's your mother. Mother, here's your son. It's as though John becomes the son that Jesus was, in a sense, departing from being through his death. Very interesting. Deep intimacy with Jesus. Turn over the page to John 21 verse 7. The scenario here is the miraculous catch of fish early in the morning, that is on the resurrection morning, Jesus stood on the shore, verse 4, but the disciples did not realise it was Jesus. He called out to them, friends, haven't you got any fish? No, they answered. He said, throw your net on the right side of the boat and you'll find some. When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it's the Lord. As soon as Simon Peter heard him say it's the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him, for he'd taken it off, and jumped into the water. Now that's the second time in just these verses where Simon Peter says something, or sorry, John says something to Simon Peter, or Simon Peter says something to John. And this time it's John that confesses, it's the Lord. And it's Peter who says, what? It's the Lord? Alright, okay, I'm off. But it's the disciple whom Jesus loved, this identification. And it seems as though most of the disciples were quite happy with that. You can imagine that Jesus had a real close buddy in John. Was there jealousy amongst the other disciples? Did they say, let's not fear? He was the disciple whom Jesus loved. And then later on in chapter 20, 21 verse 20, Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, and again it's Peter seeing the disciple whom he loved, was following them. This was the one who leaned back against Jesus at the supper and said, Lord, who is going to betray you? And when Peter saw him and asked, Lord, what about him? Jesus answered, if I want to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me. Because of this, the rumour spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die, only said, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. So here we have another example of this disciple whom Jesus loved. And this gospel bears his name. He has this very close relationship with Jesus. A closeness that was able to see him and know him and love him. And it's highly likely just by thinking about personalities and what they are, it's likely that he was a reflective man. He was probably pretty meditative and poetic. His gospel bears the mark of incredible poetry. If you look particularly at the opening chapter, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. It's powerful poetry. Full of imagery, of light and of darkness. All these kind of images. Full of emotions. John's Gospel's got a lot of emotion in it. It's an artistic man who wrote the Gospel. A man of heart, with a brilliant mind, fuelled by his heart. When you read the Gospel, it's brilliantly constructed around the seven signs all the way through the Gospel. But it's constructed in a way that you almost don't see the signs, all you see is Jesus. And he's painted this incredible poetic word picture of Jesus. whereby we're drawn in to meet him and his testimony is true. And he says just at the end there, we know it's true. It's a wonderful, wonderful man. And all this brilliance of gospel writing comes from a heart that is intimate with Jesus. So the first summary, if you like, and the first challenge, I guess, is to cultivate such a close relationship with Jesus. Now, how do we do that? Let me suggest that one of the ways in which we do it is to meditate on the scriptures. We'd spent the first session together meditating on the word of God. One of the passages which one group, I think, meditated on was the baptism of Jesus. When the dove came down from heaven and rested upon Jesus, the voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Now that's the same language of beloved. That's the same language of intimacy of the Father and the Son that we hear of Jesus and John. And if we are in Christ, which we are, if the Spirit is within us, then we can stand there with Jesus and we can listen to that same word from heaven. This is my son. This is my daughter, my beloved daughter in whom I delight. And do you know something? When we sit in that, when we sit in the truth and allow that just to fill us, something happens within our spirits. Because all the insecurities that we have suddenly become passing. Because we're hearing the very word of the Father about the Son and about all whom the Son has brought. And you hear from His perspective, that you are beloved. That you are beloved. You don't need to earn anything. It's just gospel grace. You don't need to earn anything. You don't need to try hard. You don't need to go through hoops. You are the beloved of the Father in Jesus by the power of the new birth of the Spirit. So that's who you are and that's your relationship, that's my relationship with the Father. I'm already beloved. I'll share just a wee bit of personal testimony here. Are you okay with that? Some of you might say it's a bit wacky, but you'll have gathered by now that I am a wee bit wacky. and so that's cool. There was a period of time, it was about three years ago just now actually, and I was spending a lot of time just reading the scriptures and over a course of two days God put me into scriptures that simply talked about being beloved of God and you get it in Daniel man greatly loved of God. This comes twice in Daniel. But you also get it back in 2 Chronicles. And that happens where David and Bathsheba have a son. And the son is named by David and Bathsheba Solomon. But Nathan the prophet He's busy praying. And when he's in his prayer room that day, God speaks to him and he says, Nathan, go to Solomon Bathsheba and tell them that the baby is not to be called Solomon, but he's to be called Jedidiah. What does Jedidiah mean? Beloved of God. But they never called him that. They disobeyed the prophet of God. And Solomon's life