And now as we come to Your Word, Lord, we remember that Your Word accomplishes Your work. And so we ask for You to do Your work in us as we study Your Word. Teach us, O Lord, to look to Christ. Teach us to regularly see our need for Christ. And show us in Your Word, show us the sufficiency of Christ, the grace that's found in Christ, the love of Christ, in order that we would be grown in His likeness and in our devotion to Him. In His name we pray, Amen. Well, if you have your Bibles with you, please turn to the book of John. John chapter 19 is where we'll be today. We'll be in verses 25 to 27 as we continue in our study of John's Gospel, which I think has about two months left in it, two or three months left in it. Yeah, once we get past chapter 19, I think we're going to be moving a little bit faster. But there's so much in the crucifixion that we want to make sure that we bring in. Actually, we're going to be finishing our study of the crucifixion on Christmas Day. Praise the Lord, we remember that that's what Christmas is all about. Christmas and Easter, Christmas and the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, that's what Easter's all about. If there's no Easter, if there's no crucifixion and no resurrection, then there's nothing to celebrate on Christmas either. But praise the Lord, there is much to celebrate on Christmas because of what happened on Calvary. But we'll be continuing our study in John chapter 19, verses 25 to 27 today. In June 2015, there was a news clip that played in the Chicago affiliate about a shooting that took place in the South Chicago area. The headline read this. It said, Son shields mom from gunfire, dies saving her in South Chicago. And the story reads as follows. It says, James Jones and his mother, Alicia Jones, were on their front porch Saturday afternoon in South Chicago when a man walked out of a gangway and fired in their direction, police said. That's when the 21-year-old made the ultimate sacrifice. to protect his mother, throwing himself in front of her, saving her life by shielding her from the array of bullets headed in her direction. By saving her life, he lost his own. Alicia Jones, 46, was critically wounded but survived. James was dead at the scene, according to Chicago police and the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office." End quote. So the mother was still struck by some bullets, but those bullets went through her son's body. His body absorbed enough of the force of the bullets to slow them down and to thereby stop the bullets from killing her. And while it's true that the article goes on to say that the 21-year-old man was actually a drug dealer who had already spent time in prison for his crimes and that the shooting was indeed gang-related, we can nevertheless appreciate the beauty of what he did. We can nevertheless appreciate the heroic aspects of a son who was willing to die in order to save his mother. Now as we continue in our study of John's Gospel today, we'll see that John shares an encounter that happened while Jesus was on the cross that none of the other Gospel authors tell us about. It's an encounter that, like the story of James Jones saving his mother's life, is both beautiful and tragic. Yes, there are some absolutely enormous differences between the story of James Jones saving his mom and Jesus saving his mother. Of course, there are huge differences there, but there are also some similarities. enough similarities for the story of James Jones to point us to and to direct our minds to the sacrifice that Jesus made for the sake of saving all of his people, including his mother Mary. Now, you may know that as good Protestants, we don't turn Mary into an idol. We don't worship her. We don't pray to her. We don't venerate her as if she's the top of all the saints. And we certainly unequivocally do not view her as a co-redemptrix, which is the title given to her by some Roman Catholics who think that Mary played a role in the salvation of sinners. No, while we would agree that she can be commended because of her willingness to bear Christ as her son, even though she herself was still a virgin, but we would still say that Mary had God work in her to change her to being willing to allow this to happen. So he worked in such a way by his grace to make her willing, just like he does with everybody in the way salvation works. But that by nature, Mary was just as much a sinner as anyone else. By nature, Mary was just as much a sinner, just as much a rebel as you or me or anyone else apart from God's grace working in her. As such, she needed a Savior. And yet while we reject the Roman Catholic view of Mary and the idolatry that they have toward Mary, we can nevertheless hold her in high esteem as a woman who loved Christ, who savingly believed in Christ, who followed Christ, even followed Christ to Calvary where he was nailed to a cross. When it comes to Mary, Balance is the key, like with so many other things. We don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak, right? Balance is the key. We don't want to accept a view of Mary that's too high, but we also don't want to accept a view of Mary that is too low. Now in our previous lesson in John, we considered how the crucifixion was actually a fulfillment of Psalm 22. And we saw how this psalm revealed not only the thoughts that Jesus had while he was in his dying hour, but also it had some prophecies. For example, the prophecy that those who crucified Jesus would divide his garments. But we also saw the joyful hope that Jesus had, that many would be saved by His work, and that the generations to come would tell of what He had done. That's all covered in Psalm 22, and it's amazing to see how that's fulfilled on