In Jason Dohm's sermon, 'The Work of the Loved Son,' the focus is on Jesus Christ as the Son who has the unending love of His Father. This love empowers Jesus to undertake the redemptive work of reconciling sinners with God. The sermon explains that while Jesus' sacrificial work on the cross might seem to be the source of God's love, it is actually the expression of who Jesus is—His character and essence as the Son. The analogy of Jesus as a shepherd is used to illustrate His care and protection over His people, although it has limitations because Jesus, being divine, can lay down His life and take it up again. The sermon emphasizes the unified will and work of the Holy Trinity in the process of Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection. Furthermore, the sermon highlights the inevitable division that Jesus' teachings cause among people, drawing a line between those who accept and those who reject Him. Lastly, the sermon encourages listeners to reflect on the love and glory of Jesus Christ and His willingness to humble Himself for humanity's sake.

The title of the sermon this morning is the work of the loved Son. Jesus Christ is a Son. And He's a Son that has the love and the unending pleasure of His Father upon Him. And in this love of His Father, He does a great work that reconciles sinners to a holy God. So that is what our text is about.

This is the end of a single discourse. It only took Jesus one time to say it. It's taken us four sermons to try to explain it. He's a better teacher than we are. We could probably use more sermons even so.

The first sermon was verses 1 through 6. It was titled, A Familiar Word Picture. Jesus takes His listeners into familiar territory. Sheep. Jews historically knew about sheep.

In fact, where Jesus was speaking in Jerusalem, because of the sacrificial system, it would have been overrun with sheep. Jews knew about sheep and shepherds, so when he wants to teach about who he is to his people, he brings out this familiar picture and he paints it in the minds of his hearers. He begins to explain how he is to his people what a shepherd is to a flock. I was begging you in that sermon not to get ahead of yourself just because you've read it many times and to start sort of apportioning, but to let Jesus set the pace and to just explain how shepherding works. That's how he began with the original hearers.

He begins by just saying shepherding works like this and then he paints the picture in their minds of what they've seen with their own two eyes about how shepherds gain access to the sheep and how thieves and robbers do. He began to explain that a little bit in verse 6 at the end of that sermon. The gospel writer says they didn't understand. And so in the next verses or the next sermon for us, verses 7 through 15, Jesus expands and explains. He explains the things that they didn't understand what He's already said, but he also adds additional elements to it.

The title of that sermon preached by James was, Salvation is only through Jesus the door and the good shepherd. And it really sets Jesus before the eyes of his people in all his glory for what He is to His people. Wonderful. And then finally, last week, verse 16, we isolated on a single verse about the ultimate plan of God to have one flock and one shepherd. Jesus sets the stage for the grafting in of the Gentiles.

And Michael preaches that sermon, fuel for missions and evangelism. I love where he went with that. Our hearts should burn within us knowing that God already has sheep and he sends his people out to gather them up to himself as the shepherd. Knowing that should give us such a zeal to go out and evangelize knowing that they're there and that He would be pleased to use us in this work of gathering in a people who were not a people. As we come to our text, Let's ask for the Lord's help.

Our God, we thank you for your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and for His great and mighty work, laying down His life for the sheep that we could have not just life, but an abundant life cared for, fed, protected, led, brought into an ever-increasing flock. The glories of your kingdom are on display. Make our hearts rejoice as we consider your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. There's not a lot of verses.

There are five verses, so we're only going to break it into two parts today. I'd like to begin by looking at verses 17 and 18. Again, just remaining very conscious that Jesus might have barely taken one breath between last week's sermon and this week's sermon. This is part of one discourse. Verses 17 and 18.

Jesus says, Therefore my Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, But I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again. This command I have received from my Father.

These two verses, we have the voluntary work of the loved son. So if you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, it's loved. The voluntary work, Jesus volunteered for this, of the loved son. Jesus does this in the love of his father. In particularly in verse 17, I think we encounter the one interpretive challenge, meaning there's one thing that's sort of difficult to understand in this text, I think there's only one, and it's this.