became a great life, sure, but he never walked truly, certainly towards the end, in being a beloved of God. Now, all that was an interesting discovery. A year ago, I went on a spiritual retreat to a place called The Beald near Perth. It's run by a couple, a husband and wife team, they're Episcopal ministers. Anyway, it's a wonderful, tranquil kind of place, retreat centre. In the grounds, cut in the grass, there is a labyrinth. I don't know if any of you have ever come across a labyrinth. There's one in Chartres Cathedral. But a labyrinth is an old way of praying, it's a sort of medieval kind of way of praying, whereby you physically have a pathway which is circuitous, but it ultimately ends in a central place. And the whole idea of it is that you enter into this labyrinth as a sign of you walking towards God and drawing close to Him. And you go in this labyrinth and then you finally come into the center place and there you sit and you wait upon God. And you maybe have your Bible with you, you maybe read a scripture, you maybe meditate and then you start the journey back out into the world. Well I thought, I'll give this a wee shot. So I walked in the lab and it's in grass and you're, I mean this is so wacky isn't it, you take your shoes off for this so you feel the grass under your feet and the rabbit droppings as well. You walk in and as I was walking I was saying, Lord I'm coming to you, I'm drawing close to you, I just want to be close with you. and I want to hear whatever you say to me." And I got into the centre and I sat down and I said, Lord, I just want to know you. Just you. It hasn't happened very often but on this occasion it did happen and the Lord said quite clearly, just in my heart, He said, Graham, you're now going to be called Jedediah, because you're my beloved." And I thought, wow, that kind of sank in. And at that moment, I thought, okay. And there was a kind of joy in my heart. And as I walked out, I almost couldn't get out fast enough, because I was so filled with joy. It's not that anyone calls me that, but it's a name that God has given to me to walk in, to live in and to know the reality of. So that's that wee bit of personal testimony. I hope you don't mind. But that perhaps just leads on to this next section, hearing the voice of Jesus. Again, John's Gospel is full of the voice of Jesus. There is so much revelation that comes from the voice of Jesus. and so much of it is put in the first person singular. I am, as we know well enough, the seven I am's throughout the Gospel. So, if we're going to get to know Jesus, we have to hear the voice of Jesus. We have to be up close and personal like John. John refers to this whole business of hearing the voice of Jesus He quotes Jesus saying the sheep follow the shepherd because they know his voice and that's in contrast to the voices all around in John chapter 10 verse 4. The Pharisees were speaking, they were demanding, they were saying this is the way, you must walk in this way, this way and Jesus was speaking and the sheep heard his voice. and his voice was above and beyond all the competing voices round about. So it's really important to get to know his unique voice. Let's go on because we have a very, very powerful example of this in Revelation chapter 1. If you turn to Revelation chapter 1, it's on page 1233 of your Bibles. Revelation chapter 1. There's a substantial introduction to the whole revelation of John in the first few verses. There's a greeting to the churches to whom he was writing from the island of Patmos, and there is the beginning of his revelation of seeing God and hearing his voice. Verse 8, I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. And then it goes on, I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Christ, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord's day I was in the spirit And I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet which said, write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches to Ephesus, Myrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. I turned round to see the voice that was speaking to me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash round his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Though he placed his right hand on me and said, do not be afraid, I am the first and the last, I am the living one, I was dead and behold I'm alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and hell. Write therefore what you've seen, what is now and what will take place later. The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. So what's going on here? Well, Jesus appears to John and John hears his voice. He hears his voice, but how? Well, first of all, as he worships in verses 1, 5b through to 8. Let's have a look at that. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priest to serve as God and Father, to Him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. Look, He's coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him. And all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be. Amen. So, John is worshipping. He's got this hymn of praise within him. He's got this glory to God in his heart. He sees clearly that God is the Lord and to be worshipped. But then in verse 9, John, like your brother and companion, in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Christ, well, he was in suffering. Where was he suffering? He was on the island of Patmos. He was chained up on this godforsaken rock in the middle of the Mediterranean. It's a hard life. He was an old pastor by this time. The man whom Jesus loved was an old, old man. Commentators seem to think he was about 85 at this point. He was suffering for the gospel. He was imprisoned and he was separated from the churches that he pastored. Now anyone with a pastoral heart separated from their people would be in agony. What's going on? How are they getting