Calvary. So the previous verses also showed us the incredible shame that Jesus suffered in our place in order to cleanse us from the guilt and shame that we would rightfully have before God. John didn't spend a whole lot of time focusing on that though. He told us basically that Psalm 22 was fulfilled. But then he moved on. He moved fairly quickly from what was going through Jesus' mind to what was going on at the foot of the cross, which involves his final encounter with Mary, at least as far as we know, before dying. So the point of this passage that we come to today, and the point of this sermon, is that Jesus knew in His dying hour that His death was actually the basis for establishing a new family. A family that was united not by blood, but by faith in Him, in Jesus Christ. In light of that truth, friends, we must understand that this new family, the spiritual family of God, was more important to Jesus than any other earthly ties, including blood ties, family ties. And we would always do well to align our views with Jesus, including on this issue. So let's take a look at this encounter that took place between Jesus and Mary as we continue our study with verses 25-27 in John 19. We read this, Therefore the soldiers did these things, we've already looked at that, but standing by the cross of Jesus, where his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, Behold your mother. From that hour, the disciple took her into his own household. One of the things we need to understand when we're talking about the crucifixion, when we're trying to picture what's playing out in our minds, is that the cross was not like 10 or 15 feet up in the air. If you examine the paintings and visual depictions of the cross throughout history, what you'll see is that it was actually sometime in the Middle Ages that the cross suddenly started being pictured, illustrated as this huge towering object. But historians will actually tell you that the cross itself was only about seven feet tall or so. So it was possible for a spectator to come up, to walk up, and to be right in the face of a criminal who was hanging on a cross, face to face with them. And so with that said, when Jesus spoke, the reason He could be heard was not because He was way up in the air and was shouting, but because those who heard Him were close by the cross, and He was kind of down at their level. But there's a lot of emphasis, a lot of emphasis that theologians throughout the age of the church have placed on the words that Jesus spoke from the cross. In fact, there are seven of them, seven sayings that Jesus spoke from the cross. But it's interesting to study these words and these things that Jesus said from the cross, because we know that these weren't actually his final words. His final words would come after He was resurrected, right? We read His final words actually in Acts chapter 1. But how many of you know these weren't His final words because He did rise from the dead? He did rise from the grave on the third day. But His words from the cross are still important, and they're very interesting to study, because even though they're not His final words, okay, number one, they are His words. He did say them, and so we do want to take note of them. We want to take note of everything that He said that was recorded in Scripture. Secondly, His words also show us what mattered to Him ultimately in His dying hour. And third, His final words, all seven of the sayings that He spoke on the cross, they all show us that He understood the significance of what was taking place in terms of God's plan of redemption being fulfilled on the cross through His death. Now, while John doesn't record everything that Jesus said on the cross, he doesn't have all seven things that Jesus said, the reason for recording this interaction with Mary is pretty obvious. It's pretty self-evident, I think. It's because John was himself there. He was that disciple. Usually he refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. In this case, he just refers to himself as the disciple, but this was pretty obviously John himself who was there at the scene. But not only was he there at the scene of the crucifixion, but the Lord addressed him and entrusted his mother into the loving care of his hands. Now a careful examination of the text that we're looking at today shows us that there were either three or four women who were at the cross out of a deep devotion to Christ. It depends on how you how you read it. It's possible to read it and come up with three women or it's possible to read it and come up with Four women, depending on whether you interpret Mary, the wife of Clopas, to be Jesus's mother, now married to a new man, it's possible. Or was that a different Mary? I think it's most likely that there were four women there, for whatever it's worth. I think there was Jesus's mother Mary there. I think we have the other Mary, the wife of Clopas there. and Mary Magdalene was there. When we take the list of women who were present at the cross and compare it with the list of women who are named in Matthew, chapter 27 verse 56, what we see is that Mary's sister was named Salome. Salome, and she was the mother of the sons of Zebedee, James and John. Now if that's accurate, if Salome was indeed Mary's sister, as I think if you put these two books together it's possible to draw that conclusion. If that's accurate, and it might not be, the authors weren't trying to give us a genealogy or anything, But that would mean that the Apostle John was actually the cousin of Jesus according to the flesh. And maybe that explains why John was one of Jesus' closest companions all along. It might explain why John was addressed in the passage that we'll be looking at