WEBVTT 00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:15.679 Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, to him who loves us and has washed us clean from our sins with his own blood and made us to be a kingdom of priests to serve God and his Father. 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:18.960 To him be all glory, honor, and dominion forever and ever. 00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:19.839 Amen. 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:22.239 He is risen. 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:23.920 He is indeed. 00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:25.600 Hallelujah. 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:27.359 Praise be to God. 00:00:28.079 --> 00:00:32.159 We've come to our final Sunday of the Easter season. 00:00:32.479 --> 00:00:45.359 But on this side of Easter and Jesus' ascension, which we just celebrated this past Thursday, it is good for us to know that our Lord prays for us. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:53.520 Today's gospel reading is often referred to as his high priestly prayer. 00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:58.799 Jesus prayed this before going to the cross. 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:03.280 Saint John is the only one who records this. 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:14.480 In this prayer, our Lord is not asking for the Father to remove the cup of wrath that he must drink on our behalf. 00:01:15.439 --> 00:01:26.319 Rather, he's praying for those who know him and will know him, who believe in him and will believe in him. 00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:30.239 He is praying for the twelve in this prayer. 00:01:30.799 --> 00:01:34.159 He is praying for you and me too. 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:42.239 Jesus glorified the Father on earth by accomplishing all that God gave him to do. 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:46.159 And now he will glorify God the Father again. 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:49.439 His hour has come. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:53.200 According to St. 00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:58.079 John's Gospel, we've been waiting for this hour to come from the beginning. 00:01:58.799 --> 00:02:12.479 At Jesus' first miracle during the wedding of Cana, when his mother asked for his intervention when the wine had been depleted, he responded, My hour has not yet come. 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:18.400 That wedding feast was not his wedding feast. 00:02:20.639 --> 00:02:23.039 But now his hour has come. 00:02:24.240 --> 00:02:29.599 This is the hour where he will give his life for his bride, the church. 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:36.319 Now is the hour where he will pour out his blood for the forgiveness of all her sins. 00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:41.199 Now is the hour of his crucifixion. 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:58.639 Now the hour has come where he fills our cup of blessing that we bless to the brim every Lord's day, so that we receive his sacrifice on our lips for the forgiveness of our sins. 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:05.280 Now he has saved the best wine for us. 00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:09.439 His bride, the church. 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:14.879 His hour is the hour of our salvation. 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:16.960 His hour is the cross. 00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:22.240 His hour is the hour that the Son glorifies the Father. 00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:31.199 Now is the hour where the Father will glorify the Son in his presence with the glory that he had before the world existed. 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:36.639 Jesus' glory is God's glory. 00:03:52.800 --> 00:04:05.039 To rescue us from sin and eternal death and damnation and the devil, all those things, the very price that we could not pay. 00:04:07.039 --> 00:04:14.879 Glory that demonstrates that our God really is a God of steadfast love, which endures forever. 00:04:17.279 --> 00:04:19.759 But as always, Jesus says it best. 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:27.519 The Father has given him authority over all flesh, authority to give eternal life. 00:04:27.839 --> 00:04:33.600 He has authority to give eternal life to all those whom the Father has given to Jesus. 00:04:35.439 --> 00:04:38.160 Only Jesus gives out eternal life. 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:41.199 Eternal life comes from no one else. 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:44.000 He holds the keys to death in Hades. 00:04:44.399 --> 00:04:46.639 He is the resurrection and the life. 00:04:46.879 --> 00:04:51.360 No one, and I mean no one, has life apart from Jesus. 00:04:52.959 --> 00:04:59.839 Eternal life is knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. 00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:06.160 Knowing implies an intimate relationship. 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:10.240 It's the same thing, it's meant from the beginning. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:13.680 How does one know God? 00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:16.240 Through the Son. 00:05:16.959 --> 00:05:20.000 How has the Son made himself known to you? 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:23.680 Well, by giving himself to you. 00:05:24.399 --> 00:05:33.120 He speaks to his bride the words of life and salvation, and then unites himself to her with his very own body and blood. 00:05:33.439 --> 00:05:43.600 By giving to his bride the church all that he has for her, so that she knows with absolute certainty she is one with her Lord. 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:54.480 And those whom the Father has given to the Son to receive the Word made flesh through the means he gives, his word and his sacraments. 00:05:56.639 --> 00:06:00.800 There is no other way to be closer to Jesus here on earth. 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:05.279 He gives and you receive. 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:22.319 Jesus has a way of making receivers out of his disciples. 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:26.639 He has a way of making receivers out of all of us. 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:34.160 Either we receive what the Lord is giving out or we push it back in his face, we reject it. 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:41.120 He leaves no room in his prayer for I decided for Jesus. 