In verse 17, It sounds as if the work of the Son in laying down His life is the source of His Father's love. Isn't that what it reads like? Therefore, my Father loves me Because I lay down my life. It sounds like Jesus is saying, I lay down my life and the result of that is my Father's love for me. That his work is actually the source of his Father's love, as if he had stepped back from that work, maybe his Father might not have loved him.

We know that's not so. In Matthew 3, it is baptism, in Matthew 3 verse 17, there is a voice from heaven, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. We know from the very beginning of the gospel that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. As long as He was with God, which was from eternity past, this relationship of love existed.

The love of the Father for the Son is an eternal love without beginning, without end. So that is not what verse 17 is saying. I'd like you to turn to Philippians chapter 2. I think the right understanding of this, a good place to start for that is Philippians chapter 2. So turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 2.

This is the famous text about Jesus taking on flesh, leaving the glories of heaven. The words Paul uses in Philippians chapter 2 is, Jesus didn't consider it robbery to be equal with God. Some translations say, I did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. The whole sense, however you translate it, the sense is He didn't cling to His rightful glory in heaven, but he was willing to set aside the glory that he deserves, is worthy of in order to take on flesh and be humiliated to purchase a people. That's the whole point.

So that's what this text is about. I'll be beginning, I will read Philippians 2 verses 5 through 11. Follow along as I read. The Apostle Paul writes, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant and coming in the likeness of men." So again the thought is here that Jesus had every right to continue in his rightful glorified place in heaven but he didn't cling to that he laid it aside in order to take on flesh. Now verse 8.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. I submit to you that what's being said by Paul is the same as what's being said by Jesus in our text, and that is this. It wasn't the work. It was the person.

It wasn't the work that qualifies Jesus for this love and for this exaltation and for the pleasure of his father, but rather that the work simply displayed the person. The work just shows to the rest of us who Jesus really is. Why does God love his son? Because His Son is like that. Like what?

He's like a shepherd who would lay down His life for His sheep and care for them. What does the scripture say? Listen to Jesus in Matthew 12, 33. I'll be done by the time you turn there, so just listen. One verse, Matthew 12-33, Jesus says, either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad.

For a tree is known by its fruit. Here the work of the cross is not the tree. Jesus is the tree. The work of the cross is the fruit. It displays what Jesus is like.

It puts on display the glory of Jesus Christ. It shows us the beauty and kindness and goodness and love of Jesus Christ. If you want to know all those things about Jesus, you look at what He's done, and then you say, look, it's because the tree is good. It's because the tree is beautiful. It's because the tree is of infinite value.

A tree is known by its fruit. What Jesus did is the fruit. Who Jesus is, is the tree. The tree has the love of the Father. Jesus Christ has the love of the Father.

And so he takes great delight in the fruit, in the work of the Son. Every parent with maturing children has had this experience. If your children are getting older, especially if they've been born again and they're growing in maturity. You have had this experience. Say that you have a daughter that fits that profile.

The daughter is born again and growing in the faith and God is at work transforming this daughter so that even though she has her heart set on this thing, whatever this thing is, a trip or whatever, she sets it aside in order to help the family in a particular way or to help someone in the church in a particular way. She really had her heart set on this thing, but God is bringing her to maturity and so she is willing to just forsake that thing that she wanted in order to help. And you say in your heart you might say with your mouth but you at least say in your heart I love her. I love her. Not not because of the thing that you've done You're taking pleasure in who she is becoming as a daughter of God.

It's not the work, it's the person. When you say in your heart, I love her because she's showing the signs of maturity of becoming a person that you take such pleasure in. It's not the work, it is the person. And so it is here. God takes such pleasure in the redemptive work of His Son.