today. But John doesn't tell us anything further about the two or three women aside from Mary, the mother of Jesus. He focuses in on her. He zooms in on her in this encounter, and understandably so. After all, she's the one being addressed, and she's the one who had been entrusted with Jesus' birth and upbringing, and she's also the one whose care is entrusted into John's hands. But before we get to all that, We need to understand that there was a long and difficult journey in Mary's life that led her to this moment where she's beholding her own son being crucified. We're very well aware of how the angel Gabriel was sent to speak to Mary after all it's Christmas and we're remembering these types of things right now. He tells her, You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus." That's what he said to her in Luke chapter 1 verse 31. And of course we know that her response was to yield herself in submission to God's will. But not long after Jesus was born, Mary was given kind of a warning about what was to come. In Luke chapter 2, we read of a man named Simeon. Simeon had been promised by God that he would not see death before he saw the coming of the Messiah. And so the day came when the Messiah was born, and when the time was right, Mary and Joseph brought him to the temple for the blessing. And upon seeing Jesus and taking Jesus in his arms to bless him, Simeon said this, he prophesied, saying to Mary, behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed, and a sword will pierce even your own soul. to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. It's from Luke chapter 2 verses 34 and 35. But did you catch what he said to Mary about what Mary would have to experience? A sword will pierce even your own soul, Mary. How strange would that have seemed if you were in Mary's shoes. that there would be piercing sorrow in the depths of her soul, even though she's been chosen to give birth to this son, this Messiah. You would think the opposite. You'd think, wow, she's gonna have a pretty good life. She's gonna have a pretty easy life. What a blessed woman to have this responsibility. God is watching out for her. And yet, here comes this warning. So she had to be thinking, that's kind of strange. After all, she's probably the one who remembered this warning. That's probably how it got into our Bibles. She's probably the one who told Luke, this is what Simeon said. But what a weird thing. that there would be this prophecy of her suffering, even though she was the one who was chosen for this great responsibility, or perhaps because she was the one who was chosen. And here at the cross, we see the fulfillment of this prophecy from Simeon. How awful it must have been. deeply and sharply, it must have wounded her soul to behold her Son, the spotless, sinless Lamb of God on the cross, beaten, shamed, and scorned by His own people, even though He had never sinned. And so this scene reminds us of the certainty that what God foretells, what He prophesies, will certainly always come to pass. And this is one of the things that sets God apart from false gods and idols. Isaiah writes this in Isaiah chapter 44 verses 6 to 8. It says this, The King of Israel and His Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts. I am the first and I am the last and there is no God beside Me. Who is like Me? Let Him proclaim and declare it. Yes, let Him recount it to me in order from the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place. Do not tremble and do not be afraid. Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me, or is there any other rock? I know of none." In other words, God proves that He is God by virtue of His ability to prophesy, by virtue of His ability to tell the world what is going to happen, and then for it to actually happen exactly as He said it would. And that's something that no other supposed God is capable of doing. It also means that if you have a God who doesn't know the future, who can't tell the future, guess what? You have an idol. You don't have God. In the end, only Yahweh. Only the one true living God. can declare what we read in Isaiah 48, verses 9 to 11, where he says, Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that have not been done, saying, My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure. calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken. Truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it. Surely I will do it." Only the one true living God can say that. And so this scene at the cross in which we witness Mary as she beholds her son, and her soul being pierced as by a sword as she watches the Lord Jesus Christ being crucified. It reminds us of this truth. It reminds us that God, everything that He has spoken, will come to pass. And knowing that to be true, having confidence that God is sovereign over everything that comes to pass, that He can declare the end from the beginning, reminds us that he's sovereign over all things. And when we remember that God is sovereign over all things, what do we really have to dread? Why should we ever fear what's happening around us? Remembering that God is sovereign, remembering that He declares the end from the beginning, remembering that nothing comes to pass unless God allows it to pass, is a great source of comfort and confidence for us. But this scene also teaches us that being a child of God Being a Christian doesn't render us immune from the painful realities of living in a sin-filled fallen world. It's possible for a Christian, for in fact the most devout Christian, the most mature Christian, to experience soul-piercing sorrow, even though his love for Jesus is great, and even though he knows and he has confidence that he is greatly loved