Christ Cares for You. That's the title that we've given this message this morning from John chapter 17 verse 7. Last week the title for the message was Christ's Incessary Prayer for the Elect. After the services, Brother Jeremy and I was talking a little bit and he brought up a good point that often what is not stressed there is the fact that Christ ever lives. His intercession is stressed often, but the fact that he ever lives is usually overshadowed by his intercession. So, I want us to back up and go back over that a little bit this morning. Let's go back to Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7, and we could read the whole chapter, but we're not for time's sake. But I do encourage you to go back and read this. As we see that Christ is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, who had no beginning, no ending. That all the other priests were priests after the order of Aaron, who died, had a beginning and an ending. So, just keep that in mind as we pick up in verse 22 of Hebrews chapter 7. That all this has already been addressed as we get here. Verse 22 of Hebrews 7, By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. And they truly were many priests, as we just mentioned, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. What happened? What happened to Aaron? He died. What happened to Aaron's sons? They died. So the priests would be handed down from one to the other. It would change hands is what was going on here. Because of death. Verse 24. But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Continueth in this verse means remaining in a state or position. He remains in this state or position of high priest. Why? Because he ever liveth. And since he ever liveth, his priesthood is untangible. In other words, he doesn't hand it down to someone else. We see the result of this in verse 25. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. The word uttermost here in this verse It's actually referring to time. It means wholly, entirely, always. So for Christ to save us to the uttermost gives us eternal, what? Salvation. We are kept by Jesus Christ because of Jesus Christ. That's wonderful to know, isn't it? That ought to help us in our service for Christ, in our going for Christ, that we can serve Him out of love, not out of fear. Verse 26, For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins." That's what they did. They'd go in, they'd first make an atonement for their sins, then go in and make an atonement for the sins of the whole nation. And then for the peoples, for this he did once when he offered up himself. How many times did Christ die? For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity, but the word of the oath which was since the law maketh the son who is consecrated forevermore. He is perfected forevermore. Christ came to this earth to die for sins of all whom the Father hath given him. He died for their sins once. One time. In this death, He fully satisfied what God required. Nothing else needed to be done. On the cross, He said, it is finished. No sin was missed at all. And now, you and I, we are the children of God. We are the bride of Christ. And He ever liveth to make intercession for us. We see this biblical truth, don't we? But do we grasp the effect of His ever-living intercession? Do we grasp this? Do we understand how much Christ loves us? You ever think about that? The love that Christ has for you and I. Luke 22, 44, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground. Folks, he didn't have to be there. He could call 12 leaves of angels, right? And be over with. John 18, 11, this says Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword unto the sheath. The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? We know this. It's preached often here. While on that cross, Christ fully paid our sin debt. He died. He was buried in a new empty tomb. On the third day, He rose from the dead. Forty days later, He ascended back to the Father and is presently sat down at His right hand, ever living to intercede for us. He wants us to come to Him with and for everything that pertains to life and godliness. We are to depend on Him. Let's go to 1 Peter chapter 5. I mentioned this verse earlier. 1 Peter chapter 5, we're going to look at verses 6 and 7. It is very important that we know that Christ ever lives to intercede for us. But we must also remember that Christ wants us to come to Him. How often is it that we trust our own intellect, our own knowledge, our own ability? I can fix this. We lean to our own understanding, which is not biblical. The Bible tells us not to lean to our own understanding. Verse 6, the Bible says, Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Look at where we're going during this time. Casting all your care upon him. Why? For he careth for you. He wants us to bring all of our cares to him. Care, in this verse, speaks of anything that has us distracted or concerned. Now please remember this as we'll look at this a little bit later once we get to John 17, 7. Care speaks of anything that has us distracted or concerned. And we could, as some of the old pastors would say, stop and park here for a while. and preach about these things that has us distracted or concerned, couldn't we? We're also told in this verse to cast these cares, these things that has us distracted and concerned, to cast them upon Christ. Casting in this verse is to throw upon, literal or figurative, cast upon. Listen, understand that Christ is not in heaven, sitting on the right hand of God, disengaged from us. That's not what He's doing. He is active in our lives. And He wants us to be actively pursuing and seeking Him. And it helps us to understand that He, yes, we've heard this terminology before, He has a personal