God looks upon Jesus' willingly laying down his life, volunteering to purchase a people with his own blood, and he says, I love you, because you're like that, son. Jesus voluntarily laid down his life. He voluntarily shed his blood to purchase the people back from sin and death and condemnation. In Gethsemane, when they're coming to get Jesus, they're laying their hands on Jesus, and the disciples want to fight, And Peter's sword is flailing about. In Matthew he cuts off the ear of the high priest.

And Jesus constrains his disciples and says, do not fight for me. Jesus says this in Matthew 26 verse 53. Matthew 26 verse 53, Jesus says, Do you think that I cannot now pray to my Father and He will provide me with more than 12 legions of angels? There's a thousand angels per legion. Jesus is saying, right now, right this minute, I could hold myself back from this work.

If I prayed to my Father right now, He would send 12, 000 angels. Well, what are 12, 000 angels? Here's what we know from the resurrection. At the resurrection, an angel comes back, unseals the grave, sits on the stone, and a troop of soldiers become like dead men. They are frozen and paralyzed in fear.

One. Jesus says, I could call down, my father would willingly send 12, 000 of these wands that only one is really necessary to crush this rebellion. Jesus voluntarily laid down his life. I lay it down of myself. What killed Jesus?

Pilate? Soldiers? The cross? No, his desire to walk in the ways of his father, his love for his father and his father's love for him and his desire to save the people that had been promised to him killed Jesus. He was no man.

He willingly laid down his life. Jesus also gently makes us aware that with him the shepherding analogy breaks down. Because Jesus is God, this human shepherding analogy can only take us so far. So he adds where the analogy, human shepherding analogy, can't take us. I lay down my life that I may take it again.

I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. In the human shepherding analogy a faithful shepherd might risk and even give his life for the sheep. And if that were a human story, that would be the end of the human story. You were willing to do a good deed for the sheep and so the lion or the bear came and you laid down your life for the sheep." End of story. Jesus is very gently telling us this is where the human analogy ends because it can't take us further, but where the real understanding of what Jesus has done begins.

A faithful shepherd might risk and even give his life, but the faithful shepherd, the good shepherd has the authority to voluntarily lay down his life and then take it up again. And keep feeding the sheep. And keep protecting the sheep. And keep leading the sheep. And keep calling more sheep.

This shepherd, the good shepherd, is just getting started when he lays down his life for the sheep. If we were in the human story, It would be the end of the human shepherd story, but because Jesus is God, it's just the beginning of His story, giving His people life of His own life and yet rising from the dead and so He can continually give them life and life more abundantly. He can continue his shepherding functions of feeding and protecting and leading and calling in more sheep to the flock being their one shepherd. So whose will was it for Jesus to die to redeem the people? It was Jesus' will.

No one takes it from me. I lay it down of myself. And it was his Father's will. This command I have received from my father both of those things are said in our text right here in these two verses God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit have a single perfectly unified will. This is important to how we think about God.

God the Trinity is one God, not three gods that work well together. Sometimes our mind gets off track and we think of them as if they are three gods who work really well together. They play well together. No. These are three persons in one God.

The writers of the Confession didn't even necessarily like the word persons. They actually call it subsistences. They're trying to distance it from something that could be considered as independent because they're... Jesus, in our text next week, He's going to say, I and my Father are one. So this is One will.

The son's will is the father's will is the spirit's will. This is actually a doctrine called divine simplicity. If you ever hear that, this is a part of it and a large part of it. Three persons but one single will. Perfectly unified will.

And who raised Jesus from the dead? I have power to take it again. Our text, or listen to Jesus in John 2.19. John 2.19, Jesus answered and said to them, destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up. In three days I will raise it up so Jesus raised Jesus from the dead but wait What does Peter say when he's preaching on Pentecost?

Acts 2 24. Here's what Peter says in Acts 2 24. Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he, Jesus, should be held by it. And then again, same sermon by Peter, but just a few verses later in verse 32, Acts 2, 32, this Jesus, God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. So God the Father raised Jesus from the dead.