by Jesus. The Scriptures never once promise us that life is going to be easy. What a disservice a preacher does to Jesus and to the gospel when he says, oh, if you'll just accept Jesus, your life will be so much easier. Really, tell Peter that when Peter's hanging upside down on a cross. The Scriptures never tell us. Never, that life will be easier with Jesus. In fact, what Jesus says is that we can expect persecution. We can expect trials and tribulation. We can expect the world around us to hate us. So, remember that. The Scriptures never promise us an easy life. What they do promise us is that none of our trials are coincidental. None of our trials, none of our troubles are just accidental. None of them are in vain. None of them are all for naught. but that indeed God puts us through what we refer to as the refiner's fire. Trials and troubles and tribulations and afflictions that God has specifically and individually ordained for the purpose of refining us. Burning off the dross. Burning off the inclinations of the flesh to sin. Making us, growing us more and more in Christ's likeness. teaching us to trust more fully in God's care and provision for us. Do you think the process of taking a ruined sinner and making him like Christ is going to be a painless process? Do you realize what a long journey that is from one to the other? From an unregenerate sinner who believes in Christ And God is going to cause all things in his life to grow him in Christ's likeness. You think that's going to be easy? You think that's going to be painless? No, because the unregenerate man, when we start as Christians, we are nothing like Christ. In fact, the more mature a Christian grows, the more he'll realize how far away he still is from Christ. And it won't necessarily be that his maturity will be shown in the fact that he is sinning less and less, but in the fact that he's becoming more and more aware of his sins. And only the Christian has this promise. That God is causing all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. That good being growing in Christlikeness. Only the Christian has that promise. The unbeliever, on the other hand, he still has troubles. He still has afflictions. He suffers. He experiences sorrow that are ultimately meaningless. that are ultimately all for naught. They don't work any kind of good in Him. And although they are also ordained by God, the unbeliever's trials and afflictions harden his heart and close his mind toward God. For the Christian, We know that God is at work in our lives to grow us in the likeness of Christ, to grow and to strengthen our faith. But we must remember that faith and sorrow are not incompatible. In fact, they're perfectly compatible. God's grace doesn't guarantee that we won't face hardships. Instead, as James Montgomery Boyce notes in his commentary, he says, quote, God's favor and sorrow sometimes flow along together. End quote. They certainly did for Mary. And they certainly will sometimes for us as well. God's favor upon us, His grace working in us, doesn't guarantee that we're going to have a flight that doesn't have any turbulence, any bumps and hiccups along the way. No, His grace with us promises that He is with us, that His grace is sufficient when the turbulence comes, and that we will eventually land at the destination that He has promised and prepared for us. That's what the Scriptures promise us of. That's the guarantee that we have. But see how this is illustrated by Mary's encounter with Jesus at the cross. See how the Lord Jesus, who is fully God in human flesh, see how He loves her. See how He blesses her. provides for her, even as he is enduring the humiliation of crucifixion. Jesus says to her, woman behold your son. Now some modern commentators have gotten a little bit bent out of shape over the fact that he addresses Mary not as mother, but as woman. Some have tried to explain Jesus' choice of words by arguing that Jesus didn't want Mary to be grieved and that the word mother would just cause her to be more grieved. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but that's one explanation. that some commentators have come up for why he refers to her as woman. I want to say two things about him using the word woman instead of mother. First of all, it was not as crass in the first century as it would be today for a man to address his elderly mother as woman. Yeah, in our day and age, if you call your mom woman, guys, You're asking for it. Don't call her woman. Call her mom. Call her mother. Call her whatever you've always called her. Don't call her woman. It would be a little bit insulting in our day and age, right? But it wasn't insulting. in Jesus' time. It wasn't insulting in the first century. In the first century, it was actually a title indicating great honor. R.C. Sproul once noted that the title woman was, quote, used frequently as an honorific, a title of endearment, end quote. And that's also, if you remember, that's the same term that Jesus used at the wedding at Cana when he spoke with Mary, when Mary wanted him to do something about the fact that they had run out of wine. He referred to her as woman there as well. It's a title indicating honor and endearment. So this term was not rude. It was not insulting. It was actually tender. It was honoring. And we need to see that side of Jesus. The tender and honoring side of Jesus toward His mother. He was always respectful. He was always tender. He was always honoring of the dignity of women, including His own mother. Richard Phillips points out a second possible significance to Jesus using this term woman instead of mother. He writes that quote, Jesus was alerting Mary to her need to relate to him not as a mother but as a member of that