on? Are they staying true to Jesus as they are being persecuted? Are they staying true to Jesus? So he's in suffering, along with the church. And then in verse 10, he is in the Spirit. On the Lord's day, I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet. So he's in worship, he's in suffering, but he's also in the Spirit, or the spirits within him. And here we go back to this, was it the first week or the second week? I can't remember. I think it was the second week where we had the Father, the Son and the Spirit and the dance of the Trinity and the believer being drawn into all that God was and is and said, come and share in my life in Christ Jesus by the power of the Spirit. And here we've got John hearing the voice of Jesus being drawn by the Spirit into the glory of God. That's what's happening. He's in the Spirit and the Spirit's in him at work. So, what does he do? Well, he turns and he sees Jesus. And there's that fabulous description that we just read of Jesus. He doesn't look like Jesus of John's Gospel. He looks as a son of man in Daniel chapter 7. And this is where the poetry of John comes through. He's struggling to relate what he sees in concrete terms. Look at the language. Like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash round his chest, his head and hair were like wool as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire, his feet were like bronze, glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. John's trying to think, how can I describe this? How can I describe Jesus to the church? How can I get into language what I'm seeing? Well, it's like this. It's like that. He's like this. He's like that. And what he's wearing is like this and it's like that. And he uses all that language. He piles it all up because he's painting this fabulous word picture of the Jesus that he turns and sees. But then he receives prophetic messages, and that happens in chapters 2 and 3. And each of the prophetic messages begins to the angel of the church in Ephesus write. So in other words, Jesus, this man Christ Jesus, who has come to stand before his beloved son John, This Jesus is saying, now I want you to write to them, to Ephesus, to Sardis, to Thyatira, to Laodicea. I want you to write these specifics to them. So John writes it all down. spoken to the beloved disciple. And he obeys it all and writes them down. And we have the evidence to prove it. So that's what's going on here. Jesus presenting himself for John's sake, because he's the beloved, but also for the church's sake, who are the beloved. because John has brought the gospel of Jesus to them. They've become the beloved as he is the beloved. They've become the intimates as he is the intimate, as Jesus is the intimate with the Father. So then we come into chapter 4, Revelation 4 verse 1. After this I looked, and again we've got to be careful in reading John. It's not so much that there's a whole chronological approach, although some commentators would say that, others say that it's much more a question of he turns his attention to. It's all there, but he just turns his, and now let's look at this, and now let's look at that, and now look at this thing. It's more like that, it's a sort of surveying of the scene. And after this I looked, so he turns his attention somewhere else, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. Now, I love open doors. I love the doors that are just slightly open. That one there. We once got a row about using that room. Let me just demonstrate. You see, that door to me is inviting. It's inviting me to just do like that, to see what's behind it. And when you see what's behind it, you think, I'm going to go in. And you discover more of what's in behind the door. And that's exactly what's going on with John here. He looks and he sees a door open in heaven. And the very door open is an invitation. Come in! But it's the voice, the voice that he'd heard first of all, like the voice of the trumpet, again it's another like, like a trumpet, says come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. what happens? At once I was in the Spirit. Now that phrase happens four times in John's Gospel. We've had one in chapter one, we've got another one here, and then there's another two later on in the Revelation. But at once I was in the Spirit. So this is something that can only be experienced by the power of the Spirit operating within the beloved disciple. Come up here and I'll show you what must take place after this. This is staggering stuff because the disciple whom Jesus loved is on the island of Patmos. He's in chains but somehow in the Spirit he's able to transcend his suffering and transcend his chains to see spiritually what's going on. And what did he see? Once I was in the spirit and there before me was a throne in heaven. They saw a throne. That's good. But the good news is that the throne isn't empty. And there was someone sitting on it. So there's a king on the throne of heaven. Now that's good news. That's precisely the good news that he needed and the church needed. They needed to hear that God was on his throne. That he hadn't somehow vacated it and gone on holiday. But that he was still the ruler, the sovereign, the great I AM. He was still in control of all their circumstances. There is no further authority, no greater authority, no beyond authority, other than the one who sits on the throne of heaven. And John saw that. And then he was given sight of the unseen glories of the presence of God. Let's just read on. It's just wonderful stuff. Verse 3. And the one who sat there had the appearance, had the appearance, it's like, of Jasper and Carnelian. Even the English language is beautiful there, isn't it? Jasper and Carnelian. A rainbow resembling an emerald. Again, it's like an emerald encircled the throne. Surrounding the thrones were twenty-four other thrones