But wait! What does the same man, Peter, say in 1 Peter 3, 18? 1 Peter 3, 18, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit. Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. So the triune God raised Jesus from the dead.

Jesus raised Jesus from the dead. God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. God the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. It is equally true of all of them. They co-labored in the resurrection.

The point here is that what we often think that Jesus was passive in the Resurrection is simply not true. It is not true. Jesus was not passive in the resurrection. Jesus was co-laboring in a way that makes sense to Him. In other words, if you want to ask for further explanation, go to someone smarter than me.

But Jesus was not passive in his resurrection. He had power or some versions instead of power in these verses render it authority. I have authority to lay down my life and I have authority to take it up again. Jesus was not passive. So let's summarize where we are.

One, Jesus' redemptive work displays who He is and his father loves him for it. He loves the tree, so he takes pleasure in the fruit. That's number one. Jesus' redemptive work displays who he is, and his father loves him for it. Number two, Jesus and his work cannot be fully contained in a human shepherding analogy.

This happens all the time with Jesus and his trying to explain his glory through word pictures. You hit a point where the word picture breaks down because no one is like Him. No one is like God and so at some point occasionally He gently tells us here's where that word picture ends and no longer is valuable because I extend far beyond any sort of human picture that you would be able to understand. He voluntarily lays down his life, but that's not the end. It would be for a human, but it's not for Jesus because he's God.

He takes up his life again and his shepherding continues even after his death because he's raised from the dead. And then he continues to give abundant life to his people. And then three, the redemptive work of the Son was the unified will of the Holy Trinity and the resurrection was the unified work of the Holy Trinity. I'll say that again. The redemptive work of the Son was the unified will of the Holy Trinity.

Who sent Jesus to do this work? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit agreed together that the Son would go and do this redemptive work. And the resurrection was the unified work. So you have the unified will and the unified work of the Holy Trinity here in what is taught. I want to go ahead and apply this.

What does it mean for Jason Dome Center? I want to draw on a verse that Michael quoted last week. By the way, over the last two days I've listened to the last two-week sermon. Wow, you guys got great preaching while I was away. So drawing from something that Michael quoted last week, Ephesians 1, I'm only going to quote a phrase, or actually I'll quote all of Ephesians 1 verse 6.

The difficulty in that is it's at the end of a long Pauline sentence, one of Paul's classic long sentence. I don't want to read the whole thing because it would cause you to lose sight. So I'm going to pick up mid-sentence, don't be put off by that. We're really getting to the last phrase. Listen to what Paul writes in Ephesians 1 verse 6.

To the praise of the glory of his grace, by which He, God, made us accepted in the Beloved. Capital B, Beloved. Who is that? That's Jesus. Jesus is His Father's Beloved.

So that's the tie-in to what Jesus is teaching here. My Father loves me. And Paul says to the Ephesians at the beginning of his letter to the Ephesians, this is chapter 1 verse 6, Ephesian believers, you are accepted in the beloved. This is the ground of the salvation of Jason Dome, sinner. My acceptance is unbreakably bound to God's pleasure in displaying His grace through His loved Son.

The reason God would be bound to hate me because of who I am. Ephesians 2, by nature children of wrath. Meaning you sinner God is bound by His own nature to hate you, to be angry at you. You are by nature, not even because of what you've done, because of who you're like. God is by nature, His own pure nature.

He is bound to be mad at you. What hope is there? Oh, He'll graft you into His Son because of the work of His Son and you'll be hidden in his son so that he accepts you in his beloved son. So his nature was bound to hate you, but now he loves you because he's grafted you into his son. My acceptance is unbreakably bound to God's pleasure.

God doesn't wince when he thinks about this, he smiles when he thinks about this. My acceptance is unbreakably bound to God's pleasure in displaying His grace through His beloved Son. Alright, back to our text, verses 19 through 21. Therefore there was a division again among the Jews because of these sayings. And many of them said, He has a demon and is mad.