fallen race of Adam and Eve end quote. In other words, Jesus needed Mary to see Him not as her Son, but to be looking at Him as her Savior. And thus we can agree that it's entirely possible that He was speaking to her in this manner, not as a Son, but as her Savior. There was a time, you might remember, when Jesus was preaching, and someone in the vicinity thought about how great Jesus was. And so they cry out, and Jesus hears them, they cry out and they say, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed. That's in Luke chapter 11 verse 27. Now of course, that would be a reference to Mary. And this woman or this person is saying, whoever this woman is that had you in their womb and that nursed you as a child, man, that woman is seriously blessed. And indeed, okay, we can agree. It was a blessed privilege that Mary had to be able to call him son. And yet Jesus responded to that person by saying this in verse 28. He says, on the contrary, So he's going to refute what they said. On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and observe it. In other words, the greater blessing for Mary was to know Jesus as her Savior. And indeed she did. So maybe what Jesus was speaking to her from this position was that, was from the position of being her Savior. Or maybe she referred to her as woman as a way of dignifying her and honoring her. Or what I think is entirely likely is it's both. But now we see how He loves her, how He provides for her, how He blesses her. Not because she's His mother, but because she is His faithful follower. He says to her, behold your son. He was directing her to the care that would be given unto her by John, the disciple and soon to be apostle. Behold your mother, Jesus says to John. And John tells us from that hour the disciple took her into his own household. So this is a tender scene. This is a very touching moment. Scripture doesn't tell us what happened in the years following for for Mary in her life. We have some traditions. I mean, we're told that she goes and lives with John, but what happened there? We don't. We don't exactly know. Scripture doesn't tell us, but one tradition holds that Mary lived with John for the next 11 years and then she passed away. There's another tradition that says that she moved with John to Ephesus many, many years later. and that she died there, we don't know. We don't know, but the point in all of this is that Mary would not be without a believing son after Jesus' departure. Now this is where we get to what's interesting here. Jesus actually had other brothers. We know from other scriptures that Jesus had at least a couple other brothers, several of them probably. So why didn't Jesus address them and instruct them to take care of Mary? You might say, well, maybe because they weren't there. I'd say it's more than that. He could have addressed them at some point before that. After all, wouldn't it make a whole lot more sense if he had done that? If he had addressed them and said, hey, guys, brothers, you guys, we got to take care of mother, mom, whatever, woman. We have to take care of her, you guys. So when I'm gone, make sure you take care of her. That would have made perfect sense from a human perspective. And only from a human perspective, a fallen human perspective. Now it's true, yeah, Mary had other sons, but at this point, at this scene, none of those brothers, none of those other sons had savingly believed on Jesus. And as such, they had no ability to speak of when it came to not only providing for Mary in a physical sense, providing her with food and with shelter and things like that, but also providing for her in a spiritual sense. See, the cross was the means of establishing a new family. John is Mary's new son. Mary is John's new mother. It's a family united not by common blood, but by a common faith. A family that's united by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. This is a family that actually takes priority over any other earthly family ties that we might have. That's a point that Jesus made earlier in His ministry. There was one instance where His brothers and His mother were looking for Him, but they couldn't get to Him because of the size of the crowd. And so we read this in Mark 3, verses 32-35. A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, Behold, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you. Answering them, he said, Who are my mother and my brothers? Looking about at those who were sitting around him, he said, Behold, my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother. And so what we have to understand is that Jesus redefines the entire concept of family going from related by blood to whoever does the will of God. All this to say that our first family is now the people of God who are redeemed by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, from every tribe, tongue, and nation around the world. And we must understand that this new family, the spiritual family of God, was more important to Jesus than His earthly family was. And we would do well to align our views with Jesus, even on this issue, and to see that the gospel changes how we define, how we view, and how we use the word family. Jesus' care for Mary, even in His dying hour, shows His faithfulness to observe the fifth commandment, which commands us to honor our fathers and mothers. You and I also have a God-given obligation to do this, and the importance of following this command doesn't go away when you reach 30 or 40 or 50, or when you move out from your parents' home you always have this obligation, this duty before God to honor your mother and father. Now for some, I realize that doing this seems impossible because you have suffered some form of abuse either from