and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. And also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. in the centre around the throne were four living creatures and they were covered with eyes in front and behind. The first living creature was like a lion, the second like an ox, the third based like a man and the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all round, even under his wings. Day and night they never stopped saying, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to Him who sits on the throne and who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say, You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things. and by your will they were created and have their being." So he's taken into this throne room and behind the door is this glorious picture of the presence of God. He almost can't cope with the glory of the images, all that he sees. The livingness of it all, the all-seeingness of it. Did you notice how many eyes there were? Eyes all round. Bodies with eyes all over them. Just a sign of the all-seeing and all-knowingness of God. He was shown the implications of God's complete sovereign glory and the reassurance that that would bring him and the church that were his beloved. And we're not going to go through the whole of Revelation, which you'll be hugely delighted about, but I do want you to turn to the end because that's but the beginning and there's glorious technicolor and stunning imagery being used as John grapples to describe what he sees and what he hears. But in chapter 22, we discover how he responds to this revelation given by his beloved Jesus. Let's read in from 7. Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book. So John is going to be blessed. blessed by keeping the words of the prophecies that he's seen and written down in this book. And I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. This is his testimony. This is him telling his story of how God is God. I saw All these things I heard. And when I heard and when I'd heard and seen them, I fell down in worship. To worship at the feet of the angel who'd been showing them to me. I see he had a wee mistake there. The person, somehow Jesus and an angel were confused in his mind. At one moment it's the son of man and in another it seems to be an angel. I don't know why that is. But the angel said to him, don't do it. I'm a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and prophets, the prophets and all who keep the words of this book. Worship God. And of course that is precisely what Jesus, his whole mission, was that the world may turn in repentance, have life eternal, that they may worship God. So John becomes, with another depth, he becomes a true worshipper of God. So if we're going to be intimate and have a close relationship with Jesus, as we're going to get to know his voice and identifying when he's speaking to us, we need to be ready for when he wants to show us and reveal himself to us. Now what I would like to do, like us to do, tonight we're not going to have sort of discussion round the tables, but we will all hopefully participate in what we do now. I want you just to glance over at the red dot and it says, every journey begins where you are. Now the idea behind this is very much of a, you know, when you go into the Bon Accord Centre, and you see the map of the shopping mall, and there's a red arrow and a red dot, and it says, you are here. Now for people who don't read maps well, that doesn't mean anything. They could be in cyberspace for all they know. But for those of us who do read maps, to have a red dot that says you are here it means that I say oh yes I'm here and I'm going to go to I'm going to go to Witter's coffee shop So if I go along here past Thomas Cook and past Orange and round that corner there past the good food, it's not very good food, it's these pastries and things, smell brilliant as you go past, and then you come to Whitters. So the map actually makes sense if I know where to start. Now, take that mindset, even if you're not a geographer, take that mindset and think, can you identify where you are in your relationship with God? Where are you? What is your relationship with God? Now you could trot out very quickly all the understanding and the knowledge that you have. And you could say, well I'm a son of God, I'm a daughter of God, I'm saved by grace, I'm a chief of sinners as Paul might have said. I'm all these things. But, what about the livingness of that relationship? Where are you in the livingness of it? Is it all just knowledge? Or is it a history? Is there a long testimony? But you've actually walked quite far away from the Lord. Your heart's grown cold towards him. This is about heart stuff. Where are you actually in your relationship? A marriage guidance counsellor might say to a couple who are sitting in front of him, they may say, where are you in your relationship? They may be poles apart, though they are actually husband and wife. It's not a matter of their status, it's a matter of their heart. Where are they in relation to one another? And so that's the question that I would like you just to take a moment and quietly reflect and without any pretense, as I put down here, without any pretense or any ought to be. Oh, the ought to be's are horrendous in the Christian life. I ought to feel this. I ought to do that. I'm told that I should do this. No, no, no! Without any pretense or guilt of the ought-to-be's. Identify where you are right now, tonight, sitting in Gilcomston, where you are in your relationship with God. You might find it helpful to actually write that down on the back of your sheet. Not everybody will, but some might. And so I would encourage you, just take a moment to honestly tell God where that red dot is. So you've got a few minutes just of quiet and of reflection of where you're at in your relationship with God.