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:46.800 If we have received Jesus, then we have received the one who sent him. 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:51.040 And if we have Jesus, we have the forgiveness of all our sins. 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:57.040 If we have the forgiveness of our sins, we have life and salvation. 00:06:58.399 --> 00:07:06.319 But if you reject what Jesus gives you, you reject Jesus, and there is no salvation. 00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:09.360 No Jesus, no forgiveness. 00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:13.839 No forgiveness, no salvation, nor eternal life. 00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:22.160 Jesus manifested the name of God to the people whom the Father gave him from out of the world. 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:24.480 The term Father means source. 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:31.199 All that belongs to the Father, he gives to the Son, and the Father makes a receiver out of Jesus. 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:40.800 Just as the Son receives everything from the Father, so also we receive from Jesus eternal life. 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:46.000 So Jesus makes receivers out of all of us, too. 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:51.519 Jesus manifests God's name to you. 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:59.759 And to whom else has God's name been made manifest than to those who believe? 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:05.199 And where else have those who have believed been kept in the name of God than in their baptism? 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:11.600 And where else have you been brought from death to life than in the life-giving waters of your baptism? 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:22.800 Where else were you baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit? 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:32.240 So in your baptism, dear saints, you are renamed with the name of God and made his holy child. 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:40.159 Remember, we all come to the font as infants, whether nine days, nine years, or ninety-nine years old. 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:47.840 Because unless you receive the kingdom of heaven like a little child, even an infant, you can't enter it. 00:08:49.279 --> 00:08:58.559 There, right there, we receive life like a child being born from his mother through the baptismal waters as you lie there helpless. 00:08:59.279 --> 00:09:08.960 There you have a new name spoken into your ears by the bridegroom before his bride as he bestows you with his own name. 00:09:09.679 --> 00:09:20.559 And in baptism, you all are named with the name of God, and in that name he keeps you, because that's where you're covered with Jesus. 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:29.600 There in baptism, Jesus and his followers are one, even as the Father and the Son are one. 00:09:31.519 --> 00:09:37.360 Those who live in their baptismal identities are kept in his name. 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:50.639 They're the ones that are willingly receive all that Jesus gives them to sustain their faith in him, his word, and his sacraments, and lo, he is with them even to the end of the age. 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:52.720 Which means he is with you. 00:09:56.639 --> 00:10:00.879 Jesus only gives out what the Father has given him to give to his people. 00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:02.480 God's word. 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:07.759 Because only Christ is the word of God made flesh. 00:10:08.399 --> 00:10:10.480 So Jesus is giving you himself. 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:19.120 If you have received his word and his sacraments, which are his visible word, well then that's where you have received Jesus. 00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:23.200 If you have received Jesus, then you receive the one who sent him. 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:30.879 And then to receive what Jesus gives out, well, that imparts faith. 00:10:32.159 --> 00:10:37.919 Because you believe because you believe that Jesus came from God. 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:49.919 You believe because you've received what the Spirit of the living God, the Spirit of truth, has revealed to you and preached into your ears, directing your eyes of faith to Jesus. 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:55.840 Only the Holy Spirit takes what belongs to Jesus and delivers it to you. 00:10:57.519 --> 00:10:59.440 Because it's always about Jesus. 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:02.559 It's never not about Jesus. 00:11:04.639 --> 00:11:09.360 You believe because you receive what he is giving out. 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:17.919 Only those whom the Father gave to Christ has the name of God been manifested to do to you. 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:21.440 And they were given to Jesus out of the world. 00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:26.960 They were transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the Christ's kingdom, kingdom of light. 00:11:27.279 --> 00:11:29.200 And so it is with all of you. 00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:36.159 So know this, dear saints, as you leave here today. 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:39.679 Jesus prays for you. 00:11:47.679 --> 00:11:55.039 He prays for those who have received his word and his sacraments, where he unites himself to you. 00:11:56.720 --> 00:11:59.840 Because he knows you're still in the world. 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:02.960 And in the world there is tribulation. 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:04.720 And you will struggle. 00:12:05.039 --> 00:12:12.320 You will struggle against your sin, your own flesh, what the world preaches, and even Satan himself. 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:23.840 So today, he has given himself to you so that you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you have the forgiveness of all your sins. 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:29.120 For where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is eternal life. 00:12:30.480 --> 00:12:31.759 Go in peace. 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:36.639 You have received all the gifts that the hour of your Lord has brought to you. 00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:37.679 Amen.