Why do you listen to him? Others said, these are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? In these verses we have the inevitable division. So if you're taking notes and filling in blanks, inevitable fills in the blank.

The inevitable division. Meaning there's no way around it. Jesus' teachings and his claims keep drawing a line and dividing people. In some ways I feel like I'm preaching the same sermon, at least parts of it week after week. And I don't mind if the scripture repeats it, and I'm happy to repeat it because it means that it's important we should get this.

So we're seeing a repeated thing here so our sensitivity to it should be heightened that God thinks it's important. In John 7, 43, in John 7 leading up to this verse, Jesus has been preaching at the Feast of Tabernacles. And at the conclusion of his preaching, He says this, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Jesus is laying claim to being the source of spiritual life for anyone who wants to come out of spiritual death.

And the same thing happened there. Some people start to say, He's the prophet. Others are saying, He's the Christ. And then we read this in John 7, 43. So there was a division among the people because of Him.

It happened. Jesus is making these claims, doing these teachings, or teaching these teachings. And it causes division. Then in chapter 9, when He healed the blind man, we see the same thing because He healed on the Sabbath. And then in chapter 9 verse 16 we read, Therefore some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath.

Others said, how can a man who is a sinner do such signs and there was a division among them? So This is really a repeat of what we saw in chapter 9. Some are saying, he healed on the Sabbath, that means he's a sinner, he cannot be from God. And others are saying, how could he heal a blind man? A sinner can't do these signs and there was a division, it's explicitly said in the text.

So Jesus' teaching continues to be a dividing line and so it is to this day. That never stopped. Jesus' death didn't help at all. It only sent His disciples into the world with the same divisive teaching. Wherever the teaching and the claims of Jesus goes, what we see in this text, that happens there too.

There's a dividing line because of Jesus' teachings and his claims. To some, what Jesus is saying is crazy talk. They say that he's been driven mad by demon possession. To others, Others can see the logic of the man who used to be blind. I know it's only been a couple of weeks, but I want to take us back to the man who used to be blind and what he said.

Just look back in Chapter 9, 28-34. This is the they here is the Pharisees. Then they reviled him and said, You are His disciple, but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spoke through Moses. As for this fellow, we do not know where he is from.

The man answered and said to them, Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where he is from. Yet he has opened my eyes. Now we know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears Him. Since the world began, it has been unheard of that anyone open the eyes of the one who was born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.

They answered and said to him, You were completely born in sins and are you teaching us? And they cast him out. And then Jesus finds him. And then Jesus reveals himself to be God's Messiah to him, and he worships Jesus and confesses Jesus. What is this to us?

This repetition that the teachings and claims of Jesus inevitably, you cannot get around it, cause a line of division between people who think that's crazy talk and people who see that the one who did these things must be the one that God promised to send. What is that to us? Consider what Jesus says in Matthew 10 25. Matthew 10 25. Jesus says, if they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, essentially the devil, they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of the household?

This is the application to us. Jesus has said watch how they treat me. When I teach these things, when I claim these things, watch how they teach me. If they called me the devil And I'm the master of the house. How much more the members of the household.

If you have people who think that you're crazy and call you crazy for advancing the claims of your King Jesus. You've not even gotten what he's taught us to expect. You've only been called crazy. Jesus expected It would extend to also evil and demon possessed. Expect to have to bear reproach for Jesus' teachings, for Jesus' claims.

We've no right to act surprised when the world thinks that what the beautiful truths that we've embraced that they're actually evil. We've no right to act all surprised. When we who know that our hearts are towards those women at the abortion clinic, we know our hearts are not against them, that we're for them, we're not their enemies, we're their friends, we're willing to spend money, take them into our homes, adopt their children. We know that about ourselves. Even so, people go by and they throw water bottles out the window.