relationship with all who belong to Him. And we are to cast our cares upon Him. Why? Well, the end of verse 7 tells us, for He careth for you. Careth in this verse means to be of interest to, to concern, to take care. We know that Christ is obedient to the Father and all that He does. But understand that He is lovingly doing all that He does. Christ is concerned for His bride, His church. If Christ was not concerned for us, He would not have given us His Word. Our faith grows and we are given understanding by the Word of God and through the Holy Spirit who lives inside of every believer. What did he give the church? His word. What else did he send? The Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Has he provided all that we need? He has. He has. Let's go back to John chapter 17. Just going back to chapter 13 and back forward to chapter 17 of John, we see the love that Christ has for His disciples, how He is further instructing them to the point where He even says, you're not able at this time to bear what I have to say to you. He said, I have many things to say to you, but you are not able to bear it. That's love. That's love. And then when the Holy Spirit came, He gave them more. We see His love for His disciples in John 17, and for all who will be His disciples. Look at verse 20 of John 17. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. By taking a look at Christ's high priestly role, we have much to dwell upon. I want to stress this. I want to drive this home in our hearts this morning. That you and I are just not a number for Christ. He's not saying, okay, here's numbers, two billion, whatever that I've saved. Christ intimately and personally knows us. And He intimately and personally cares for us. In John chapter 10 verse 3, the Bible says, To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. What great comfort we have from that, from those verses. And we see that here in John chapter 17, when Christ, as He's praying to the Father, says, This is great encouragement in this verse. Christ is commending the disciples. He is speaking highly of them in this verse. These are the same disciples who in a very short time will deny Christ, forsake Christ as a fulfillment of Scripture. And even Peter will deny Him with an oath. Vehemently, Mark says, deny Him. They're all, according to Luke, slow to believe and to believe all that the prophets have said. When Jesus Christ instituted the Lord's Supper, they were in competition one with another about who would be the greatest. These things stand out for us. Why? Because we relate, don't we? We see their failures and we think about our own failures. J.C. Ryle had this to say. He said, No one, in short, can read the four Gospels with attention and fail to see that never had a great master such weak servants as Jesus had in the eleven apostles. We see these faults in the disciples. We see these same faults in ourselves. Do you ever get aggravated with yourself? You get mad with your thoughts, your laziness continually. Do you ever ask yourself this question, why would God even use me? Why would God even save someone like me? Why? Oh, I fail so much. Do you think we can get stuck there thinking about that? What is that? That's a care. And that care is a distraction for yours and mine service for Christ. If we're not careful, we'll beat ourselves up and then we'll do this. We won't quit coming to church, but we'll come in, we'll sit down, we won't do anything. We go out, we go through the motions, not excited, we begin to serve, and our service It's through someone who is disgruntled, someone who's not joyous, someone who's not happy. Why? Because we're distracted. We have a great biblical example of this with Peter. So let's turn to the book of Luke chapter 22, please. We'll start in verse 54. And this is very familiar for all of us. Luke 22, 54, Then took they him, and led him, and brought him into the high priest's house, speaking of Christ. And Peter followed afar off. And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall, and were sat down together, Peter sat down among them. But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire, and earnestly looked upon him, and said, This man was also with him. And he denied him, saying, Woman, I know him not. And after a little while another saw him, and said, Thou art also of them. And Peter said, Man, I am not. And about the space of one hour after another, confidently affirmed, saying, Of a truth this fellow also was with him, for he is a Galilean. And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while they yet spake, the cock crewed. And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crew thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. Obviously, Peter was torn up over his denial of Christ. And this weighed heavily upon him. This denial was a care that distracted him from serving Christ. And clouded his mind from remembering all that Christ I told them, folks, we can get there. We get to the point where we get tunnel vision. Simply looking at the negative. Looking at those errors, those faults, our own failures. Anybody here hard on themselves? You know, Peter was hard on others. But he was also hard on himself. We could say he was probably harder on himself. In Luke 22, 31 through 34, And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desire to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. Now here, Christ is talking to Peter, who is already lifted up in pride. He's bowed up, his chest bowed out. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. What did Peter not hear? He didn't hear verse 32, or I should say he didn't put it in remembrance. All he heard was that Satan desired to have him. And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee both unto prison and to death. He said nothing about thanks for interceding for me, thanks for praying for me. And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before thou shalt thrice deny. Thou knowest me. What's Christ doing here? He's already interceding for Peter. Christ was crucified. He died and was buried. On the third day that morning, he arose. John and Peter ran to the grave, the Bible tells us. John got there first but didn't go in. Peter got there and went right on in. The tomb was empty. Don't you think that they should have been excited? Thrilled? That what Christ said came to pass. But no, they wasn't. They were discouraged. They were burdened down with the events that happened. and with their own failures. You know, all of them forsook Him, the Bible says. That when they came to arrest Christ, He said, let these go and they fled. Then Christ appeared to the disciples in the upper room as they were gathered together and talked with them and comforted the disciples. And even though it was comforting to see and speak with Christ, Peter had a problem. Now you may say I'm reading too much into this, but you'll see where I'm going in a second. Peter had unforgiveness towards himself. What was this? This was a distraction to him. Distraction. He could not get over the fact that he denied Christ three times. Now folks, I know that you and I can get here, as we've already mentioned already this morning. We can mess up. Somehow the devil can get in our minds and tell us that we're no longer worthy to be used of Christ and we just as well as quit. And I believe in Peter's mind, the best thing that he thought he could do was just quit. Just get out of the way, done messed up so much, even deny the Lord, and the Lord saw me doing that, which He does see all things, does He not? And I told him I would never deny Him, that I would be willing to die for Him, and yet I denied Him. Let's turn to the book of John 21. You know, you and I can put up a front. We can put up a happy face and fool people. I have no idea the face that Peter put on when Christ came into that room. in the upper room. I have no idea. What's not there, the Bible does not say. He may have looked down the whole time. I don't know. I don't know. But from the scriptures, I think I do understand what was in his mind. What was in his mind was his failures. His denial of Christ. Look at verse 1. of John 21, and we'll read down through verse 22. After these things, Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. And on this lie shewed he himself. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas Calditimus, and Nathanael of Cana, and Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, which is James and John, and two other of his disciples. Now watch what Peter's doing here. Simon Peter saith unto them, I'll go a fishing. What's he doing? He's reverting back to what he's always done. What did Christ tell him to do? Go to Galilee and wait. But here Peter's discouraged, he's distraught, He says, I'm going fishing. Listen, he wasn't going fishing as a time to meditate. That's not what this was. He wasn't casting a line in the water, kicking back on the bank, praying and seeking the Lord. What was Peter doing? Going back to work. What did he do? What's worse than that, who do you bring with him? Others. You know, they were also discouraged. Christ told him, when thou art converted, strengthen the brethren. The word converted has absolutely nothing to do with soul salvation. Nothing! Yet it speaks of coming through a trial. Peter, when you come through this trial, strengthen the brethren. I'm praying for you. But here, instead of Peter strengthening the brethren, he's taking them with him. Because they were also discouraged. Why were they discouraged? Because they had also forsook Christ. They say unto him, we also go with thee. They went forth and entered into a ship immediately. And that night, they caught nothing. Boy, here they are, struggling spiritually. Now they're struggling in life. What's missing in their life? Joy? Focused upon Christ? Verse four, but when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. Then he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast it forth, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of the fishes. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked, and he did cast himself into the sea. They were not expecting Christ to show up there, were they? And the other disciples came in a little ship, for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits, dragging the net with fishes. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish lay thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Saint Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes. Do you think he was a worker? Was he lazy? And a hundred and fifty and three. And for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. Isn't this amazing? Christ didn't say, what are y'all doing? This ain't what I told you to do. You must rebel, you disciples. Get over here. It's not what Christ said, is it? He said, hey, y'all come eat. And our disciples asked him, who are thou? knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples. After that, he was risen from the dead. So they ate. So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon? Now why does Simon Peter? Who is the leader? Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He said to them, yeah, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said to them, feed my lambs. He said to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me He said unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him, Feed my sheep. He said unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him, The third time lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all. Lord, you are all. Lord, you know my heart. You know my mind. You know everything. Thou knowest that I love thee, Jesus saith unto them, feed my sheep. We've talked this here many times. We see Christ reminding Peter that Peter does love Christ. And he encourages Peter to continue serving him. Verse 18, Verily I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thine hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. follow me. With Christ coming to Peter like this shows that Christ loved Peter, concerned with Peter and the disciples. But here's where I really began to think and to dwell upon this. If Christ had not come to Peter, How long would Peter have been in that state of discouragement? How long would Peter, how long would he have allowed for these cares or that care to weigh him down and do nothing for Christ? Other than name the name of Christ, maybe. How long? We don't know. I do wonder about it. But in the book of Acts, do you know what we find? Peter, again, leading the brethren, strengthening the brethren as Christ told him to do. Proclaiming Christ. And this goes back to what we read earlier in 1 Peter, which of course written by Peter, inspired of God. Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. How did Peter know this? Did he experience it? Peter was writing, yes, the inspired word, but he was also writing from personal experience. Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Folks, we get so busy in life, I mean, it's just, it is crazy. I do a lot of work in St. Tammany Parish, and I'm so thankful to come home and work in Washington Parish. Because down there, just across that parish line, they are wide open all day long. Amen? All day. Red lights, whatever, all about me, me, me, me. Get up here, stop at a red light, look around, and you see three or four people that you know walking. You blow the horn, wave, whatever, holler out the window. The pace of life is slower. We get so busy that we get our focus off the Lord. Then after a while, we see that, and we say, oh Lord, I've been messing up. How about family devotions? Can we get lax on that? I have. Can we get to the point where we say, oh, I've messed up so much, I just quit. We all have faults. We all fail our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Folks, I want to remind us that He is faithful to us. Though Christ does not physically come to us today as He did here with the disciples to encourage us, He has given us His Word, which is more sure than any appearance, voice from heaven, or vision of Christ. You may question if Christ still loves you. If you've taken notes, I encourage you to write this down. If ever loved by Christ, forever loved by Christ. When we look at ourselves, I know with me personally, I see my own faults. I mean, it just rises to the top. I see my faults, I see my failures, and I forget who I am in Christ Jesus. So then I have all these cares, all these distractions. And my life, it hinders my service for my Savior. What does Christ see in us? Let's go back to John 17, look at verse 7. Christ says, now they have known that all things, whatever thou hast given me, What does Christ see in us? He sees Himself in us. He loves us. And what does love do, the Bible says? In John 17, Christ focuses on what they know. To know here in John 17 is to believe. Look back at chapter 16, verse 29. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things? And it is not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe what he say in you? truly believing. The disciples were but babes in Christ. What do babes do? They make mistakes. And they didn't know very much, but they believed what they knew. They received the testimony of Christ. He told them repeatedly that He came from the Father. He came to do the Father's will. He came to die. Yes, there were some things they had problems with. But over time, that would be straightened out. Christ's life was not about pleasing Himself. It was about pleasing the Father. We have a great example in Christ. Our will should be to do the Father's will. The only way for you and I to know the Father's will is to get in the Word of God. We should help others who were down and out over their mess-ups. We should remember who we are in Christ Jesus. And keep this in mind, that Christ cares for us. Who am I? Christ would care for me. One thing about our faults, it helps us to be humble. To remember that we don't deserve this. We can't earn salvation. We can't. But our faults should humble us. But may we remember that Christ cares for us. Aren't you glad that Christ doesn't just dwell on the bad things? Hallelujah. Let's pray. Father, we humbly come before you this morning. Lord, I think we can all relate to this. Lord, we are robed in flesh, Flesh is at enmity with you. Oh Lord, we cannot defeat our own flesh of our own power. We need your help. Lord, may we confess our failures, our faults, but Lord, I pray that we wouldn't live there. that we wouldn't build upon our failures and our faults and pull them back out. But Lord, that we would remember that you have forgiven us. You care for us by name. You are our personal Savior. Lord, I thank you for the encouragement from your word and the examples that we have of people like Peter, People like Elijah in the Old Testament. Lord, you're a faithfulness even though we fail. Thank you for caring for us, Lord. And what a joy it is to know that you ever live to do this. It's not temporal. It's eternal care. Help us to encourage one another. Lord, to go out in this world and remind those who are cast down. As the psalmist says, thou art cast down, O my soul, hope thou in God. We love you because you first loved us. In Christ's name, amen. Amen to that