your mother or your father or both. I have unfortunately seen some parents abuse this commandment and twist it to mean you have to obey everything I say until the day I die. That is simply not the case. Jesus made that very clear that when his mother was calling him, he didn't obey her. But he still honored her. So let's be clear. about this much. Unyielding compliance is not the same as honoring our parents. Let's be clear about that. We see that in Jesus refusing to comply when Mary came looking for him. Was Jesus sinning when he failed to obey Mary when she came looking for him? Absolutely not, because if he didn't honor her there, if he was dishonoring her there, then he sinned. And if he sinned, we're all in a lot of trouble. No, Jesus never once sinned. So he wasn't dishonoring his mother by disobeying her. Now, if you have suffered some form of abuse at the hands of your parents, this commandment does still apply to you. In the words of Christian counselor Roger Hillerstrom, he's actually local, but he's written some good books. He says this, quote, to truly honor our parents means that we attribute enough value to the relationship with them that we're willing to invest in it. Honor entails putting effort toward the growth of the relationship. That may mean not accepting some behaviors because they destroy the relationship, end quote. So how do you honor parents who have abused you, whether verbally or physically? Let me just say this. First of all, you forgive them. No questions asked. Period. End of story right there. You forgive them. It takes only one to forgive. it takes two to reconcile. And reconciliation means that those who have abused you, those who have done you wrong, own up to their actions, confess their actions, and turn from their actions. The way to honor parents who have abused you and from whom maybe you are estranged now is to, number one, forgive them, but to leave the door for reconciliation open. I earnestly hope that this is not the case for most of you. However, I do know that it is indeed an issue for some of you. It's a terrible issue for a person to face, but we do live in a world that is filled with sin, a fallen world, and our parents are victims of the same thing. They are also part of a sinful world. They have a sin nature as well. But Jesus, honored Mary even until the end. And if we are to be like Him, we must strive to follow His example. But there's a second person in this interaction that took place at the cross, and we don't want to overlook the significance of his presence at the cross. Of course, we're talking about the disciple whom Jesus loved, the disciple, as he calls himself here, that is John. He too is there at the cross, undoubtedly grieving over the crucifixion of Christ, just like Mary, just like the other women who were present. But John's appearance at the foot of the cross is something that should take us maybe by a little bit more surprise than the appearance of Mary and the other women, because we all know what happened the previous night when Jesus was giving the farewell discourse to the disciples. He warned them. He warned the disciples. You will all fall away because of Me this night. For it is written, I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered. That's from John 26, verse 31. And that included John. All the disciples would fall away. All the disciples abandoned Jesus. When Peter responded to Jesus' warning by saying, even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you, Matthew immediately adds the fact that all the disciples said the same thing too. That's what we see in v. 35. And so approximately 12 hours prior to this point, all of the disciples, including John, all of the disciples forsook Jesus. But here is John. Apparently, the first one of the disciples to seek Jesus out, and perhaps, if not probably, the only disciple who was in the vicinity of the cross as Jesus was crucified, why was he there? Let me ask an easier question. Why wouldn't he be there? What are some reasons that he would stay away from the cross? Well, why weren't the other disciples there? Maybe because of their foolish pride. Maybe because they felt humiliated that they had the audacity to doubt what Jesus had told them was about to happen. I mean, these men all had great confidence the night before, but their confidence was misplaced. It was in themselves rather than being in Jesus. It's virtually certain that it didn't take long for them to realize That that's the worst place in the world for our faith to be. The last thing the flesh would want to do is face the humiliation of eating some crow, so to speak, as Jesus was dying. And face the fact, yeah, Jesus, you were right. I was wrong. I was prideful. I was stupid. I was foolish. So they're embarrassed. They're ashamed. And I'm sure that John was too. So why was John there? And the answer is simple. It's not that he wasn't embarrassed because of his self confidence. I'm sure he probably was. He's there simply because he loves Jesus and he knew he knew. That Jesus loved him too. After all, he does refer to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. It's the same reason that he ran to the tomb of Christ when he learned that the tomb had been opened, and he ran there faster than Peter, he's sure to let us know. It's because he loved Jesus, and he knew that Jesus deeply, deeply loved him too. Do you know the deep, deep love of Jesus? Do you know it personally? Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free. Do you know that kind of love? And has it changed you? Because that's what His love does. It takes us as we are, but it doesn't leave us where we were. His love for us is too great to just leave us as we were. It turns us from enemies of God into friends of God. John says this in 1 John 4, 19. He says, we love because he first loved us. That verse gives us a cause. He first loved us, and in effect, we love. Specifically, we love Him. We love Jesus. And so when I ask you, do you know the deep, deep love of Jesus? I'm also, I'm just asking, do you experientially love Him? Do you know His love? And do you love Him? I'm not asking if you have perfectly obeyed Him. You haven't. I'm asking if you love Him. I'm not asking if you have used your gifts and your talents as a way of serving Him with your life. I'm asking if you love Him. I'm not asking if you have denied Him in one way or another. Every single one of us has denied Him. I'm simply asking. Do you love Him? Because if you love Him, you have to know that there is nothing in the world, no failure on your part whatsoever, no sin, nothing that you have done justifies you staying away from Him when you fail Him, when you sin against Him, when you deny Him. You don't rightfully have as much to feel shame for as John did. Yes, you have sinned. Yes, you have been unfaithful. Yes, yes, yes. But if you are in Christ, if you have believed on Him savingly, your sin and your unfaithfulness were dealt with on the cross. So what prevents you when you have sinned, when you have failed Him, when you have denied Him? What prevents you from then going immediately to Him if you do indeed love Him? See how Jesus responds to John at the cross. Knowing full well what John had done. Knowing that John had been unfaithful. Knowing that John had denied him. Knowing that John had sinned terribly against him. He doesn't utter a single word of judgment or condemnation. It's almost like it didn't happen. And he will treat you the same way. Instead, Jesus puts John into His holy service, committing His beloved mother Mary into His care. He's shown each of us, each of us who know Him, each of us who love Him, He's shown each of us no less love, no less grace, no less mercy, no less compassion than He showed John here. Our sin debt is paid. He's welcomed us home with open arms. Forget the past. It's like it never happened. It's forgotten. And He has welcomed us home, clothing us in His best robes. His own perfect righteousness. Why would anyone, why would any of us ever delay in coming to Him? If you've never believed in Jesus, You have to know that you have sinned. And someone must bear the debt incurred against God as a result of your sin. Now you are free to bear that Debt yourself, but it will mean an eternity in hell. The only other option is to bring all of your sins to the cross and to lay them upon Christ. And in exchange, you must know that when you do that, He will also lay His perfect, sinless righteousness upon you, so that when you stand before God, all He sees is the righteousness of Christ. But He also instructs you to see and to love and to serve a new family, a spiritual family, the family of fellow believers in the local church. That is an essential part of the Christian life. So those who love and are loved by Jesus. He entrusts us with the care of a new family, instructing us back in John 13, verse 34, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. As we look to the cross this morning, Jesus also calls us to see those around us, not with natural eyes, but with new eyes, as a family established by His perfect atoning sacrifice. He calls us to love one another, to serve one another, to forgive one another, to pray for one another, to bear one another's burdens, and to sing to and to encourage one another. Why? To what end? For what purpose? He says this in the following verse, John 13, 35. He says, By this, all men will know that You are My disciples. I'll leave you with a radical and unlikely evidence of salvation from John's pen. He says this in 1 John 3, 14. He says, We know that we have passed out of death into life because we Love the brethren. Because we love the brethren. If you give that sentence as a fill-in-the-blank to a natural man, we know that we pass out of life and death because fill-in-the-blank. You give that to a natural man, and he'll fill it in with, well, because I'm a good person. At least I've done more good than bad. Or he'll say, I go to church. Or he'll say, because I said a sinner's prayer. Or because God affirms everyone. The list goes on and on. The natural man will never say, because we love the brethren. But in the wisdom of God, it is love for the brethren, a family kind of love for the brethren that serves as proof of a person's salvation. 1 John 3.16, he says, he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. That's what it means to love one another as Christ has loved us. The Lord Jesus died so that His mother and so that everyone else who savingly believes on Him, He died so that they might live. And in His death, Jesus established a new family that would be known and would be identified by their love for Jesus and for one another. May the world around us know that we belong to Jesus for these things, because they see the way that we love Jesus, and they see the way that we love one another. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word once again. Thank You for the way that it confronts us. Thank You for the way that it corrects us. Thank You for the way that it instructs us. We pray, Lord, that we would grow in our devotion to Christ, even as we consider the great love that He demonstrated toward Mary on Calvary. Teach us, O Lord, to see one another as the Lord Jesus instructed Mary to see John and John to see Mary. Help us to love one another in order that the world around us may know that we are your disciples and that by this Christ would be glorified. In his name we pray. Amen.