They scream profanities out the window. They teach us hand signals. We've no right to act surprised. They called the Lord of the house Beelzebub. How much more the members of his household.

It should worry us actually if we're not bearing the reproach of Christ for his teaching and his claims in any way. If no one ever disapproves of us for the teachings and claims of our Lord Jesus Christ, it means that we're not speaking His teachings and His claims. Application, I have one. Application, I have one. I have one.

Think of the love of Jesus who is Christ. Think of the love. Jesus' love. Oh, in the text is the Father's love for Jesus. But the Father's love for Jesus is because of Jesus' love for us.

Really is. He did not cling to his rightful glory in heaven. He submitted himself to humiliation and death, Even the shameful death of the cross, why? Why did Jesus do this? Love and glory.

Love and glory. Love for his father, love for me, And glory. The end of that Philippians 2 text, the last phrase is to the glory of the Father. The flow of thought is Jesus didn't cling to his glory but he subjected himself to the humiliating death of the cross. Therefore God has exalted him to the highest place and given him a name that's above every other name that all of us would bow our knees and confess that He is Lord and that it ends with those words to the glory of the Father.

If you just say that the work of the cross is just about love, you've just erected a man-centered gospel. He does love us. We should glory in that, love that truth and shout it from the rooftops, but we should always finish the sentence. A period doesn't go there, a comma goes there. It did for Paul.

To the glory of the Father. At its core the Gospel is God-centered. It does benefit man in striking, unbelievable, joy-making ways. So I don't want to rob anyone of that, least of all myself. But we should say this is about God displaying who he is.

So here's how I would like to end, is in Exodus 33. James actually had us there this morning, providentially. And It was because we were singing Rock of Ages Cleft for Me, hiding Moses in the rock so he wouldn't be destroyed by the glory of God. So Exodus 33, if you would like to turn there. Exodus 33.

Beginning in verse 18, then I'll read through the end of the chapter which is verse 23, and then I'll pick up in 34 verse 5 and read through 9, and I'll tell you when I'm doing that so you stay with me. Exodus 33 beginning in verse 18. Jesus is asking God to see His glory. Then He, God, said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

But he God said you cannot see my face for no man shall see me and live." And the Lord said, Here's a place by me and you shall stand on the rock so it shall be while my glory passes by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and will cover you with my hand while I pass by. Then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back by my face. My face shall not be seen." This is very mysterious. I don't really understand this, but I read it to you. You can get a little of it.

I don't think any of us think we're prepared to plumb the depths of this, and how and why. But There it is. Now picking up in 34 verse 5, which is the actual scene itself of God passing before Moses. Now, the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. So it's the Lord proclaiming his own name.

And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. Then He said, if now I have found grace in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as your inheritance. Every Jew today who has not received their Messiah should ask themselves how this can be. That God can say this of Himself, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, and forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children.

Makes you want to say, God, pick one, which is it? Are you full of mercy and goodness for forgiving iniquity, cleansing iniquity? Or Is it true that you by no means clear the guilty, but you visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children? How can you say these two things with just a comma between them? Jesus solves this.

In the words of Paul in Romans chapter 3, he says that God is just and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus. God's justice isn't sacrificed for a nanosecond in the forgiving of my sins. He accepts the substitute. He SINS the substitute and then accepts the substitute in the stead of his people and he takes pleasure in the work. Jesus Christ is the expression of this God.

You might not have been able to look him in the face. You might have to be hidden in the cleft of the rock so you wouldn't be destroyed by such glory and yet we can gaze upon Christ In the Gospels he is the express image of this God God loves him Because he's like this he's like this The glory of Jesus Christ is on display in our text. Father, thank you. Thank you for not holding back your glory, just keeping your goodness and glory to yourself, but by putting yourself on display in the face of your son Jesus Christ. Let us gaze upon him and love all that we see.

As you gaze upon him and love all that you see, let us share your love for your son. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.